Is D&D good?

I hope this isn't considered off topic, I'll give it a try and hope for the best.
I'm doing a report for school on D&D and have only found extremely negative things about D&D. (all religious) is there anywhere that shows why D&D is a good thing?
Hope someone can help.

Relvita, you might want to look for some information at The Escapist, which has several good articles to counter some of the stereotypes people brought up during the 1980s.

There is a great deal of bad press on D&D and RPGs in general. However, I would argue that RPGs have helped a number of people gain a greater interest in history and literature. Also, I believe that there are some social benefits to activities where people work together towards a common goal.

Good luck ont he paper.

The BBC did a positive article recently, and you can find comments from players (some from these boards) at the bottom of the page...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3655627.stm

Michael Stackpole wrote a paper defending D&D from various religious accusations, so google for something like "Stackpole D&D" or somesuch.

Most of the Anti-D&D stuff stemmed from the Satanism scare of the 80's, and all that's more or less vanished nowadays. I don't know what you mean, exactly, when you ask "Is D&D good?" because I'm coming up empty on how hobbies or recreations can be good or bad in the moral sense...

It certainly isn't *evil.* Or if it is, I'm not playing it correctly. (Though, technically, I'm not playing D&D at all, right now.)

Here is a good site which punches a multitude of holes in the religious right's arguments:

Stackpole's Pulling Report

Here is another good article from '94

http://www.rpgstudies.net/cardwell/attacks.html

relivita said:

I hope this isn't considered off topic, I'll give it a try and hope for the best.
I'm doing a report for school on D&D and have only found extremely negative things about D&D. (all religious) is there anywhere that shows why D&D is a good thing?
Hope someone can help.

Click to expand...

Here is a recent news article on the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3655627.stm

Yes D&D is good. I think the main reason that some groups dislike it so much is that it can help open people up to new ideas… and to some religious organization that is a bad thing. It can make you more tolerant of other people (since you have to learn to work together as a group and socialize)… and to some groups that is a bad thing.

Anyway the best way to find out whether it is good or bad is to find a group and try it out.

Borc Killer

Well, I don't know what you'll find at the link William posted; I'll read it in a moment.

I can say that to make my D&D games (and other RPGs) more plausible and in-depth, I have taken independant study of:

-History, ranging from Paleolithic to Modern Events.
-Science, Physics, and other theories.
-Politics, Sociology, and Psychiatry.
-Methods of craftsmanship and smithing.
-Warfare, Tactics and Logistics.
-Engineering and Masonry (designing everything from castles in D&D to space stations in Traveler)
-Commerce and Trade.

While I would certainly never claim to be a scholar in any of these fields, I have learned a lot more than our public education system here in the "States" ever tried to teach me. I've always considered that an upside to role-playing games in general, and D&D in particular (since generally any pre-Industrial era can contribute to a D&D game).

One extra resource:

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b3a32d13d29.htm


I'm impressed - I was going to reply, I go away for about ten minutes, and the thread is flooded with resources when I get back!

The thing to note about the religious sites that come out against D&D and role-playing is that they all reference the EXACT SAME 20-year old studies, secondhand accounts, and "experts." These so-called experts (people like Pat Pulling, Dr. Thomas Radecki, and Mr. Shnoebelen get most of their facts wrong, and many have been discredited as early as the late 1980's for everything from perjury to revoked licenses. Michael Stackpole's Pulling report is the most comprehensive document you need, because most of the sources he debunks are STILL used in negative critiques today.

For instance, the sources who claim that D&D players "become their characters" are grossly misstating the issue. They "become" their character no more than Elijah Wood "becomes" Frodo the Hobbit, or Tobey Macguire "becomes" Spider-man. As another example, compare the material components in D&D "spells" versus the components used in actual wiccan prayers/spells - they bear only the most superficial resemblances (in the case of using things like iron and silver), to the most ridiculous (using tin-can telephones for sending spells, or Black Dragon's blood for memory enhancement).

Oh, well, enough rambling from me.

I know I'm asking for it to say this HERE, but here goes:

Playing D&D is bad.

Don't misunderstand me. I love the game. But spending time playing it, when all of humanity has SO MANY more important things to do, like helping the hungry and poor and sick, researching cures and advancing science, and so on, is bad.

I know what you may be thinking - doesn't this apply to almost everything we do? The answer is yes. And after a few idealistic years, usually in our teens or college years, most of us get tired of trying to find a place to get a good grip on the gargantuan tasks that we face as a species, especially with others who have given up fighting us, and give up to go focus on just our own little piece. From within that perspective, D&D is pretty darned good. As compared to actively making trouble for other people, or indulging in actively self-destructive behavior.

But make no mistake about it. D&D is bad. But so what? You're soaking in bad all over, and most of it is a LOT worse.....