AD&D and Faith

[Benoist]

Disclaimer: This might be a sensitive topic for some people. If you don't feel cool discussing faith and religion on a gaming forum, I'm perfectly okay with that. If the mods want to shut down that discussion right out of the gates, I'm fine with it too.

Now, I expect a minimum of adult respect as it relates to each others' beliefs or lack thereof. So, since we all pretty much know each other and so on, trusting us to not go down into all sorts of pro/against pointless religious debates, here goes:

Ever since we've discussed about some of us on these boards being Catholic and enjoying pretty much the same game paradigm, and knowing that others here on the board are people of other Christian denominations, I really wonder if there's something about AD&D that would attract such people more than other games.

Maybe it's the medieval tone of the game. The "Archbishop Turpin" vibe coming out of the Cleric. Or the Paladin, maybe? Maybe the AD&D books feeling like old tomes of knowledge comparable to the old volumes lost in some forbidden sections of some monastery somewhere between Italy in France, if you get my drift? Or the language the books use maybe? Something that sustains the game that makes it appealing to religious people?

Or maybe we just happen to be traditionalists, and this apparently blends well with conservative values, and different Christian faiths.

What do you think? Am I completely off, here, or is there something to it?

[PatW]

I think a huge percentage of people in America are Christian of some form or another, so that's naturally reflected in the percentage of people who play the game, and percentage who frequent this forum.

[Sizzaxe]

Wow, that's a good question.

You know, I've never really thought of it in those terms. And I've had to do a lot of thinking about the religious implications of the game, as I learned to play from my church-sponsored scout group, then later had some ill-informed "do-gooders" try to ban us all from playing. Caused alot of religious turmoil for me.

At any rate I've never really considered if the game is innately appealing to Christians or "religious types" in general.

I do wonder, now that you mention it, if it has something to do with the basic ethic of fantasy--good vs evil and all that?

[Tholianweb]

My spirituality is at peace with playing D&D because I am a firm believer that no form of medium (music, art, books, movies, and games) make people do evil things.

The choice of doing evil things is just that: a choice.

It is people with simple minds who need to blame every thing created by man to justify their narrow-minded views.

[Mythmere]

Oops - this topics off limits, guys - religion is one of the topics we don't allow. Sorry about that.
Matt