Voice your opinion of Dungeons and Dragons?

Bohemian said:

I was trying to see what the opposition thought.

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Whenever I ask someone why D&D is wrong (evil, satanic, etc.) I have trouble getting a straight answer out of them. In fact, I get more stuff like "It just is." Many whom I question have no argument against D&D, merely blind faith in someone who has told them it is evil.

I think this game is a very dangerous tool of the enemy designed to lead people into the occult and witchcraft, and by saying that you don't think its bad as long as you don't get REALLY wrapped up in it is just WRONG THINKING.
D&D introduces the player to many occultic symbolisms and satanic practices, for instance the whole concept of gods in the game...1st commandment: "thou shalt have no other god's before ME..." You may say 'but its just a game for cryin' out loud' but I disagree. I think it is a very powerful tool used by the devil to lead Christains astray. Just because its fantasy doesn't mean that its ok to participate.

I strongly urge you all to look at the evils within this game and ask yourselves...'would JESUS play this game?' 'Would JESUS like me to play this game?"

Samuel
"Will post more on this later"

Samueel said:

I strongly urge you all to look at the evils within this game and ask yourselves...'would JESUS play this game?' 'Would JESUS like me to play this game?"

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Yes. Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. In speaking of heroes, in exploring what it is to fight against evil, we draw ourselves closer to God.

Would Jesus play this game? Yes. I think He'd play a cleric, only he'd play one of the ones who's always mixing it up, with heavy armor and a biiiiiig mace. But He'd be really good about splitting treasure, so he'd be a great guy to game with. The only real downside would be that, being omniscient, He'd have a hard time with dungeon crawls.

I mean, really. What kind of question is that?

Blessings,


I think video games can and do teach. If we do anything over and over again we absorb the philosophies behind it. I've never played the video game but I do remember watching the movie years ago. I've always thought it was mystical in nature and that works me. I say if the ideologies of any game concern someone then do not play it. I would also say that we all need balance. Video games are fine but no matter what their topic video games should have a time limit in our lives.

~Shekinahs~

Ouch Shekinahs! If there's one area I AM failing in with respect to video games right now, it's the inordinate amount I spend playing. But a lot of it is about my online friendships -- which are very fun and socially rewarding.


-Neil

Ummm....does it involve anything inappropriate, or does it go against God's will...No? Ok, you're cool, play all you want, but here is a suggestion.

Why aren't their any games out their that are christian based. Personally, I turning the Left Behind series into a video game would be awesome. You could play, learn, hang out with friend, etc, all while focusing completely on God. How cool would that be?

This response is coming from a guy who played D&D for over 14 years. Here are the good points of the game. It taught me about fantasy in which I am now a writer of, it turned me on to authors such as C.S. Lewis and Tolkien (both Christians), it kept me close with friends and helped me stay away from other influences that I could get into, i.e. drinking and drugs.

Bad points of the game. I basically forgot who God was during the time I played. I never read His word, nor spent quality time with Him. Basically all my life was praying to God before I went to bed. I wonder sometimes how many times my prayers actually went through lol. This game, like anything in life took up too much of my time and my focus strayed away from God.

During the time I played, me, nor any of my other friends tried to cast spells. We were all Christians playing the game for the most part. We never held any organized meetings to kill people, we never played the game on drugs, we never thought about taking the game higher than what it was. It was a game to us an nothing more. Sure we had sword fights with each other, but what kids don't get out with friends and play like your a knight?

But as time went on I began to get personally convicted about the game. Not because I thought it was evil, but because it enveloped so much time. If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. Anything to take your focus off God and that's what the game did. It's all about moderation. The game can be fun when it's played sporadically and not religiously. As for teaching people about witchcraft, I never saw that take place. We always knew our boundaries.

If you are personally convicted about the game I would recommend quitting. Its obvious the Holy Spirit is dealing with you about something. Remember if something is not of God, it is of the devil. Also in the book of Thessalonians it says stay away from all appearances of evil. So if D&D looks evil in your eyes, stay away from it.

This is my two cents for what it matters. So I guess I'm neutral about whether Christians should play the game. I'm a Christian and it never affected my life other than taking away my time. Pray about it and see what God tells you.

I tend to run morality-heavy games, in which, even if the word "God" isn't being used, people are actively concerned with questions of right and wrong. Works for me.

its completely in the mind of the player. It all depends on what you want your character to be. Im playing with three people right now and every member's patron deity would be Christ. If you have problems with the word "spell casters" in the game you could replace it with "miracle workers". Like i said, it depends on the player.

It depends on A) the DM creating the world and B) the players. A Dm running an amoral campaign is one I'd stay away from. (Jokes about pancaked Paladins aside... )

Most of the time, I try to find a good group of people to play with, so we won't have a game thats includes things that I won't agree to. I mean, in my old group, one of the guy's made a character who's goal in 'life' was to rape, maime, and utterly destroy a certain 'good guy' in the world who had caused him pain in his life. ~sigh~ I hated that game..

I always played clerics with no set god. Then, when casting healing spells, I'd normally get my character to say things pertaining to God, or quote some scripture. I loved Psalms and such, so I normally said a line or two out of them. The other guys caught on and eventually FORCED me to play something non-religious, but meh. I still did my quotes every now and then, when the time was right.

All in all, DnD is a pretty good game, but its not life and shouldn't come before God and things of God.

Just a question... how do you address the point that, in terms of messing with stuff that's forbidden by the Bible (ie magic) playing D&D is about on a level with fake pornography? (Text taken from article by William Schnoebelen)

[I used] the metaphor of a porn role-playing game, where the participates play acted in various forms of sexual sin such as fornication, adultery or homosexuality. There was no actual sexual touching involved among the players, nor any nudity required. It was all in the mind. Would Jesus be pleased with that?

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How would the rest of you D&D-playing Christians address that?

I'm an RPGer. Who am I to judge if it's a computer doing the dice rolls or flesh and blood people doing the dice rolls?

It's not the dice rolls, it's the fact that D&D is so heavily steeped in the occult that's the issue. Do you honestly think God would approve?

I think He does approve, yes.

I've found that most claims that D&D has "the occult" in it are based on very, very, dodgy analysis of the game.

Lady_Firehawk said:

Just a question... how do you address the point that, in terms of messing with stuff that's forbidden by the Bible (ie magic) playing D&D is about on a level with fake pornography? (Text taken from article by William Schnoebelen)


How would the rest of you D&D-playing Christians address that?

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I would call it a false analogy.

Also, I would point out that many Christian writers have written stories in which characters did things which are immoral. D&D is a lot more like writing fiction than it is like anything else I can think of.

I would point out that every author I know is personally involved with characters at least as much as gamers are.

seebs said:

I think He does approve, yes.

I've found that most claims that D&D has "the occult" in it are based on very, very, dodgy analysis of the game.

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What's dodgy about it? I've looked through, seen quite a few correlations that I won't post at the moment 'cause it's almost 1:00 AM and I should be sleeping!

Like that 'year and a day' waiting period for familiar replacement... that's also a traditional waiting period for Wiccan initiations. (Read that in a book by a Wiccan, to boot! Why I was looking at it I have no idea, but it jumped out at me... if I'm wrong, the Wiccans out there may feel free to correct me.)

I'm not asking to be condemning or anything, but I honestly would like to know...

1. It is GREAT to know that there are Christians out there who see D&D for what it is: simply a game. I grew up hearing the stories about cities moving to ban D&D because of some imagined relationship with the game and the Devil.

2. I miss the third edition. But then again I have not played in a long time.

3. Far from being a how-to manual in devil-worshiping, sorcery, witchcraft, or any other occultist subject, what D&D is actually guilty of (well more the parent company) is greed. They have been charging way too much money for those books and their wimpy expansion modules for far too long. However, 99% of the RPG market is guilty of this.

I will grant you this: Most RPG games do toss around occult symbols and references without regard, but usually these symbols and references are merely fluff added to flesh out a gaming world and are stripped of real-world context.