Your D12 cries itself to sleep.

Religion, Role-Playing and the 'Moral Majority'

10 'Facts' About Role-Playing:

1. Role-playing teaches people how to use magic.
2. Role-playing forces people to turn their back on God and embrace Satan.
3. Role-players are introverted loners¹.
4. Role-playing encourages violence and theft as a way of life.
5. The most harmful thing that can happen to a role-player is stepping on a d4² while barefoot.
6. Role-playing groups are really there to recruit people in to cults.
7. If your role-playing character dies you will be regarded as a failure and will be coerced into committing suicide.
8. Role-playing encourages teamwork and can help build self esteem and social skills.
9. Role-players are all misguided and need to accept Jesus into their lives; this is their only chance of salvation.
10. Role-playing is just as bad for children as pornography and violent films.

Now, only two of the above 'facts' are actually true. If you spotted the real ones³, well done. Have a cake. If you believe the other eight to be the whole truth this article will hopefully dispel most of your fears about role-playing and it's effect on society.
Now, this article is in no way intended as an exercise in 'Christian bashing'. Some of my best friends⁴ are Christians. It's just that the most vocal anti-role-playing groups tend to be Christians, so they are the obvious examples to use.

The Trouble Begins

Dark Dungeons

Dark Dungeons is a religious tract, presented in the style of a comic strip, which is distributed by the Chick Ministries⁵. The 'story' runs thus: X and Y are role-players; specifically they play the game Dark Dungeons. X's character dies and this makes her believe that she is a failure and she kills herself, Y's character goes up a level and the Dungeon Master⁶ decides that Y has done well enough to be inducted into the secret cult at the heart of the role-playing group. When Y finds X dead she has a crisis of conscience, gets kicked out of the group and is saved by letting Jesus into her life. Hurrah!

The Idiot Factor

Of course there are what can be described as extremists in role-playing as well. I'm not talking about the people who go to GenCon in full costume and buy the Book of Erotic Fantasy⁷, but those who use role-playing as a vehicle for their own prejudices, beliefs and downright stupid ideas. There is a role-playing game called Racial Holy War which is set in a near-future where the 'superior white race' has been virtually eliminated by a combination of blacks, Jews, Muslims, and various other 'inferior races'. Of course one has to ask how, if the white race is so superior, they managed to get jobbed so effectively?
Another RPG entitled (something) claims to be the most realistic medieval/fantasy game on the market, and backs up this claim by saying that the bold knight would be just as likely to rape the damsel in distress as rescue her... from an historical perspective that's fine and dandy, it's well known that medieval knights were a lot dodgier than romance would have us believe, but where's the fun in a game which actually includes a table of rape modifiers? I, for one, like to keep that kind of thing as a reason to make the players dislike the bad guys.

Thankfully the fact that these games have both been rejected by major publishing houses and are thus made on the cheap suggests that they reach very few people and hopefully will sink without trace.

Good Vs. Evil

In Dungeons and Dragons there is what is called the 'Alignment Track' which is divided into twelve 'Steps'. The Steps are made up of combinations of Lawful, Good, Neutral, Evil and Chaotic. The only combinations disallowed are Good Evil and Chaotic Lawful as in each case the two are completely opposed.

(Alignment track and brief explanations)

The Christian Perspective

Surely these games are [nothing more than] semi-improvised drama, just with no audience? – David B

In the original draft of this article each of these comments was followed by a comment of my own, instead I have decided to let these words speak for themselves, I have already presented my case and feel no need to expand on the subject.

I go by a principle [found] in the [New Testament] that "to the pure all things are pure", that is to say, what you see in these things comes to a large extent from what you bring to them. 99% of people are well aware that it's just make-believe. – Della April

Games like D&D can be detrimental in that fashion, but only if you start to put yourself into the game world, and start merging the fantasy with reality. I had gotten very interested in the books and stories behind the game, and through them, I became very interested in the occult, and so forth. I imagine that this is also the case with the problem cases involved in other role-playing games. – Mystrunner

It cannot be denied that these games encourage an unhealthy interest in witchcraft and the demonic among children. Death, destruction, magic, fantasy creatures that are modelled on the devil himself - these are common themes in all these games. We are seeing the direct the denial of all that is good and Godly and the embracing of all that is downright evil.

The Bible warns Christians not to become 'sharers with demons' (Cor 10:20) [and] God says that everybody doing these things is detestable to Him (Deut 18:10-12) and He will destroy them in the Lake of Fire, along with Satan and his demons. - GrandSamDonald

Now you have had both sides of the arguement I leave you to draw your own conclusions. Goodnight, dear reader

Web Links

Christian RPG - Community for Christian gamers.
Holy Lands - A Christian-orientated RPG which pits defenders of the medieval church against demons, dragons and sorcerers.

Next Time:????.

Toodle-pip!