Evil! Evil! Evil!

Brought to you in Living Color, direct from the Pit of Hell!!!

Periodically, I run across some news snippet about How Awfully Evil and Mind-Twisting Role Playing Games (such as the evil “Dungeons & Masters” game) Are. These range from accusations that only reality-shunning emotionally disturbed teens play such games (and thus get confused over what is real and what is fantasy in their everyday life), to accusations that Satan is behind all of this, in an attempt to lure hapless souls into the occult.

To which I have to say “Poppycock.” (At least, that’s what I say when I’m in polite company.)

Here are some links detailing the horrors of such awful things as D&D:

From The Occult News Network:

Other games that can lead to problems are role- playing fantasy games like, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and GIRPS [sic] to name a few. The main problem with this type of game is that the worldview espoused in them is either not Christian, or worse, anti-Christian. The players with the most advantage are in many cases the ones with occult powers and who use occult practices. These can include; casting spells, astral projection, contact with the dead, summoning demons and devils, to mention just a few. Players are in many cases encouraged to read up on the occult and learn as much as they can to have a better advantage against their enemies. Many people may have friends or loved ones who are playing or want to play these type of games.

From Soc.religion.christian FAQ on D&D:

Inevitably … people whose minds are captivated by the concepts and world views of AD & D become more and more accepting of evil things. I heard one non-christian [sic] boasting of how totally evil and mercenary his character was. I have friends who, several years ago, refused to play AD & D because it seemed slightly repulsive to them, but they started playing after being convinced by friends, and I observed that they are now happy to role-play characters doing things they were previously thinking was repulsive (this was a change over time).

From D&D – Christian Concerns:

The whole concept of the game is to do battle with monsters. Characters are equipped with various types of armor, weaponry, potions and spells. It is necessary to kill, not just the monsters but even humans, in order to succeed in the game. A central Washington police department asks as a standard question of those arrested: “Are you a participant of Fantasy Role Games?” Another source stated that 60 suicides were directly attributed to D&D in 1981.

From The Games They Teach Our Children:

Other documented cases: 17-year-old boy, suicide by gunshot, 1981. Parents saw him summoning D & D demons only moments before. 16-year-old boy, suicide by gunshot, 1982. Only hours after a D&D curse placed on him in D&D game. 16-year-old boy, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Satanic writings and suicide note linked death to D&D. 18-year-old boy, suicide by hanging, 1983. Noted to be possessed by D&D as if living the game. 16 & 12-year-olds murder, suicide, 1984. Detective report, ‘No doubt D&D cost them their lives.’

From the inimitable Jack Chick’s “Dark Dungeons”:

“Debbie, your cleric has been raised to the 8th level. I think it’s time you learn how to really cast spells.”

Elsewhere at the Chick site, William Schnoebelen weighs in with “Straight Talk on Dungeons and Dragons“:

Just because the people playing D&D think they are playing a game doesn’t mean that the evil spirits (who ARE very real) will regard it as a game. If you are doing rituals or saying spells that invite them into your life, then they will come — believe me!

Schnoebelen adds, in “Should a Christian Play Dungeons & Dragons?“:

Our concern is that supposedly Christian people are playing this Christless game and devoting dozens if not hundreds of hours to an activity which can do nothing but foster a fascination with the occult. Now this is not to say that every serious D&D gamer is going to become a Satanist or demonized. But the odds are good that they might.

From the web site for Exposing Satan’s Power:

After an exhaustive research one commission, the Christian Life Ministries, tells the naked truth through these incisive comments: ‘Dungeons & Dragons, instead of a game is a teaching on demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, Satan-worship, gambling, jungian psychology, barbarism, cannibalism, sadism, desecration, demon summoning, necromantics, divination, and many more teachings, brought to you in living color direct from the pit of hell.'”

And, of course, there’s the infamous “Dungeons & Masters” tape broadcast I have a (Nth generation) copy of. It must be heard to be believed. (Thanks, Scott.)

For a while, the pickings for this stuff got a bit thin on the ground, as D&D fell out of favor for blaming on the Corruption of Our Youth. Ah, fleeting fame. But it seems that more and more of these older diatribes are being recycled back onto the Net. Enough people still pass these sorts of things along that it bears continued examination.

Now here’s my perspective. Of course, since my mind has already been twisted by the dark forces that lurk inside of every set of RPG rules, I may be prejudiced …

From a psychological standpoint, RPGs allow for some good, cathartic role-playing fun, and are a good escape for those who don’t choose to channel their aggressions into pounding on the armrest during a football game, or who wish to pursue something a bit more literary or intellectual on their weekends than feeding quarters into an arcade game or hanging out at the mall. When I play (or run) a game, I exercise my problem-solving abilities, my imagination, and my discipline (to stay in character). I contribute to a story, as much as if I were collaborating on a novel or screenplay. And — just like people who watch or play sports — I get to escape from the day-to-day concerns of life, and engage in some diverting, different sorts of conflicts at which, if I perform well (and the GM isn’t a jerk), I get to succeed.

That sort of escapism does also make RPGs attractive for folks who have serious problems coping with reality — the same folks who would otherwise be attracted to other fringe escapist fare, from becoming stalkers of celebrities, to dabblers in fringe politics or religion, to gun nuts, to brain-burned drug abusers. In the few instances where an RPG player has gone off the deep end, there have usually been many other signs and contributing factors that s/he is having serious problems. It’s as unfair to blame RPGs for the few wigged-out types among those who play them as it is to blame the Founding Fathers for the Neo-Nazi groups who abuse the First (not to mention the Second) Amendment.

Another factor to bear in mind is the Forbidden Fruit syndrome. I mean, take a group of people with (arguably) above average intelligence and imagination, tell them that what they are doing is disturbing to authority figures, throw in (in those cases where it’s applicable) a bit of teen rebellion, and you have the same impetus to dress and act funny that adults have been terrified of since the ancient Greeks.

From a spiritual standpoint — well, what can I say? Despite the anecdotal evidence that one finds scattered across the Net, or on late-night religious radio and TV, I have yet, in all my years of playing, actually spotted any demons (summoned or otherwise), had a D&D game turn into a devil-worshiping orgy, or had to sell my soul in order to get my character on the winning side of a game.

Finally, from both standpoints, I have to say that some of my dearest friends — past and present — have been some of the best RPG players I’ve known. And I’ve seen little sign of either demonic possession or about-to-go-postal-with-a-longsword among them. So there.

One thing I will grant to the critics of RPGs. Many (but by no means all) of the players I have enjoyed gaming with are of an alternate, non-Christian religious bent — from atheism to agnosticism to various forms of paganism. Since most of the sites linked above would probably also consider these to be signs of Satanic influence, I can see where they might have a problem catching the clue bus about RPGs.

Nonetheless, as long as we’re going to at least pretend that we don’t have a state religion in this country, I would consider the efforts to societally tar gamers as tools of the Devil and (reminiscent of Soviet-style judicial psychology) mentally disturbed as a waste of time and effort, so long as other, far less questionable, problems remain in this country (poverty, illiteracy, prejudice, etc.).

Okay, one other thing I will grant. To the extent that people do indeed get involved with RPGs, they have less time to be praying, studying the Bible, or practicing with the church choir. If this is to be considered the definition of “evil,” I think there are a huge number of pastimes in our modern culture (such as television) that should be focused on before we tackle RPGs.

As a balance to the info above, here are some links to some sites which address this matter even more

• For a (to me, at least) more specific rebuttal of most of the more outrageous claims about RPGs, see the OCRT site.
• There was a good article in Skeptical Inquirer magazine as well.
• Here’s a pretty extensive list of academic articles on RPGs.
• The Usenet group rec.games.frp has a FAQ on the subject.
• Michael Stackpole’s “The Pulling Report” addresses in detail the methods, motives, and findings of one of the major anti-RPG authors.
• The (unofficial) CAR-PGa site has an long list of articles on the subject.
• “Rumors & Reality” covers this issue broadly. (The article comes well-recommended, but as of this re-writing, the site is “closed for repairs.”)
• Wayne Godfrey wrote a pamphlet, “How to Deal With Parents” for GAMA. The same site has “Questions & Answers about Roleplaying Games” Loren Wiseman and Michael Stackpole. Both pamphlets take a very level-headed approach to the subject.

Note: This post was adopted from my old, stale, static web page on this topic. Now it can continue getting stale in the comfy confines of my blog.