"Everything Falls Out"

In typical blogger fashion, this is an unedited entry. It could be revised, edited, and much more succinct, but like all bloggers, I'm being a slacker and blathering. Humor me if you will.

I am currently writing DvD2. The story focuses on table top roleplaying games. I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons, among many other RPGs, for 31 years now. There’s a scene in DvD2 that involves a bag of holding, a fearless warrior, and a terrible monster. I’m drawing inspiration for this scene from a campaign I played as a kid. When faced with the colossal adversary, up against impossible odds, nine year old Tim decided to turn a bag of holding inside out, wrapped around his fist, and punch the monster.

Wait, what? You don't know what a bag of holding is? A bag of holding is typically a simple looking cloth sack that holds objects larger than itself. It's not very large, but you could store a 10 foot pole inside it. The exact properties and definition of the bag became exaggerated with time. It became a thing of fantasy within a world of fantasy. Some thought the bag could carry infinite items. Some said it led to an alternate dimension. The possibilities, like the interior dimensions of the bag, seemed endless.

Back to nine year old Sir Timmy vs the mountainous monster of murder (add “of murder” to anything or better, place “murder” to the front of a word, like murder phone or murder chair or murder hug). I decided to punch the thing. The group of us sighed a collective, Keanuian “woooah”. I decided, yes I was bossy at nine, that my fist would cut through the beast like a knife through warm butter. It’s gore would flood down around the bag but the parts with which I connected would be sucked into it.

Essentially, my fist became a vacuum light-saber. We (mostly me) decided this was the best ruling. There was much gore.

Now, thirty years later, I work with the creators of my beloved Dungeons and Dragons. When asked “What would happen if I turned the bag inside out?” This was their response:

Ed Stark: Much like when the Staff of the Magi is broken, it – and I – would explode.

Bill Slavicsek: Bill was careful to make an exact ruling. He pointed out that the bag wasn’t necessarily infinite. I joked about that, asking “How can I touch things in the bag if it is as deep as it is? When I reach in, does my hand and arm stretch and extend into that alternate dimension? Is there a table somewhere in the bag, whereupon my items are placed neatly – maybe bag-of-holding goblins scramble to catch the things I drop in and, yeah, they’re telepathic, so they know what I want when I reach in!” Bill gave me the “what is wrong with you, Tim” look as he often does. He simply said “It’s magic.”

Lawrence Schick: Lawrence put his finger in the side of his mouth and made the “pop” sound. He said I would instantly disappear.

David “Zeb” Cook: In an IM reply to my question he simply wrote:

“Everything falls out”