D&D has threatened my job!

[FungiMuncher]

What do you think folks? Is this a good course of action?

It's sensitive to the complaining parent's concerns, it addresses the realities of the career, and opens up a reasonably good option for your younger players. Your plan sounds very good.

(snip)

One more thing, what say we stop letting the bigots and bozos have the initiative?

(another snip)

(One last thing. I am very disappointed to see so many people who hate teenagers.)

I seriously doubt it's hate for anyone who has chimed in here. However, I bet we can agree that there's a dynamic tension going on with the topic at hand (to put it mildly).

(snip)

... by expanding my activities (something I will now be very motivated to do) I get to win.

 

[ForceUser]

It's amazing how clear everything becomes after a good night's rest.

A.) I've been arrogent and naive. Of course a parent could be upset by this. I know I'm not doing anything wrong, but they don't know that. Since this woman has little understanding of what is going on, she has imagined the worst. I've been teaching too long not to know how people work and that not everyone will be sensible, in fact they will often be fearful. A permission slip helps dissapate this somewhat, but is not a cure. It won't protect me from an allegation. My original instinct was correct, no students at my table.

B.) I will ask students to leave the game, telling them why. Like I said, this is mainly one kid right now, although there is another who plays occasionally. I regret losing gaming population, but I do not lose the right to teach the game to other or to be a role model for them (I know that sounds strange, but when you work with kids you become aware of it.)

C.) I had already planned on making some of my games Living Greyhawk games. I will instead run these games at a seperate time in a public location. The details I have to figure out, and I will probably have to do it in the Warrensburg, a slightly larger city with a college. My church is there and so is a comic book store and a large student union, so I feel I can find a venue to play. Thus my younger players have somewhere to go, I can teach the game (something I like to do) and the little ladies don't get to run the town with a phone call. I win.

What do you think folks? Is this a good course of action?

I think dropping the kids from your private game is a good idea.

That said, wow, Warrensburg. From 1980 - 85 I lived in a sleepy town called Leeton, MO, which was about thirty miles from both Warrensburg and Clinton. Is it still there? There were only 690 people living there when I was a child.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Excellent plan.

 

[Hunter Simon]

1. The kids stay.

2. Get the parents involved. Invite them to a game. Hold games at their houses. Introduce them to the other adult players. Stay in touch and widen your circle of friends.

People, we're not talking about infants here, we're talking about adolescents. Teens are supposed to be widening their world. No, they're not competent adults. But neither are they helpless babes. They make mistakes and, one hopes, learn from those mistakes.

In case you hadn't noticed, teens are not rational creatures. An adolescent gets kicked out of a group it's angst city time. A kid with a complex is not a pretty thing.

Another thing, would you please stop infantalizing adolescents? While not the most responsible critters in the world, they aint hopeless. Lay down some rules and insist junior abides by them. Expect responsibility of your teen, and your teen will do his best to live up to your expectation. Won't always succeed, but at least he'll try.

BTW, has anybody ever wondered how old those teens are?

One more thing, what say we stop letting the bigots and bozos have the initiative? By booting the adolescents from a group you are saying the anti D&D crowd's accusations have a foundation in fact. You are saying, for all intents and purposes, that D&D is bad for kids, and kids shouldn't play it.

Folks, what say we stop acting like twitter pated fuss budgets and start acting like adults?

(One last thing. I am very disappointed to see so many people who hate teenagers.)

You're not a parent, are you?

 

[Buttercup]

What do you think folks? Is this a good course of action?

It sounds like one to me. I think you've covered all the bases, and you still get to do what's important to you.

 

[Buttercup]

(One last thing. I am very disappointed to see so many people who hate teenagers.)

I didn't see any comments in this thread that suggested a hatred of (or even mild dislike of) teenagers. What I did see was a wide-spread awareness an ugly reality. Since you evidently aren't aware of same, I'll be as blunt as Eric's Grandma will allow.

Society as a whole is quite suspicious of adults who spend leisure time with children who are not related to them. Men in particular are looked askance at when they hang out with minors. People fear the man is going to do what so many catholic priests have done, kapiche? Teachers have even less leaway because, while society trusts them with our most precious resource all day, every day, the consequences if this trust is misplaced could be tragic.

Actually, none of this has anything to do with teens, and everything to do with the fear of adult males.

 

[Corinth]

You're not a parent, are you?

Irrelevant. It's the principle that matters, and a man that will not stand on principle isn't a man at all. Nothing else in life matters than to stand for principle.

 

[Serps]

Irrelevant. It's the principle that matters, and a man that will not stand on principle isn't a man at all. Nothing else in life matters than to stand for principle.

That's up to every individual to decide, don't you think? Not everyone's cut out to water the tree of Liberty with their blood, never mind the tree of Roleplaying Freedom.

Besides, d20fool has already indicated that it's not just him that will be affected; it's his wife and her work that would be impacted, not to mention the people she helps, the students he teaches and so forth.

 

[d20fool]

Irrelevant. It's the principle that matters, and a man that will not stand on principle isn't a man at all. Nothing else in life matters than to stand for principle.

Forgive me Corinth, but standing for a principle doesn't mean I have to do it in the stupiest way possible. I plan to provide a venue for these students to play, one that doesn't involve me being vulnerable to any attack.

If it means I'm not a man to be sensible about whom I play with, so be it.

 

[Christian]

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