Christians and the Gaming World

[morganlbusse]

I was the guest writer over at www.speculativefaith.com this week and wrote about Christians and the Gaming World. Join in the discussion

[Kessie]

It's a great article, too! I love reading about various people and how they game.

[Bainespal]

I posted a couple more replies at Speculative Faith. I love games, and I love interactive storytelling even more (the two are definitely closely related). I want to see gaming and interactivity discussed more in the CSF community.

[j2starshine]

I've not done any major gaming unless you count super mario brothers :-) But I've heard many people rail against gaming, it was great to see your perspective on it. On a side note: I get sick/dizzy playing the 3-D games so I opt for board games! :-)

[Kessie]

So, I feel like I'm trolling even bringing up this question, but here goes:

As a Christian, what's your opinion of Dungeons and Dragons?

Personally, I've played it (lots of different flavors of it) and I don't think it's any more dangerous than picking up a fantasy novel. But other people have other opinions. :-)

[Bainespal]

I have never played Dungeons and Dragons or any other tabletop RPG. I don't have any particular prejudice against them, though. I simply did not grow up with a community of gamers.

I do know that Dungeons and Dragons is both an ancestor of many types of computer games and an important development in interactive narratives. The first text adventure game, Adventure, was written by D&D players. Adventure was primarily a cave simulation with fantasy elements, and I believe most computer games inherited the concept of simulation from Adventure

[beckyminor]

We're all good with cans of worms here. Here are my thoughts on the D&D situation.

As with most RPG's I think D&D is what you make it. You can choose what your campaigns focus on, and if you don't like what printed source material emphasizes, you can always write your own adventures and just utilize the game mechanics so the game runs smoothly.

That being said, the newest version of D&D (4th edition) has turned me off pretty completely to the company. They have really taken a large step with character classes into some murky territiry of player characters being able to have demonic influence on their abilities, etc., which crosses the line for me. You can tweak a story line, but when a character class leans heavily on something that strays too close to new age/demon worship in this world, that's a deal breaker for me.

Back when D&D was in its first edition and there was the big stink during the early 80s about kids being driven to suicide by the game, TSR took a lot of flack for the demonic content in some of their source material. (I think the Fiend Folio was especially maligned.) The company reacted by taking a step back from that kind of content when they redesigned the game into the 2nd edition. Well, it seems that public outcry has been forgotten, or worse, Hasbro is thumbing their nose at the conservative community by incorporating much of the same type of content they came under fire for back in the day. It's because of Hasbro's seeming general smirk at the Christian community (and for other power gaming garbage interwoven into 4e) that I won't support the D&D franchise and use their materials.

Of course, this is all sort of funny, because I haven't gamed in 2+ years. Who has the time between work and writing?

If I did game, I would probably use a modified version of the Pathfinder mechanics, which grew out of the open gaming license. I would run in my own world most likely too. (How could I resist the temptation to play Vinyanel as an NPC? )

[birdnerd]

As a former gamer (don't have time for it now), I don't think it matters so much what system you use as what you do with it. I object to any particular game that dabbles with occult and new age. That's severely treacherous territory.

(:
birdnerd

[Kessie]

Becky: So, I have to ask. Would Vinny be an Elven Ranger or more of a Warrior? Veranna is totally a cleric ...

[beckyminor]

Kessie: He would end up being a multi-class fighter/cleric, since in my world, there would be no mage or sorcerer classes, since all the magic is of divine origin. And to be honest, needing to retool the entire Pathfinder system of magic is part of what is keeping me from running games. I would have to merge the spell lists for the wizard classes and the clerics, and that is more work than I can do in this lifetime.

You're right that Veranna would be a straight-up cleric.

I have an elven Ranger in my next book to release, but you haven't met him yet.

[morganlbusse]

I never played Dungeons and Dragons (it was on my mom's no-no list when I was growing up) so can't say much about it.

Bainespal, I'm thinking about doing more gaming posts in the future, either on my own blog or part of the MLP blog when it launches. I definitely think this is a great topic to discuss more in depth