Dungeons & Dragons: Just a Game

I am an enthusiastic fan of Dungeons and Dragons, so my viewpoint is admittedly biased, but I like to think that I can be objective too. This year marks thirty years for me as both a player and a Dungeon Master (please don't imagine me as someone who wears black leather tights and carries a whip; that's something else entirely). From early on I saw that this game was not like other games. In fact, at its beginning it may well have been the only game of its kind and gathered an odd assortment of followers. When outsiders think of it, or at least when they speak of it, the picture you get is of a bunch of geeky boys, gathered around a small table with a bunch of books and papers and dice, acting strangely. Why were they huddled together like that on a Saturday night? Well, because they were geeks and none of them could get a date, right? Am I a geek? Maybe, depending on how you define that term. I don't think of myself that way, though, as I have a wide range of things that interest me and this is just one of them.

I happen to like games; all sorts of games. When I was a child a played games with my cousins that we lumped together under the heading of "Make Believe". Today, I'd be a cowboy fighting the indians, or chasing down that dastardly fellow, Black Bart. Yesterday, I was a knight in shining armor, trying to rescue the princess. Tomorrow, I might be the cop, trying to bring the bank robber to justice. Our games of make believe were open-ended and fun. One time I'd be the good guy and next time I'd be the bad guy. There was always a happy ending.

I learned to play card games and board games. I learned about BINGO, and travel games, like "count how many different states you can pick out from the license plates on cars". I was in my twenties when I saw the first video game and I took to it right away. I was also in my twenties when I found Dungeons and Dragons. This took me right back to my childhood, and those games of make believe. That's all it is, really, a child's game that has been tuned up a little bit, organized, and presented to teens and adults. It allows us to do what we did as children, without all of that running about and shouting and getting out of breath; at least, most of the time. There has been a new twist in the game within the last few years. Dungeons and Dragons is what we call an RPG, or Role Playing Game, because you pretend to be someone you're not. Actors and actresses do this too, and some of them get paid very well for doing it. While they're playing their roles there has to be someone in charge, and he is called the Director. In an RPG there also has to be someone in charge, and he is called a Dungeon Master. The new thing that came out of D&D, but wasn't directly associated with it; is called LARP, or Live Action Role Playing. LARP games go almost all the way back to make believe, except that it has rules and structure. In a LARP game the people don't sit around a table, they move about and form groups and interact with one another. This type of gaming is pretty popular at conventions, where there is a lot of space to move around within the hotel.

Mainstream society has its counterpart to D&D. Take that picture of the group of geeky friends gathered around the table. You can let them keep the soft drinks, and not-so-soft drinks, and their chips and pizzas, but take away the table and all of those books and dice. Move them into the living room and set a television in front of them. Now, tune the TV to any sports channel. Look familiar? Both groups are essentially doing the same things; wasting time, making a mess to be cleaned up later, and having fun with a bunch of friends. Notice too, that both groups are predominantly male. It's not unheard of for either group to include females who are totally involved, but it's not the norm.

Now that we have a basic idea of what the game is, let's tackle a couple of misconceptions. First, the outside viewpoint. It seems that every time some teenage boy gets into some serious trouble, it's found that he is a D&D player. For the next couple of days the TV news people will show the Monster Manual while they talk about the evils associated with this game, and they always seem to turn to the same page. They open the book to the page that shows devils, and one devil in particular; Asmodeus, the king of all devils. I'm convinced that the news people deliberately use this as a backdrop for their stories, because it reeks of scandal and cultism and everything else that the average person would consider to be evil. Well, it's supposed to be evil. This book is mostly a listing of those creatures that our heroes, the Player Characters, are trying to hunt down and defeat in order to save the princess. It also contains some good creatures that may be used as allies in the fight against evil, and even some just normal people and animals. Later editions even have what we would call angels and other exceptionally good creatures. But then, where is the opening for scandal if the reporter shows a picture of an angel? It's just a game, folks, and this is one small part of it. In thirty years of playing this, I have yet to see my first virgin sacrifice on someone's dinner table. I haven't even seen anyone sacrifice a chicken for the sake of the game, unless you count those people at KFC; we have been known to kick in and buy a bucket to eat while we play.

Now for the inside viewpoint. Admittedly, there are a few misguided souls who will take things to extremes. I don't believe that there is anyone, unless he is truly insane, who believes that he can summon a demon to do his bidding. But there are those who let this game (and if not this, then it would be something else) take control of their whole lives. They will eat, drink and sleep D&D. Everything revolves around the game and they will actually take on the persona of the characters they play. They will abandon friends and family, except for those who seem to share their own zeal. By the way, I've known only one person to go way overboard with this, and even he never hacked up his grandparents or anything; he was just a pest and nothing worse. These people also have their counterparts in mainstream society; the alcoholic, the gambling fanatic, the guy who goes to a ballgame and just has to beat up a rival fan in the parking lot after the game, the workaholic. I submit to you that all of these people have problems that need to be addressed. I have a saying, "Too much of anything is not good." It's okay to have a drink, or make a bet, or have a favorite team, or advance in your profession, or play Dungeons & Dragons, but when you get to the point where one of these things becomes the center of your existence it's time to make a reality check.

It's just a game, folks, just a game. And if I don't have a date this Saturday night, well, neither does that guy down the street who has his whole house, his car and all of his clothes emblazoned with his team colors.