brengle@hplabsc.UUCP (Tim Brengle) (10/23/85)
To put things in perspective, I have been a Christian for 10+ years, and played D&D (and a couple of other FRPGs) for 5+ years -- AFTER becoming a Christian. There is no doubt that the game is appealing -- as an escape from the real world pressures and hassles. That is the primary reason that I started playing. Add that I have always been fascinated by magic (I have EXTENSIVE knowledge of both ritual and stage magic, but that is another story...) and you can probably see how inviting AD&D was to me. I started a group where I worked that played on Friday afternoons while everyone else was getting smashed at the company's beer busts. I referreed there for most of the 5+ years that I played with the group. Hence (I never could get over being a mathematician :-), I know a great deal about FRPGs in general and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons in particular. Everything was fine and I had a wonderful time for a long time. Friday afternoons were the highlight of my week. And I had no religious problems with the game at all. Then a discussion came up amongst the 11 people in the group about making the magic system more "consistent". I decided to research and try to infer some basic "physical" laws that would account for all of the various types of magic in the game. My training as a mathematician forced me to try to find a set of postulates that would do the job. I worked on the project for more than a month, off and on, and finally came up with the only set of assumptions that fit: all of the magic in AD&D is based on demonic or angelic intervention. It was the only assumption that fitted all the data. In and of itself, that was no real problem to me. After all, this was just fantasy. Then my wife, pastor, and a counsellor that I was seeing all came up with the same statement within a week of each other: having anything to do with the spiritual world (even in your mind's eye) opens one up to that world in reality. What I mean is, even fantasizing about having magical powers lowers ones defenses against the spiritual warfare that is going on around and within us all the time. As a Christian, that still posed no problem to me -- I am covered by the Blood of Christ. The problem became: what about non-Christians? I found that I was inadvertantly opening total innocents up into a world of powers that they could not cope with -- and they did not have the protection of God's grace to keep them safe. As I realized this, and thought about the changes that I had seen in the players around me, I knew that I could no longer support AD&D as a totally harmless game. I left the group, but not without a lot of agonizing. This is not to say that I am giving up on FRPGs altogether. In fact, I am still looking for one that does not have the same (or similar) problems. Tim Brengle
hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) (10/24/85)
In article <2768@hplabsc.UUCP> brengle@hplabsc.UUCP (Tim Brengle) writes: >To put things in perspective, I have been a Christian for 10+ years, and >played D&D (and a couple of other FRPGs) for 5+ years -- AFTER becoming >a Christian. >Everything was fine and I had a wonderful time for a long time. Friday >afternoons were the highlight of my week. And I had no religious problems with >the game at all. Then a discussion came up amongst the 11 people in the group >about making the magic system more "consistent". I decided to research and >try to infer some basic "physical" laws that would account for all of the >various types of magic in the game. My training as a mathematician forced me >to try to find a set of postulates that would do the job. I worked on the >project for more than a month, off and on, and finally came up with the only >set of assumptions that fit: all of the magic in AD&D is based on demonic >or angelic intervention. It was the only assumption that fitted all the data. Well, in fact, there are other possibilities. You can postulate a setup such that there is a fifth force, a very weak force but very pervasive and highly focussable. This is the basis for magic in the "Incarnations of Immortality" series by Piers Anthony. Magic is then the use of a natural force. Of course, you'd have to lose most of the arbitrary restrictions tossed in from AD&D. In any case, I would agree IF the game was supposed to be set here in this world; nearly all magic in this world has involved the invocation of spirits, or the evocation of personal power. The latter is modelled (poorly) in the game as the psionic optional rules. >In and of itself, that was no real problem to me. After all, this was just >fantasy. Then my wife, pastor, and a counsellor that I was seeing all came >up with the same statement within a week of each other: having anything to >do with the spiritual world (even in your mind's eye) opens one up to that >world in reality. What I mean is, even fantasizing about having magical >powers lowers ones defenses against the spiritual warfare that is going on >around and within us all the time. As a Christian, that still posed no problem >to me -- I am covered by the Blood of Christ. The problem became: what about >non-Christians? I am not convinced. There are LOTS of ways to be tempted and attacked; the classic three are the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, that is, the temptation of worldly wealth and power, the temptation to gratify every bodily desire inappropriately and to excess, and the temptations of rebelliousness, craving for easy power, for magic. This isn't new in a fantasy game. It is up to you to watch for signs of this and to pray for the protection of those playing in your game. >I found that I was inadvertantly opening total innocents up into a world >of powers that they could not cope with -- and they did not have the protection >of God's grace to keep them safe. Sorry to have to remind you of this but there ARE no total innocents. In this society, you have not opened them up to anything they haven't already encountered. And the only way that you would be exposing them to anything other than the concept of fighting against the demonic is if you allow rules such that they are, in the game, calling on those demonic powers. One other thing: ignorance is not a defense. If someone is not attacked in an area, it is either because they are not vulnerable in that area, or because it is easier to get them in another area. In any case they ARE protected, to an extent, by the Grace of God. Hutch