Dungeons and Dragons

[patsload]

PF is my age (I think) and that stigma would stick with us today if we never got into playing the game.

We're the same age, and my only thought on it was that it was for nerds oke:

 

[Dwight Schrute]

My wife's sister became born again later in life and informed my wife that reading Anne Rice and Steven King was akin to inviting the devil into your home.

She also didn't approve of "The Lord of the Rings" but loved "The Chronicles of Narnia". The fact the Tolkien was key to getting Lewis to convert to Christianity was lost.

People are funny sometimes.

Religion is funny, almost always.

 

[blantyr]

Role Playing

I'm really into role playing games, though I've recently preferred other rules systems to D&D. It's a bunch of people getting together to share a story. The difference between role playing and the movies or television is that the players get to participate in the story, get to make choices, and might really get into character creation and play acting. It's an active process rather than passive watching. It's the difference between being on the field and sitting in the stands.

Most kids get into very violent games at first. The most fun thing at that age is to hold battle scenes and collect gold, treasure and experience. Well, this is not any different from first person shooter video games. Doing it on the table top instead of on the computer screen is in my mind an improvement. You're surrounded by a bunch of other kids and get some real social interaction. Also, computer games are much better at combat than realistic interaction between characters. A human story teller leading the game is more likely to encourage story telling, mystery solving and character development.

The nature of the story depends very much on the person running the game. Like TV or the movies, some games are more violent than others. Some are more graphic than others. If you believe that watching violence on TV corrupts the youth, you might also convince yourself that rolling dice to simulate violence on a table top could do the same.

I disbelieve. The game attracts the bright nerds, not the druggie kids or bullies who might actually try violence. Visit your local game store on Friday night. They are apt to be playing Magic the Gathering in large numbers. This isn't quite the same crowd as you get for D&D, but close enough. You'll find a bunch of bright kids slaying each other's playing cards that have pictures of elves, angels and dragons on them. They'll be obsessed with the color of their decks, how much land they have to have to power their spells, and how this card interacts in a really way interesting with that card.

Do you forbid your kid from watching "Supernatural" on TV? Is your kid confused enough to be unable to distinguish between TV and reality? If so, same thing. If not, let him play. If he doesn't play football with it's real violence and real chances of hurting and being hurt, this is the next best chance of making friends, bonding with the guys and having a lot of fun.

 

[patfan64]

So yes, my wife is heavily influenced by her parents - a Catholic Deacon and his wife who studied to become a nun but relented and married my father in law.

When we met, my wife was somewhat of a party girl. She has done almost a complete 180 degree turn. She now shares many of the same beliefs with her parents. I do not.

We go to church together as a family but her faith is much different from the rest of us.

Her concerns are definitely driven by the Church's concerns.

I can't believe what a shitstorm went down at my house last night. Both my wife and son were not backing down. I'm pretty sure he'll find a way to play anyway.

More troubling is the divide between my wife and I. But that's going to be a whole different thread, I'm afraid......

 

[Undertaker #59*]

Do you remember either of these? (slightly OT, lol)

I think the first one is either Bid or Pookie. I don't remember the second one.

I'm really into role playing games, though I've recently preferred other rules systems to D&D. It's a bunch of people getting together to share a story. The difference between role playing and the movies or television is that the players get to participate in the story, get to make choices, and might really get into character creation and play acting. It's an active process rather than passive watching. It's the difference between being on the field and sitting in the stands.

Most kids get into very violent games at first. The most fun thing at that age is to hold battle scenes and collect gold, treasure and experience. Well, this is not any different from first person shooter video games. Doing it on the table top instead of on the computer screen is in my mind an improvement. You're surrounded by a bunch of other kids and get some real social interaction. Also, computer games are much better at combat than realistic interaction between characters. A human story teller leading the game is more likely to encourage story telling, mystery solving and character development.

The nature of the story depends very much on the person running the game. Like TV or the movies, some games are more violent than others. Some are more graphic than others. If you believe that watching violence on TV corrupts the youth, you might also convince yourself that rolling dice to simulate violence on a table top could do the same.

I disbelieve. The game attracts the bright nerds, not the druggie kids or bullies who might actually try violence. Visit your local game store on Friday night. They are apt to be playing Magic the Gathering in large numbers. This isn't quite the same crowd as you get for D&D, but close enough. You'll find a bunch of bright kids slaying each other's playing cards that have pictures of elves, angels and dragons on them. They'll be obsessed with the color of their decks, how much land they have to have to power their spells, and how this card interacts in a really way interesting with that card.

Do you forbid your kid from watching "Supernatural" on TV? Is your kid confused enough to be unable to distinguish between TV and reality? If so, same thing. If not, let him play. If he doesn't play football with it's real violence and real chances of hurting and being hurt, this is the next best chance of making friends, bonding with the guys and having a lot of fun.

This^

Thank you for explaining it so well.

 

[patfan64]

I'm really into role playing games, though I've recently preferred other rules systems to D&D. It's a bunch of people getting together to share a story. The difference between role playing and the movies or television is that the players get to participate in the story, get to make choices, and might really get into character creation and play acting. It's an active process rather than passive watching. It's the difference between being on the field and sitting in the stands.

Most kids get into very violent games at first. The most fun thing at that age is to hold battle scenes and collect gold, treasure and experience. Well, this is not any different from first person shooter video games. Doing it on the table top instead of on the computer screen is in my mind an improvement. You're surrounded by a bunch of other kids and get some real social interaction. Also, computer games are much better at combat than realistic interaction between characters. A human story teller leading the game is more likely to encourage story telling, mystery solving and character development.

The nature of the story depends very much on the person running the game. Like TV or the movies, some games are more violent than others. Some are more graphic than others. If you believe that watching violence on TV corrupts the youth, you might also convince yourself that rolling dice to simulate violence on a table top could do the same.

I disbelieve. The game attracts the bright nerds, not the druggie kids or bullies who might actually try violence. Visit your local game store on Friday night. They are apt to be playing Magic the Gathering in large numbers. This isn't quite the same crowd as you get for D&D, but close enough. You'll find a bunch of bright kids slaying each other's playing cards that have pictures of elves, angels and dragons on them. They'll be obsessed with the color of their decks, how much land they have to have to power their spells, and how this card interacts in a really way interesting with that card.

Do you forbid your kid from watching "Supernatural" on TV? Is your kid confused enough to be unable to distinguish between TV and reality? If so, same thing. If not, let him play. If he doesn't play football with it's real violence and real chances of hurting and being hurt, this is the next best chance of making friends, bonding with the guys and having a lot of fun.

He played football but prefers baseball because he was sick of getting creamed.

The social aspect was what I liked about this situation. He has friends but I'd like to see him branch out.

I forgot to mention that my wife equated letting him play this to bringing a Ouija board in the house.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

So yes, my wife is heavily influenced by her parents - a Catholic Deacon and his wife who studied to become a nun but relented and married my father in law.

When we met, my wife was somewhat of a party girl. She has done almost a complete 180 degree turn. She now shares many of the same beliefs with her parents. I do not.

We go to church together as a family but her faith is much different from the rest of us.

Her concerns are definitely driven by the Church's concerns.

I can't believe what a shitstorm went down at my house last night. Both my wife and son were not backing down. I'm pretty sure he'll find a way to play anyway.

More troubling is the divide between my wife and I. But that's going to be a whole different thread, I'm afraid......

I'm really sorry to hear that.

My family became " born again" when I was a senior in HS, except me and my dad.

It's never been the same since.

If I had one wish for parents with children it's be to just be patient with your own faith. Introduce them to it. But let them make their own choices with it, as adults. If it's clearly the best faith you shouldn't need to force feed it.

 

[mikiemo83]

I'm really sorry to hear that.

My family became " born again" when I was a senior in HS, except me and my dad.

It's never been the same since.

If I had one wish for parents with children it's be to just be patient with your own faith. Introduce them to it. But let them make their own choices with it, as adults. If it's clearly the best faith you shouldn't need to force feed it.

I was 8 when it happened in my house - I look back seeing good and bad but agree with easing the child into it and allowing them to choose.

 

[Annihilus]

He played football but prefers baseball because he was sick of getting creamed.

The social aspect was what I liked about this situation. He has friends but I'd like to see him branch out.

I forgot to mention that my wife equated letting him play this to bringing a Ouija board in the house.

As far as the bare nuts and bolts of it, she is right: bringing a Ouija board into the house is pretty much the same thing. Ouija is a board game made by Hasbro, lol. I doubt Hasbro's board of directors would allow their company to sell games promoting evilness. It's just something to spark the imagination (though admittedly, I never got into Ouija - I have one, but am not sure it's been out of the box more than once).

I'm sure that the infinitesimally small percentage of kids that are inspired to go on murder rampages by playing D&D also hear the spirits of Ouija telling them to stick a knitting needle in their sister's eye.

I'm sorry, I doubt I'm helping here. Sorry to hear about your issues, PF64. I'll be rooting for you.

 

[Oswlek]

I played a little and I can say with absolute certainty that it had nothing to do with my becoming a serial killer.

 

[PatsAddict]

He played football but prefers baseball because he was sick of getting creamed.

The social aspect was what I liked about this situation. He has friends but I'd like to see him branch out.

I forgot to mention that my wife equated letting him play this to bringing a Ouija board in the house.

I play a variety of tabletop RPGs and really this is just a holdover from the 80s D&D satanic scare. If your wife observed one game session of D&D I think she'd feel silly about her reaction to it. In most instances (in D&D) it involves a heroic party of adventurers going off the save the damsel in distress or the town from an evil cult or the world from entities from beyond. Some games involve traveling through a jungle to find a rumored ancient city that cam be plundered for gold or an abandoned dwarven stronghold now under the hold of evil forces that are causing problems for the local populace. You're normally playing the good guys trying to stop bad things from happening.

Tabletop RPGs are great for socialization and learning to how to cooperate with people. Adventuring parties need to work together to succeed so the players have to do the same thing. The game helps kids become better readers and fosters their imagination. RPGs even help with math as you are usually chucking dice around and adding numbers to beat a target number which signifies a successful action.

In the end your wife's views on the game could not be further from reality and I think all she would need to do was observe how the game was played to understand that. Unfortunately contempt before examination has been the catalyst for these views of roleplaying games for decades.

 

[Undertaker #59*]

This might go over real well and be very very funny if you do it, or it might be a disastrous failure that will end in heartbreak, but you could pick up one of those D&D starter kits. Comes with everything you need to run a game for the first time, including an adventure. Have your whole family sit down and play, including your wife, and show her what kind of game it actually is.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

I played a little and I can say with absolute certainty that it had nothing to do with my becoming a serial killer.

I'm convinced it made me a BETTER serial killer.

Hence, not been caught.

Plus it let me throw around awesome medieval words like hence in casual conversation.

#winning

 

[mikiemo83]

anyone play the game Magic? This was mentioned as something interesting to my boy.

 

[Hawg73]

He played football but prefers baseball because he was sick of getting creamed.

The social aspect was what I liked about this situation. He has friends but I'd like to see him branch out.

I forgot to mention that my wife equated letting him play this to bringing a Ouija board in the house.

Yeah, that's about what I expected when I read your initial post. Reading between the lines your discomfort over this flap is obvious and I don't blame you. I'm sorry that you and your son are in this position and I get that a "united front" isn't the easiest thing to do sometimes. I have enough problems dealing with my wife without Jesus sticking his nose into the mix, so you have my sympathies.

I don't want to turn this into a religion thread, because we'll have to move it, so I'll just say best o' luck with sorting this out going forward.

I'm not surprised to discover we have some RPG folks posting here. I was a pretty big fantasy/sci-fi geek growing up and I was always intrigued with what I'd heard about this sort of thing. I just never had a good opportunity to give it a shot and possibly release my inner wizard.

It's interesting that RPG's have basically retained the "nerds-only" public reputation ala the Big Bang Theory even though it's become a far more mainstream form of entertainment and millions of people have enjoyed them for what they are--- another way of having a few laughs with friends.

Of course, every human endeavor has a few sordid tales of excess and overboard behavior attached, but I'd have to believe that D&D and it's ilk have done far more to keep folks out of trouble than otherwise.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

anyone play the game Magic? This was mentioned as something interesting to my boy.

Hope it wasn't from a guy rolling down the street throwing candy outta a darker out van...

 

[mikiemo83]

This might go over real well and be very very funny if you do it, or it might be a disastrous failure that will end in heartbreak, but you could pick up one of those D&D starter kits. Comes with everything you need to run a game for the first time, including an adventure. Have your whole family sit down and play, including your wife, and show her what kind of game it actually is.

this actually is a great idea if she is open to learning about the game.

I can say in my case I would not have been able to do this but then again my world was a different kind of special.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

this actually is a great idea if she is open to learning about the game.

I can say in my case I would not have been able to do this but then again my world was a different kind of special.

Same here.

Would've never made it over the threshold. Might as well have the key to very gates of Hell in my hand instead.

If she were open to it it would be AWESOME. I'm convinced shed feel foolish no matter how devote within the first half hour.

If she came around maybe it wouldn't be too late to contact the teacher, explain the situation, and see if he'd allow just one more out of sympathy?

I'd try.

 

[Annihilus]

anyone play the game Magic? This was mentioned as something interesting to my boy.

I've never played, but am familiar with the crowd....it's very similar, except that your adventures play out depending on which cards you have (it is a card game rather than a board game or RPG like D&D). It doesn't really inspire the same kind of imagination as D&D, IMO, but it's a very social activity and there are places that hold regular tournaments in pretty much every town that has a comic shop. Harmless fun.

 

[Annihilus]

This might go over real well and be very very funny if you do it, or it might be a disastrous failure that will end in heartbreak, but you could pick up one of those D&D starter kits. Comes with everything you need to run a game for the first time, including an adventure. Have your whole family sit down and play, including your wife, and show her what kind of game it actually is.

Very funny or Disastrous Failure?

That sounds like a great title for a reality TV show.