Dungeons and Dragons

[srfnolen]

My children attend school with a sweet child whose parents own a table game business and are very involved in Dungeons & Dragons. I remember once how controversial the game was. What is the stand from the Church’s perspective (if there is one)?

 

[Elizium23]

:knight1: :knight2:

 

[SHoJjhmou]

I got you.

jimmyakin.com/2005/06/dd_the_knights-2.html

and…

jimmyakin.com/2005/04/roleplaying_gam.html

 

[mikekle]

I played D&D a few times with friends when I was younger, it was OK, kind of fun, but also kind of boring for me, I enjoyed the art and detail in the characters, but thats about it, however I had a few friends who really got into it.

I didnt see anything evil about it though, it was just a game, no difference in people playing similar computer games nowadays, some people spend alot of money on their characters in some of these games! Its just another hobby.

 

[Rhubarb]

I would have thought I’ve died and gone to heaven if I had a friend whose family owned a gaming shop when I was a kid…

D&D and RPGs in general can be amazing things. They encourage reading, handwriting, arithmetic, etc. It’s all based on imagination and storytelling. I love it - I play nearly every week.

That being said, because it’s all player-driven, the stories told can be as good, or bad, as the players telling it. It can be about virtuous heroes in a Tolkien-esque adventure to save the world. Or it can be a horrible dark thing. (Both have their benefits, but I wouldn’t encourage the latter for children)

I CAN state that the moral panic that went on in the 80’s and early 90’s were totally unreasonable. The game is harmless fiction - the ‘demons’ are all fake and just there for flavor to give the players something worthy to slay. Champions of good need evil to fight, after all. The magic, too, is based on pop culture and fantasy fiction. It’s not philosophic or anything, it’s just purely mechanics. There’s nothing in the books that are intended to actually perform rituals or spells.

 

[mafh]

I’ve probably encountered as many Christian D&D players as I have non-Christian players. It’s actually a pretty common activity for a lot of nerdy Christian-types as (1) it’s a social activity that doesn’t involve the bar scene, (2) it’s based on Tolkien, which is a Catholic-influenced work, and (3) it’s family-friendly. Frankly, the main risk of D&D is obesity and heart disease, since it’s a sedentary activity and a lot of people snack while they play. Other than that, it’s mostly harmless.

 

[pnewton]

I can tell you that there is no Catholic opinion on this, but many Catholics have opinions.

This Catholic’s opinion is such an undertaking depends on whether one understands the nature of fantasy and whether such fantasy reinforces morality (best), or is morally neutral or even evil. Children (and adults) should not ever accept that in life it is okay to be chaotic neutral, or to put it another way, selfishly amoral. So, can a player understand that the role is just a role? Can he understand that the real world is not a dualistic balance of good and evil?

If it is just “a game”, then I see no harm. For me, I like all of my entertainment properly ordered, good guys in white hats and the bad guys eventually get their comeuppance. When I played D and D, we kind of tilted the game that way.

 

[Pat_Payne]

the ‘demons’ are all fake

This is the only part of your post I don’t 100% agree with. While certainly demons like Lloth, Juiblex, Gra’azt, Fraz-Urblu (sp?) and Iuz are fictional, for verisimilitude the designers did add some real demon names like Asmodius, Baalzebul/Beelzebub and Mammon. In one very early issue of Dragon, stats for Satan were included in a fan-submitted article (for painfully obvious reasons, they don’t talk about that anymore… , and in fairness, it was pointedly never official. In case you were wondering, he had 333 hit points…)

While I love D&D, I’d steer clear of using real demon names even in a fictional context even if you knew what you were doing, just to be on the safe side. Besides, since Iuz the Old actually resides on Oerth, just go kill him and take his stuff rather than trying for the brass ring :nunchuk::knight2::hypno:

 

[Kithrus]

This is the only part of your post I don’t 100% agree with. While certainly demons like Lloth, Juiblex, Gra’azt, Fraz-Urblu (sp?) and Iuz are fictional, for verisimilitude the designers did add some real demon names like Asmodius, Baalzebul/Beelzebub and Mammon. In one very early issue of Dragon, stats for Satan were included in a fan-submitted article (for painfully obvious reasons, they don’t talk about that anymore… , and in fairness, it was pointedly never official. In case you were wondering, he had 333 hit points…)

While I love D&D, I’d steer clear of using real demon names even in a fictional context even if you knew what you were doing, just to be on the safe side. Besides, since Iuz the Old actually resides on Oerth, just go kill him and take his stuff rather than trying for the brass ring :nunchuk::knight2::hypno:

A name only has as much power as you give it.

 

[CHESTERTONRULES]

My children attend school with a sweet child whose parents own a table game business and are very involved in Dungeons & Dragons. I remember once how controversial the game was. What is the stand from the Church’s perspective (if there is one)?

I am not aware of the Church’s perspective, but my brother and I played when we were teens. I think it was fine. Basically you have adventures using certain guidelines and rules. We used graph paper to make maps as we progressed. You use multisided dice to determine outcomes based on probability. For example, if your character was a strong warriar then he would have a higher probability of succeeding in a battle, so your odds would be higher. There are many potential characters and enemies, similar to Lord of the Rings.