Each game had a Dungeon Master who would act as both a referee and storyteller. By , it was estimated that the game had been played by over 20 million people. Today, any veteran player from the game's early years would speak of its positive attributes. It was based almost entirely in the imagination. It was social. No screens were involved. But in the s the game came under an extraordinary sustained assault from fundamentalist religious groups who feared its power over young minds.
Thread starter Thirdtwin Start date Dec 3, Tags dungeons and dragons. Thirdtwin perpetuate the cycle Validated User. And even though there are millions of other games out in the sea, I don't really want to feel like this. What the heck's even going on with me?
KemperBoyd said:. Leonaru Taxidermic Owlbear Validated User. I was fiddling with running 2e if I could convince my friends to play, but 5e has filled a lot of that 'feel' so if the opportunity arose, I'd covert to that first. Burnout happens, and it's probably best to roll with it instead of trying to fight it.
Thirdtwin said:. Last edited: Dec 3, CaffeineBoy Vaguely sinister Validated User. Maybe you're maturing as a gamer?
I provide them with lots of small side stories and give them a framework to built the main story. They can do whatever they want. They are known for changing social norms. If something gets annoying we reconcile about removing it from the game or simplifying it.
Also lots of small riddles which usually give loot, information or sympathy. However usually the biggest enemy is time. I do a lot of real world riddles with sayings, numbers, hiding stuff in the room real world , or like color you can only see in UV light and also providing them with a lamp etc. I even gave them a translation book for an ancient language. There is so much real world interaction you can do. They often ask, when is the next session. And we play for hours sometimes. I, as game host, love to see them play and like the story they build.
We started writing down the story in a nice notebook like in LOTR because its full of memories and funny events. Dnd is built with the core of chainmail, which is a war game created by the same people that went on to make the original Dnd. The problem is that there are much faster and better rules for determining outcomes in war games than Dnd offers.
The combat systems have become more complex, and inserted significantly more calculations and choices into the game as the editions have gone on. This has bogged the combat down in superficial math to determine hitting and the amount of damage done on repeated attacks during one turn. If you want to bluff your way past a guard, roll for it. If you want to convince the king to send his armies to the dungeon, roll for it.
They are roll playing games. It is actually quite frustrating when the players cannot find a secret door that they have to find in order to progress the games story because nobody is playing a wisdom focused character and is not trained with the spot skill.
To get "results," He must be asked. This asking is what both Jews and Christians call "prayer. I am the creature, God is the Creator. Thus, it is more like a child going up to a parent and asking for candy, than getting it from a vending machine. The parent may say "yes," "no," or "Wait till later.
Additionally, God says that magic is deep and abominable sin see Exod. Now obviously, these two worldviews cannot exist in the same moral universe. They cannot both be true. Thus, one cannot be a Christian and believe in the Magical World View without being some sort of hypocrite or deceived person.
The reason is that in the "universe" of Dungeons and Dragons magic is neutral, and can be used by "good guys" or by "bad guys. Most spell-casting characters - wizards, clerics, druids, paladins and rangers - prepare their spells in advance and use them when the time is right.
Preparing a spell requires careful reading from a spellbook for wizards or devout prayers or meditation for divine spellcasters. Note the blurring of distinctions here. So-called "divine spells" draw their power from a divine source i. Believe it or not, some spells can even revive the dead, 26 mimicking the power of the Messiah Himself. Christians may take small comfort in the fact that divine spells are better than arcane spells for reviving the dead.
Now the question becomes, can a Christian play the game without subscribing to the world-view? It is possible, but considering the high level of emotional and intellectual commitment that the game requires, is that really realistic? It is a game that engages the whole person at deep levels, and it can last months if well played. How can a person, Christian or not, immerse themselves in a reality view so deeply and not have it impact the rest of their lives? This is difficult to imagine, especially considering the highly demonic and magical content of much of the game.
As the saying goes, if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. That, in itself, is interesting. This is the most common defense and the laziest. It is the old ad hominem argument. It is only a game. It is not real. This last is based primarily on an article by a Jeff Freeman The game offers positive skill development.
Examining the Issues. Two of these can be dismissed quickly. The first is obviously a personal attack, which is baseless. My occult credentials are well established and my IQ is comfortably above idiocy. Has the game changed that much? As to the age of the article, yes - that is why this article now exists. But most of the spiritual material in the article is as valid and relevant today as it was in Some of the material in the article may need revisiting, and that is the purpose of this article.
I covet your prayers that the Lord would give me the time and funds to thoroughly research the contemporary FRPG scene, which if anything appears to be more appalling than it was 20 years ago. A walk through any gaming store can prove that. For example, there is now a whole line of materials based on the hellish H.
We will talk more about Mr. Stackpole later. However, let us look at the broader issue for a moment. No more naked girls strapped to demonic altars, etc. Perhaps Hitler and rape are no longer praised. That is good. They make this mistake because they equate Roman Catholicism and its robed clerics for Christians. They do not understand that one can be a cleric Muslim, Buddhist, etc. They even tell me that these clerics are supposed to have noble virtues and standards of conduct. I am also informed by irate DMs that in their games virtues such as self-sacrifice, heroism and persistence are rewarded and extolled.
That is all well and good. But it will also take you to hell faster than a greased demon on roller skates. First, because it presents a universe without God in the Bible sense. To be sure, these clerics and other game roles serve gods, with a small "g. Some DMs even create games, I am irately informed often with fluent cursing that are monotheistic, where there is only one god.
This would be very exceptional. Also, a thorough reading of the entire section on classes of characters reveal that NONE of them are monotheistic in the Biblical sense of the word. The most common deity worshipped by human clerics in civilized lands is Pelor, god of the sun. Among non-human races, clerics most commonly worship the chief god of their respective racial pantheon.
To say that such a character is in anyway spiritually admirable or worthy of emulation is foolishness! Of course, none of this matters from a Biblical perspective. Many religions extol nobility and self-sacrifice and are monotheistic. Islam comes to mind. But these religions will take you to hell just as fast as any polytheistic many gods religion. Unless the faith has Jesus Christ as Lord of the universe, it is damnable and deceptive.
It is - to the contrary - a view in which God and His providential power is eclipsed by the metaphysics of magic. As has been thoroughly explained above, magic is different from prayer and from the way the Bible tells us things get done spiritually.
In magic, there is really no power higher than the magician - or if there is a higher power, it can be completely manipulated by using the right magical technology spells, incantations, etc. This is contrary to the Bible, as has already been explained above. Cleaning up that part of the game and leaving Jesus, the true God, out of what is essentially a SPIRITUAL quest is like rearranging the lawn chairs in hell - especially when you consider there isn't very much grass in the inferno!
Playing chicken with cars is "only a game" until someone gets killed. So is Russian roulette! The devil would sure like that. It needs to be emphasized that a spiritual deception which draws people away from Jesus Christ is much more dangerous than automotive chicken or people dying of starvation.
People who write such things are - in all Christian charity - deceived. Down through the ages, no institution has done more to help the poor, the orphans and the starving than has the church of Jesus Christ. But remember what the Lord Jesus said: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.
Yes, the life threatening consequences of chicken or Russian roulette are deadly serious and not to be minimized. But any game which draws people away from a true understanding of Jesus, God, salvation and the cosmos IS soul-destroying in the truest possible sense of the word.
That is incalculably worse. We only have our bodies a few scant years before they turn to dust. They may well end up in the fiery blackness of hell. It truly involves its players in ways few games do, because it does demand a high level of imagination and creative engagement. Playing "chicken" demands neither. It is very like the devil to engineer a pastime which draws on the best of young people and then grind their minds and souls under the millstone of his hate. Sure it is stimulating and creative and there is nothing wrong with that part of it.
What is wrong is that it is built on a superstructure of anti-Biblical cosmology. Another contention, often shared with me in email, is that there is nothing like real magic in the game.
People who say that evidently have a very limited understanding of magic. Any serious sorcerer will tell you that magic can be as baroque or as simple as the magician him- or herself wishes. Folk magic is usually pretty simple and rustic. Ceremonial magic can be very "high church" with robes, incense and elaborate rites that can take weeks to complete.
Witchcraft is somewhere in the middle, depending on the tradition you are working in. Finally, true hermetic magic involves little more than the human mind. It is all in the intent - in the mind. It is not in whether or not you are waving a sword around! But I knew some who did, and even today I have corresponded with people who were gamers and also active magicians on the "inner planes. But this goes even deeper than that.
The mind is the primary battleground of your spiritual destiny. It is where the devil does his best work. Let me illustrate. I was raised in a devout Catholic home where I never, ever heard bad language. Neither did I hear it in Catholic school. I never really heard much of it until college. Even then, I had a strong value system against using such language and resisted it.
A few years after college, I ended up working in a foundry in Milwaukee. I was around some "rough" people for whom foul language was routine. I was so immersed in it, eight hours a day, that after awhile, despite my best efforts, I began to talk just like them.
It took a couple years away from the place to get my vocabulary "rinsed out. When you spend the large amount of time required to play the game seriously, your mind begins to become "re-wired" by its immersion into a world where demons, magic and spells are almost real. This is all the more true because of the high level of intellectual and emotional engagement involved. Unless the gamer is a person of strong moral fiber, it is likely they will eventually be drawn by the seductive power of magic into thinking thoughts that are entirely contrary to the thoughts of God.
This is the devil's intention. And when you consider how hard it is these days to find people of any age who have moral fiber, the situation becomes quite frightening. Remember, as a Christian, we are exhorted to bring "into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Our concern is that supposedly Christian people are playing this Christless game and devoting dozens if not hundreds of hours to an activity which can do nothing but foster a fascination with the occult.
But the odds are good that they might. Please realize that to be demonized does not mean you become a slavering maniac who vomits pea soup. Most demonized people could not be identified as such by someone without Biblical discernment. But all one has to do is watch the news or walk through the halls of any high school to realize that there are lot of demonized young people and certainly older people too in this country today.
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