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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5175159" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 181: May 1992part 6/8Forum: Just when you though it was safe to go back to school, here we go again with the satanic crap. This issue was never such a hassle for the magazine in the 80's. Just get on with playing and making cool books, instead of worrying abut what other people think of you. Life seems so much simpler if you don't care. Ralph deGennaro talks about his life, and the benefits he's got from roleplaying. It's expanded his vocabulary, increased his math skills, and brought him closer to his family. TV is a far worse influence on people than D&D in terms of encouraging violence, apathy and social isolation, yet near everyone has one in their house. And that in turn had people trying to ban it a generation ago. Just another manifestation of the cycle of history. Shane F. Cameron reveals the roleplaying backlash has spread to australia too. It does make playing a slightly nerve-wracking experience. Stupid media people and stupid parents who listen to it. John McCord is another person who lost a friend because of the influence of their family saying D&D is satanic. It's a shame, and he wishes he'd had a good rebuttal to them at the time. Can the magazine help with that? Brian Philips wishes people would focus on the real causes of mental health problems and suicide, like abusive families and bullying, instead of trying to attack irrelevant things in search of a quick fix. Love and understanding is the real solution, as the bible keeps telling us, and it's preachers keep forgetting.  William Michael Kelly also points out the many inconsistencies in the attempts to root out and ban "satanic" stuff. Football has it's origin as a pagan ritual, and kills far more people than roleplaying. Should we ban that? Good luck with that one. Basketball is similarly derived from a mayan game. And of course trying to completely ignore drugs and contraception causes more problems than properly educating your kids about them. Course, they won't find it funny when you point all this out to them. Casy Leah Williams is also annoyed by the refusal of people to listen to rational debate. We have facts here, and you just plug your ears and keep shouting BAD STUFF IS BAD! How are we supposed to solve this without stooping to the level of our opponents. Walter Roberts is another bit of anecdotal evidence that roleplaying does not hurt your grades or your social life. Not only does it have educational benefits, it teaches you confidence and the value of teamwork. Some people'll go wrong regardless of how well they're treated. ILT Bob MacKey talks about his experiences gaming in the army. (currently stationed in saudi arabia) He's another one who learned about teamwork from gaming. In fact, that's the big positive thing about RPG's as compared to ordinary games. If done right, everybody wins. That shouldn't be such a hard concept to understand. Tammy Coppa talks about the same issue from the perspective of a soldier's wife. The army is a decidedly stressful career to be in, and it's no surprise that soldiers need to blow off a little steam. Roleplaying is much better recourse for that than drinking and whoring. It's also something the whole family can do together as well. Curry A. Mosher ( no thanks, they're generally a bit sweaty and greasy) gives us a numbered list of the things to do if you want your complaining letter to be published by newspapers. They have a definite format, plus fairly tightly defined word count parameters, and you need to fit into them. Plus typing is increasingly a very good idea, for fewer and fewer people are putting in the practice needed to have elegant yet readable flowing handwriting.</blockquote>

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