You No See Me, A D&D Podcast | Episode 2: HALLOWEEN EDITION
There’s an engineer playing a gnome tinkerer, a fellow academic playing a monk (think Shaolin, not St. Benedict), a PhD student playing a druid, and an IT professional playing a barbarian. We’re all fully employed, all happily married, and all Christians.
However, since I suspect that many folks still have lingering concerns about the game, allow me to plug some alternative role-playing games that might ease some of these concerns. Though D&D is the most famous example, and the most frequently played RPG, there are many other options. Adventures in Middle-earth is a licensed setting for Dungeons and Dragons, 5th edition. Set explicitly in Tolkien’s fantasy world, the setting provides clear moral guidelines. Characters choose virtues to associate with their character and have to avoid corruption. As stated in the Player’s Handbook for this setting, “All Player-heroes are assumed to be heroes—perhaps reluctant, perhaps ill-favoured and foul-looking, perhaps suspicious or haughty, but heroes all the same. Heroes try to do good, but must contend with their own fears and failings.” Committing “misdeeds” causes a character to take “corruption,” which may lead to their character’s ruin. The inclusion of this mechanic, again, seems like a way of creatively hacking the default D&D mechanics to tailor the game to Christian taste.
Children might enjoy a simplified version of the game called Hero Kids (which leaves out many of the darker elements). There’s a Princess Bride RPG for fans of family-friendly swashbuckling romance. For those who want to steer clear of spellcasting, RPGs such as The End of the World allow players to fight alien invasions, sentient robots, or zombies. Lovers of Star Wars can enjoy Star Wars: Age of Rebellion and Star Wars: Force and Destiny, popular RPG offerings that use Lucas’s light-and-dark force mythology.