Is D&D good?

[Calico_Jack73]

Time for $0.02 of my money!

D&D is good!

Look at the video game generation in today's kids. Back when I was a youngster I'd go out and play with the neighborhood kids by running around with cap guns and playing "Fort" or riding our bikes around and jump homemade ramps. Nowdays kids sit in front of the TV glued into their X-Boxes and PS2s and play on-line games with people around the world. There isn't any face-to-face social interaction and I think that is an important part of raising socially responsible adults from today's children. Knowing how to directly interact with people face to face is a skill that is best learned while young and unfortunately it seems that many parents today don't view it as important as they should. Yes, letting your children sit in front of the computer playing games may introduce them to important computer skills and get them interested in a field that will support them in the future. That is what happened to me but I never missed out on the opportunity to get together with flesh and blood friends (as opposed to Cyberspace friends) to sit down to a few hours of good old social interaction.

Edit: Caspian Moon Prince...
It is kind of funny, my mother was VERY religious (and still is... she was a Lutheran Pastor's daughter) but she encouraged me to play it. Besides the obvious effect it had on my vocabulary, interest in reading, and math skills she always knew the people I gamed with, knew where I was at any particular time, and she knew I wasn't out getting into trouble or doing drugs (early 80's). Once I became a High Schooler I joined up with a group that was composed almost entirely of professionals (paramedics, mathematicians, lawyers, etc) and they were a great influence on me. I wonder sometimes where I'd be today if I hadn't gotten into D&D back in 3rd grade. A good number of my elementary school friends got into drugs or got into other trouble with the law. I joined the Air Force for 9 years as a "Computer Guy" and now work for a great defense contractor. I've played D&D almost my entire life... everywhere I've gone in life it has gone with me.

 

[Henry]

He does illustrate my point, though - here's a guy that did do some of what I'm talking about, even though he was known as kind of a jerk in the business world of the day. Where are our Carnegies?

They're still around, but I posit that the reason we don't hear about them as much is that scandals sell in the news better than philanthropy.

All - I appreciate the kind words and suggestions. It helps when I can remember that people do still care enough to spare kind words for a stranger. And I am starting to feel better about things. And since I guess that's a Good thing coming directly out of D&D, I guess what I'm saying is.....

nevermind.

Remind me to tell you sometime about some of the most bizarre acts of sight-unseen kindness and philanthropy that have come out of this message board, and other message boards dedicated to D&D and RPG's in general. I've got a few I can remember, and probably some that some of these forum members can recall that I can't.

relivita, good luck with your project!

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

I hope this isn't considered off topic, I'll give it a try and hope for the best.
I'm doing a report for school on D&D and have only found extremely negative things about D&D. (all religious) is there anywhere that shows why D&D is a good thing?
Hope someone can help.

Well, first of all, you have to realize that when people are EXTREME in their religion, they tend to become misguided and fanatical. Most religious people think these crazies are insane too. I game with a few religious people. The really extreme ones tend to be the ones who are writing this negative stuff. People like everyone's favorite Mr. Chick.

D&D is a fantasy game. That , to me, means you can make it whatever "rating" you want. You can have a very tame G rated adventure where the PCs are all good and they go off to do things like save unicorns and princesses. In a game like this, there would be no mention of demons and graphic deaths or battles. On the flip side, you can have an NC17 adventure where all the PCs are off whoring , slaughtering innocent townsfolk (and describing it in graphic ways) and otherwise wreaking havoc.

It's up to the group how they want to run their games.

I personally would not want to play in a game that was too tame or too brutal. I think most gamers prefer moderate games, where the main focus is the storyline, not sensless violence.

As far as the extreme religious folks' claims that D&D is satanic, I don't really know what to tell them. They have probably never read any of the books, and think anything that encourages "fantasy" is evil. Dungeons, dragons, magic and the other various places and creatures within the realms of the D&D world are associated with demons and satan to them. Not to mention the games often have clerics who worship different gods. They also tend to want to ban Harry Potter and anything else revolving around magic and mysticism.

You also will sometimes hear about some psychotic person who commits a crime or something and if they find D&D stuff in that person's belongings, they will point it out.

I think D&D is good. To rational people, who have read the books, and played the game, or known people who played, D&D is a way to use your imagination, read, write, practice math and logic skills, help work out your memory, understand spacial relations, meet new people and interact with people socially (both with your gaming group in real life, as well as with your PCs world, in game). It makes you think "What would I do in this situation". It encourages common sense thinking skills.

Later on in life, workplaces often have people do role play situations to practice on the job (particularly in customer service jobs, where one person pretends to be the customer, and the other, the person helping them). People who are comfortable with using their imagination like this tend to be better at these excercises (which is impressive to bosses, as a rule). It also helps you to put yourself in someone elses shoes (your PCs) and if you are playing with other people , it teaches you group problem solving and compromise. And deciding priorities.

These are all skills that will help people later on in life. Aside from that, there are other things that people might learn from D&D which may or may not help them in real life. People who play will end up knowing a bit about classical mythology and medieval history and weaponry whether they plan on it or not. It can also help with learning new vocabulary words that you don't often hear.

So, yes, I think D&D is a very good thing. The people who say it's not have either been severly misguided in their knowledge of D&D or have never even actually played/read a book about it.

 

[Torm]

Djeta - I agree with most of what you said, that most of these people call it satanic out of ignorance. There is, however, a very educated and valid (from their point of view of what the commands of their G_d are) thought, which is that anything not done for the glory of G_d is satanic. From that stance, D&D and almost everything else we do is wrong.

Occasionally, I sympathize with this stance, even from outside their beliefs, because it certainly seems sometimes that something is fundamentally wrong with the world.

But then I go back to working on my campaign world. <g>

 

[Li Shenron]

There is, however, a very educated and valid (from their point of view of what the commands of their G_d are) thought, which is that anything not done for the glory of G_d is satanic. From that stance, D&D and almost everything else we do is wrong.

I have at least made some new friends by playing D&D. If friendship is not an example of pleasing God then I wonder what is. It may not help feeding the poor or halting wars, but I think it may help anyone to feel better, even as a small thing. There is also a common idea that simple social activities, just like playing a game with friends, can help keeping some young people from turning to streetgang life.

 

[Rel]

Occasionally, I sympathize with this stance, even from outside their beliefs, because it certainly seems sometimes that something is fundamentally wrong with the world.

But then I go back to working on my campaign world. <g>

Torm, there's a story that I've heard from a couple of different sources over the years that I'd like to relate. I'd give attribution but I don't know who to give it to:

A woman went down to the beach one morning and saw that the tide overnight had, for some unknown reason, washed up thousands upon thousands of starfish onto the sand. The tide had since gone out and as the sun came up it began to dry out these starfish who were in no position to pull themselves back into the water on their own. They were doomed.

She was very sad about this but what could one person do in the face of such a task? She then saw a man walking up the beach in her direction. Every few steps he would bend down and pick up a starfish and toss it into the water. The woman approached him and said, "Isn't this horrible?! Why did this have to happen?!"

The man calmly replied, "Well, we can hardly control what the tide does." He bent and grabbed up another starfish, tossing it casually into the water.

"You'll never save them all you know," she said.

"It isn't my job to save them all." He stooped and gently threw another starfish into the water. "But I saved that one," said the man with a smile. He resumed his walk down the beach, stopping every few steps to save another starfish.

Torm, I try to stop and save a starfish once in a while and I'll bet that you and most of the rest of humanity do too. It doesn't make the news, though the fact that the beach is littered with dying starfish hits the front page every day. I just try to remember that just because I didn't save every starfish doesn't mean that I didn't make a difference.

And I'm enjoying my stroll down the beach too.

 

[robberbaron]

Is D&D Good?

Nah, I reckon it's Lawful Neutral. It's all about the rules, but leaves the application of them to the GM.

 

[Dr. Harry]

One theory I have--look at the income tax and corporate tax and capital gains taxes and see how much is taken out. Then figure out why people are so greedy these days. Greed breeds greed, I suppose.

To go down this line would slap this thread closed almost instantly, and this is far too positive a thread for me to want that to happen, but as purely an objective note, the U.S. tax rate is drastically lower than it was even historically recently. The maximum tax bracket, which is (I believe - it might be lower if I missed something in the 2001,2,3 tax codes) about 35% was at 70% in 1960, and was (If I remember my information correctly) at 88% during World War II. Unless this is the point that you were making.

They're still around, but I posit that the reason we don't hear about them as much is that scandals sell in the news better than philanthropy.

Additionally, there are cases where the philanthrophists, especially the religiously motivated philanthrophists, don't call a lot of attention to their actions. THe late Charles Schulz was an excellent example of this. No interviewer who met with him criticized him for not doing anything with his money, but he required them not to disclose what those things were.



Torm, I genuinely hope that things improve for you. ENWorld is much more of a community that any other messageboard site I have seen, and this carries over. I hope it is comforting to see that without meeting you, you are in many people's thoughts and prayers.


Harry

(this was edited to fix some format errors.)

 

[Silveras]

Djeta - I agree with most of what you said, that most of these people call it satanic out of ignorance. There is, however, a very educated and valid (from their point of view of what the commands of their G_d are) thought, which is that anything not done for the glory of G_d is satanic. From that stance, D&D and almost everything else we do is wrong.

Occasionally, I sympathize with this stance, even from outside their beliefs, because it certainly seems sometimes that something is fundamentally wrong with the world.

But then I go back to working on my campaign world. <g>

Torm, you need to cut yourself some slack.

In the Tolkien Reader there is an essay by the eminent Professor defending the practice of writing fantasy stories. In "On Faerie Stories" he discusses the act of "sub-creation" being an emulation of God, and the most sincere form of praise one can perform (based on the precept that "emulation is the sincerest form of flattery"). It is a very long essay, as long as some short novels, but might be something suitable for this thread.

A quick Google search turns up the text here , but for bibliography purposes you will likely want to cite from the Tolkien Reader.

 

[RavenProject]

Well, I can see where all this "D&D is bad" stuff is coming from. To be honest, if I would believe in magic, ghosts, devils, gods and other mystical or supernatural phenomena, then a game for youngsters with these themes would surely look dangerous to me as well. Think about this. If you really believe in magic and that magic is an evil thing, then D&D must be evil as well because it deals with this art and encourages people to wield it. At the very least it could help inflame interests for those forbidden things.

However, I'm under the impression, the vast majority of roleplayers are people without deep ties to religions and perceive D&D for that, what it ultimately is. A game, that you can play with your friends to have a good time. The interesting thing is, that everything that has been said in the past about the roleplaying books holds true for the bible as well. Think about that for a second.

What I want to say is simple. D&D is only dangerous to people who really believe the crap, that is written in the books. And people who believe in that stuff have serious other problems that should be taken care of.