Does D&D provide a decent moral compass?

[mmadsen]

In DnD Junior, s/LaSH said, "If I ever have kids, I'll probably teach them to role-play before I let them use a computer. Especially because I'm catholic and would like to see any of my progeny have a decent moral compass, which I think the game would promote well."

Do you think D&D provides a decent moral compass?

 

[EricNoah]

Hmm, I don't know. I think the most prevalent (potentially unintentional) moral lesson of D&D is, "The ends justify the means." Maybe also, "Might makes right." It would take a pretty special DM and campaign to teach much else.

I guess D&D does teach "Diversity wins out over conformity" but often fails to show the downside of diversity (that being different doesn't always make you powerful).

 

[alsih2o]

i think a lot of whether it provides a proper moral compass depends on game content, which is controlled by the d.m., which in this case is their father.

so, yes, sometimes.

 

[Celebrim]

D&D provides no moral compass at all. Few games systems do, and many that do provide moral compasses within thier mechanics provide fairly frightening ones.

It is up to the game master (and to a lesser extent the players) to provide a moral compass.

If one is not provided, generally it is the same as D&D teaching immoral lessons, as EN said. Younger DM's in particular are generally poorly suited to providing a moral compass for D&D as a well developed understanding not only of right and wrong but of cause and effect is required.

I think we as RPer's tend to underestimate the influence RPG's can have, especially over the young. Many of us that have been playing the game 20 years can remember people breaking down into tears when characters died, and real friendships being broken by things that occured in a game, and even the occasional violence breaking out among young players (by which I mean high school age and younger). We think of RPG's as 'just a game', which is fitting, but I think somewhere in the back of a RPer's mind he should have a little caution sign that reads 'Caution: Unsupervised Amatuer Psychotheraphy Being Used as Recreation. Keep Your Mind Guarded and Don't Take It Too Seriously.'

For these reasons, I would never allow anyone but myself to DM my own small children. I would never allow my children to play an RPG with anyone that I didn't know, and would prefer that they regularly met at my house so I could occassionally keep an eye on how things were developing. I think this is reasonable for any sort of activity, but it goes double for RPG's.

 

[Alaska Roberts]

I tend to agree, Games don't provide any compass at all. The parents should, but usually dont, so it falls to friends and society at large to do so, and that's just plain terrifying.

Celebrim, you have a ton of good points, if anyone is going to teach my son any kind of gaming at all, it will be me. And not until he is old enough to handle the aspects of a character dying, and so on ( Can you even imagine killing your sons character ::shiver:: that just freaks me out).

Alaska

 

[herald]

I don't think that a game can be a moral compas at all. But Role playing can be done in such a way as to create "morality plays". It takes some doing, but it is done everyday.

 

[Wil]

I think it entirely depends on who is playing the roleplaying game. If the GM and players are trying to encourage ethical and/or moral behavior, then the game could provide a "moral compass". The key word there is *could* - whether or not the game will have any influence on the person's beliefs depends on the person in question.

 

[Agback]

I think somewhere in the back of a RPer's mind he should have a little caution sign that reads 'Caution: Unsupervised Amatuer Psychotheraphy Being Used as Recreation. Keep Your Mind Guarded and Don't Take It Too Seriously.'

I think the same caution ought to be in the back of the mind of anyone who reads literature or watches drama.

Regards,


Agback

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

I wouldn't say "moral compass", but I do think it is a good introduction to moral issues. The notion that there is a law-chaos axis as well as a good-evil one is basically what I'm thinking of here. Most kids are still coming to terms with what is good and what is evil and the law-chaos axis is a neat way to say, "hey just because two people disagree doesn't mean one is wrong, they just have different points of view on what is benificial".

Actually, now that I think about it, most adults don't get this either.

 

[Orias]

( Can you even imagine killing your sons character ::shiver:: that just freaks me out).

No way, you can use stuff like "Clean your room or your character dies" & "No XP until you do your homework". Just kidding.