I found a site with more biast opinions about how DnD is Satanic

[ssampier]

I'm with you. Except when it comes to spelling. It's "intolerance", dammit

Egads! You're write

 

[ajanders]

This is something that I have been wondering about, but since I do not have the earliest editions of D&D, do they encourage you to 'perform rituals' when your character casts a spell?
I mean, I assume that a lot of players jstu say 'my character casts (spell)' during the game right?


PS: da speeling tebbirle ere

I didn't see anyone give you a straight answer, so I'll clarify the sarcasm. No edition of Dungeons and Dragons, not the blue book, Basic D&D, First Edition, Second Edition, Third Edition, or 3.5 contains any real world magical rituals whatsoever.
I recognize nobody should be that positive about it.
Material components are also described and sometimes cinematic descriptions of the somatic components are provided (notably for Spider Climb, which stressed the wizard eating the spider in First and Second editions).
First edition D&D did contain reproductions of certain hermetic ritual diagrams:the thaumaturgic triangle and pentacle. But that's it.

 

[was]

Hmmm...good point(s). Just for the record, although I didn't grow up in a small town, I *did* grow up in a fairly conservative small city (pop. 60,000 or so) and I was a kid gamer during the early 80's hysteria. To be fair to the religious fanatics (did I just type that? ) it was the *secular media* who were pouncing all over D&D...not just the religious right.

At any rate, I've put it behind me. I've learned to forgive (or at least I'm *learning* to forgive). It's easy to dwell in bitterness and gripe endlessly about "those damn close-minded bigots". As a child, you're right--it's distressing because you have no choice in the matter. As an adult, as I think we all are here, we *do* have a choice. We can forgive, and acknowledge that maybe we too can be just as intolerant and aggressive as religious fanatics, given certain circumstances.

Wow, 60,000? That must have been nice, at least you had some chance at normalcy. Though I am definitely not underestimating your sufferance. The population of my home town has risen to around 9,500 and hasn't changed much in the last 10-15 years. It's also the county seat and one of the largest towns in the area. The nearest school to ours, for example, had a graduating high school class of 13 seniors the year I graduated. I felt luck to have 131. They've grown though. I heard they're up to nearly 30 seniors a year now.

 

[VirgilCaine]

(notably for Spider Climb, which stressed the wizard eating the spider in First and Second editions).

Shouldn't you let it bite you, though, not eat it?

 

[Blacklamb]

Hmmm radioactive(Free Fairie Fire!) spider climb!



Blacklamb

 

[Captain Tagon]

"I've known many more gamers who are close-minded about Christianty (and religion in general) than I've met Christians who are close-minded about gamers."

That's how I've seen it. I go to a southern Baptist college and all anyone there has ever said to me about playing is to jokingly call me a nerd. In fact most people I've mentioned it to were interested in exactly what RPGs were.

Then again, I have to be careful to let people at the nearby gaming shops know where I go to school or that I'm a Christian or I get flak out the whazoo for it.

 

[Turanil]

Not to be devil's advocate or anything, but how on earth can you call someone "mentally ill" just because they have different beliefs than you do?
:\

Very simple. First thing, just forget about the idiocy of politically correctness. Fortunately, we are spared of it in Europe. People who see the devil in others at every opportunity, are not having a "different belief". They are in fact projecting on others what they don't want to accept in themselves. This is simply a neurosis. You can speak of belief when a scientist says he believes in God, while another says he doesn't. When a bigot wants to persecute you because of something totally ludicrous he wants to believe in, it's a neurosis, or even maybe psychotism. The fact is, most tyrants and criminals are affected by some kind of mental illness (yet this cannot be an excuse for any criminal behavior). Someone perfectly sane doesn't try to persecute others (even if only in speech), or does something criminal to make a living*. I have been always extemely interested in Psychology and the working of the brain and the human mind, so I speak with authority here (at least in my belief ).

(*: for that reason I always had a personal problem with clerics of evil having high wisdom scores...)

 

[Zappo]

Buddhists believe in reincarnation. Are they mentally ill?

Belief in something that can't be disproved is faith. There is no solid proof against reincarnation. There is lots against D&D containing working magical rituals. I mean, really, it's not much far from believing that if you let go of an object it will fall upwards. It's just delusional; the only reasonable motive for which someone may sincerely believe it is that he has never played or seen a game of D&D.

Edit: which of course poses the possibility that the author has never played or seen a game of D&D. Fair enough. Not insane, but criminally slanderous.

 

[Gez]

On top of that, the second issue is that the materials themselves, in many cases, contain authentic magical rituals. I can tell you this from my own experience.

"Dear Penthouse readers,
I never thought it would happen to me, but..."

I was a witch high priest (Alexandrian tradition) during the period 1973-84. During some of that period (1976-80) I was also involved in hardcore Satanism. We studied and practiced and trained more than 175 people in the Craft.

"Also, we make secretly building our own spawning vats to create an army of evil mutant overminds from silly putty. It was working well, and we managed to get more than 10 of the biggest cities in the state under our control. You may remember the Mandatory Baby-Eating Bill that was passed during this time, thanks to our voodoo control of major politicians."

Our "covendom" was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; just a short drive away from the world headquarters of TSR, the company which makes Dungeons and Dragons in Lake Geneva, WI. In the late 1970's, a couple of the game writers actually came to my wife and I as prominent "sorcerers" in the community.

"I discovered then, to my horror, that if they needed my help, then they weren't prominent sorcerers, and then all the things they wrote was pure fiction!"

They wanted to make certain the rituals were authentic. For the most part, they are. These two guys sat in our living room and took copious notes from us on how to make sure the rituals were truly right "from the book," (this meaning that they actually came from magic grimoires or workbooks). They seemed satisfied with what they got and left us thankfully.

"I can still tell you which ones: Tasha's hideous laughter (the ritual is tossing a cream pie at someone), and sending (two tin can linked by copper wire)."

Back in 1986, a fellow appeared on The 700 Club who was a former employee and game writer for TSR. He testified right on the show that he got into a wrangle with the management there because he saw that the rituals were too authentic and could be dangerous. He protested to his boss and was basically told that this was the intent to make the games as real as possible. He felt conscience-stricken (even though he was not a Christian at the time), and felt he had to resign from the company.

"But I can't give any name because the Five Jewish Bankers that control the world are watching me. There's a Majestic 12 directive against anyone who would say who. The Men in Black erased all records of that particular issue of the show. But trust me, it did happen."

 

[Lord Foul]

"Dear Penthouse readers,
I never thought it would happen to me, but..."
."

LOL.
Thanks Gez. This line just made reading this whole thread worth it.