APIC And The Missing Article

Considering that when I first posted background explaining the title of my blog, I had zero followers, I thought I would take a moment and again provide some of that detail.

I started playing Dungeons and Dragons with the original little brown books. It is in the mid-1970's, and I am in grade school. My older brother is a member of several wargaming clubs, at both the local college and university, and is resentful (as elder brothers are wont to be) at being forced to take me along to his weekend club meetings. It is at those club meetings that he becomes first acquainted with Dungeons and Dragons, and he brings the LBB's home, where they are discovered by me.

Several years later, I graduate to middle school, and the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide is published (Editor: In fact, its 1978, and the Players Handbook, not the DMG. Thanks, Akrasia.), which includes the classic illustration by Sutherland, entitled "A Paladin In Hell". That illustration, along with several others in the DMG (and Players Handbook and Monster Manual) captures, for me, the D&D ethos.

The title of my blog, A Paladin In Citadel, is an homage to that classic D&D illustration, A Paladin In Hell. Living in Citadel, a community in northwest Calgary, I have, of course, replaced the word "Hell" with "Citadel" (this is not a comment on what I think of my community ... sometimes a cigar is just a cigar folks).

Someone emailed me, asking why my blog is not entitled "A Paladin In The Citadel", and noted that I am clearly missing the article "The" in my title. I hope the above explanation clears up any confusion about the missing article!

As for being A Paladin In Citadel, I can assure you that I have never played a Paladin, nor do I have any interest in doing so (my disinterest in playing any of the specialist classes -- other than the Bard -- is already well-known).