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

[Raven Crowking]

A 60 mile walk!? I'm sorry, but I'm gonna go ahead and call shenanigans. Did you mean 6 miles?

Hartland, Wisconsin to Brookfield Mall in Brookfield, Wisconsin. You know, I went years thinking that was 60 miles, but it is only 13.8 according to Google Maps. BIIIIIGGGGGG difference.

EDIT: I accepted the distance I was told when I was picked up, and didn't even think to question it, even as the years went by. Obviously, parents exaggerate when asked to pick their kids up from malls 13.8 miles away!


RC

 

[Dykstrav]

Neither one of my parents approved of roleplaying games (especially D&D), and when I was a teenager, it caused considerable friction in my house.

I first started running the old FASA Star Trek game at my place on weekends. I had a campaign set in the late movie era on an Excelsior-class ship. He was cool with this at first, but as Star Trek: the Next Generation progressed (it was still on the air at the time), he gradually turned around and decided that Star Trek was designed to brainwash people into moral decay. So... When that game wound down, he informed me that he didn't want me playing a Star Trek RPG and he didn't want me watching the TV shows. The fact that he waited until that game was ending was probably the most reasonable thing he ever did in regards to gaming.

After that game wound down, our group drifted into AD&D, second edition. I was able to play that for about a year and a half without incident, although he did tell me that he didn't want our group playing at his place. I assumed that this was because he got tired of the Star Trek group every weekend, so I didn't really think much of it.

One Saturday, I was packing up for game in the AM when our minister came by at my father's behest. I got chewed out for playing RPGs and was told that I needed to burn all of my gaming books. I disobeyed, took them to a friend's house, and at least got the satisfaction of seeing my father get really upset that he purchased a gallon of gasoline for nothing when he couldn't find my gaming stuff.

That was a sore point between us for years. My father blamed that incident for him never getting to become a deacon in his church. There were other issues too... But my gaming hobby was something we never reconciled. He died ashamed of me, and my gaming was one of the big things that he was ashamed of me for.

My mother is much cooler about gaming. She even thought it looked like fun, whenever she saw it. Her major concern with it was that she thought it was somehow making me homosexual, because I was sitting around a table with a bunch of guys on the weekend instead of chasing tail. "Normal, healthy boys your age only think about one thing," she would often say in a concerned voice...

 

[weem]

UPDATE*

I had funny timing on this thread I guess as this topic came up this past weekend at my grandmother's house.

I bought a new book (Sword of Shannara) and had it with me when visiting her. She asked what I was reading, so I told her and said, "It's Fantasy".

She said, "Ohh yea, you always did like Fantasy... what was that one game you played when you were a kid... the one with dice...?"

I said, "Dungeons and Dragons?"

She answered, "Yea, that was it... I didn't care for that at all"

I didn't ask why, or go into it - I wanted to, but my grandma is not in the best mental state to be probing her for reasons why she didn't like it etc. I didn't even know she knew about the game though

 

[GQuail]

When I was young, as an only child, it was my parents (and most often my Dad) who got roped into playing board games with me. Ergo, when I started to get into things like Warhammer & D&D it was he who got stuck with me as well. He used to help me paint my Warhammer figures as well.

My Dad's always had a passing interest in my geeky hobbies, to be fair - he watched a lot of Star Trek with me and the two of us would often sit down to watch a sci-fi or fantasy film of an evening. (He seems particularly fond of Labyrinth and Willow, of all things.) My Mum doesn't really share that interest, but it's not in a nasty way - it just isn't her thing. She would occasionally complain that I'd stolen the dining room table for a game of something, though... ;-)

Nowadays, my parents know I'm playing D&D and they don't really have an opinion one way or the other, to my knowledge. They know that Thursday night is D&D night and if they call during then they always start with "I know you're busying with your game, so I'll be quick..." And sometimes, when they go on holiday to America and ask if I want a computer game or something as a present, I'll ask for a D&D book instead and they get that without any fuss.

Come to think about it, I've actually spoken brifley with my Dad about my D&D campaign recently - I was pondering an Arabian Nights, Al-Qadim esque section to my world but was a little unsure of quite how to handle an Arabic culture without seeming insensitive or politicized - he seemed to sort of understand my point and the chat was actually kinda helpful. So, my Dad thinks enough about D&D to give me DMing advice.

 

[Olive]

My parents think it's weird that a 34 year old guy with a job and kids and stuff still plays the game that they got him as a present when he was 7. But beyond that, they don't care.

For some reason, perhaps because she's lived with them/in the same city as them more and perhaps because it more of her social life is gaming related, they seem far more concerned about my sister's gaming. Maybe it's because she's a girl? Or maybe it's just that they mention it to me ('You didn't do your sister any favours getting her into gaming Nick' etc.) and say similar things to my sister about my gaming. No idea.

 

[Raven Crowking]

She answered, "Yea, that was it... I didn't care for that at all"

I didn't ask why, or go into it - I wanted to, but my grandma is not in the best mental state to be probing her for reasons why she didn't like it etc.

I'm thinking that the reason is either (a) you didn't ask her to play, or (b) she got to third level of the dungeon, then got killed by an elf.

 

[weem]

I'm thinking that the reason is either (a) you didn't ask her to play, or (b) she got to third level of the dungeon, then got killed by an elf.

Haha, yea, I could see her finishing that line with... "when I played, a Rust Monster ate my sword... that was all I needed to see to know I just don't like it!"

It was interesting as my grandma has a very open mind for someone her age (almost 80) and many things that would offend people or shock them roll right off of her. Since I know she didn't play it, I'm thinking she was told things about the game at one point that were probably not very accurate

 

[Minicol]

I posed a question a while back

So yea, how about your parents?

Well, how about :
"Why does our only son wastes time and money on such stupid things as D&D/Pathfinder instead of giving us grandchildren" ?

I blame it all on the female gamers of course (see the other thread floating around on male gamers).