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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 7697906" data-attributes="member: 3285">[ATTACH=full]430387[/ATTACH] <a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/cube-game-dices-blue-board-game-9545385/" target="_blank">Picture courtesy of Pixabay.</a><h3>Games Prisoners Play</h3>Prisoners <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?1042-OT-My-first-catalog-request-from-Death-Row#ixzz44gjEwUzy" target="_blank">play D&D in prison</a> according to WSmith:In some prisons, prisoners can even purchase role-playing games. But that's not true for every state prison.<h3>Dragon Magazine Weighs In</h3>In Dragon Magazine 295 Group Publisher Johnny Wilson <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?10008-Dragon-Magazine-goes-political" target="_blank">wrote a two page editorial</a> to passionately advocate for the distribution of Dragon and Dungeon magazines in prisons:Wilson goes on to explain how some games, such as the stiff cardboard of board games, can be used to make weapons. D&D has no such restrictions:Wilson argued that reading, writing, communication, math, working well with others, and use of the imagination are an important part of rehabilitating prisoners.Years later, a study of prisoners in solitary agrees with him.<h3>The Prison of the Mind</h3>Susie Neilson's article, "<a href="http://nautil.us/issue/32/space/how-to-survive-solitary-confinement" target="_blank">How to Survive Solitary Confinement</a>," is illustrative of how important it is to have an active imagination, particularly in solitary, which can keep prisoners in cells for 22 out of 24 hours a day, with no leisure activities, hobbies, or even speaking to each other:There are exceptions however. A few prisoners have come out of solitary, if not better than they went in, at least rehabilitated.  And they did it through the power of their imagination:This form of focus, of using the mind to role-play through events without physically role-playing them out, can actually be used as a training tool known as the Carpenter effect to help athletes increase their muscle memory:This same technique can be used as a form of escape, much in the same way role-players can escape their own lives to live out their fantasies.  The difference is that prisoners in isolation don't have an alternative:The challenge is that isolation alone isn't enough to make one imaginative or creative.  The hobgoblins of the mind threaten the imagination at every turn:In this regard role-playing games, and particularly Dungeons & Dragons, can be a positive framework for success in one's imagination.  The game is geared to allow characters a path of achievement and provides an outline for players to imagine themselves in the role of someone who experiences the benefits of personal growth. Role-playing games in prison can be a positive force for rehabilitation in even the most difficult circumstances. The Court of Appeals sees things differently.<h3>Judging the Dungeon</h3>Ilya Somin on the Volokh Conspiracy reported on January 25, 2010 that the <a href="http://volokh.com/2010/01/25/7th-circuit-upholds-prison-rule-forbidding-inmates-to-play-dungeons-and-dragons/" target="_blank">7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Wisconsin prison’s rule</a> forbidding inmates to play Dungeons & Dragons or possess D&D publications and materials:Somin argues that the link between suicides and playing D&D is weak -- <a href="http://www.rpgstudies.net/stackpole/pulling_report.html" target="_blank">and soundly debunked back in the 80s</a>:More controversial is that one "gang expert" argued that playing D&D is like participating in a gang:ENWorld member Eye Tyrant <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?10008-Dragon-Magazine-goes-political/page7#ixzz44glxqRuU" target="_blank">elaborates on why prison officials might be concerned</a>:Or to put it another way, the leadership position of a dungeon master fostered by role-playing games can be considered a disruptive factor in prison and therefore characterized as a gang.<h3>Rehabilitation or Punishment?</h3>The issue of allowing prisoners to role-playing in prison pivots on whether the behaviors RPG encourages like imagination and cooperation are something to be nurtured as part of their rehabilitation or withheld as part of their punishment. The imaginative play we may take for granted is not a right American gamers can assume they will have in prison.</blockquote>

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