Are lessons learned through D&D?

[Nightfall]

I've learned two VERY important lessons in my short time playing this game, both as a player and DM.

1. NEVER, EVER, EVER expect or hope the players will do the right thing UNLESS you're sure they'd be interested.

2. Never trust anyone that says "I betcha a dollar you can't." It's usually rigged.

 

[SemperJase]

Well, I'm sure this has been brought up in one of the previous incarnations of this thread, but what the heck. What about the film or stage actor who plays a villain? Playing the baddie in a movie is a lot more immersive than doing it around the kitchen table once a week or so. Are Christopher Lee or Anthony Hopkins any the worse for wear after some of the roles they've played?

I have seen interviews with actors where they said the character they played did affect them off screen (for good or bad). A recent example is Jim Carrey's role of Andy Kaufman. Numerous accounts described how he lost himself in the role.

Now regardless of how you feel about Andy Kaufman it illustrates that dramatic portryals can affect people off stage (and it is generally approved of as the mark of a good actor).

We return you now to the original thread of D&D games

 

[Ezrael]

Getting back to lessons learned from playing D&D...leaving aside, for the moment, the issues of Theuderic's sincerety or SJ's ideas of how the morality of characters you play influences your own development, I've always felt it was a safe thing to say that D&D teaches you all sorts of interesting little things. I was discussing math with some gamers the other day and they were all over the probabilities of various kinds of dice rolling. So D&D taught them quite a bit of math, at least.

Likewise, I've always maintained that D&D taught me words like melee, unctuous, repugnant and rapacious. They helped spark my interest in reading fantasy in the first place.

 

[SemperJase]

Likewise, I've always maintained that D&D taught me words like melee, unctuous, repugnant and rapacious. They helped spark my interest in reading fantasy in the first place.

Unctuous?

I never knew what victuals were until I read it in a fantasy book. I think it was the Chronicles of Prydain.

 

[maddman75]

Here's what D&D has taught me, as I started playing around eigth grade. It sparked an interest in mathematics, history, and literature. It also taught me how to work as part of a team and many important social skills.

I don't buy that the character's morality reflects upon or is a reflection of the player's morality. I've played good, neutral, and evil characters, and had many diabolical villains as a DM. My favorite types of characters are strong willed paladins and clerics, for whom there are no shades of gray, only the good that are to be defended and the evil that are to be put to the sword.

In real life I don't believe in good and evil. The morality of the characters I play is opposite my actual views.

While role play can be a powerful form of influence if used properly, an RPG lacks the structure to put any paticular views on a person. Doing that takes effort and expertise. Playing a villians will not make you more likely to kick puppies.

 

[rackabello]

originally posted by Eric Noah
I think the player can also be part of the storytelling, and they (the player and the DM together) can both be learning and teaching together and participating in a story with a moral to it. Whether it's the DM being evil repeatedly but with different character or the player being evil with one character but for many sessions.

In keeping with this notion of collaborative storytelling, I'm curious to hear how players and DMs have actually used evil or morally ambiguous PCs & NPCs in their games. Reading through these threads, I've noticed that much of the debate has been fairly abstract. Some specific examples might give us something more concrete to discuss.

 

[Theuderic]

LOL!

 

[LostSoul]

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.

Personally, I think this is teaching.

I ran a game once where a demon was corrupting people left and right, making them into demons under his control. He infected this beautiful woman (who was to be a "hook") and she was corrupted beyond recovery.

As the game was winding down, I realized that the demon was in fact a representation of the cancer that killed my mother; the beautiful woman was her; and the Paladin who tried to help her, but couldn't, was what I wished I could be.

It was a very interesting experience.

 

[SemperJase]

...and the Paladin who tried to help her, but couldn't, was what I wished I could be.

It was a very interesting experience.

Wow. That is deep. Kind erie when you figure something like that out.

 

[LostSoul]

Wow. That is deep. Kind erie when you figure something like that out.

Yeah. And that is why I play D&D.