Hammer Time?

[Stealthdozer]

Man bound over for trial in hammer attacks
Motive may have stemmed from "Dungeons & Dragons" game

Cedar City - When Logan Bryson suddenly awakened in the early morning of May 30, he thought he was having a bad dream until he realized someone was beating him with a hammer.

"I didn't realize I was being attacked until I fell to the floor with my arms up to defend myself," said Bryson, who took the stand Monday in 5th District Court in Cedar City during the preliminary hearing for Zachery Frank King, charged with beating Bryson and Daniel Shokrian at Shokrian's home in this southern Utah city.

King is charged with two counts of attempted aggravated murder and a count of aggravated burglary, all first-degree felonies. At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge G. Michael Westfall bound King over for trial.

King, who agreed to be arraigned after the preliminary hearing, pleaded not guilty to the charges before being returned to the Iron County Jail.

Testimony Monday suggested a motive for the attacks may have grown from the trio playing the fantasy role-playing game "Dungeons and Dragons" and jealousy over a girl who King and Bryson knew.

Bryson, 23, suffered a concussion and bruises in the attack; Shokrian, 20, lost some vision and his ability to read and write, which he is trying to recover through therapy.

Bryson and King knew each other at school and had spent time the previous day playing "Dungeons and Dragons" with Shokrian, who was acting cocky during the game, according to Detective Nathan Williams. Shokrian was directing the game as Dungeon Master, and King didn't like what he was doing with King's character, Williams said.

Detective Michael Bleak testified that during an interview at the police station, King told him he went home after playing the game at Shokrian's house, took an over-the-counter sleeping pill and went to bed. He awakened angry, found a hammer in a tool shed and drove to Shokrian's house, entering through an open window.

Bleak said King told him he went to Shokrian's bedroom and said, "I hate you," and started hitting Shokrian with the hammer. King then went to the room where Logan was sleeping and attacked him.

Bleak said that King had an issue with Bryson for dating a girl after both said they would not date her.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/justice/ci_13146563

[Rutskarn]

Psychotic man who has a personal grudge involving his victim. Yeah, must have been a game that made him do it.

[Mr. Mud]

I'm assuming he had Weapon Specialization :smalltongue:?

This is terrible :smallfrown:.

[Jacklu]

I love the way it is worded to suggest that the fact that he was playing D&D the day before contributed to his attacking somebody.

[Starscream]

I don't think this is going to worry people much. Hysterically blaming tabletop games for violence is passé. We have Eminem and Grand Theft Auto now.

Still, it would have been nice for my hobby to be controversial again for a while. Maybe we could have gotten another Tom Hanks movie out of it.

[Fiendish_Dire_Moose]

Reminds me of the D&D guy from Reno 911.

"I'm wearing boots of escaping! I'm wearing boots of escaping!"
BLAM!
Or when he shot the guy with an arrow... or hit him in the neck with an axe....That guy is funny.

[Cyrano]

I'm assuming he had Weapon Specialization :smalltongue:?

This is terrible :smallfrown:.

Yaknow, the first time I would have thought this was just an innocent mistake. The second time? It begins to look like intent.

[Mr. Mud]

Yaknow, the first time I would have thought this was just an innocent mistake. The second time? It begins to look like intent.

*deploys statement aversion mechanism*

Heh, I know. He did intend to hammer that guy didn't he :smallbiggrin:?

[xPANCAKEx]

Reminds me of the D&D guy from Reno 911.

"I'm wearing boots of escaping! I'm wearing boots of escaping!"
BLAM!
Or when he shot the guy with an arrow... or hit him in the neck with an axe....That guy is funny.

portrayed by Patton Oswalt no less

good times!

[Pandaren]

Arguments can stem over petty things such as sports teams, and people use whatever weapons they can find on hand when they're angry, I just hope this isn't used as some excuse for extremisits to try harder to "keep the evils of D&D from the youth."

[Mr. Mud]

I wonder if this will affect WotC sales projections for the upcoming 4E book(s)?

[Trog]

No doubt he tried to escape afterward by dancing rapidly sideways in his over-sized low-crotch pants. >.>

[RTGoodman]

I wonder if this will affect WotC sales projections for the upcoming 4E book(s)?

I doubt it. This kind of news story has been around since D&D got its start, and it's still growing. Heck, I'd imagine that, in the era of B.A.D.D. and whatever that woman's name was, the hobby GREW because of the negative press.

[Mr. Mud]

I doubt it. This kind of news story has been around since D&D got its start, and it's still growing. Heck, I'd imagine that, in the era of B.A.D.D. and whatever that woman's name was, the hobby GREW because of the negative press.

True... I guess the only people that'd buy 4E supplement are people that already own the three core books :smalltongue:.

[The Extinguisher]

Wait, people are still going on about how D&D is "the devil".

Didn't we get over that, as a society? Because I remember it's not a big deal anymore.

[Justyn]

No doubt he tried to escape afterward by dancing rapidly sideways in his over-sized low-crotch pants. >.>

I see what you did there.

I see it.

[Coidzor]

No, I think this crime was obviously inspired by Dwarf Fortress.

Where else can you admit to beating people badly with hammers for making you upset and expect no reprecussions but the Hammerer from Dorf Fortress?

[Lord Herman]

No, I think this crime was obviously inspired by Dwarf Fortress.

Where else can you admit to beating people badly with hammers for making you upset and expect no reprecussions but the Hammerer from Dorf Fortress?

Oh gods... could we be seeing the start of a planet-wide tantrum spiral? :smalleek:

[Coidzor]

Dunno, they played DND so it's possible they were loners.

[Hell Puppi]

Dunno, they played DND so it's possible they were loners.

There's nothing wrong with loners who play DnD. We're perfectly happy, healthy people. :smallbiggrin:

Just don't go into the basement. That's where I keep...my wine...it's special wine. Yes.

[Eldan]

Oh gods... could we be seeing the start of a planet-wide tantrum spiral? :smalleek:

Where's my turtle shell! I demand turtle shells! And Limestone! And rubies!

[Coidzor]

Hmm, well, I hope your hubby doesn't have too much trouble unbolting all the shelving you put in down there from the walls and ceiling for the move, then.

[charl]

You don't think the over the counter sleeping pill had anything to do with it? I know from personal experience that those things can make you pretty confused and give powerful hallucinations.

[Hell Puppi]

Hmm, well, I hope your hubby doesn't have too much trouble unbolting all the shelving you put in down there from the walls and ceiling for the move, then.

Nah it's more fun if you just leave it for the next people to find. :smallbiggrin:

[Coidzor]

Nah it's more fun if you just leave it for the next people to find. :smallbiggrin:

Hmm... Point. But then you have to liquidate a good bit of wine really quick...

[Dallas-Dakota]

Am I the only one who thought of this, when they saw the title? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo)

[Coidzor]

Am I the only one who thought of this, when they saw the title? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo)

No, you're just the only one to link it. Haha. The title is reference, yes.

[varthalon]

They must not be very good gamers.... the one was asleep and so helpless, the other should have used a full round action to do a coup-de-grace action instead of a full-attack action. :smalltongue:

Hopefully they were at least fighting over a real girl and not the flirty 18 CHA NPC barmaid encountered in game.

[Mythestopheles]

They must not be very good gamers.... the one was asleep and so helpless, the other should have used a full round action to do a coup-de-grace action instead of a full-attack action. :smalltongue:

But it's so much more satisfying to yell FULL ATTACK over and over. :smalltongue:

[Eon]

let me see if i have this right...


so some guy got mad at a game and went and beat people up with a hammer. but instead of DRUGS they blame dungeons and dragons.


a quick search on google resulted in why dnd is evil (http://www.chick.com/articles/dnd.asp) and how it is satanic (http://www.exposingsatanism.org/dnd.htm)

sigh...

[truemane]

Funny how they spend so much time arguing over D&D and yet no one minds when popular movies glorify love betwene a 16 year old girl and an 80 year old magically animated corpse that has to constantly resist the urge to kill her.

Necrophiliacs falling in love with borderline-abusive pedophiles. Now that's wholesome entertainment. And SO romantic.

Now back to this D&D thing.... I hear it has demons in it. Can we ban it?

[Morty]

So we have a guy who attacked another two guys. They were playing D&D and one of the victims likes the same girl as the attacker does. Yeah, totally two equally likely motives. Because people have been beating each other up because of women just as often as they did because of tabletop games. *eyeroll*

[Mythestopheles]

It's almost funny how people can find things to blame to justify their mistakes.

[Cristo Meyers]

Funny how they spend so much time arguing over D&D and yet no one minds when popular movies glorify love betwene a 16 year old girl and an 80 year old magically animated corpse that has to constantly resist the urge to kill her.

Necrophiliacs falling in love with borderline-abusive pedophiles. Now that's wholesome entertainment. And SO romantic.

Similar vein: getting together with some friends, painting your entire body up in team colors, and going to a football game: just die hard fans.

Getting together with a group of friends and rolling dice: dangerous, possibly satanic losers.



Now back to this D&D thing.... I hear it has demons in it. Can we ban it?

I honestly worry more about the people that keep claiming DnD is demonic more than the people that play it. At least the people that play it realize the demons aren't real.

[Mr. Mud]

Do you think he yelled sneak attack...?

[Supagoof]

Do you think he yelled sneak attack...?
Win.

Or maybe ran away with saying "Can't touch this"

[Kaziel]

Surprised no one else has linked the Penny Arcade that they did yesterday based on this news article: Character Assassination (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/8/19/)

[UncleWolf]

Surprised no one else has linked the Penny Arcade that they did yesterday based on this news article: Character Assassination (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/8/19/)

I'm sorry, but that strip is pretty funny. Wrong, but funny. And anyone who made a MC Hammer reference gets a win in my book. :smallbiggrin:

[truemane]

Similar vein: getting together with some friends, painting your entire body up in team colors, and going to a football game: just die hard fans.

Getting together with a group of friends and rolling dice: dangerous, possibly satanic losers.

That's exactly it. Had they said in the article that the two guys had gone to football game the previous day would anyone assume the football caused the attack? Personally I've seen more needless violence over sports than I have over D&D.

For one thing, atheletes, being in better shape than your average role-player, are able to cause a lot more damage when they go postal over the World Series. If D&D ever made me snap, my lack of hand-eye coordination and stamina would ensure that I wouldn't be able to do much more than miss with that hammer once or twice and then stand there sort-of wheezing while the jocks beat me to a pulp.

[Eon]

Funny how they spend so much time arguing over D&D and yet no one minds when popular movies glorify love betwene a 16 year old girl and an 80 year old magically animated corpse that has to constantly resist the urge to kill her.

Necrophiliacs falling in love with borderline-abusive pedophiles. Now that's wholesome entertainment. And SO romantic.

Now back to this D&D thing.... I hear it has demons in it. Can we ban it?

disturbing.

[Cristo Meyers]

That's exactly it. Had they said in the article that the two guys had gone to football game the previous day would anyone assume the football caused the attack? Personally I've seen more needless violence over sports than I have over D&D.


One's mainstream, the other (despite WOTC's best efforts over the years) is not. It's just as simple as that. Violence over sports is a normal consequence of a normal pasttime, so it just passes by with little more than "how terrible" But if there's a wiff of RPG'ing in the mix (or some similiar activity that's outside the mainstream), then it becomes strange and abnormal. It's from the world of those people...

[Mr. Mud]

Win.

Or maybe ran away with saying "Can't touch this"

... :smalleek:..:


Cold on a mission so fall on back
Let 'em know that you're too much
And this is a beat uh they can't touch

[Janmorel]

I blame the Beatles, myself.
(Maxwell must go free)

[truemane]

One's mainstream, the other (despite WOTC's best efforts over the years) is not. It's just as simple as that. Violence over sports is a normal consequence of a normal pasttime, so it just passes by with little more than "how terrible" But if there's a wiff of RPG'ing in the mix (or some similiar activity that's outside the mainstream), then it becomes strange and abnormal. It's from the world of those people...

Absolutely. Agreed. No agruments. Look at the flak that trekkies get for knowing the plot of every episode and the inner-workings of every ship. And then go sit in a bar some afternoon and listen to the ole timers talk baseball.

You want to talk about command of meaningless minutiae?

[Cristo Meyers]

I blame the Beatles, myself.
(Maxwell must go free)

Clang clang! Maxwell's silver hammer came down upon his head!
Clang clang! Maxwell's silver hammer made sure that he was dead!

I wonder if newgrounds still has that flash animation for that song...


Absolutely. Agreed. No agruments. Look at the flak that trekkies get for knowing the plot of every episode and the inner-workings of every ship. And then go sit in a bar some afternoon and listen to the ole timers talk baseball.

You want to talk about command of meaningless minutiae?

My favorite is when those people that bantering football statistics back and forth also go home and play WoW for a few hours...:smallamused:

[varthalon]

Hmmmm,

I wonder what kind of bonuses he give himself to add to his d20 roll to see if he would hit.

[Kaziel]

I'm sorry, but that strip is pretty funny. Wrong, but funny. And anyone who made a MC Hammer reference gets a win in my book. :smallbiggrin:Fifteen Damage a round? Even with a save ending the effect, that is pretty harsh. :smallbiggrin:

[Kobold-Bard]

Player on Player violence is always so sad :smallamused:

[Coidzor]

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/239712 Clang, Clang, Christo Maxwell...

[Cristo Meyers]

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/239712 Clang, Clang, Christo Maxwell...

Normally I'd pound you with the silver hammer for putting that damn "h" in there...

...but you found my flash animation, so I shall spare you :smalltongue:

Wonder if our hammerguy here watched this vid at any time. Maybe that is what caused his meltdown!

Beware! Newgrounds causes hammer-centric violence!

[Coidzor]

And bands from over two decades ago, don't forget them! :smalltongue:

Sorry, getting inundated with messages about the new guy my ex was hung up on has sort of made it unconscious.

[Pandaren]

Wait, people are still going on about how D&D is "the devil".

Didn't we get over that, as a society? Because I remember it's not a big deal anymore.

No, its defiinetly not over. The only reason they aren't going after people is because it's easier for them to riot at abortion clinics than to hang around a gameshop all day trying to preach to the players.

[Yarram]

As sad as it is, I can't help but giggle hysterically at this, as the first thing I could think of was:
The Jury has decided that the defendant is guilty, but rather than make him do jail time he is required to attend a course to cure his Nerd Angst.

Which I realise isn't that funny. But angsty, whiny, violent nerds... That's hilarious.
It makes me think of that counterstrike video about the kid that can't play so he chucks a fit and shoots everyone... That was kinda funny too. (Remembering that no-one actually got hurt)

In reality though I believe Violent Angry People have a tendency to play Video Games, rather than Video Games turning us into Violent Angry People.

[V'icternus]

As sad as it is, I can't help but giggle hysterically at this, as the first thing I could think of was:
The Jury has decided that the defendant is guilty, but rather than make him do jail time he is required to attend a course to cure his Nerd Angst.

Which I realise isn't that funny. But angsty, whiny, violent nerds... That's hilarious.
It makes me think of that counterstrike video about the kid that can't play so he chucks a fit and shoots everyone... That was kinda funny too. (Remembering that no-one actually got hurt)

In reality though I believe Violent Angry People have a tendency to play Video Games, rather than Video Games turning us into Violent Angry People.

So true...

Now to go shoot some Nazi's and take down an evil corporation, blow up a couple zombies, you know, the usual.

And maybe play a video game.

[tribble]

Where's my turtle shell! I demand turtle shells! And Limestone! And rubies!

I demand an Item... IN MY ROOM!!!

[Llama231]

let me see if i have this right...


so some guy got mad at a game and went and beat people up with a hammer. but instead of DRUGS they blame dungeons and dragons.


a quick search on google resulted in why dnd is evil (http://www.chick.com/articles/dnd.asp) and how it is satanic (http://www.exposingsatanism.org/dnd.htm)

sigh...


For some reason I cannot stop laughing inside...

[Pandaren]

Laughing inside? There's no reason to keep it inside, I fell onto the floor laughing, they..., they just try so hard to be take seriously, the ammount of attempted "proffesionality" in it is just laughably hilarious.


Edit: Found another good link, related to subject at hand, they actually claim D&D caused a murder/suicide (http://www.chick.com/reading/books/204/0204_10.asp).

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I don't really think this is funny. He tried to beat a guy up with a hammer. That guy could have been killed!

[Coidzor]

I don't really think this is funny. He tried to beat a guy up with a hammer. That guy could have been killed!

Well, most of us aren't laughing at that directly.

<_< >_>

It is rather ludicrous though.

[Yarram]

Well, most of us aren't laughing at that directly.

<_< >_>

It is rather ludicrous though.

I was. :smalltongue: (It wouldn't be funny if he had been killed though)

[Ripped Shirt Kirk]

Hmmm. Maybe it was "That Lanky Bugger's" Crazy DM? Just a thought.

[truemane]

I don't really think this is funny. He tried to beat a guy up with a hammer. That guy could have been killed!

If you don't think that's funny then you must have a hard time getting by on-line. Laughing at the misguided misfortunes of perfect strangers is what the int0rwebs are all about. That and pr0n.

[littlebottom]

i searched the internet... is this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIRQf0S3oD0) the man?

[Elm11]

i searched the internet... is this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIRQf0S3oD0) the man?

That. is. AWESOME!!!!!1!one!

It's a rather tragic incident, but the fact that people are honestly trying to blame it on D&D is so rediulous that i have to laugh at it.

[littlebottom]

That. is. AWESOME!!!!!1!one!

why thank you! that is almost quoteable enough to put in my sig, but out of context it makes no sense why i would quote it :smallfrown: shame...

[Coidzor]

Hmmm. Maybe it was "That Lanky Bugger's" Crazy DM? Just a thought.

Hmm, that would be reassuring that it wasn't That Lanky Bugger...

[brandr]

Oh ye gods, how did we manage to go a WHOLE PAGE AND A HALF before someone made a hammertime joke?

i do appreciate the irony behind dwarf fortress references though
--------------------------------------------------------------------
ALSO: the prosecution might have a reasonable claim to D&D related violence, as long as it wasn't an average claw hammer. If the dude was truly thinking along fantasy rp lines, he'd at least have the sense to use a maul (1d10) or a great maul (1d12) as opposed to a crows beak/claw hammer (1d6).

[V'icternus]

That is so true.

[varthalon]

I wonder if he is going to use the "It wasn't me, I was dominated at the time" defense at his trial.

[brandr]

I wonder if he is going to use the "It wasn't me, I was dominated at the time" defense at his trial.

flawless victory.

[Inigo Montoya]

If a true D&D player tried commiting murder, this is how he'd do it. (http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=3#comic)