Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dead at 69

Wizards of the Coast tries to mend fences after divisive fourth edition

(NEWSER) - Nerds of the world, grab your d20s, because Dungeons and Dragons needs you. Wizards of the Coast is relaunching its original roleplaying game, and in a bid to win over disaffected fans, it plans to post the rules online for public play-testing, the New York Times reports. D&D has always been a player-crafted experience, with "dungeon masters" inventing scenarios for their friends to navigate, one Wizards exec explains. "We want to take that idea to the next level and say, 'Help us craft the rules.'" More»

British children's author wrote more than 100 books on rural life

(NEWSER) - Dick King-Smith, the British children's author who created one of filmdom's favorite pigs, has died at the age of 88. The writer passed away peacefully at his long-time home in rural England, the Guardian reports. King-Smith, a World War II vet, spent 20 years as a farmer before turning to teaching and, in his 50s, writing. Most of his more than 100 books drew on his knowledge of farms and animals. His best-known work, The Sheep-Pig, was adapted into the 1995 hit movie Babe. More»

Sasha Grey and friends embrace their inner geeks

(NEWSER) - What might make Dungeons & Dragons more appealing to people not particularly interested in role-playing games? How about adding porn stars, a stripper, and Sasha Grey? Everyone stays clothed and the conversation stays fairly G-rated—there's one double entendre about sucking—as the Escapist, an online gaming magazine, infiltrates a regular game. To watch, click here . More»

Obituaries, tributes pouring in for late author

(NEWSER) - How to sum up the life of JD Salinger in a paragraph? Here's a sampling coming in from the wires:

• Kyle Anderson, MTV : He's "the reclusive genius who crafted one of the most iconic and important pieces of youth fiction."
• Charles McGrath, New York Times : "JD Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91."

He helped bring back the genre of hard-boiled detective fiction

(AP) - Robert B. Parker, the blunt and beloved crime novelist who helped revive the hard-boiled genre through his Spenser series, died yesterday of natural causes at 77. Prolific to the end, Parker wrote more than 50 novels, including 37 featuring Boston private eye Spenser. The character's first name was a mystery and his last name emphatically spelled with an "s" in the middle, not a "c." He was the basis for the 1980s TV series Spenser: For Hire, starring Robert Urich. More»