BBC - Whatever happened to Dungeons and Dragons?
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Post Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 2:56 am 
 

the reference to the common thread of Tolkien, Lewis, etc, is their Christianity, which existed undisturbed alongside their delight of the fantastic.  Lewis wrote many fiction books, Tolkien wove Christianity throughout LOTR, and there were many others.  

That text from the Chick site is simply asinine.  I recall some Wiccans on the USS Acadia who played AD&D, who mightily offended our Game Master with their heathen nonsense, as he was a devout Baptist and could not abide "them devil worshippers".

The other run-in I had with role-players who could not distinguish fantasy from reality were a bunch who insisted on continuing their play right out on a crowded smoking sponson on the Abe Lincoln, while we were in the Gulf.  I told one of them not to greet me in the hangar bay anymore.  I told him that he and his buddies were weirding people out, and I was getting cooties by association.  

Well, he just starting blabbing, and it developed that this bunch of hosers really thought they were wizards and such, and could empower each other with the strength of their belief.  I took him aside and explained to him that there was a very good reason why the Navy never sent his sorry ass to warlock school, and that was because magic doesn't work.  I don't think he appreciated the rough return to reality, even if he only surfaced, looked around and didn't like what he saw, then promptly dove back under again.

Of course, he and his bunch WERE pretty stupid.  All kinds of smarts, but willfully stupid when it came to dealing with the real world.  There are some types of people who should really stay away from RPGs and any other escape from reality, in general.  Their hold on it is tenuous enough.

I have no idea where this Chick idiot was taught his dialectic, but he seems to think that whenever he hasn't a firm leg to stand on, or a shortage of proof, he can resort to scripture and its irrefutability, as if that will automatically "set everything right".  This is the sort of fellow you just know is making up his facts as he goes along, tailoring them to squash utterly any reasonable objection raised by proponents of the RPG.  It never occurs to him that making up this stuff to forward the work of the Lord and save souls is, if I may paraphrase C.S. Lewis, "offering to the Author of Truth the unclean sacrifice of a lie."

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Post Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 7:19 am 
 

I just love the bit in this interview with Dave Arneson :
cdmag.com - Cdmag Resources and Information.

"What did you think at the time about the anti-Dungeons & Dragons backlash, as embodied by material such as Jack Chick's Dark Dungeons religious tract, or Rona Jaffe's book Mazes and Monsters?

I was upset at first, what with being an elder in my church group."

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Post Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 12:07 pm 
 

Centurion13 wrote:
I recall some Wiccans on the USS Acadia who played AD&D, who mightily offended our Game Master with their heathen nonsense, as he was a devout Baptist and could not abide "them devil worshippers".

The other run-in I had with role-players who could not distinguish fantasy from reality
Cent


I'm _not_ a Wiccan, but to characterize them as "devil worshippers" is wrong.  Wiccan beliefs do not equal Satanic beliefs.  Here's the Webster's dictionary definition of Wicca: "witchcraft, esp. benevolent, nature-oriented practices derived from pre-Christian religions."  If someone tells you they are a Wiccan and that they worship Satan/the devil, then they are not a Wiccan.  

There are quite a few Wiccans among RPG-ers, and just like any other "group," they are some whom I'd rather not game with and others who could game at my table any day of the week.  
YMMV

  
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