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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Warpiglet-7" data-source="post: 9416832" data-attributes="member: 7025282">I have feelings about this topic.  So I find it a good one.  Its provocative depending on how it is discussed…I rescue spiders from the basement typically.  We have a ritual for altering rabbits the dogs are about to be let out into our fenced backyard.  I cannot tolerate watching movies where innocents are tormented…but…In D&D I expect to be physically endangered.  One major tool for dealing with that is violence.It is as OP suggests hard baked into the game.  Dudes carrying morningstars might negotiate, but let’s get real: they expect a fight.When you play a violent video game, do you take pause?  Whether boxing, a mil-sim shooter or mortal combat, do you worry about it?  I don’t.  And I don’t worry about shooting in action movies.I am specifically playing a game of peril.  As teens we had a few evil parties.  It was fun.  Now we are good guys almost exclusively because the world wears you down.  I want to rescue, protect and destroy evil.  Often by kicking ass.Gygax expanded wargaming…and I like those games and roots.  I am not into story games.  Intrigue and drama are cool but I am not playing D&D for that alone.  The rules are clearly about what they are about.I don’t worry about orc children because we rarely encounter them.  We have spared goblin young as good characters and those that surrender.  But fireballs sometimes fireball <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤷‍♂️" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937-2642.png" title="Man shrugging    :man_shrugging:" data-shortname=":man_shrugging:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />I now have a group with my kids.  We are mainly sticking to clearly evil monsters.  But I do plan to give them a choice of killing the main villain (a deranged elven woman who became a spore Druid) with ill intent…but if they kick her ass, capture kill or redeem is up to them.its a game.  It shaped me.  It did not make me devalue humans or animals after decades of play.  There is no literature suggesting that D&D contributes any unique variance to violent behavior or psychopathology. So, much like my beer drinking and concert shirt wearing it’s just fun and a borderline religious sacrament.  I am unworried and unrepentant.  I appreciate the brilliance of Gygax and don’t embrace his missteps.I don’t look for scenarios to kill innocents or young humanoid monsters.  If someone does make that choice, it’s their game.  It’s also why I choose good and neutral characters now and no longer want evil PCs when it’s my turn to DM.The game is what it is—-but it’s also what we make it.</blockquote>

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