Difference between revisions of "Dungeons and Dragons"

Revision as of 18:59, March 11, 2007

Dungeons and Dragons(D&D or DnD) is a fantasy roleplaying game. Originally published in 1974 Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and now published by Wizards of the Coast. ^[1] The game takes place in a pre-modern alternate world where magic is commonplace with mythical creatures such as elves, dwarves, orcs, and dragons. Its players create and adopt the personae of fantasy heroes that populate this world and undertake series of adventures or quests in order to further the giooals of these characters. The main game mechanics involve the use of dice of various types to determine outcomes. As players' characters accomplish more, they gain "experience points" which allows their characters to gain levels which make them more powerful and have more abilities.

The game allows players to play either good or evil characters and often includes elements that some consider to be occult, including the use of ghosts, spirits demons and devils which the characters may fight or aid as they see fit. It also expressly adopts a polytheistic pantheon of deities and rejects real-world religions. Many characters in the game worship these fictional deities both as lay persons and as "clerics", a profession than any character may choose to undertake. Clerics of these deities or devils are granted magical powers by their chosen deitie by means of which they can kill enemies, or heal their party members.

The game has been steadily modified and expanded since the original first edition and is now in edition 3.5.

The Magic System

The magic system used in Dungeons and Dragons was adopted very roughly from the writing of fantasy and science fiction author Jack Vance. In the Vancian system, magic-users such as wizards must prepare all of their spells in advance for that day by memorizing them and a spell leaves the wizard's memory upon being cast. To cast the spell again, the magic-user must once again memorize the spell. The Vancian system was choosen for a variety of reasons such as its originality compared to pre-existing magical systems, its avoidance any connection with systems of magic described in any religion or occult theory, and it being the creation of one Gygax's favorite authors. ^{[2] [3]}

The Combat System

The Combat system in Dungeons and Dragons is a dice based system. The dice that are used in the combat system are have 20, 10, 8, and 4 sides. In combat there are three different ways that a character can deal damage to NPC(Non-Player Characters) or PC(Player Characters) Melee, ranged, or magical.

Controversy

Although the original game deliberately used a system of magic that was not found in any actual occult or religious system, the game came under attack mainly from some conservative Christian as promoting witchcraft, satanism and murder. Its dangers were well and succinctly summarized in the Dark Dungeons tract by Christian thinker Jack Chick. ^[4] These attacks came in the form of calls for censorship as well as boycots and lawsuits. These worries have not been taken very seriously outside certain conservative Christian groups although the Israeli Defense Force has expressed concern that players may be "detached from reality". ^[5] Tracy Hickman, one of the main authors of Dungeons and Dragons, and a Christian with conservative politics and theology, has written a number of articles defending and discussing D&D from a Christian perspective. ^[6] Others within the Dungeons and Dragons community responded by writing other defenses from rationalist perspectives or other perspectives or by writing parodies such as ""Chess: The Subtle Sin: Should Christians play chess?". In response to the perceived Christian persecution of the Dungeons and Dragons, darker themed, deliberately counter-cultural games appeared in reaction such as Call of Cthluhu which is based on the horror writing of H.P. Lovecraft and set in the Cthulhu Mythos.^[6]

References

1. ↑ Wizards of the Coast's D&D site
2. ↑ Forum discussion: "Is D&D magic purely Vancian?"
3. ↑ RPGnet: Review of "The Primer of Practical Magic"
4. ↑ Jack Chick: "Dark Dungeons"
5. ↑ Ynetnews: "Army frowns on Dungeons and Dragons"
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture: "Role-Playing Games and the Christian Right"