Has anyone ever tried to 'save' you from D&D?

[Ibram]

this thread is missing something.... oh yea, a link to that crazy guys website

Black Leaf NOOOOO!!!

but to answer your question no... though my mother once made a comment about so many young men sitting around playing a game on saturday night.

 

[Ycore Rixle]

It happened to me. My Sunday School teacher back in the early '80s knew I played, and she used to lead our class in prayers to protect us from D&D, ouija boards, and Ozzy Osbourne. I'm not kidding.

Her huge issue with D&D - it was the huge issue of many parents in my area - was that the characters worshipped gods other than the "real" God. There was one kid who, when we played at my cousin's house, was allowed to come over and play, but he was only allowed to play a character who didn't worship a god. So he always took someone from the Arthurian mythos in Deities and Demigods and called that knight his "protector."

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

My paternal grandmother, the stereotypical little ol' church lady, once had me sit down with her minister so they could both try and talk me out of gaming.



The conversation didn't go very well for the minister.

 

[ZeroGlobal2003]

Yeah, someone once tried to convince me that D&D was evil... he was one of those "born again" types that was born again into a non-denominational type church that spoke in tongues. To put him in perspective the first time I met him he was looking at pornographic pictures of Mr. Bean in a speedo. He was anti-semtic, thought coverting people should be done at gunpoint if necessary and beleived that Catholics, Episcopalians, Baptists, Luthrens... well lets just say any one that wasn't him wasn't really Christian. He attacked differant translastions of the Bible then the King Jame's Version, saying they were edited by their authors to change the content (like KJV is that pure of intent).

To perfectly sum up the individual, here is a snippit of a conversation I had with him. I call him Godboy because that was the name that he earned from every one there, even othe Christians (such as myself), due to his shear annoyance level.

Me: So, "Godboy," you seem to see evil in a lot of places and things, so tell me, do you see everything as evil?
Godboy: Well, yes, I think that most things in this mortal life and sinful and evil.
Me: You know somepeople would call that paranoid delusion?
Godboy: Paranoid Delusion? Thats oen of those favorite words of the devil used to persecute the faithful.

That answered my question.

Zero

 

[Kalendraf]

When I started playing in 1983, I was in 9th grade. For a while, my parents kept a very close eye on me and how much time I was spending working on the game and playing it. I think they were more concerned with it as a timesink, but the religious angle did come up a couple times. After a few months, they decided it was safe. I managed to get nearly straight-A's thru high school despite spending huge amonts of my spare time working on stuff for D&D (since I was the main DM) or playing the game. The first year I started playing, the group was arriving at school 30 minutes early to play before school started, then assembled at the end of our lunch period for another 20 to 30 minutes. Then after school we'd head to someone's house and keep playing. Any downtime during or between classes I'd usually work on maps and encounters. I definitely had D&D on the brain! Had my grades suffered at all, I'm sure there would have been tremendous pressure to play less or even quit the game.

In regards to some of the other choices, I was a pretty geeky kid and didn't do much social stuff prior to playing this, so D&D was actually a step forward in terms of socializing for me. I already played some sports, so they weren't worried about that either.

 

[Rel]

Many years ago, in the late 80's, the minister of a friend of mine tried to talk us out of playing roleplaying games at the behest of his mother on one occasion. His arguments became more ridiculous and grasping at every turn and I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

He started out by saying that the games were just "bad" and clearly had no understanding of what they were about. We explained that, at its core, roleplaying was just cooperative story telling.

"So you sit around telling lies. That is the work of Satan."

To this we responded that stories are not "lies". He countered saying that they were lies if they were about things that could not happen. We responded that a large portion if not a vast majority of all literature fell into that category.

"That stuff is the work of Satan as well."

We asked him if he felt that the Complete Works of Shakespeare fell into that category. He said that it did if it portrayed situations that could not happen in reality.

At that point I politely informed him that he may or may not be correct about what constitutes the "Work of Satan" but that, if it was his contention that virtually all americans were dabbling in these works by virtue of the books they read, the television they watched and the movies they enjoyed, my sin of playing roleplaying games was certainly no more egregious than theirs. I departed.

That friend and I still game together by the way.

He no longer attends that church (he does still go to church and is a good Christian by my estimation - his current pastor is a very cool guy too).

 

[Dragon Mage]

I voted yes due to religous reasons.

My mother refuses to have anything to do with me because I have let satan into my heart by playing D & D.

 

[DaveMage]

No one has ever tried to convince me not to play for any reason, although I do not bring it up at work as there are those here who have expressed concerns over the "anti-religious" Harry Potter.

 

[BlackMoria]

The answer is yes, but it is not one of the choices on the poll.

My wife tried to 'save me' from D&D but the issue for her was that she couldn't understand why a middle age man would play 'that sort of game' and more pointly, play that sort of game with people young enough to be my children.

She has accepted somewhat my 'hobby' but every now and then, she will quip up "When are you going to grow up?" when I head off to a gaming session and I usely respond "Never....think young, be young...."

 

[MaxKaladin]

I selected "Yes. They thought my D&D friends were geeky and wanted me to meet a jockier/more popular class of idiot. " That's the closest option to the actual situation. What it boils down to is my father disapproved of the game for a number of non-religious reasons. One of them was he thought it was getting me in with the wrong crowd. He also thought it was too childish for someone in high school to be doing.