What made D&D 'evil'?

[CMG57]

There is a book about Dallas Egbert written by the detective who was hired to find him. The title is The Dungeon Master: The disapperance of Dallas Egbert III by William Dear.

Good read.

 

[Gossamerblade]

There are Christian fundies that believe that any reference to the occult is evil. They've spoken out against D&D for years and, more recently, against the Harry Potter books and movie. There are other fantasy things they've been up in arms about, but, for some reason, not LOTR.

(Yes I know JRR was a devout Christian. I guess Christians can't be evil!)

 

[mmu1]

Dr. Midnight, stuff it, I am not new, just haven't been here for a while. Needless to say, this is an open forum, we can express our own opinions, you telling me to stop expressing mine is in and of itself wrong, what I said is what I thought, you think differently. My experiences tell me what I need to know, and what I need to know is that most people where I am from think D&D is evil. It also so happens that most people from where I am from are Christian, so... 1+1=2. Other people I have talked to have also told me the same thing, it is like this in Columbia Missouri, from two people I have been told, in parts of Madison, WI, here where I am from, and from various other places.

Also, I said the majority, not all, yes I know others that are not D&D haters, but they are few and far between.

a) Making sweeping negative comments about groups of people has never been an acceptable practice around here.

b) Most of the people I have ever played D&D with WERE Christians. You might try actually traveling outside the county before you decide what you know about ALL Christians.

c) The whole D&D=Evil thing seems to be mainly a US-based phenomenon, so your ignorant comments slander quite a few people that are not encompassed by your limited experience.

d) I've met a hell of a lot more people subscribing to "alternative" religions/philosophies with a chip on their shoulder and an axe to grind against Christianity than I have Christians who were intolerant of other religions.

 

[Ysgarran]

I would disagree, again (sorry for hijacking) but Im a Christian, I am the president of our universitys quite large roleplaying society. I know 5 other christians in the group. I knowmaybe 70 odd Christians who know Im a roleplayer. Only one of them objects (an extreme fundementalist, who ironicly, was my best friend at secondary school). I would say dont generalise a large group of people, especially as large as one of Christians, its not only offensive to me, but to people in general.

My experience agrees with most of those here. Most people have no problem with D&D. Even my best friend from High School (who is very much a fundamentalist) doesn't have any problem with D&D. Now his parents are another story but that isn't really the point. It does speak to the point that you don't generalize.

Interestingly enough, I was actually on the Michigan State campus that summer going chess camp. I had to field a lot of questions about D&D fall when I got back to middle school.

Ysgarran.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Hoo boy. I see this thread gettin' closed fast. ^_^

While I can still post, allow me to say that I picked up D&D *in* a catholic school. My parents, devout catholics to the last breath, are perfectly okay with this. Most of my close friends are christians.

None of them have a problem with D&D. The worst I've gotten was a bud of mine who's the child of a revrend asking "Isn't that considered Satanic?" and I was happy to reply, "Not by most people. It isn't, but some people think it is, and some people get *way* to into the game and are already unbalanced as it is, and that's why a few people think it is."

I think that's the only defence we need: "Some weirdoes *do* play D&D." Just like "Some psychos *do* buy guns," and "Some sociopaths *do* watch Family Matters," and "Some twits *do* watch Jackass (the MTV show)."

I think D&D being evil was more an outgrowth of the whole "Abandon Ship Mentality." Something bad happens, and people look for a cause. And whenever people look for a cause, they never look internally. Why did the ship sink? Because the captain's an idiot and hit the iceberg. Certainly *not* because my child gummed up the controls with his candy-hands.

Argh! I'm falling off a cliff! How could this happen! Oh! I know! A shoddy rope! Certainly not my fault for using a rope I knew was frayed! If I live, I'm gonna sue something!

It's a plaguing problem. We just need to find out how to solve it. We can't look for sacrifical lambs or scapegoats anymore. We can't blame Doom for kids going psycho. Kids were going psycho long before Pong, yo.


Anybody else want to vote for me being president?

 

[Green Knight]

*votes for Kamikze Midget*

I'd just like to add to the chorus of people who've never had experiences of "persecution" by Christians who think D&D is satanic. Most of my family, who're bigtime Catholics, know I'm a gamer and don't think I'm a devil worshipper or anything of the sort. They just think I'm a geek. Which is true, of course.

I've only known of ONE person who considers the game satanic. The father of a guy I used to play with. But to be honest, that guy was messed up in all sorts of ways to begin with. For one, he stole about $400 worth of miniatures and other stuff from me(which resulted in my kicking his ass). Nevermind the fact that he later offered other to dress up as a girl and perform oral sex on the other members of the group (the guy he propositioned told him he'd kill him if he ever said that to him, again LOL! ). Heard that when I ran into my old group a couple weeks ago. So I can understand his fathers' concern and blaming it on an easy target.

But when it comes to Christian to gamer intolerance, I haven't seen much of it. Though I have seen plenty of the reverse...

 

[Warrior Poet]

What made D&D evil?

Beholders. And mind flayers. Evil, evil, evil. Especially when they work together and have the party cornered and you think the only way out is probably that wand of lightning bolts the party wizard has.

And then the beholder hits you with the anti-magic ray.

Just evil.

Warrior Poet

 

[KnowTheToe]

D&D is still considered evil by certain Chrismatic Christian Churches. Thes churches have lost all contact with the division of reality and fantasy. These churches love to throw stones against the evils of others so they don't have to look at them selves. If anyone ever heard about the evil tele-tubby because HE carried a purse, you know what I mean.

 

[mmu1]

"It's not a purse! It's European!"

 

[Henrix]

No, it must have been Gary Gygax who made D&D Evil!

Or was it Dave Arneson?

Anyway, it was very well done! Thanks, whoever it was!