Dungeons and Dragons

[Amaan]

Why the bad rap? I own many books of D&D... and actually, D&D is only slightly to moderately more occultic than the Chronicles of Narnia. Despite not having found a player in many years, I have experience enough to know that D&D is not dangerous, and not harmful to the mind.

[stormy612]

Why the bad rap? I own many books of D&D... and actually, D&D is only slightly to moderately more occultic than the Chronicles of Narnia. Despite not having found a player in many years, I have experience enough to know that D&D is not dangerous, and not harmful to the mind.

Hi Amaan, I think D&D is like a car-its as dangerous as the person driving it. I played for a group for a while and none of those people took the game to the extreme. It was something to do on a Saturday. Nobody took it more seriously than that. On the other hand, my cousin and her husband have taken the game very seriously. I won't critsize their choice of entertainment, only their priorities. Right now, their kids are suffering from their parents spending way too much time and way too much money on the game (they travel to Dragon Con's all over the world). All of the kids are messed up on something, and my aunt and uncle are constantly having to provide things that their own parents won't. My cousin is driving this D&D car with no brakes and running the kids over in the process. So for her, D&D is dangerous, but for me, it was just something fun to do.

[stormy612]

Why the bad rap? I own many books of D&D... and actually, D&D is only slightly to moderately more occultic than the Chronicles of Narnia. Despite not having found a player in many years, I have experience enough to know that D&D is not dangerous, and not harmful to the mind.

Hi Amaan, I think D&D is like a car-its as dangerous as the person driving it. I played for a group for a while and none of those people took the game to the extreme. It was something to do on a Saturday. Nobody took it more seriously than that. On the other hand, my cousin and her husband have taken the game very seriously. I won't critsize their choice of entertainment, only their priorities. Right now, their kids are suffering from their parents spending way too much time and way too much money on the game (they travel to Dragon Con's all over the world). All of the kids are messed up on something, and my aunt and uncle are constantly having to provide things that their own parents won't. My cousin is driving this D&D car with no brakes and running the kids over in the process. So for her, D&D is dangerous, but for me, it was just something fun to do.

Your post is like Greek to me.

Are you saying people have D&D cars? What are dragon cons?

Could you explain what the D&D lifestyle is so I can understand what is being talked about here? I thought it was a board game.

Thanks.

D&D stands for Dungeons and Dragons. It is a role playing game. People create characters of various kinds, and then a Dungeon Master creates a world in which these characters must live. It is similar to the world of Lord of the Rings (only there are many, many 'worlds' out there now). There are different races of characters-elves, dwarves,human,etc. and different classes of characters-warriors, rangers, magic users, and clerics (priests). The DM (Dungeon Master) creates a situation, for example: a warrior, magic user, and a cleric are lost within a dungeon under an abandoned castle. There, they will meet various monsters to battle, or evil magic users, or natural 'traps' like pitfalls. The characters have various abilities and various items in which to use in order to 'survive' the dungeon. Instead of 'win' if you survive, your character grows in abilities and thus gains levels making them more 'powerful'. It is a game of imagination.

Dragon Cons are simply conferences for D&D players to gather. I didn't mean that D&D was a car, only that if the wrong people play the game, it can be dangerous to them or to others who play with them, kind of like a sober person letting the drunk guy drive.

I hope this helped a little.

[Iryssa]

I agree with Stormy.

D&D gets a bad rep from the people who take it too far and stuff. (By the way...read the Dragonlance books? Those started out of playing D&D! Fantastic books, so long as you mostly stick to the ones written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman...there are a few other authors in the series that are good, but none as good as those original writers)

Anyway, Stormy's car example was a good one.

[Mudcat]

Why the bad rap? I own many books of D&D... and actually, D&D is only slightly to moderately more occultic than the Chronicles of Narnia. Despite not having found a player in many years, I have experience enough to know that D&D is not dangerous, and not harmful to the mind.

It gets a bad rap.

There are crazy people everywhere....

some happen to play D&D and the game gets blamed when they do something stupid.

Much like the Church gets blamed when someone goes batty.... like Jim Jones.

I played a lot when I was younger and even played some in my mid-twenties.

I would probably still play.....

but I missed my Saving Throw vs. "Wife Saying I Had Better Things To Do"

[stormy612]

I agree with Stormy.

D&D gets a bad rep from the people who take it too far and stuff. (By the way...read the Dragonlance books? Those started out of playing D&D! Fantastic books, so long as you mostly stick to the ones written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman...there are a few other authors in the series that are good, but none as good as those original writers)

Anyway, Stormy's car example was a good one.

Hi Iryssa, Never got to the books. I had just been told about them when the group I was playing with broke up. It was just getting too hard to get everyone together for a game. I was planning on reading them to help me become a DM, but I never found another group who wanted to play. I tried to get my daughter interested, but she'd prefer the visual stimulus of video games. Still, it would be fun to read them. Thanks for the tips on the authors.

[OneLight]

Hmmm ... we are told to have nothing to do with magic, but you feel this is ok? We are also told not to have anything to do with fortune telling ... what do you think of a Ouija Board?

[stormy612]

Hmmm ... we are told to have nothing to do with magic, but you feel this is ok? We are also told not to have anything to do with fortune telling ... what do you think of a Ouija Board?

I guess I stand from the perspective of God having creating everything, and Satan twisting it if he can. I'd like to turn back to God all that Satan has twisted. Music is an example. Music comes from God but Satan has put his stink on it and now it can be used against God. The same with the gift of writing, artistic talent, athletic talent, etc. I think the overall game of D&D (role playing, problem solving) is a wonderful game. There just isn't a Christian version of it that has one deity-God-and demons that are turned away simply by saying the name of Jesus. When I thought about trying to get my daughter interested in the game, I ran into quite a few things that just didn't jive with me like they did back before I knew God. Magic was one of them. The deities and demons and the Nine Planes were the others. As the DM, I thought I could make my world such that only one God reigned-my God-and I would restrict the 'monsters' to imaginary natural ones (unlike demonic ones with access to evil spirits). I wanted to make the world a fantasical representation of the real world-meaning that we fight on a spiritual level, but the dangers to our flesh are physical. It wasn't easy to do. I was still working some things out when my daughter told me she didn't want to play.

As for magic, I love its fantasical quality, but I'm glad it isn't real. I delight in the imagination of children and magic has always been a part of that. My daughter knows that magic isn't real, but she does know that spirits (both angelic and demonic) are. I've told her that the "magic" of today is a gateway to demonic spirits, just as the Quija Board is. God is our source for all things, not magic, not conjuring, not chanting. I know I am accountable for what I teach my daughter, so I've tried to teach her that all things come from God. Since Satan has twisted a lot of things there are somethings that started out as good, and appear good but aren't anymore.

I hope I am making sense. Its hard to put into words. I guess the magic I enjoy is the stuff of literature, not the black magic, white magic stuff people dabble in today. I know that stuff is dangerous and that God is against it all the way. Does this make sense?

[OneLight]

Hmmm ... we are told to have nothing to do with magic, but you feel this is ok? We are also told not to have anything to do with fortune telling ... what do you think of a Ouija Board?

D&D is not magic, it is a game, no one is using magic while playing it, it is a game.

do you think that CS Lewis was breaking this rule when he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia?

What about J. R. R. Tolkien, was he breaking this rule in writing his books?

A Ouija Board is different in that the whole point of it is to answer questions that are asked of it, which is fortune telling.

Can someone in the game place spells to beat their opponent? Yes, it is a game that lures people into the real occult practices. As for C.W.Lewis, I never read his books nor watched his movies for the very reason, so I can not answer any question you have likening him to D&D.

To me, when God says don't, He means don't. Ahhh ... the tricks of Satan are so sly, aren't they.

[mead]

Hmmm ... we are told to have nothing to do with magic, but you feel this is ok? We are also told not to have anything to do with fortune telling ... what do you think of a Ouija Board?

And others that could follow.