Are lessons learned through D&D?

[Theuderic]

Tielfling, I must say that you have impressed me greatly.

 

[EricNoah]

Teif, he's probably refering to your typo. ("Do be honest" where you probably meant "To be honest"). You're always making typos, it's so typical of you.

 

[SemperJase]

Re: Re: Are lessons learned through D&D?

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.

So you say roleplaying interaction has no affect on people.

A point I have raised more than once that hasn't been answered is that if it is not effective, why do trainers all over the country use roleplaying to learn and reinforce behavior?

 

[Tiefling]

I know, it's such a personality flaw. I should have it removed.

 

[Tiefling]

Re: Re: Re: Are lessons learned through D&D?

So you say roleplaying interaction has no affect on people.

A point I have raised more than once that hasn't been answered is that if it is not effective, why do trainers all over the country use roleplaying to learn and reinforce behavior?

Maybe because roleplaying in a fantasy world purely for enjoyment is slightly different than roleplaying about something you're training for with the express purpose of learning how to do it?

 

[EricNoah]

I didn't say it has no effect. I just refute the notion that playing a fictional bad guy will make you more likely to be a real bad guy.

Let me ask you this -- in these roleplaying exercises done by businesses, do they sometimes have one person be the troublemaker and another person be the person responding and learning how to deal with it? Yet I don't believe that the result is an employee who is more likely to act like a troublemaker.

What these roleplaying exercises do, in my opinion, is not so much reinforce behavior as allow "book learning" to translate into practical application. I.e. you've heard someone say, "Show sympathy for an irate customer" and now you get to actually do it so you know what that means.

 

[Theuderic]

Again, I'm highly influenced......

 

[EricNoah]

Again, I'm highly influenced......

Or under the influence. Or something.

 

[Oni]

Morally speaking, I am of the opinion that Dnd doesn't teach so much as reveal what you brought to the table in the first place.

I usually play characters who are at the very least good at heart, if not openly heroic. Last year I played an evil character, I found it to be an interesting break from my usual style (we're talking subtle evil here, and not baby eating evil). Interesting because I enjoy exploring different characters, and I don't believe it is anymore dangerous for me to do this than it is for a novelist to write an evil character. In truth I found myself performing many of the same sorts of actions as my other characters might have in similar situations, motivation being the real differentiation. Still I always find myself coming back to good, heroic characters.

So again I say people are less a reflection of their characters, than characters are a reflection of the people that play them (sometimes as a negative, sometimes as a projection of themselves or who they want to be).


In the end though, while this is fun to discuss, the game is really about fun and being social, and not playing out some moral lesson.

 

[Theuderic]

Hey man I wasn't joking! What gives man? Why are you being mean to me? Can't I give a guy a compliment? Is that something a moderator should say to someone? I find that highly insulting.