Should Christians & Homeschoolers Play Dungeons & Dragons? 

While I found TTRPGs well before becoming a Christian, I started playing/DMing not long before my baptism. The main thing I try to do as the DM is to be a model of Christ as best I can for people who are often very far away from it, and to create natural consequences for any immoral and moral choices they make as characters. Since then, I have found a brother in Christ who was closeted about it through inviting them to Christmas service, and we now go to Small Group/Bible Study together and are quite open about our beliefs with the rest of the squad in a casual way. No forcing, just representing. So far, there's been no reeling in horror, so there could be hope for them yet, God willing. Patience and genuine care are key.

@@EitherProductions will said, I'll be praying for you guys!

>Pastor >DM So less human than a communist?

Now lets see ya roll some dice about whether your soul is saved .

I definitely wouldn’t sit under your preaching.

There are loads of biblical bits like horn of blasting and robe of scintillating colours. Raising the dead. The more you look.

Would be awesome to get the christian nationals into rolling dice instead of all the other shism they attempt with real life.

I would even argue it helps kids to separate fantasy from fiction, the one true God lord Jesus Vs the thousands of religions and false idols.

​@kaizze8777 we had drama classes at school, more in the sense of theatre than roleplaying in a DND... Ive got insight into people's life experience through that, experience i would never have. A person can go through that... I think with good guidance and careful selection of Christian DMs it can help people to grow.

Oh so this is where all the Lawful Evil people hang out . Personally I prefer the chaotic good , and near true neutral.

Sounds fun!

Thank you, sir!

Thanks!

Romans 14 could definitely apply to D&D

Glad to hear it! It's always good to wrestle with your doubts and convictions. Never do something you feel is wrong, but I believe there are plenty of ways to enjoy roleplaying games without any issues as a Christian.

Sounds like you got a plan! Maybe you could base it on the OGL.

My own mother didnt get the roleplay aspect of dnd when I tried to explain it to her at first. I think that's something your mom may not fully get either. What helped was explaining what dnd was not on the surface, but what it meant to me. I like roleplay because I like stories, and this is a game where you tell stories with friends. I think a good way to approach it is explaining to your parents that it is like telling a story similar to the hobbit in a collaborative setting, since your mom seems to be okay with that fantasy story. The fun thing that makes fantasy fantasy is that it is not real. if your mom is scared of dnd from the 80s you could also explain that the game has evolved over time and is not the same as it what then. Dnd was not demonic then, but it was part of the Satanic Panic which was a phenomenon during that time where a lot of Christians were scared of satanic cults spreading throughout the US. Every scare ive heard from that time has been debunked but many who lived through that time still carry some fear. I think if your mom is really scared of the concept of dnd, describe it as a board game, because it is one. Also, in this video the poster mentions that he doesnt play games with other gods besides the christian one in them. If you want to quell your mom's worries you could explain how you bring God into the games you play. Im assuming she believes in miracles, well, thats what clerics powers are. For me personally, I find that dnd is a space where I can explore concepts and settings that I never would be able to in real life. Of course I cant shoot lightning from my hands, but my wizard pc can. In dnd you are your party are usually heroes of the story. How does magic differ from superpowers? Are not superheroes the good guys who try to save the world? My group in particular isnt religious but a few of us grew up in the catholic church. I have played characters that have had ties to religion and characters who did not. Working through how I view devotion in the context of a long overarching story in the comfort of supportive friends has honestly helped me grow as a person. I once played a paladin who messed up so badly (a child under her protection died) that she almost became an Oathbraker (a paladin subclass centered around severing your oath to your god and its kind of like becoming a heretic) because she was afraid her god hated her, but she didnt because when she finally got up the courage to talk to her god and pray for the first time in a year, the first thing they said to her was "I never left you, you know, and I know that it wasn't your fault. Even when you didnt have faith in me I had faith in you". I broke down crying at the table. How could a game like this be demonic when every time I play I learn what it means to love again in a thousand different ways.

@@owleyes9739 i love this answer! Thank you for giving me all of these examples! I'll probably do some more research and read through the rest of the hobbit (I never finished it, oops) to find even more evidence to support my argument. I may end up showing her your response, you being a Christian (I assume) player of dnd with actual in game experience (unlike me lmao), as long as that's alright with you! Thank you again, and god bless you my friend! You have no idea how much this means to me ^^

@@GleamDrawz np! I hope things go well with your mom and that you get to play with an actual group one day!

@@GleamDrawz oh and you can absolutely share my comment with her if you want!

Fireball is attack magic that deals 8d6 Fire damage in an Area of Effect. That means you would roll 8 six-sided die to tally up the damage (or roll 1 die 8 times, 2 die 4 times, etc.). Enemies within the Area of Effect would then roll a Dexterity Saving Throw to determine whether they take half or full damage.

@@EitherProductions Thank you 🙂That makes sense now. I am still new to D&D and don't know all the details yet.

I haven’t played yet, but I plan to specifically play with friends and not strangers I would disapprove of being around.

Glad it was helpful

send this game to the abyss and never to return

Thanks!

Good day!

Nobody is actually casting spells in D&D. They are using game mechanics. It's pretend. Like when your kids pretend to be knights or cowboys. The Bible says a lot of negative things about violence, but we allow kids to play these games. Why? Because it's just playing. As soon as they actually try to hurt their sibling, we stop them. Interesting that you're so worried about pretend magic, yet you use a version of Jesus' name that was coined by Renaissance occultists. You can just say Jesus. We all know it's a translation of whatever his real name sounded like.

Lmao

This is the only realistic comment on this thread. How sad. Respect our Lord and Savior more than this guy's, come on. I get it, i really really REALLY wanted to be like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Harry Potter and play the ouji board but I chose God! I also really like all the mystical stuff but GOD!! It's not a matter of opinion it's a matter of TRUTH and REALity. Enough greasy grace. Respectfully. LORD HAVE MERCY

@@NicoleW_TeamJesus That's kinda dumb.....

Glad it was helpful!

As long as witchcraft teaches your kid math then it must be good right

@@Jesusisnumberone5740 how do you see dnd as witchcraft? Not meaning to be rude, I am just trying to gain both sides of the argument to debunk to either get rid of my view or get my mom to understand that it's okay!

@@GleamDrawz its blatant witchcraft having sorcery, druids, etc. The Bible says to abstain from the appearance of evil. God also tells us in the Word to stay away from sorcery, witchcraft, people who speak to dead, etc. There was recently a ray comfort video of a guy starting to talk in the third person and called himself Kord. (Even though the guys name was Kevin.) Kord is a false god in dnd. And a false god in real life. The false gods in the game have the same name as false gods in real life. The game was modeled after the occult and no christian should have any part to do with it. ♡ I used to not think it was bad and ive played it many times with my ex friends. (They dont like me because of I know Christ now and i cant do the stuff because it bothers me to partake in sinful stuff or things that glorify sin.) Im not an expert on everything about the game, i used to play it. Then I found Christ and He showed me it was witchcraft and glorifying witchcraft.

@@GleamDrawz my post is getting deleted

I get what you're saying. I did acknowledge the religious elements to the game, but I only covered that topic briefly for the sake of pacing. But yeah, there are definitely classes and backgrounds that are pretty religious in their themes, not to mention settings and history in the official lore. You will definitely have to rework some things to play a religion-neutral campaign, but it also depends on how much your game follows the Forgotten Realms lore vs your own homebrew. It also depends on how much your table is focused on lore. A ton of players nowadays just treat D&D like a time to relax with friends and roll dice. They aren't treating it like dramatic fantasy storytelling and therefore might not care that you hand-wave the Cleric's "divine intervention" feature as just a powerful surge of magic. It's just a game mechanic to them. Remember, flavor is free. Relabeling things is an easy way to make the game yours. But even if you take that approach, I do acknowledge there's a decent number of things you'll have to relabel.

I am a Christian who plays D&D. My whole group of players is. Maybe I'm just spoiled, but since I was introduced to the game about 12 years ago, we have always used homebrew settings and campaigns, as well as exclude certain classes and subclasses. As such the "official" lore is never really an issue at our table and it doesn't feel like that much extra work. In regard to demons, and it sounds like you may be doing similar with Baal and Azazel, we do include them as forces to battle and overcome through the might and power of God working through our characters.

I'm not even a fan of Baldurs Gate 3, And I know that everything you just said was so heavily skewed that it's Just short of a lie. Just to pick one, The "demons" you're supposed to sympathize with? They are people whos families were cursed to look like demons. They are just mortals that look evil. And the "Good demon" Who escaped hell is one of those people. The lesson is to not judge people by their looks. If you're capable of understanding that not all black people are evil because of their skin, Then you are capable of understanding what the game was trying to say with those people.

​@@therealm7791 They are not "cursed." There is a "remove curse" magic spell in the game, and it has no particular effect on their demonic traits. They are "tieflings" which in the game means they are almost always descended from people who had offspring with "devils." They have a bloodline and, one presumes, genetics that tie them to to fiends. I agree they are presented as generally good and sympathetic, even having children and families (which even the Canaanites had). If you don't see that making people who, in every way, appear to be devils, into sympathetic and even heroic characters is a way to send the message that demons aren't so bad, I think you are being naive. That they are marketing a kinder, gentler "Buddy Satan," is because that is more palatable to the audience than showing the tieflings sacrificing children or one of the many, many non-Christian gods worshipped in the game (that the player characters themselves are often encouraged to worship in the game, because there is no analog for Christ in the game and some characters are required to select a god to worship). That you equate black people with demons is very jarring to me, like when people say Tolkien's orcs are just representative of racial minorities, though I take it you don't mean it in an offensive way. To one (sane) believes that black people are cursed by God any more, you know that, right?

D&D is a set of rules. Some people will use those to do things you don’t like. You can use them to do things you do. Simple as motherfucking that. D&D isn’t the issue, sensitive as hell snowflake “Christians” are.

Just keep in mind that real demons and the devil are EVIL beings that PEOPLE SHOULD NOT WORK WITH or associate with because they want to deceive, kill, and destroy.

@@therealm7791 What parts? There is a demon named Raphael and the story does out of its way to present him as charming. Edgy, but charming. In fact, he makes you several offers throughout the game and is almost always pleasant if you say no. And there is great deal of pressure to make a "pact" with him at some point during the game. Then there is a character who ia a "warlock" that gets his magic from another demon. While he laments it, that is the source of all the power he uses throughout the game. And you can bargain your way out of that pact with his demonic patron, and she releases him (without taking back his magical powers at any point during the game). Demons are just deal makers and you can make deals with them, then just outwit them in the game. There is a whole race of half-demon "tieflings". They look like demons, but they are presented as just normal people, living their lives with most of them being good at heart, actually (at least the ones I recall, there were some criminal tieflings, but they were all little kids). And I forgot to add that one of the main characters can become a pagan god at the end. His own goddess gets a little miffed at him if he does. Not even "people worship him, though he is just a man" he becomes a silver skinned "God of Ambition" who lives in some special heaven, is immortal and has godlike powers on the order of what you'd see in myths about pagan gods, except that in the game world it's real and not mere mythology.

I have no idea what sources you are referencing, most of the game is straight just made up of fantasy bs.

You know how i know you're a liar and full of cowshit? Because i've played the game, nobody lights incense, says incantations. Speaks ancient "magic" words or attempts to summon a demon or tries to actually do magic it's amazing watching people admit they litrally don't understand the concept of "playing pretend" is

I can understand that. Personally, I avoid elements of the game that seem too overtly inspired by occult practices. I might replace a voodoo doll with a sigil of the enemy, for example. But it's hard to have good without darkness. It's one thing to roleplay the summoning of Satan. It's another thing to fight off evils inspired by the occult.

You defeat evil cults as a base concept

Explain?

>Real chrisitians don't do X, Y, Z Good job you've just created the....what? 345th Sect of christianity? it's amazing watching the people who claim to follow christ and lover others be so quick to attack and decide whom is a true follower of christ. I'm sorry I wasn't aware you were god and could see into the heart of all those around you. Now tell me since D&D is so occult can you provide examples? I've been playing for a long time and have never met an occultists, sombody sporting pentacles/pentagrams nor somebody attempting to blaspheme against christ so please tell me where this occult is so i can examine it myself? Oh whats that? You have zero evidence and are just virtue signaling out your ass? Sounds about right

What a terrible take. Who are you to say what a true follower of Jesus will or won't do? I play dnd with lots of Christians and many of them have played characters who worship fake gods, thats fine because its fake, they themselves aren't renouncing god to serve this fictional diety.The standard group of hero's that most people role play are champions of good, often seeking to destroy malevolent creatures and protect the innocent. Yes, you can choose to be evil, but like the video said, that rarely works because the game is built around a team and evil people are self-serving. I myself have played evil characters before, but I always went to great lengths to ensure I wasn't ruining the game for others. I highly suggest you do some research with an open mind because dnd is a truly wonderful thing.

@@kylesparks1826 fr

God is real my man

God and demons are very real!!! More real than this life.

Are you dumb or smth? Genuinly asking

Yes yes of course it totally wasn't your parents and grandparents being stubborn and refusing to embrace anything new or them being fed media propaganda. No no it's clearly the wisdom of christ being rejected. People like you are why despite my faith in christ I refuse to ever join the church. christians these days seems to care more about tearing down their fellow christian for not being in lockstep with them then offering a hand out especially in these increasingly evil and trying times we live in. Men like you would stamp out all forms of joy in the name of Christ (falsely) and we would be worse off for it

Can you explain why instead of just saying it’s evil?

I understand faith, but don't understand the general stupidity u put over logic