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

[Oracular Vision]

Although I have no use for him personally, Mr. Chick's little books are fun to pass around at conventions just to let people snort in derision at his stupidity.

He and his ilk do one valuable thing for our little hobby. Fanatical zealots who read his fatuous diatribes don't play DnD. This means we are weeding out from the gamer pool the exact sort of people you would never want to game with at a convention or game day. They stay away! Thanks Jack!

 

[Pielorinho]

He and his ilk do one valuable thing for our little hobby. Fanatical zealots who read his fatuous diatribes don't play DnD.

Thank god our hobby has no fanatical zealots!

Daniel

 

[CrusaderX]

As a gamer and a Catholic, I'm double-damned by Chick (Chick is strongly anti-Catholic, for those who don't know).

I definitely think Chick is a fool. Having said that, though, I do find it sad that, speaker as a gamer of over 20 years, I've encounted far more gamers who are bigoted against Christians, as opposed to Christians who are bigoted against gamers. And I'm not simply talking about having different beliefs or opinions here. The hate and rancor that gets spewed at Christians from some gamers makes Chick's rants pale by comparison.

So don't forget, folks, that there are ignorant and bigoted people in all communities - and that the gaming community is definitely not beyond such failings itself.

 

[Pielorinho]

As a gamer and a Catholic, I'm double-damned by Chick (Chick is strongly anti-Catholic, for those who don't know).

Now, now. Just because he calls communion wafers "Death Cookies" doesn't mean he's anti-Catholic .

(His anti-Catholic tract is actually called "Death Cookies," which I think is a supercool name. Here's my recipe for death cookies: eat them at your own risk!)

DEATH COOKIES
1/2 cup butter (NO MARGARINE!), softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup or more Turkish coffee grounds (or use any good dark-roast coffee and grind it until it's nearly as fine as cocoa)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup toasted crushed hazelnuts
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz. package Ghirardelli double chocolate chips (or another good brand -- don't skimp on the chips!)

Cream the butter with an electric mixer.
Add the sugars and cream till fluffy.
Add the egg and continue beating till fluffy.
Add the coffee grounds and vanilla. Taste the lovely brown goo at this point. Yum!
Add the hazelnuts.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, and add, stirring them into the goo.
Add the chocolate chips. Taste again. Dude!
Bake at 325 for 8-10 minutes. The cookies should be just crusty on top, but still gooey -- these are best if not baked till crisp.

They are also called Rabbit Punch cookies, because eating too many of them is like a blow to the kidneys. Very high caffeine.

Hmm...maybe this should be posted in the "do gamers take drugs?" thread.

Daniel

 

[I'm A Banana]

Don't forget the most important ingredient in Death Cookies:

2/3rds cup PURE EEEEEEEEEEVIL!!!!


Ah-hem.

 

[King_Stannis]

...I do find it sad that, speaker as a gamer of over 20 years, I've encounted far more gamers who are bigoted against Christians, as opposed to Christians who are bigoted against gamers. And I'm not simply talking about having different beliefs or opinions here. The hate and rancor that gets spewed at Christians from some gamers makes Chick's rants pale by comparison....

sadly, i have to agree with this. i have run across several people who game and are pretty militantly anti-christian. i can get along with them fine and i don't even try to get into it with them, as it's not worth it. but still, some of them can be vicious at times.

even on these boards there a few members who like to come out of the woodwork on threads like this, get off a few anti-christian blasts, and then scurry back. thankfully there aren't that many of them.

i suppose both sides need a straw man to beat down. a small number of conservative christians like to use d&d as the personification of the devil trying to work his mojo here. conversely, i think some gamers like to blast ALL christians as the personification of the society that has made them somewhat of an outcast.

 

[ThenHeCame]

While I'm all for a good round of Chick bashing anyday, I dislike the little sarcastic snips at Christians that crop up. I find this to be as underhanded as Chick himself. Whatever your ideaology is, it has no place on these boards.

I suspect a good portion of members here on this board, in addition to being gamers are infact christians. Lets be respectful of that and not resort to these kinda threads when someone has some new Chick matriel.

I'm all up for locking this thread down.

 

[Abel Kane]

What disturbs me most about snake oil peddlers like Schnoebelen, who wrote this crap, and Chick, who markets it, is that his whole 'ministry' is based around the buck. Even the front page of Schoewhatever's website (www.withoneaccord.org) proclaims it is more empowered by ShopSite than God...

These guys are like the nuts who insist that 'JaEEsus! can cast out your devil cancer and HEAL! you!' Why aren't they down the hospitals putting the HMO's out of business? Surely it can't be because God only heals 'nice folks' - Jesus spent more time with whores and scummy lepers than he ever did with 'churchified folk' and most of the lepers he healed etc were not part of the select few.

If Schnoeblowenithruhisass or whoever were so very concerned with our souls - no-one would have to 'checkout' now and provide a Visa number, they would be freely available. This is a petty little man preaching to the choir who will ooh and ahh with his every (distorted) fact. Anyone remember Mike Warnke, the last Satanic High Priest/Baby Killer/Mormon/UFOologist that this rightwing evangelical brood of vipers touted? Turns out that, gosh! his claims were fake. Parallels, anyone? Seems that there are more satanic high priests out there than policemen, firemen and teachers... By the way, being a former occultist is way cool in this movement. What better way to demonstrate God's power? And what's the bet that in 10 years it won't be 'cool' to be a former childmolesting catholic priest with this schuckster and his ilk.

I flirted with writing to this guy but realize that sometimes it's like <biological reference deleted for Eric's grandmother> into the wind. For those of you with more stomach than I for this kind of putresence, here's the details from Chick's website:

Schnoebelen, William & Sharon

With One Accord
PO Box 457
Dubuque, IA 52004
http://www.withoneaccord.org
Email: schnoeb@mchsi.com

David

 

[Pielorinho]

Just a quick point: if this guy is a huckster (and there's every reason to believe that he is), writing to him to point out the flaws in his essay isn't going to help. He KNOWS that his writes are dishonest.

There's a small chance that he's profoundly delusional; in this case, pointing out the flaws in his writings is also not helpful.

In this case, if you want to do something about his writings, look around for an evangelical newsgroup or message board, look for conversations about D&D, and politely do some education.

Daniel

 

[Neqroteqh]

And when I design evil crazy cultists, I take a page or two from Alistair Crowley. It's one thing to kill a cultist because she summons demons; it's another thing to kill a cultist because she captures poor people, drives them insane with drugs and spells, kills them, and renders their fat to make the ritual candles needed to summon demons, all based on a highly symbolic spell she discovered.

I use some Crowley in my games as well- his entire Thelemic mythology makes a fascinating gaming mythos. Baphomet, Choronzon, gnosticism, mystic rituals... oh yeah.

If you haven't already, I'd recommend picking up a copy of his autohagiography, "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley". It's wilder than most fantasy novels and is written by one of the wittiest minds of the 20th century to boot!

Neqroteqh- Gamer and Thelemite.