A few interesting, if not amusing, articles about dnd....

[Creamsteak]

I don't want to rant about these kinds of things, but I think that some of it is quite humerous and should be viewed in that way. This person's outlook on DnD is... unique... to say the least.

Back in 1986, a fellow appeared on The 700 Club who was a former employee and game writer for TSR. He testified right on the show that he got into a wrangle with the management there because he saw that the rituals were too authentic and could be dangerous. He protested to his boss and was basically told that this was the intent—to make the games as real as possible. He felt conscience-stricken (even though he was not a Christian at the time), and felt he had to resign from the company.

Wait... wasn't this guy fired? I am too young to have seen the show, but I think I heard this story before and the guy was fired, and did not quit.

In fact, the Dungeon Master's Guide gives the celebrated Adolph Hitler as an example of a real historical person that exhibited D&D charisma!

Laughing Out Sloshing Ectoplasmic Reality...

Additionally, male characters in the game often try to seduce female characters; and references abound to things like venereal disease and satyriasis (a male condition of permanent sexual arousal). Can these sorts of things be appropriate for Christians or even for any decent person of whatever faith?

Did you notice that Christians (or even decent people of whatever faith) cannot make references about venereal diseas and satyriasis?

Erosion of family values-the Dungeon Master (DM) demands an all-encompassing and total loyalty, control and allegiance

Yes... he is right about this one. Sorry to say I do demand an all-encompassing and totally loyal group.

This is another, broader issue here. The values of the game are not only pro-violence and death; they also entrain the player in an entirely different way of looking at life: what is called by anthropologists the "Magical World View(MWV)." This MWV is far outside the cultural norms of most societies, and certainly outside the realms of Biblical values.

Yes, he is right again. I have a Magical World View... (What the hell that means, I don't know)

The "Freeway Killer," Vernon Butts, who committed suicide in his cell in 1987 while being held as a suspect in a string of murders was an avid D&D player.4
D&D player (14 years old) commits suicide by hanging, 1979, name withheld by parents' request.
D&D player (17 years old) Michael Dempsey, Lynnwood, WA. suicide by gunshot wound to the head, 5/19/81. Witnesses saw him trying to summon up D&D demons just minutes before his death.
D&D player (? years old) Steve Loyacano, Castle Rock, CO., suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, 10/14/82. Police report satanic writings and a suicide note liked the death to D&D.
D&D player (21 years old) Timothy Grice, Lafayette, CO., suicide by shotgun blast, 1/17/83. Detective reports noted, "D&D became a reality. He thought he was not constrained to this life, but could leave [it] and return because of the game."
D&D player (18 years old) Harold T. Collins, Marion, OH., suicide by hanging, 4/29/83. Collins was noted to be "possessed" by D&D as if he were living the game.
D&D player (16 years old) Daniel Erwin, Lafayette, CO., murder by brother's shotgun blast to head, 11/2/84 (right after Halloween). Death was apparently the result of a death pact as part of the game.
D&D player (12 years old) Steve Erwin (see above) suicide by gunshot, 11/2/84. Detective report: "No doubt D&D cost them their lives."5
D&D player (no age given) Joseph Malin, Salt Lake City, UT., pled guilty to first degree murder 3/2/88 and was sentenced to life in prison. He killed a 13 years old girl while acting out the fantasy-role game. The girl had been raped, her throat cut, and she had been stabbed twice in the chest. Police said his "violent urges were fed by 'extreme involvement in the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.'"6
D&D player (14 years old) Sean Sellers was convicted of killing his parents and a convenience store clerk in Greeley, Oklahoma (1/11/87). He is the youngest inmate of death row in the country as of this writing (22 now). His involvement in hard-core Satanism began with D&D, according to his own testimony. Praise the Lord, he is now a Born Again Christian!7
D&D player (14 years old) Tom Sullivan, Jr. got into Satanism and ended up stabbing his mother to death, arranging a ritual circle (from D&D) in the middle of the living room floor and lit a fire in its midst. Fortunately, his dad and little brother were awakened by a smoke detector; but by then, Tom, Jr. had slashed his wrists and throat with his Boy Scout knife and died in the snow in a neighbor's yard.(1/19/88, Amarillo, TX.)8

These are sad sad stories...

 

[Creamsteak]

[Double Post]

 

[RogueJK]

Scott Kurtz, the creator of our beloved PvP has an interesting take on Jack Chick. You can find it here: http://www.pvponline.com/rants_jesus.php3

It's towards the bottom of the page.

Enjoy!

 

[Spatula]

From the second link, which quotes (partially, and often out of context) the 3E PHB (and thus is fairly recent):

"Contrary to the ramblings of D&D defenders like Michael Stackpole, the Necronomicon and the Cthulhu mythos are quite real."

"Some things which have been suggested to me are that the game builds teamwork and listening skills. It certainly gets people reading (we have heard THAT chestnut about the Harry Potter books as well!)"

The author, William Schnoebelen, thinks Cthulhu is real (he's not, folks, HP Lovecraft made him and the Necronomicon up). He thinks reading Harry Potter leads to witchcraft. He's delusional and beyond reason. Don't waste your time as I just have...

 

[EOL]

I think one of the best litmus tests on any organization is are they for something do they promote some positive value or are they merely against some other organization. Is there whole mission to tear something else down or are they committed to building something up without regard to their nay-sayers.

Clearly Chick and his ilk have no positive message worthy of espousing, but rather a raison d'etre which consists of little more than blind hatred of what they don't understand.

 

[Jack Daniel]

From the second link, which quotes (partially, and often out of context) the 3E PHB (and thus is fairly recent):



The author, William Schnoebelen, thinks Cthulhu is real (he's not, folks, HP Lovecraft made him and the Necronomicon up). He thinks reading Harry Potter leads to witchcraft. He's delusional and beyond reason. Don't waste your time as I just have...

Uh, dude, the Necronomicon actully is real... ya know, Egyptian mythology, the Book of the Dead, etc? Cthulhu is fiction, but Lovecraft got the Necronomicon from a real book.

 

[omedon]

On top of that, the second issue is that the materials themselves, in many cases, contain authentic magical rituals. I can tell you this from my own experience. I was a witch high priest (Alexandrian tradition) during the period 1973-84. During some of that period (1976-80) I was also involved in hardcore Satanism. We studied and practiced and trained more than 175 people in the Craft. Our "covendom" was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; just a short drive away from the world headquarters of TSR, the company which makes Dungeons and Dragons in Lake Geneva, WI. In the late 1970's, a couple of the game writers actually came to my wife and I as prominent "sorcerers" in the community. They wanted to make certain the rituals were authentic. For the most part, they are.

These two guys sat in our living room and took copious notes from us on how to make sure the rituals were truly right "from the book," (this meaning that they actually came from magic grimoires or workbooks). They seemed satisfied with what they got and left us thankfully.

My favourite part of that article.

So this guy claims he was a sorceror? After reading that part it was COMPLETELY impossible for me to take him seriously. I can't imagine why the author felt this claim was going to help his arguement. I think most people, both theist and atheist alike, will quickly dismiss anything he says as loony babble after reading that.

 

[Lady Dragon]

The scary part is that the guy must actually believe that rituals are real or he wouldn't be saying that he taught D&D writers how to do them.He probably also believes in the easter bunny.

 

[Arravis]

hmm...

You know, I was looking at that list of people that died "due" to D&D, and I think of the list of people that died "due" to Christianity. How many millions upon millions died due to Christianity? How many people's have attempted to commit genocide due to it, how many psycho's kill their families for it, etc... the numbers are staggering. I think if these people want to begin counting, they might be in trouble.

 

[Humanophile]

Y'know, Jack Chick and Dark Dungeons are funny the first couple of times. But they're old, worn out, and threads in this vein are just begging for someone to start a venomous christian bash. All this over a guy who's probably off now dreaming up how Catholics, Hindus, and saucer people are off at their daily meeting with Satan right now.

I could go off on how and where Chick is off his rocker. (If roleplaying is evil, you'd better not tell your kids a bedtime story where you ask them what the main character should do. No reading those bible stories of yours and asking "if you were in his shoes, what would you do?" either. And if RPG's are so evil because some of them have sacriledge, violence, and other gratuitious sins in them, I wonder what poor Jack would think if he saw what went on at a comic con. Those evil, horrible comics.) But I don't see much point. He's old, we've all seen him, let's go do something actually fun now.