# the dangers of Dungeons & Dragons **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dangers-of-dungeons-dragons/163173 "2003-03-21T18:09:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dangers-of-dungeons-dragons/163173/41 "2003-03-22T10:28:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Greenback \* > **I was told that someone playing D&D ended up killing his family, although I was never given a source.** No surprise. See, there are a few cases in which people who played Dungeons and Dragons also committed violent crimes. Well color me surprised. These few cases are regurgitated over and over and over again as arguments against role playing games, whereas no-one cares to notice how many baseball fans etc commit violent crimes. I think you’d find that baseball fans commit far more violent crimes _per capita_ than Dungeons and Dragons players. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dangers-of-dungeons-dragons/163173/42 "2003-03-22T13:04:14Z")
For what it’s worth, the whole “Death and RPG” thing is around even now. You can read about a man who committed suicide while playing Everquest (an online computer based fantasy role playing game) [here](http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/mar02/31536.asp). ---
**Author:** ![carver42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc8723/32.png) [@carver42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carver42)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2003, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dangers-of-dungeons-dragons/163173/43 "2003-03-23T07:20:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by micco \* > \*\*In my experience, if you play D&D you run the serious risk of becoming a creative person with good spatial memory, problem-solving skills, and a decided lack of free time in which to cause trouble. > > The story you heard is not limited to your small town and I’ve heard it a lot. There was even a TV movie back in the 80s about a D&D player who went off the deep end. However, I don’t think anyone can show that D&D had any causal effect and most of these stories are just knee-jerk allegations from people who fear anything they don’t understand. The same people are now condemning Harry Potter, as if getting kids to read long novels was the work of the devil. \*\* I too found D&D improved my creativity. Now I am a computer ‘nerd’ who charges the jocks that made fun of me $150/hr. And I credit much of the creativity to D&D. Programming is much like the D&D situation - you can do anything you can think of… I think the right wing got mad becuase there were other gods mentioned like the Greek, Roman and Nortic gods. This was supposed to temp your mings. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dangers-of-dungeons-dragons/163173/44 "2003-03-23T07:46:26Z")
After I graduated from High School, I moved back to Montana for a year. I was working in a hospital on the graves shift. and decided to bring in some of my gaming books to work to read on my off time. No problem. My charge nurse informed me that my books were “evil” and that I was surely going to hell for reading them. The other nurse on shift talked about the Satanic influences in the books. Neither had ever touched one. I was asked not to bring them in again. Pathetic. Once Lloth has my soul and gives me all my powers, they will be sorry. Oh yes… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dangers-of-dungeons-dragons/163173.md?page=2)