Roleplaying - Satan's Game?

( originally a persuasive speech I wrote about seven years ago and just dug up today! If you don't know what a roleplaying game is, it is a game that involves participants taking on the roles of fictional characters and telling a collaborative story according to a set of pre-established rules. See this wikipedia article for more information)

  Are these simple dice the tools of the devil?

 Some fundamentalist Christians believe so. Roleplaying games (which often use dice like these) have been denounced by several popular evangelists and debunked by religious groups for over two decades for being "evil and satanic" , harmful influences on youth. This is far from the truth! Roleplaying games are not only non harmful to a young person's development, they are also beneficial in many ways.

 The biggest stigma attached to roleplaying games involves the occult. Some Christians believe that because characters in the game can cast spells, the players themselves are being drawn into a world of dark magic rituals and demon worship. According to GAMA (the game manufacturing organization), this misconception is primarily due to the fact that roleplaying games first appeared in the early seventies, and many religious and social leaders are not young enough to have experienced playing these games firsthand in high school or college. This unfamiliarity gives them an outsider's point of view, and not an actual familiarity with the game.

GAMA goes on to state that likelihood of a person learning to cast a magic spell from playing a roleplaying game is about the same as a person learning to pilot a fighter jet by watching the movie Top Gun. Many roleplaying games do not involve magic at all, and take place in settings such as SciFi universes and the Wild West. There is even a Christian roleplaying game called Dragon Raid which features Christian themed adventures, and is supported by several churches as an excellent tool for youth ministries and bible schools.

Another argument that fundamentalists use to support their claims of roleplaying being satanic and harmful is that it causes disturbed behavior in youth that can often lead to suicide. According to a case study done by the center for disease control, there was no evidence linking roleplaying to increased suicide rates. Many other studies done by such prestigious institutions as the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, collaborate this result. There is no link between mental illness and roleplaying.

Roleplaying can be a rewarding and educational experience. Psychologists use therapeutic roleplaying to help patients work through their mental issues in a safe environment. Teachers can use roleplaying in the classroom to stimulate creativity and a more avid interest in the subject material. In one classroom taught by David Millans of Atlanta Georgia, live action roleplay allows the students to act out important events in history in creative ways.

Roleplaying teaches skills that are valuable to life- cause and effect, teamwork, and logical thinking. According to the GAMA pamphlet "Questions and Answers about Roleplaying Games" published in 1991, roleplaying games even aid in the development of mathematical skills as gamers need to calculate to-hit totals, percentages, and even statistics in some cases. Roleplaying involves many areas of the brain at once in a dynamic learning environment that is found in very few other sources.

 Roleplaying is also, by its very nature, a social activity. Whether it is played in a chat room online, a classroom, or around a dinner table on a Friday night, players must interact with each other in a social manner. They also learn respect for authority figures; the game is almost always overseen by some form of GM, or game master, who tells the players what they see and encounter. It teaches the players to follow rules, and the rewards of completing a task that they have begun.

Fortunately, much is being done to remove the social stigma of roleplaying as more people are coming to realize its benefits. A mainstream movie, Dungeons and Dragons, is currently playing in theaters. This movie is based on the very first roleplaying game, and is sure to do much to bridge the gap between roleplayers and society.

It is important to educate those who do not know the true nature of roleplaying games so that this persecution and hysteria involving them will be as dead as a dragon felled by a well-rolled sword swing. Remember that each and everyone one of you is a roleplayer.

If you played a turnip in the fifth grade, dressed up as a princess, read a book and imagined yourself as the hero, watched a movie and acted along with some of the parts, sang in the shower and imagined you were a rock star - you too, are a roleplayer.

Roleplaying isn't about Satanism or rebelling from society's norm. It is embracing the beautiful, creative part of us all that wants to "make pretend" and explore the limits of our imagination. The true magic is when we open ourselves to possibility, and allow all men to be free to pursue their hobbies without persecution.