What do your parents (currently) think of D&D?

[Gilladian]

I'm married, no kids, 45 years old. When I was a kid, my parents (more my Dad than my Mom) played with us. All through High School, in fact. Both of them read fantasy and/or sci-fi. In fact, my first exposure to fantasy was Mom reading the Hobbit out loud to me and my older brother when I was 3-4 years old...

In the past 10 years my parents moved closer to me, and they played regularly with us (me and my husband) for about 5 years. Then they gradually decided it was getting to be too much for them - so they don't play any more. But I still run many campaign plots by them, especially my mom. They frequently ask questions about my game, and about the game I play with my older brother online. Only my younger brother is less interested in gaming (he will play with us once in a while, though, as a family activity).

 

[Festivus]

My parents know I play roleplaying games and could care less that I did or do. They didn't back then, they don't now. I come from a family of board gamers, so it wasn't much of a leap for my brother and I to get into D&D when it came out.

These days I am actually rather active with D&D, it's how I made a lot of my current friends when I moved to this area. That was what I explained to my wife when she asked me why I was going to play this game instead of a MMORPG.

 

[Runestar]

My folks actually have a fairly good impression of dnd. When I was younger (10+), I used to tell them how I would use some difficult word in my english homework which I had found in dnd books, such as penultimate or castigation (I was a fan of forgotten realms back then, less so now), and they got the impression dnd was good for honing my english.

Never really bought into the whole "dnd is satanic" stance either.

Plus, playing kept us indoors, which my mom felt was better than hanging about outdoors and getting into trouble.

 

[Hairfoot]

I'm the right-brainer in a left-brain family, so my parents don't really see what's fun about D&D, but they still bought me loads of books and accessories when I was young. RPing was also a big social activity for me as an adolescent, so that was more important to the olds than what the game actually was. Their son was reading heaps, socialising and apparently having fun.

The whole "D&D is satanic" thing didn't really hit these shores, or if it did, it certainly did not linger.

Nor here. It's very much an American phenomenon. More secular countries didn't give a rat's.

 

[Dire Bare]

Ironically, my oldest brother is the person in my family most likely to hassle me for being into nerdy things like gaming. Of course, he was my first DM and while he has since given up RPGs, he still reads comic books.

Geeks. We are our own worst enemy!

 

[avin]

I started playing at University, away from home. They never cared about. My wife doesn't care, she even like it. My daughter loves my dice and minis.

 

[Blackbrrd]

Got my dice set from my mother and the red book from my father. He helped me play the solo intro dungeon. That was so fun! Probably played it 10 times. Stupid rust monster that was so hard to beat.

 

[jdrakeh]

I'm pretty certain that my parents feel RPGs are a worthless hobby pursuit, but they don't openly criticize.

[Edit: I guess I should qualify that by "worthless" I mean "childish."]

 

[Dice4Hire]

Well, I have not lived under my parent's roof for about 20 years, so I am not really sure.

When I lived there, they were aware I did the game, but did not really care. I did board games, card games and wargames, too, with with my brother s and by myself.

No real computer games back then and no internet.

Then again, my parents are very tolerant, but neither ever played or tried to play the game.

 

[Umbran]

I'm pretty sure my folks don't currently think of D&D at all. I'm grown and married, and what I do with my hobby time isn't something they worry about.

Back when I was a kid, we played at the dining room table at my house - my folks have watched the whole shebang. They quickly grasped it as, "Oh, so you're making your own fairy tales and fantasy stories. Okay, have fun. Just don't make too much noise."