Dungeons & Dragons© Q&A

[Tier]

Do to some interest in the subject in this and other sub forums, I will make my attempt to put up a definitive Q&A that over time I will try to make exhaustive. At this time it is far from complete.​

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Dungeons & Dragons© Q&A, written by Tier. I will expand upon this as new questions come up. PM me with any questions you have about the game. I will include ALL of them in the thread.​

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CONTENTS:

General
Rules of D&D (U/C)
Character Classes (U/C)
Example Game Session (U/C)
Why People Play it (U/C)
Magic, The occult and Wicca
Dieties
Draconic/Demonic elements
Undead (U/C)
Suicide, Violence and Insanity
Christianity and Dungeons and Dragons©
Testimonies (U/C)

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General​

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Q. Hey Tier! Have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons©?


A. Yes, that is one of the main reason I wanted to write this. I played D&D from when I was 11, until I was 13 or 14. I no longer play, however I was both a player and a Dungeon Master, I refer to them as moderators for ease of understanding in this Q&A.




Q. So, why did you stop playing?


A. It was taking too much of my time. I was having to make time for God, which was something I never wanted to have to do. (See Christianity and Dungeons and Dragons, more on that).




Q. What is Dungeons & Dragons©, anyway?


A. Dungeons & Dragons© is a role playing game. This means that each player has a character that they control throughout the game. There is one moderator of the game that reminds players of the rules, keeps things organized, and the game on track. It is not unlike a fluid, dynamic fantasy novel. Novels take time to write, and Dungeons and Dragons© (hereafter referred to as D&D) takes a good deal of time to play.




Q. You act it out? Like a play or something?

A. Not quite. It is up to the game’s moderator how involved the game gets, players talking in their characters dialect, or drawing a map, etc. Rarely is anything acted out, the one thing I can think of is if a character in the game walked oddly, or had a different posture then usual, and someone wanted to show that. It looks more like poker night then high school drama practice.

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Magic, The occult and Wicca​

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Q. Is actual magic cast in the game?


A. There is no actual magic cast, directly or indirectly in the game D&D if you are following the base rules.




Q. I’ve read that to use magic in the game you have to memorize the spells! Is this true?


A. No. This is an extremely common misconception. It arises from that fact that D&D is a very complicated game. The confusion stems from this, and I will try to make it clear:

There are the PLAYERS of the game. There are the CHARACTERS of the game. Players are real, they are people, like you and I. Characters are fictional, they exist only in the minds of the game moderator and the players. The character is different and separate from the player. The character does not have a mind. Certain types of characters do need to memorize spells. This is accomplished like this: “Player A says: My character memorizes the invisibility spell.” So, the moderator makes some notes, and that character now has that spell available for later use, in the game. No incantations, motions or otherwise, actual or fictional, were memorized by the player.

 

[Tier]

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Dieties​

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Q. So, Tier, when you played did your character have a diety ("power")?

A. In the rule book several dieties are provided for use with the game, and associated with each one are certain domains (domains=types of powers). Domains range from very druidic, "water" "air" to domains of "war", and "trickery". The character class "paladin", "cleric", "monk", "ranger" all make use of their dieties for some of their powers. This is called "divine magic" in the game. In games I played in we used allegory to a certain extent. There was one God, and the ones in the rule book were false, human [this is all talking IN-GAME] inventions. The last characted I created (never played, quit before I had the chance to) was a cleric, and I did not use a diety, I just choose the domains I wanted. (Each domain has certain powers, I will add alot of this to the rules section) I acknowledge now that it is treading dangerously even to have fictional blasphemy.

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Draconic/Demonic elements​

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Q. Are there demons and dragons in the game?

A. Everything in the game is put there by the game moderator—the Dungeon Master. There can be demons and dragons in the game, or there may not be. Dragons are obviously a popular monster in the game, and do not always hold to the same symbol as the one in Revelation. Demons are always treated as evil in the game, and most of the time (players are encouraged to be good) they are not dealt with civily.

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Suicide, Violence, and Insanity​

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Q. I’ve read and heard that players of D&D are more likely to commit suicide and/or go mentally insane. What truth is there in that claim?

A. "The American Association of Suicidology, the Center for Disease Control, Health & Welfare Canada, the California Creative and Gifted Children's Program, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a handful of universities have studied the allegations that fantasy role-playing games cause suicide or murder. Not a single authoritative source has found any veracity to these claims at all."


Q. If you claim there is not a connection between the game and suicide/violence and being unstable mentally, how do you explain the many examples I’ve read about in articles about D&D?

A. First off, the most examples I have ever seen is abut 20 in one article. I do not mean to sound insensitive, but there are 30,000 suicides in the US each year. On an average day 84 people commit suicide and 1,838 attempt it. There are 4,135 teen suicides each year. I will reiterate the fact that there is no direct link between Dungeons and Dragons and suicide.

72% of D&D players are between the ages of 10-17 and a large majority of the players are male. In his article Schnoebelen goes further with this:

[on the typical D&D player:]

“ 3. They tend to be sensitive and shy individuals

4. Often they have below average social skills

5. They are often people who "march to the beat of a different drummer."”

This is used in the article to make it seem like D&D causes these problems. This is incorrect. A large portion of the players have them because the game is a form of escapism, and playing it installs a myth in their minds that it is a healthy development of social skills while in reality it only makes them more hostile. And frankly, who doesn’t march to the beat of a different drummer?

To recap, teenagers are unstable. D&D is a false escape mechanism that does nothing to help the problems of a shy person bereft pf social skills, and since it is largely a game of the mind, it can create an inward buckling effect were the unstable mind stays within the unstable skull and the person becomes isolated and cut off.

Did I just contradict myself? No. I am not saying the game is negative to a mentally healthy individual. I am saying that the target audience of the game is still developing mentally as well as physically and has no grasp on stability, so it is natural that false lines would be drawn.

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Christianity and Dungeons and Dragons©​

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Q. Can I be a Christian and play D&D?




A. Ah yes. The-ever-so-popular-question. Let me give you the real answer to this: No one can answer this. Instead, I will pose some questions to you. I am assuming since you read this question you are a player of D&D.



Do you struggle and try to rationalize the game, but have no real answers or reason yourself?

Does the game take up so much time that you are forced to make time for other things?

Are you making time for God in your life? (More on this later)




When you are day dreaming, do your thoughts instantly go to D&D?



Do you get stressed out thinking about what your character needs to get, how to organize a game, or when you will be able to play again?




A yes answer to any of these is some indication that it is not having a positive influence. SAY WHAT?! I know, the third question. This one was a trick, I admit. It is based on the premise that we should not make time for Jesus in our lives, but should make time for our life in Christ. Ask yourself what the game is doing to help your walk. Is it only an escape?

 

[onikirimaru777]

bout time someone took the time to clear this up. Very good, Tier. But there is nothing wrong with the Dragons

 

[Marth]

very good! very very good

 

[christian-only]

So, Tier, when you played did your character have a diety ("power")?

 

[Tier]

I will try my best to answer any questions posted here, and any that are PM'ed to me.

Christian-only, I added your question as well as a several new sections for the Q&A I will be working on.

 

[Kelly]

Tier, can others respond to question or do you want to handle all of them in this thread?

 

[Tier]

Kelly, answer away. I was thinking an on-going dialouge for the main thread, the Q&A I have up would just be for reference.

 

[seebs]

My own take on it is that fictional characters worshipping fictional deities is not necessarily blasphemous. It's fiction; writing stories is not the same thing as believing the things in them to be true. Through reading or telling stories about such characters, we can learn things that apply to our own lives, and our own devotions.

This strikes me as a Christian liberty thing; there are things here which could be stumbling blocks for some people. This is one reason I generally allow monotheists in games, even when the pantheon is designed to make some part of the story work; some people are much more comfortable playing such characters.

 

[Kelly]

I agree with Seebs. We use the deities found in the campaign we are playing. I've noticed that the Deities typically have little to no involvement our games, except for divine spellcasters getting their spells each morning (or evening). The closest we've ever come is an avatar of one character's deity visited him to give him a piece of equipment and some instruction on where to go.

 

[seebs]

I frequently use them fairly heavily - heavily enough that people start realizing that these are very powerful entities, but are not very much like what people in monotheistic cultures mean when they talk about "god" or "gods".

 

[Tier]

I am posting the testimony of a Christian who plays D&D tommorow, his defense of it. If anyone has a testimony of why they do not play it as a Christian please PM me with it, I will post it up, or I may write something, if I have the time.

 

[VigilanteHamster]

The danger with D&D deities, though, is in misleading players about how God actually works... He does NOT just grant powers (or prayers, for that matter) like clockwork, unlike D&D.

 

[seebs]

The danger with D&D deities, though, is in misleading players about how God actually works... He does NOT just grant powers (or prayers, for that matter) like clockwork, unlike D&D.

I don't think anyone is likely to be confused over this.

 

[Tier]

Can the mods please move this thread into the appropriate sub-forum?

Thanks.

 

[ThePhoenix]

The danger with D&D deities, though, is in misleading players about how God actually works... He does NOT just grant powers (or prayers, for that matter) like clockwork, unlike D&D.

Well yeah. But combat is not actually carried out by rolling 20 sided dice either, and people have yet to be confused by this.

If you're getting your ideas of the divine from a gamers handbok, well, it's not the handbook's fault that you have problems.

 

[Tier]

Bump, and mods, post #15 please.

 

[OceanAngel]

Well yeah. But combat is not actually carried out by rolling 20 sided dice either, and people have yet to be confused by this.
.

Thats where I got confused last time.

 

[Celzrro]

I haven't used religion much as a main focus in many games, but it is always -- at least -- somewhere in the background; sometimes, it is more prevalent (such as when the characters are trying to root out a radical group). There really isn't a way around including religion of some kind in a game that attempts to portray a "realistic" setting (at least as realistic as a setting can be with dragons and elves), because it is such an influential and driving force; it affects politics, customs, literature, music, architecture and anything else you can think of in a culture.

Concerning people who take the game seriously, to the point of believing in the mythos of whatever setting their characters "exist" in: they are in serious need of prayer (and probably mental rehabilitation). Condemning those people does nothing, and could in fact drive them away from Christ and Christians. In no fewer than eleven places does the Bible make reference to the commandment in Leviticus 19:18; "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. [...]" It's sad that some ignore this in favor of condemning people who have serious problems, with a "holier-than-thou" attitude (eg. Jack Chick).

 

[Marth]

you mean....http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp right? nyahahaha the face on panel six will be the most evil thing i will ever seen.