D&D General Neoplatonic Influence on D&D

[Celebrim]

Maybe if you go into STEM, like some of us.

Well, BS in Computer Science. Still had to read Dante's inferno for English Lit. Dad has a BS in Chemical Engineering. He had to read Dante's inferno for English Lit.

 

[Parmandur]

I love D&D, but it is far from the best place you can do this, let alone the only place. In fact, as RPGs go, D&D is pretty light on the philosophical exploration front.

I find it’s better for it than games that try to go into philosophy, exactly because it doesn’t try to make it part of the actual game.

But I also hate actually playing so-called “narrative” games because narrative mechanics are nearly always utter useless garbage IME, that actively detract from ya focusing on narrative. So...I might be an outlier.

Any activity where people talk to each other will result in philosophical issues bring raised and addressed.

 

[generic]

Well, BS in Computer Science. Still had to read Dante's inferno for English Lit. Dad has a BS in Chemical Engineering. He had to read Dante's inferno for English Lit.

Of course. In case it was not clear, I have read Inferno, I was merely making a statement.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Any activity where people talk to each other will result in philosophical issues bring raised and addressed.

Right, which is why I find mechanics unnecessary and ultimately limiting.

Also, IME people spend much more time thinking and talking about mechanics in a session of games like pbta games or FFG games than in dnd.

I’d rather have a book with DM and player advice for setting the right tone, with occasional added in mechanics (like flashbacks in a caper adventure), and any needed new player options, than a game built from the ground up to only do capers, or dark stories about what humanity means when you are an undead creature that feeds on humans, etc.

 

[GreyLord]

Well, BS in Computer Science. Still had to read Dante's inferno for English Lit. Dad has a BS in Chemical Engineering. He had to read Dante's inferno for English Lit.

But what if Cliff Notes had existed back then...would he have still read it?

 

[M.L. Martin]

The latter are actually a very faithful rendition of the Tradition (Bonaventure more than Aquinas, but still).

My apologies for forgetting the Seraphic Doctor, especially since my doktorvater was a Bonaventure scholar.

To bring this back on topic, you can see some Platonic ideas filtering into Ravenloft and (I believe) Planescape in the mid-90s. I know it from the Nightmare Lands boxed set, which includes various 'levels of reality'--1 is fleeting dreams, 2 is 'dreamscapes', 3 is 'everyday reality' and 4 is 'hyper-reality' or 'more real than reality.' I'm not sure if that would be the Forms themselves, or just a reality that participates in the Forms and the Good to a greater degree than material reality.

EDIT: Just remembered that there's a hypothetical "Level 5" for the Powers (the term a lot of 2E products were using in place of 'gods'), so given what we know of D&D Powers, the Forms would have to be at least Level 6, if not higher.