For the benefit of people with girlfriends and social lives:

The man with the awesome wizard beard is Ed Greenwood, creator of Forgotten Realms, the most popular D&D campaign setting in history. The man with the less imposing beard is Larry Elmore, a painter and illustrator responsible for a godly chunk of D&D's official artwork, including most of the Dragonlance stuff. The bouncer looking guy is RA Salvatore, the world's most prolific author of pulp fantasy novels, and creator of Drizzt Do'Urden, who is to PnP RPGs what Sephiroth is to video game RPGs. And the DM is Chris Perkins, former editor of Dragon Magazine, D&D's official periodical, and currently the senior producer in charge of WotC's D&D product line.

They claim the three nerds who get to sit in on the game were "chosen at random", but I suspect they're plants. They represent the three basic archetypes of D&D gamers too well for their selection to have been mere coincidence: you've got the obnoxiously loud douchebag, the super quiet shy dude, and the morbidly obese guy who makes everyone else look normal by comparison. They even get the unspoken dominance struggle between the party's first joker (Salvatore) and the upstart wannabe (Paladin guy) right. The way Salvatore gradually eases off the throttle, and the look in his eyes as the second and third turns roll around and he realizes he's met his match... it's all too perfect. It has to be staged.

Good, very good. I'm liking these DnD vids.

Also, Fuck 4th ed.

The lack of a Larry Elmore tag is a crime. Larry Elmore is beyond awesome. I worked on a set with him for an Internet TV show and we all had the time of our lives. Somewhere there is a picture of all of us at a big wooden table re-enacting the Last Supper with Larry as Jesus.

Best time I have ever had. Easily.

I don't play Beards In Basements, but I'd like to know if this is a group activity usually engaged in sober or under the influence of alcohol/drugs/paint thinner.