# D&D Bashing in this Day and Age **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 19, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638 "2010-02-19T16:22:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/21 "2010-02-19T21:05:44Z")
Here’s what I think. They know completely well that D&D is mainstream. They just want people to read their paper. Ergo, controversial article making fun of people who tend to be on the 'Net a lot. Voila! Lots of people posting comments. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/22 "2010-02-19T21:07:08Z")
> [@Slypork](#): > > If I was in prison I’d be very afraid of someone wanting me to play with Uncle Wiggily. > > Unfortunately, my wife is of the mindset that D&D players are all socially backwards nerds incapable of establishing and maintaining healthy relationships and refuses to let my 17 year old honor roll son play. I tried to remind her that I used to play and I turned out OK. > Hmm. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t want him to play? I would think playing D&D is PERFECT for teens - you generally are playing at someone’s house, so the parents can watch them, drugs are not involved (weird shit already happens), and they aren’t out wrecking stuff. I don’t understand parents sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/23 "2010-02-19T21:20:53Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I would think playing D&D is PERFECT for teens - you generally are playing at someone’s house, so the parents can watch them, drugs are not involved (weird shit already happens), and they aren’t out wrecking stuff. I don’t understand parents sometimes. Tell me about it. Instead he and his friends play WoW or CoD or L4D. And my wife knows about this and is OK with it. But he can’t play D&D. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/24 "2010-02-19T21:30:36Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > As a LARPer for over eleven years, I get this all the time. > > Two of my neighbors will make fun of my hobby all the time. They’ll explain it to people (oftentimes while I’m not around, mind you) using condescending language and wild exaggerations. One of them will then turn around to me and say: > > “Hey, you wanna play some [Heroscape](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroscape)?” :rolleyes: They play at least once a week. Don’t get me wrong. Some of my best friends are LARPers. Although I tease them from time to time (I tell my players to remain seated during the game, lest they be accused of ‘LARPing’), but I was a little surprised by the apparent attitude of disgust from their anonymous source. Jesus, man. They’re less likely to hurt someone than if they were playing football, and football isn’t stigmatized as an outlet for budding psychotics. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/25 "2010-02-19T21:58:33Z")
> [@Slypork](#): > > Tell me about it. Instead he and his friends play WoW or CoD or L4D. And my wife knows about this and is OK with it. But he can’t play D&D. :rolleyes: Err? At least paper and pen gaming makes you use your imagination, learn how to story tell, learn about statistics and even do some math. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/26 "2010-02-19T22:30:42Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > Err? At least paper and pen gaming makes you use your imagination, learn how to story tell, learn about statistics and even do some math. That’s what I mean. I tried to explain to her that if he played D&D that he’d either be going to someone’s house or they’d come to our place. Instead she was OK with him sitting at home on the PC or Xbox and interacting with people virtually. Now his friends come over and they play games together or they bring their PCs/laptops to our house and have LAN parties. But no D&D. Again :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/27 "2010-02-19T22:37:05Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > drugs are not involved (weird shit already happens) Well, not \*necessarily \*involved. The only time I ever played D&D was also the first time I ever got high. Holy shit, do you have any idea how hard it is to figure out which die to roll when you’re stoned? So we see once again that YMMV. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/28 "2010-02-19T22:54:23Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > …Some of my best friends are LARPers… Uh huh. Heard that one before. 😉 [jameswatt] We got everyone on this committee - we got a Larper, a FilkSinger, two guys who play GURPs, one dude playing AD&D and two others playing 4th Edition. [/jameswatt] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/29 "2010-02-19T23:25:11Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > [jameswatt] We got everyone on this committee - we got a Larper, a FilkSinger, two guys who play GURPs, one dude playing AD&D and two others playing 4th Edition. [/jameswatt] No furries though. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/30 "2010-02-20T00:56:40Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > drugs are not involved (weird shit already happens), Um…these guys I knew in college called it Dungeons and Drugs for a reason. I suppose there are probably drug-free games somewhere, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/31 "2010-02-20T01:32:53Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > Err? At least paper and pen gaming makes you use your imagination, learn how to story tell, learn about statistics and even do some math. It’s purely a perception thing. When you’ve been bombarded with “D&D is only for nerds and satanists” for most of your life, it has a little baggage attached to it. On the other hand, WoW is a massively popular online game which lacks that same baggage (other than the various domestic disturbance stories that are only newsworthy because they involve WoW). It doesn’t matter what it really is, only what propaganda says it is. And who wants to learn more about what nerdy satanists play anyway? ---
**Author:** ![GythaOgg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@GythaOgg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GythaOgg)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/32 "2010-02-20T01:54:20Z")
> [@Slypork](#): > > That’s what I mean. I tried to explain to her that if he played D&D that he’d either be going to someone’s house or they’d come to our place. Instead she was OK with him sitting at home on the PC or Xbox and interacting with people virtually. > > Now his friends come over and they play games together or they bring their PCs/laptops to our house and have LAN parties. But no D&D. Again :rolleyes: That’s a shame - my 17 year old honor role student plays a similar RPG with her friends (Anima) and has a great time. Two of the other players in her group are on the Varsity football team - the same team that went undefeated this year and won the state championship in their division. A couple of the others are in marching band. These are all smart, well-adjusted, socially involved kids who enjoy each other’s company. It’s been a great thing for her to do. I hope your wife comes around eventually… ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/33 "2010-02-20T02:23:25Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > “Egghead escape?” Is that something new in the 4th Edition rules? Maybe it’s a skill you hav to learn from one of the NPC trainers 😃 Meh. I played AD&D, I play WoW, I’ve even played the “infamous” GTA, and they’re just games, nothing more. Idiots used to say the same stupid shit about ragtime music, and rock music while they burned Elvis records (or Ozzie, or whoever was declared to be big bad and scary at the time). It’s all bullshit. Almost forgot… LOK’TAR OGAR! For The Horde! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BunnyTVS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BunnyTVS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyTVS)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/34 "2010-02-20T02:31:38Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > Well, okay. LARPers are a scary breed. The run around with foam swords, lobbing bean bags at eachother. True story (aren’t they all), first time out LARPing at uni. We’re in a local park around midnight (OK off to a bad start), a bunch of first time LARPers (LARPees?). We’re creeping through the trees, heading towards the enemies fort when we see a strange light weaving silently along the path ahead of us. We creep quietly towards the footpath ready to attack the ghostly figure… We jump out screaming our various battle cries… And the poor bugger falls off his bike! True story 2 (“to anectode and beyond!”). A week or two later I was playing an NPC. I was stationed on a bridge with a long time player (I think he was called Tim) who was over 6 foot tall but liked to play halflings. So we’re playing trolls (yes it was a troll bridge, no don’t hit me). That’s not enough. Tim decides we should be french trolls. Great I still remembered most of my GCSE french. One problem, the in game currency was “crowns”, neither of us knew the french equivalent. The best we could come up with was “chapeaux de royale”, our bastardisation of “kings hat” (we figured a real troll wouldn’t do any better anyways). Anyhoo, the PC’s arrive at our bridge, and we start our very, _very_, poor french/troll/Monty Python stuff (remember uni = student). When we start asking for “deux chapeaux de royale” the following conversation takes place. “What do they want?” “I dunno, I never took french” “What’s a chapeaux?” " I think it’s a cat." “Where the hell are we supposed to find a cat at this time of night?.. Just kill them!” ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/35 "2010-02-20T08:54:17Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > Beware of the Grue. [It Is Pitch Dark](http://frontalot.com/index.php/?page=video):[ > [@](#): > > Every time you booted up, it seemed you got another version > of your life told to you by a status line blinking, > the impossible people you could be without thinking > yourself insane of personality problems, > with a mop on a drop ship or trying to stab a goblin. > That don’t play in public life. You get arrested, > psychoactive medication daily in your big intestine > and attesting that the voices in your head > said the dwarf shot first, embedded arrow then you bled. > But doctors with needles posit repeatedly > that you knocked down that midget in the park unneededly. ]([MC Frontalot | Lyric | It Is Pitch Dark](http://frontalot.com/index.php/?page=lyrics&lyricid=47)) > [@BunnyTVS](#): > > chapeaux de royale with cheese. [You Know Who should have done this article.](http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp) He would have done it justice, with his Dark Magicks. [Even those opposed to His Works would have had fun with that version.](http://www.humpin.org/mst3kdd/) ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/36 "2010-02-21T07:29:05Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Um…these guys I knew in college called it Dungeons and Drugs for a reason. I suppose there are probably drug-free games somewhere, though. Most of the groups I gamed with were drug and alcohol free. The general feeling was that a drunk or stoned gamer was someone who was likely to do something stupid, and possibly get the whole group killed. My husband and I did game with a group where people were toking up in another room. When we saw someone doing lines, though, we decided that this group was not for us. He was in the Air Force at the time, and he didn’t want to be in the same area as someone snorting, in case the place got raided. Of the various groups that I’ve been in, there was the one druggie group, another one where we’d all have a beer or two after the game, and then all the other groups were clean and sober. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/37 "2010-02-21T07:51:03Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > Don’t get me wrong. Some of my best friends are LARPers. Nobody’s best friend is a LARPer. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/38 "2010-02-21T08:06:15Z")
That article is hilarious. > [@](#): > > devotee of Dungeons & Dragons - just like Michael “Mucko” McDermott, the lone gunman behind the devastating workplace killings at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield in 2000. Two people vaguely involved in D&D shot people over a 10 year period! It’s an epidemic! > [@](#): > > The popular fantasy role-playing game has a long history of controversy, with objections raised to its demonic and violent elements Yeah which most people forgot about in the mid 80’s. > [@](#): > > Some experts have cited the D&D backgrounds of people who were later involved in violent crimes, while others say it just a game. Some experts could probably link watching Barney the Dinosaur to later involvement in violent crimes. There’s a difference between actual data and ‘made some shit up’. > [@](#): > > prison officials reportedly testified they were afraid the game could promote “hostility, violence and escape behavior." Well if someone somewhere is afraid of the game that’s exactly the same as proving it does those things. I’ve never actually played tabletop D&D. Articles like this make me feel I’ve always missed out on some seriously subversive and dangerous material. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/39 "2010-02-21T09:19:36Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Most of the groups I gamed with were drug and alcohol free. _All_ of the groups I’ve gamed with have been. The strongest drug used during a game is copious amounts of caffeine (that’d be me doing that). Only game I’ve ever played drunk or stoned is euchre. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638/40 "2010-02-21T16:35:04Z")
Christians play D&D too. My husband and I both do, and our kids are interested. Any news source who links some connection between D&D and any crime needs to take a closer look at the accused. The whole thing is just stupid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-bashing-in-this-day-and-age/529638.md?page=3)