Harsh Reflections: Part Eighteen
Chapter: Season Six
Double-sized!
Panel 5 makes me laugh for a lot of reasons but the biggest one is that it is, in one image, everything parents in the 80’s were terrified of when it came to D&D. THE DEVIL’S GAME.
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HOVER-TEXT: “Naughty Bits Covered in Chicken Blood” is TOTALLY going to be the title of my memoir
You do realize you’ve ruined me forever with these, right?
I keep taking odd phrases and making them different mixes of albums. :3
Or as I like to call it, every second Tuesday.
Naughty Bits covered in Chicken Blood is the name of my Black Sabbath cover band.
Typo alert in panel 2: “propered” instead of “prospered”
The plot is afoot. I’m going to be interested to see what obstacles the party faces with this adventure…
Fixed! Thanks!
That must be an American thing because my experience here in England was that it was seen as good way to play imaginatively, and was certainly never seen as something sinister. Although my parents never quite understood why I needed so many dice…..
Oh, it was a big deal here in the states. Religious groups HATED D&D and feared it was a path straight to the devil. No kidding. Thankfully, my parents didn’t pay enough attention to care.
HATED? The number of those groups has dies down somewhat, but I don’t think their hatred has. They just have much more “sinister” things to crow about now.
Now why couldn’t Kevin Bacon have been in a film about that instead of dancing….
Tom Hanks was…
Maybe not Kevin Bacon, but how about Tom Hanks?
As a D & D er of old the religious Reich really hated and feared all rpgs. They even picketed Gencon. They still hate us, but we have moved down the target list
To be fair, it’s not all religious people. I’m a southern evangelical, and I got plenty of support from my parents, including them buying my first Players Handbook as a gift one Christmas. My current group (all Christians in background or practice) still plays in a conference room at my church sometimes when our regular venue isn’t available.
The total conversation about it when we first used the church facility: Church elder: “Wasn’t there some concern about that game several years back?” Me: “Yeah, but it was all media hype and fear-mongering. It’s just a game.” Elder: “I figured as much. You all have fun.”
I’m not saying that the wacko’s don’t exist, just that they are the loud ones. I’ve never had a Christian tell me D&D was evil, and I’ve never hidden the hobby or my faith since I joined both in the early 80’s.
Haha, it’s funny how things change. Nowadays my gaming table often has religious diversity that looks something like that: Protestants, Catholics, Agnostics and sometimes another couple denominations. An Atheist pops up occasionally, as does this one guy that believes in spirituality but not in organized religion.
We’ve had a few conversations about religion, but we’ve never argued about it, and we all enjoy ourselves when the time comes to roll dice.
Admittedly, though, I most commonly end up playing with Agnostics and Christians. (I’m an Agnostic myself.)
I also play at a local game shop, and the regulars there have a really diverse set of beliefs and outlooks. Never had an argument. We have Atheists, Agnostics, various Judeo-Christian flavors and a Buddhist. No one there has ever (in my time there) had a conflict over those issues. I have been really blessed to have a good group of good people to game with.
I had a friend in high school who straight up told me that my soul was in danger from D&D. Fortunately, my mother never believed that crap.
Yeah my parents were of the paranoid group. And I love character building, roleplaying… I feel like I missed out a lot.
look up “Chick track Dark Dungeons” and remember people in the US actually thought this
Mazes and monsters. That movie is at least partly to blame.
Didn’t the guys from MST spoof Mazes and Monsters? (Hehe, should have been “Munchies & Manboobs” amirite?
And they think WE have lost touch with reality?
Ooh…interesting twist. I like where this is going. To save many for the life of one. its twisted vile and could badly if this goes the way I think it will. I await in anticipation.
Love the dubious morality.
Further typo alert Naughy unless of course that’s a special rogue word for ‘things’.
Just gonna throw this out here. Not every Christian believes and/or believed crazy thing about DnD. The greatest bane of Christianity is that the reasonable ones are quiet and the crazies are loud.
Not just Christianity. Lots of groups, movements, etc. have that problem.
The problem is that, when you have groups claiming to speak for all of Christianity and not enough Christians telling them to go sod off, the perception becomes that all of Christendom is against it. I’ve seen this a lot in the LGBT+ struggle. There are dozens of denominations which have supported the Community (Congregationalists, Quakers, etc) but they either have very quiet voices or have not spoken up at all meanwhile the big guys (Catholics, Southern Baptists, Mormons) constantly scream about it and condemn it.
Well I don’t think Mormons should even have a voice among the Christian denominations, personally. Even if I believed they were a denom, they’re doctrine is just… yeah. They would obviously be against people like me.
You’d be surprised; we’ve got three Mormons at our gaming table. I’ve never known Mormons to “scream” about anything; they just stand firm on what they believe. In my experience, they’ve always been very accepting of others as individuals, regardless of who they were or how they lived their lives, but at the same time they don’t compromise their own principles. I’ve got to respect them for that.
That’s not to say that all Mormons are like that; like any group I’m sure there are extremes out there, but by and large what I’ve seen has been pretty different from how they’re often portrayed. It just goes to show you can’t believe everything you read on the internet…
In this case…I’m not talking about what I read on the internet. I’m talking about stuff that’s been in the media for quite some time- on the news mostly.
That said, I’ve often found that there’s a huge difference between the leadership of a group and its members. The leaders of the Southern Baptists, Catholics and Mormons tend to be more conservative and tend to speak the loudest. Meanwhile, many members are, if not supportive or nice, at least not actively hostile. There are those who aren’t nice, of course, but many members are.
I’ve known several Mormons in my time. Even had interesting conversations with them. And, honestly, D&D can often be about the fight against evil. When I played it, I almost always was Lawful Good or Neutral Good.
Catholics in particular have a whole lot of that going on. The official position of the church is very anti-contraception, but more than eighty percent of American Catholics believe contraception is morally acceptable (and America ain’t exactly a bastion of liberalism these days). I just wish that difference of opinion translated into real action more than it does.
Typo alert: In panel 7 you mean naughty, not naughy
So THAT’S what burning man is all about…
I’m sorry to nitpick, but I’m not sure the term “patron race” in the first panel means what you intend it to mean. “Patron” used in this sense means ‘someone who protects or oversees something’, right? So this term would mean that the Illyn protect and oversee Elinar, which I don’t think is what you meant. Rather, Elinar is the Ellyn’s Patron Deity, because she protects them, right? But I don’t think the term works the other way around. The Ellyn would be her ‘chosen race’, or her ‘favored race’ or something.
pa·tron
ˈpÄtrÉ™n/
noun
noun: patron; plural noun: patrons
1.
a person who gives financial or other support to a person, organization, cause, or activity.
“Charles became a patron of Rubens and van Dyck”
synonyms: sponsor, backer, financier, benefactor, benefactress, contributor, subscriber, donor; More
philanthropist, promoter, friend, supporter;
informalangel
“a patron of the arts”
2.
a customer, especially a regular one, of a store, restaurant, or theater.
“we surveyed the plushness of the hotel and its sleek, well-dressed patrons”
synonyms: customer, client, frequenter, consumer, user, visitor, guest;
They are subscribing to a faith, so the way he used it should work fine.
TL;DR, being a patron means you support someone/something.
In fantasy context patron race is often (mis?) used as the race for whom the deity in question is a patron
One again, LOVE Carlos’ character. I picture him voiced by James Earl Jones, of course.
Awesome stuff and worldbuilding! Can’t wait for the Karthun rulebook. Super minor typo in panel 1, I think “myself. Telsin” should be myself, Telsin”
I like that the four cultists are a variety of skin tones and genders. An inclusive cult!
Everyone is welcome on the path to damnation!
HELL BOOBIES!!
“Get their shoop on” is the title of my 90’s Hip Hop album
This whole debate about D&D vs. Christianity is one very near and dear to me. I am a Christian, and I can say I have experienced every facet in my life. My mom’s cousin Jeff introduced me to it one day as a child, and it was a revolution to me, since I was of the imaginative type, but up until then I thought there was no one else who wanted to imagine stories and create like I did. Also I grew up when the D&D cartoon was on TV, and my parents forbade me from watching it. I thought then, and still think it was one of the best written cartoons of its time and since. Also it contained a character with my own name, as a point of commonality. I have grown in my own faith, in my view of the world, and in my relationship with God as a result of my training in the freedom and structure that RPG rules promote. I understand that this game isn’t for everyone, whether Christian or non, but I can’t help but feel sorry for them, they are missing out, in my opinion, but in the end, I have to remind myself that it is still only a game, and there is more to life than RPGs. They are like any human behavior, only when it becomes addictive or detrimental to other aspects to a healthy life should it be seen as a problem. Christian parents simply want to keep their children safe. They don’t always understand the passtime, the attraction to it, all they see are pictures of dragons and demons and scantily clad women, which the Bible does warn against. I have found that these things are often the primary things that the official rules pit the player characters AGAINST. I could go on, but I’ll stop for now.
Really interested in seeing how Telsin plans to become the host of The Grin, since from what I read in the Monkeynomicon The Grin has always taken female hosts when it has appeared. Also always ended in death so unless he has a way to stay alive through the possession their problem might just solve itself!
Haha, you’re right about that fifth panel!
It reminds me of one of my favorite old D20 monkey strips… Mazes and Misconceptions: https://d20monkey.com/comic/mazes-and-misconceptions/