Trick Tracts Facts: Dungeons & Dragons

In the nescient Chick Tract Dark Dungeons [tract][review], Jack Chick jumps on the ever-popular "role-playing games are the spawn of Satan" bandwagon. It's been said and done before, despite repeated studies proving the opposite. As usual, Chick uses fear and scare tactics to try to "bring people to Jesus"; except no one with a lick of sense would believe the tripe presented in this tract.

Dungeons & Dragons, along with similar role-playing games, is many things. Entertainment, a way to get together with friends, imaginative, creative, fun and engaging, to name a few. One thing it is not, however, is a pathway into dark magic and Witchcraft. Most people that play this game are not Satanic, baby-sacrificing freaks, they are not spell-casting, blood-drinking "witches", nor corrupt, spiritually and morally bankrupt people possessed by the devil.

In fact, most people that play this game are normal, Christian, church-going folk that enjoy getting together with friends for an engaging and imaginative game. Others are young, creative teens or college kids who could be doing a lot worse things with their time - drugs come to mind. They are people intelligent enough to know the difference between fantasy and reality.

They are playing for fun and to have fun, and that's about as "mysterious" as it gets. They are not playing to become real witches, Satanists, occultists, or magic-users. They are not playing the game to "learn" how to cast spells, slay dragons, scout dungeons, and heal wounds with incantations.

Playing D&D, or any role-playing game, does not make you a bad person, or a bad Christian. It does not mean you have turned away from God or that you are shunning Jesus Christ. It just means you like to have fun with friends in a creative environment.

The only evil I see here is Jack Chick trying to scare people into his way of thinking by telling them everything they do that is fun or enjoyable is nothing but a pawn of the devil leading them on a one-way ticket to hell.

More Info on Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons on wikipedia.org:
Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) published by Gary Gygax and David Arneson in January 1974. It was first published by Gygax's company, Tactical Studies Rules (TSR), and subsequently spawned the RPG industry. D&D is by far the best-known and best selling RPG, with an estimated 20 million players, many translations and over US$1 billion in book and equipment sales (as of 2004). After TSR foundered in 1996, Wizards of the Coast acquired the company in 1997, including all rights to D&D. Two years later, Wizards was purchased by Hasbro. Owing partially to heavy marketing, products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of the RPG products sold in 2002...read more

Charney Cale shares a very well done paper on Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playings on The Real Truth About Dungeons & Dragons:

Excerpt:
Since the late 1970's Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games have been criticized for containing "occult" content, and influencing suicidal and criminal activity. This paper will discuss the assaults on these games and show how the game is not harmful but actually a healthy, intellectually stimulating form of recreation...read more.

Learn more about the effect of role-playing games in society from Religious Tolerance.org:

Excerpt:
Some conservative Christians have taken the position that since deities other than the Christian trinity are mentioned in some RPGs, that the games are Satanic. This is an logical consequence of their biblically-based belief that when a person worships a deity other than the Judeo-Christian God, they are either worshiping Satan himself, or one of his demons. On this basis, they claim that religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism are actually forms of Satanism. Their belief is not shared by most others who view conservative Christianity, liberal Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and hundreds of other faith groups as being very different from one another and unrelated to Satanism.

The link between RPGs and Satanism breaks down over one important point: players do not worship other deities when playing Dungeons and Dragons® and similar games. They do not even recognize their existence. The names of other Gods and Goddesses are merely mentioned in passing...read more.

Role-playing games can and do have a positive effect on those that play them. Learn more on The Escapist: The Gaming Advocacy Website:

Excerpt:
The news media and many religious groups have had little good to say about both RPGs and CCGs. The same goes for general word of mouth, which is usually conditioned by both of the above. You may have heard that RPGs promote satanism, witchcraft, or other forms of the occult, or that they can cause kids to commit suicide or kill others. As with most things in life, however, you should never believe everything that you hear...read more.

Information, links and thoughts on D&D from Dungeons and Dragons:

Excerpt:
...Dungeons & Dragons also caused a controversy, greater than any computer game, including Doom and Postal, ever invoked. This controversy had several sources:

  1. Two adolescent suicides were blamed on D&D, despite the existence of other, far more stringent reasons.

  2. Players, it was said, might lose their grip on reality and identify too much with their ficticious characters.

  3. D&D was accused of introducing players to occultism.

The first argument was sensational and could not withstand closer scrutiny. The second was plausible, if not very grave, and investigation later showed that role players in fact were more stable than the average of their age groups, their suicide and criminality rates lower. The third was plain silly but essential for the whole craze...read more.

Learn about the game from its source at Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page:

Excerpt:
The official website...read more.

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