Your Wednesday Geek Moment

My husband and I had quite a debate last night on the way home from his birthday dinner.  Though only marginally related to politics, it grew quite heated at one point.  Our point of contention?  The proper composition of a questing party when attempting to save the world.

It started with my husband's assertion that, despite their presence in movies and books, there hadn't really been many evil geniuses in human history.  I responded that there had been but they had been stopped by a party of people on a quest to save the world.  This unknown history had, of course, been lost, only to be found once more by Japanese RPG makers and fantasy novelists.

All you need, really, is a warrior, a healer, a couple of mages, and a rogue.  It is necessary, I asserted, that at least one of these people be royalty, either openly or secretly.  What epic quest can succeed without a prince or princess in the mix?  Chances are, the hero will be an orphaned prince or the heroine a run-away princess.  Who else is going to hook you up with an airship when the evil villain is surrounded by impenetrable mountains?  No one, that's who.

My husband disagrees.  He maintains that a child of any kind of head-of-state is acceptable in this day and age.  But really, a proper questing party has to travel around the world anyway.  There are plenty of monarchies where they could pick up a needy royal.  So what if they're angsty and not necessarily good at their role?  We're talking airships, people.  A president would have to spend months getting that through congress. 

In all seriousness, wouldn't it be cool if the world's problems could be solved via RPG quest?  I suppose it would be kind of strange to see a group of people in armor beating up slime in my backyard, though.

But whatever works.