Are lessons learned through D&D?

[SemperJase]

You already know through BoVD threads that I believe there is a moral component to D&D. One of my theories in life is that you are what you practice.

If you practice playing an evil character there will be some relation to how you relate or respect other people in real life.

By playing good characters you are practicing respect of others which can only benefit society. After all, trainers frequently use roleplaying as a tool to build and reinforce positive habits.

Which brings me to the question of how are lessons learned through D&D?

I believe that in large part the DM is communicating lessons whether intentionally or not. If there are no consequences for murdering NPCs, the DM teaches that disrespect to others is accetpable. If the play allows PCs to maim and torture NPCs to level 20, he teaches that might makes right.

On the other hand, if the DM furthers the story by allowing the PCs to succeed only by banding together and rescuing the town she is fulfilling the promise of D&D, that it builds teamwork and social skills.

Another way real life lessons are learned may be through player interaction. Johnny Wilson relayed the following story:

Originally posted by Johnny Wison
Frankly, back in 1st Edition AD&D, I played an assassin character. My goal through the entire campaign was to build up enough to be able to kill the lawful good leader of the party who had been playing longer than I had. I finally accomplished this task--VERY UNSATISFYING--I killed him but I found that I felt really crappy about it. Even though he was eventually raised, I felt like my efforts had completely invalidated the months he had spent developing that character. Also, I felt like a traitor to my own party (duh!). The only good part was the subsequent chase and the thrilling ambush where, by that time to my relief, my character bought it.

I went back to a good character and, outside of DMing bad guys, I've played good and neutral characters ever since.

Now since Johnny played an assassin through the entire campaign, he must have assassinated NPC's. Surely these NPC's had led lives that they tried to develop. Yet he did not learn the lesson he now values until it affected a real person through a PC.

The same goes for the reverse. You don't really learn the lessons of teamwork and social skills through NPC interaction. It is when you see the appreciation in your fellow players faces that together you accomplished the goal that the satisfaction truly hits.

My 2 bits.

 

[EricNoah]

Sure, lessons both practical and essoteric.

Practical lessons include probability (a 1 in 20 chance truly means something to me), writing skills, organization skills, leadership skills (DMing is teacher + manager), stuff like that.

Other lessons in life include the lesson that diversity wins out over conformity (though often the downside of being different is not explored well or deeply), I've gotten to know myself better (you can tell not necessarily what kind of man I am, but what kind of man I ideally would be from my PCs), I've played out almost endlessly the theme that making evil choices might bring short-term power or gain but ultimately ends in tragedy.

Stuff like that.

 

[Gizzard]

Tangential:

One of my favorite lines from the X-Files is the dorky D&D player who accuses Mulder and Scully of being rogue agents:

Agent: "If what you say is true, don't you fear reprisial from these agents?"
D&D Player: "Well, I guess you dont play D&D for 20 years without learning a little something about courage."

Not only is that a darn funny sequence, its also contains a hint of a warning not to take yourself too seriously. ;-)

 

[Kai Lord]

If you practice playing an evil character there will be some relation to how you relate or respect other people in real life.

I guess Chris Walken is the Anti-Christ....

 

[Galactic Hobo]

Tangential:

One of my favorite lines from the X-Files is the dorky D&D player who accuses Mulder and Scully of being rogue agents:

Agent: "If what you say is true, don't you fear reprisial from these agents?"
D&D Player: "Well, I guess you dont play D&D for 20 years without learning a little something about courage."

Not only is that a darn funny sequence, its also contains a hint of a warning not to take yourself too seriously. ;-)

tangential tangential: That line is in Fallout 2(which obviously stole it from the above).
That wacky Myron(stereotypical supergeek/ drug developer)
He wasn't worth a damn in combat, but he had some great lines.

 

[Tiefling]

Do be honest, SJ, if I felt that I'm in danger of becoming a disrespectful person unless I steep my games in corny moral lessons, I wouldn't be playing D&D.

 

[Theuderic]

Tiefling, all I can say is typical, so typical........

 

[Ezrael]

One thing I learned through D&D is that if magic were real and worked like it does in the PHB, I'd be better off sticking with a combat oriented class. My wizards all die horrible deaths.

More seriously, through all my roleplaying I have learned, if nothing else, how to try and think like someone other than myself. I think it's helped my empathy a bit.

 

[EricNoah]

You already know through BoVD threads that I believe there is a moral component to D&D. One of my theories in life is that you are what you practice.

If you practice playing an evil character there will be some relation to how you relate or respect other people in real life.

By playing good characters you are practicing respect of others which can only benefit society. After all, trainers frequently use roleplaying as a tool to build and reinforce positive habits.

Eh, yes and no, in my opinion.

I think there is value in vicariously experiencing evil. Why do we read tragedies? Why do we read books that have bad guys? I think it helps us expand our imaginations -- and we vitally need imagination to be able to forsee or predict consequences. I have never killed a person, but because I've read about it (what might lead up to it, how one might feel afterwards, the consequences), seen movies involving it, etc., I have more background knowledge that helps me imagine feelings and helps me predict consequences. I think that's another kind of lesson -- not only do we see what makes a hero heroic, but we see why villains ultimately fail.

Also, I think I have separated out my D&D experiences from reality enough that I can safely say that my playing a "good" character frequently hasn't made me a better person, and that as DM running many, many "evil" characters hasn't made me evil. I can see the value in someone thinking, "Hey, I'm not a drug adict, there's probably a good reason I'm not, maybe I'll play one in a fantasy game" and then getting to experience (vicariously) what it's like and why that would totally suck.

 

[Tiefling]

Tiefling, all I can say is typical, so typical........

Hmm?