Religious Family

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For whom it poses a spiritual danger, he shouldn't play it. Books, films, games don't work the same on everyone. On the other hand, I won't really say it's morally neutral and psychologically healthy when people start taking fun in habitually playing extremely evil or dissolute characters. Games shouldn't be used to find some fulfilment for urges not quite deemed acceptable in the normal world. Doesn't make games bad. It's the way you play it, not the game itself. Normally, at least. Myself, I wouldn't LARP a religious ceremony, for instance.

 

Exactly.

But I fear that the people for whom the games pose spiritual dangers are also the people who are not as strong in their faith as well. Or at least I've met quite a lot of such people.

 

If a roleplaying game is capable of causing serious damage to your beliefs, maybe there's something wrong with your beliefs to start with. For some people, losing faith is a very serious problem. For those who see less worth in it, it's no problem at all. *shrug* Your mileage may vary, and all that.

I've never seen a problem with testing your own solidity of faith/morals etc. I've crossed the lines I didn't think I should cross and have become all the wiser for it, for better and for worse.

Edit: I guess my point is that if you close yourself off from things, (by not playing the game, reading the book, talking to the unbeliever, eating pork, sleeping in on sundays, listening to metal/rock and whatnot) you end up with a very skewed/ignorant view instead of a well informed/experienced one. That's what happens to a lot of the more serious religious people, if you ask me.

This is true the other way around and as well, of course. If you write off faith easily, you can miss a lot of worthwile stuff just as much as when you focus on it solely.

 

You don't buy a Bentley if you're low on cash. You go by bicycle and save money. If you are a poor fighter, you don't take part in boxing matches, because you know thing will turn out messy for you.
If you know that something is wrong with your faith, you'd do wise not to test it.

Some people need to try things to know if it's bad for them. Others might think they don't need to take a bite in a pile of dung to know it tastes bad.

Also, if you don't know what you miss, you won't really miss it. If you try things and realize it's bad for you (like harddrugs), you might not want to continue with it, but get addicted to it anyhow.

If people think D&D will have a negative influence on their faith, they simply shouldn't play it.

Man, I drunk a lot tonight. Does this make any sense to you people?

 

If your faith will be tested by playing a fantasy game, by having an imagination and thinking outside the rules and boundries of this world then you must have some serious mental issues and probably need some type of therapy or medication.

The inability to determine fiction from fact is something I must find very scary. Just because it is written does not make it so. It's a game, fantasy setting, designed to be enjoyable and engage your mind. Not to make you believe in witches, goblins and zombies...

 

I'm with Fara and Abomination. If your faith can't handle the outside world, it's your faith that should be re-examined, not the outside world.

 

I think this is a little over the edge, in fact, it's right off the cliff way over there.

I agree with your second alinea though.

 

I agree with that. But in the mean time, I would advice people to tay away from things that would have a negative effect on your faith.
Lets try an other example.
If the outside world is compared with the highway and a person's "lack of faith" with a defect car (steerless or no brakes or whatever), it *IS* indeed the car that should be re-examined, not the highway. Still, it would be stupid to take the highway in that car.

 

Problem is, when staying away from things that might have a negative impact on your faith, you remove the (possible) negative impact thereby leaving the faith intact and without a real need to be questioned. Which means the status quo is kept and you've learned nothing about yourself, your faith or the world.

You're assuming you know your car is broken, but really, you won't find out until you're driving it. Can't repair your car unless you know which part's broken either.

 

Au contraire! Quite the contrary, I firmly believe that many fantasies role-playing game can helps you ease your emotional state. Let's say you have anger bottled up in you, would you rather pass it on fictional monsters in a D&D session or in real life, possibly on your loved one? I use fantasy role playing game exactly to that. I'm the kind of person who strongly disagrees in any kind of violence in real life, yet my WoD (World of Darkness) character was the contrary to me. I used him to express my anger in the game to « let it go ». After a good game session I felt much better. I think it’s a great way to express such emotion without negative consequences to the real world. Of course you have to acknowledge first that what happens in the game stays in the game. When my character had a fight with an other character, that was *my* character to *his* character, not me to him.

 

I'm with Ofelix. When I roleplay, I make characters that are the opposite of me nine times out of ten. Schemers, plotters, serial-murderers, powermad narcicists, as if it all were taken out of The Prince. I think it's a good way to live out your urges that would be horrible to experience IRL.

 

Nothing to de-stress like fireballing the everloving piss out of your enemies, eh?

 

Pssh, fireballs are for pussies.

Now, give me a claymore and a Gnome Bard and we got ourselves a deal.

 

Okay, I've been accused of being a "fundie" here, but I enjoy the game myself. Hell, that's what brought me here int he first place.

When I mentioned it to my Bishop, his concern was not that I play the game, but that my prioirties were straight. It's only a game, do my job honestly, faith in Jesus Christ, obedience to the commandments. I know people within my ward that have played too, and none of them speak ill of the game.

It does not become a problem until you spent so much time playing it that you neglect job, family, other friends, the Church, personal hygene...

It is not a problem unless you can't discern reality from fiction (no snide comments about religion please). If you start to think that there really are trolls coming after you, then maybe you need to trade in your books and dice for a nice straight jacket...

If you think that you will die if your character dies, then you have a problem. I know for a fact that one's not true. I've got quite the stack of dead characters over the years, and I'm still alive...

It is perfectly acceptable to have activities that encourage you to use your mind and encourage social interaction as long as they don't take over your life...

 

Ahh, the lovely fundementalist christians. Or as those of us in the South those friggin doorbell ringing Bible thumpers.

Well I have never let them know I enjoy fantasy tales and roleplaying, our conversations rarely get beyond the fact that I am an agnostic (which I have to explain to them is not an atheist almost everytime). Once they realize that I am, as they like to put it 'undecided' (which is most definitely not an accurate description as I know exactly where I fall) they always try to pull me to the "light." Once they realize that is not going to happen they can no longer accept that I am both an agnostic and a good person. You will find that from what others I know with similar beliefs and pastimes(D&D, etc) get the exact same reaction. You learn to live with it and realize that you are better than that. I have found it is best to learn all you can about the different major religions as it allows you to "smite them with knowledge." My favorite lines for christians being judge not lest ye be judged" and "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Any christian that continues to rant and rail against you has lost their way.

 

It really doesn't matter if your parents are fundamentalist christians or budist monks - they're just expressing their concern for you since they don't know a thing about what D&D is. Explain it to them in a normal way (don't mention the gory details) and I believe everything should be ok.

And one other thing, I see where your parents are coming from since Ofelix and Register are more than happy to share with us why are they playing the game.

 

My neighbour`s grandson asked to play with my group once. Nice chap, great roleplayer. Then his grandmother and uncle found out about it, and guess what. They called the cops on me. Aparantly I was making their grandson do "psycho stuff". They didn`t get anywhere with it though. But now, 5 years later, they still treat me like I am a ticking bomb, or something filthy. Haven`t said a word to me either. they just give me an angry glare everytime I see them. Not sure if they are christians or anything though. I guess its just a case of thinking bad about stuff they don`t know what is.

 

What it boils down to is that a lot of people don't understand what happens at a D&D table. Then they hear things (usually from people who ALSO have never been at a gaming table) about kids cutting themselves, biting the heads off chickens, and other such horse puckey and they believe it. Sometimes they even come across a story that is true about some idiot who was already imbalanced who ended up killing his granny or something of that sort.

It's all about prejudice and not knowing what you're talking about.