by Douglas Gross

Created on: October 10, 2008   Last Updated: August 13, 2010

Dungeons and Dragons has been a pastime for all of my life, both as a child and an adult. I always find it strange, though not surprising, that religious leaders, organizations, authors, and those who no longer play the game have opposed it on moral grounds. I find though that they cite examples of immorality that are beyond the scope of the commercial game. Sure there are players that construct games based on immoral themes, and there are some who play it so as to simulate evil. These are also people who are more than likely to go out and do many of the things they have their characters do during a game, and they are not the crowd you want to hang out with when you get your next commercially packaged D&D adventure. People get shot over gambling in bars, but the deck of cards is not to blame.

I liken it to the Internet. There is much about the Internet that is informative, intelligent, creative, fun, educational and both religious and sacrilegious, but all-in-all the Internet is a good thing. We gain so much from what it has to offer. RPGs are not much different. They are informative in the sense that you learn a lot about medieval warfare and historical mythology. They are intelligent, because it takes brains to figure out how to play a RPG, unlike many other simpler games that people play for fun. They are creative, because you must use your imagination to construct a fictitious scenario and follow along a plot in-character. They are educational, because for starters you get a lesson in basic statistics and you also learn how skills can be acquired and used by your character. You learn to think like someone who is in a real situation, but it is just a simulation. Yet, much to the credit of RPGs, both tabletop and software application-based, they are neither religious or sacrilegious. With regards to religion, or the lack thereof, RPGs do not put themselves in the place of anyone's true beliefs or moral convictions. It is a fictional scenario and a fantasy, having nothing to do with your real person or the reality of life that surrounds you.

Dungeons and Dragons is maintained by a company called Wizards of the Coast, which is owned by none other than Hasbro. In the beginning the game was published by TSR, which was short for Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. Initially, the game did not involve mythological pantheons or fictional devils and demons, but it was a medieval fantasy scenario in which the plot of the game took place. Based on the game Chainmail, Dungeons

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