Is D&D good?

[Kai Lord]

"Is D&D good?" is wholly dependent on the definition of "good."

If the Bible is true then D&D as its presented leans pretty heavily toward evil.

D&D *does* present worshipping false gods, practicing divination and sorcery, casting spells, and acting as mediums and spiritists who consult the dead as all being potential acts of good. The Bible repeatedly states that none of those acts are *ever* good, under any circumstances.

But that doesn't mean those particular practices have to be glorified or presented as good in everyone's campaign.

My current campaign is set in Dragonlance, but with a Christian monotheistic God. All the "official" gods of the setting are evil, even those from the "good" pantheon, and are out to deceive and ultimately destroy the mortal races. There are good aligned clerics, but they don't know that even their magic is evil and corrupting them.

We've adopted the Complete Psionics Handbook to represent the "Holy Spirit" manifesting in certain individuals (in the tradition of Samson, but in a much flashier Wu Xia style), except we don't use any powers from the Clairvoyant schools (since divination is condemned by the God of the Bible.)

We've sidestepped all of the signature D&D elements considered evil by the Bible and are having a blast! We still get to have fun with magic being used by all the bad guys (or deceived good guys) and still maintain all the cool fantasy elements that we love about D&D. And the DM is even a hard boiled atheist!

I don't advertise that I'm a "gamer", because the Bible also states to "avoid even the appearance of evil," and even though I don't believe my group's game is evil, its a simple fact that my hobby does indeed maintain the "appearance of evil" to many who aren't very familiar with it, and I don't want to give the impression that I condone entertaining fantasies about being a heroic character who prays to pagan gods while casting those nasty spells.

Anyway, interesting thread.

 

[elforcelf]

Well I am a pagan and I am not evil and my goddess and gods are real and not evil.elforcelf.

 

[Umbran]

D&D is, when all is said and done, a bunch of stuff written in books. D&D is a set of ideas. Nothing more, nothing less.

When you play the game, you take the ideas and concepts in the books, and you fiddle with them. You add some ideas of your own, or ideas taken fromother sources, and you stir them around a bit. And you communicate these ideas back and forth among the players. Playing D&D is, all in all, sitting around thinking, playing with ideas.

Is this bad? Is this good? Neither. Ideas are not good or bad in and of themselves. Good and bad comes in when people choose to take actions.

Some might argue that the game leads people to bad choices. I find it terribly difficult to believe that a few hundred pages of game mechanics can have a more infuential effect than a person's friends, parents, society, personal history, and so. If you see bad choices, don't look at the game as a source. Same for good choices.

The game leads more to expression of ideas than to impression of ideas.

 

[Dr. Harry]

I fear I'm treading close to the line of discussing religion, but I couldn't let your comment about belief in "real magic" being bad pass without a little clarification. A belief in "real magic" is a valid part of many world religions ...

I recognize that some religions (and denominations of other religions) believe that magic is real. By "magic", I suppose that I mean a method of personal intervention in the universe that results in an outcome that does not have a cause within the natural world. That is why I said it the way I did, trying to express this in a manner that advocated no side.

This means that it is possible to have religious ritual without considering it to be part of "magic", as understood in this way. This addresses:

Very true. Sunday morning mass is very ritualistic in its arraingement, timing, and calling of faith. Most people seem to think that going to church is simply sitting there listening to the service; few realize that they are active participants of an invocation.

Lastly,

"Is D&D good?" is wholly dependent on the definition of "good."

If the Bible is true then D&D as its presented leans pretty heavily toward evil.

In one interpretation - said without faulting your chosen interpretation. (And you are welcome to contact me directly to discuss at more length.)

Actually, I think that the best argument for "Is D&D good?" is *this* thread. And the threads where we pull together to help either ENWorld itself or one of the community members who are having a bad time of it. ENWorld itself is a real community, not (like a number of other boards) just someplace to go to get into a flame war.

After all, if you want to answer is "thing x" good or not, the best way to answer that is to look at the results; it might not save the world, but there is a *lot* to be said for something if it makes the world even a little bit better.

There's always the flip side, the Simpsons comic-book-guy sterotype, but done well, D&D does 'good'.