D&D General A History of Violence: Killing in D&D

[Misanthrope Prime]

Dungeons & dragons descends directly from pre-modern mythology. Mythology is just the word we use for sufficiently old propaganda. Propaganda is usually created to legitimize a state or state like actor. States are predicated upon the legitimate and monopolistic usage of violence.


You cannot take the violence out of dungeons & dragons any more than you could take the beating heart out of a living human being. You remove my heart, you turn me into a corpse. You remove the core of dungeons & dragons, being rewarded for killing people and taking their stuff, and you have an entirely different game. That game may be really fun, but it ain't dungeons & dragons.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Dungeons & dragons descends directly from pre-modern mythology. Mythology is just the word we use for sufficiently old propaganda. Propaganda is usually created to legitimize a state or state like actor. States are predicated upon the legitimate and monopolistic usage of violence.


You cannot take the violence out of dungeons & dragons any more than you could take the beating heart out of a living human being. You remove my heart, you turn me into a corpse. You remove the core of dungeons & dragons, being rewarded for killing people and taking their stuff, and you have an entirely different game. That game may be really fun, but it ain't dungeons & dragons.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I do be dreaming about labor

 

[Mannahnin]

Dungeons & dragons descends directly from pre-modern mythology. Mythology is just the word we use for sufficiently old propaganda. Propaganda is usually created to legitimize a state or state like actor. States are predicated upon the legitimate and monopolistic usage of violence.

I think I prefer what Pratchett wrote about myths and stories and fables being a big part of what makes us human, and enables to be "the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape".

You cannot take the violence out of dungeons & dragons any more than you could take the beating heart out of a living human being. You remove my heart, you turn me into a corpse. You remove the core of dungeons & dragons, being rewarded for killing people and taking their stuff, and you have an entirely different game. That game may be really fun, but it ain't dungeons & dragons.

Probably true, although people do still play D&D with minimal violence. While the Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign I played in had a to-me-surprising number of situations and encounters where we were able to resolve conflicts with negotiation and nonlethal solutions, the campaign still had plenty of fights.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I think I prefer what Pratchett wrote about myths and stories and fables being a big part of what makes us human, and enables to be "the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape".


Probably true, although people do still play D&D with minimal violence. While the Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign I played in had a to-me-surprising number of situations and encounters where we were able to resolve conflicts with negotiation and nonlethal solutions, the campaign still had plenty of fights.

I love and deeply respect Pterry and his work, but I don't think the belief in Santa Claus is what separates me from a chimp.

EDIT: But if I'm wrong, and Sir Terry is right, that is a naughty word terrifying and chilling endorsement of capitalism. I'm only human because I buy things.

 

[Mannahnin]

I love and deeply respect Pterry and his work, but I don't think the belief in Santa Claus is what separates me from a chimp.

EDIT: But if I'm wrong, and Sir Terry is right, that is a naughty word terrifying and chilling endorsement of capitalism. I'm only human because I buy things.

What on earth does capitalism or buying things have to do with this conversation?

We're talking about myths and stories. And related concepts like justice and fairness. And mercy.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

What on earth does capitalism or buying things have to do with this conversation?

We're talking about myths and stories. And related concepts like justice and fairness. And mercy.

The myth and tradition of Sinterklaas delivering candies to children only became the contemporary Santa Claus myth by coming to New York City via Dutch colonialism and then being used as a as a part of the distinct local Knickerbocker identity to contrast the Father Christmas of the British during the revolutionary war. So implicit in the name Santa Claus is first a political and an ethnic statement.

There is of course the development of the American Santa Claus through the 19th century, but The canonical form of the Santa Claus myth owes a lot to a Coca-Cola advertising campaign, and from there, he is mostly used to justify the purchase of gifts around the holiday season.

Santa Claus has barely any relationship to the historical Saint Nicholas of Myra. No one thinks about buying children out of a lifetime of prostitution when they put up baubles on the tannenbaum. They are related mythological figures in the same way that Hercules, Herakles and Melqart are related, but Santa Claus is arguably the mascot of American consumerism.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

What on earth does capitalism or buying things have to do with this conversation?

In the words of both Descartes and Milton Friedman...

emo, ergo sum.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

In the words of both Descartes and Milton Friedman...

emo, ergo sum.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Inevitably the conversations start sounding like a Debbie Downer sketch