"D&D is evil. I have seen it from the inside."

[Mouseferatu]

There are probably more of us around than you know. My whole gaming group is Christian. I'm an elder/deacon/lay minister in my church, and have no issues reconciling my faith and my faith and my hobby -- in fact I attribute a large portion of my faith to some paths D&D set me upon.

I know that there are quite a few devout Christians on this board, too. I could name a half-dozen without too much thought and there are several others that I know of, but can't think of usernames right now. Considering this is a board that discourages religious discussions, I'd imagine there are quite a few people who just don't break the rules or even edge up to it.

To add to the list...

My wife, an avid gamer, is a devout Christian. So is at least one member of my Dawnforge group, and a couple of members of my old gaming group back home. Heck, James Wyatt is a former minister.

If someone actually did a survey of gamers across multiple regions, I'd be willing to bet that the results would indicate that the percentage of Christian gamers is roughly comperable to the percentage of Christians in the population. Sure, there'll be some discrepency, due to the bad press of the 80s, but I doubt all that much of it remains.

 

[Sebastian Francis]

To add to the list...

My wife, an avid gamer, is a devout Christian. So is at least one member of my Dawnforge group, and a couple of members of my old gaming group back home. Heck, James Wyatt is a former minister.

If someone actually did a survey of gamers across multiple regions, I'd be willing to bet that the results would indicate that the percentage of Christian gamers is roughly comperable to the percentage of Christians in the population. Sure, there'll be some discrepency, due to the bad press of the 80s, but I doubt all that much of it remains.

Check it out:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Christian_Gamers_Guild/

 

[Tom Cashel]

D&D is evil.

And everyone who plays it is irredeemably evil.

Them's the facts.

 

[Green_Dragon_Studio]

A thought on the basic nature of theStraight Talk on Dungeons and Dragons presented at begining of this thread:

From the article: "In the late 1970's, a couple of the game writers actually came to my wife and I"

I ask: Who were these two people? Name them.

If the writer was so concerned about presenting a solid case against D&D, why wasn't it backed by facts? I'd say the facts weren't provided for one of two reasons:
1. It never happened
2. It did happened, but if we contact the ones involve we would learn what was truly taken from the research. Which all gamers know to be just flavor text to wrap around some rules.

 

[Nebt Bhakau]

Beating a Dead Horse: CR 1/10

Reading http://www.chick.com/articles/frpg.asp : He's so bothered because D&D teaches bad morals. Yet, D&D doesn't ever purport to be a primer on morality - it purports to be a fantasy role-playing game. It would be the same if I were to review the Bible as a game manual ("No sample adventure is provided, and there are very few guidelines for level advancement. The characters are largely 'railroaded' throughout.")

But, I'm preaching to the choir, I suppose. I leave you with words of wisdom.

"I am frequently told to 'get a life' or write about something more important than D&D, like social justice or world hunger. The devil would sure like that." - William Schnoebelen

I feel your pain, William.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

But, I'm preaching to the choir, I suppose. I leave you with words of wisdom.

Which is in fact the main problem regarding "discussions" about Chick and similar minded groups - it does "only" lead to new jokes about them, but usually nothing else.

Anyway, I want to add to the thread:
If I assume Chick and co. really believe what they are saying (and are not using it for other purposes, like making money or gaining reputation), they seem to have a wrong perception about what D&D is - It is a GAME. It´s not a religion, and it does not pretend to be one. It´s a hobby. You don´t compare the (or a) christian chuch and the Shania-Twain fanclub. A lot of fans buy here CDs, but the Shania-Twain fanclub probably doesn´t donate a lot for charity.
In fact, TSR and WotC are companies, not churches. Companies sometimes donate money to charity, but it´s not what they are required to do. (And when they do it , there are usually three reasons, probably in order of the priority: 1) To look good in the public. 2) To evade a few taxes. 3) To help people)

 

[Legolizard]

This thread has inspired me, I want to start a organazation to counter all those christian groups against gameing, I want to start Christians For Games CFG, hmmm, Rhyms with ccg. Anyway, if anyone would like to help me create CFG, please email me at legolizard@juno.com

Maybe I should make a thread about this. hmmm.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Wait, does that make me 1/4 of a satanist?

And if so, which fourth?

Only a quarter, the flip side.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I doubt that the supposed high priest is lying. I think he is more likely delusional and probably did get involved in some creepy stuff. The deception here is that this person claims that his behavior is representative of gamers everywhere.

Despite the fact that I came from a somewhat conservative family in the Bible Belt area, D&D never really raised many eyebrows in my family (then again, we were Catholics and had more important things to worry about than D&D taking over my soul - though it did take up a lot of time . . . )

Come to think of it, there is a better argument for 'D&D will prevent your kids from getting dates' than it will getting them hooked up with Satan.

 

[Li Shenron]

In Italian, to conquer an opponent's chess piece is "to eat", but no one accuses chessplayers of cannibalism... D&D is just a game, and I have never understood what's the big deal.

Furthermore, all who worries about a game having "real-life magic inside" is implicitly a believer in magic. As far as I know the belief that magic exists is truly incompatible with Christianity (but I may be wrong, and it is only the Catholics who cannot believe in magic). If someone has the opinion that a game with spells is incompatible with Christianity, methinks it's him who is incompatible with Christianity, and cannot say he's a Christian unless he abandons his belief in magic.

And by the way, even if D&D books had descriptions of "realistic" spells, taken from "real" satanic books, that wouldn't be very much different in practice from taking monsters descriptions for the old Greek mythos, or the picture of a dragon from a medieval painting. It would always be only fiction, because that's what RL books about "magic" are.

Finally, I generally don't trust very much those who focus their religious identity and life on quests against minor issues such as playing a game, eating a specific food, or sexual preferences. It just seems to me a way to not think about much more important aspects of philosphy and religion.