Rhetorically Speaking: Community’s “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons”

It was good fortune for this episode’s airing to coincide with the work I am doing on my research paper about the psychology behind Dungeons and Dragons groups.  In addition, one of the resources I am using details a psychologist’s use of D&D to reach a child who had no other way of expressing himself.  In this episode of Community, a college student known as “Fat Neil” is undergoing major depression and thoughts of suicide.  After giving all of his D&D books to Jeff Winger because he “won’t need them anymore,” the study group decides to play a game of D&D with Neil to make him feel better.

The episode, from a rhetorical standpoint, is amazing in the number of controversial issues tackled here: race, sex, violence, hatred, and links to teen suicide.  They do not all play a major role in the story, but the show makes a nod to each one.  If you analyze it long enough, the show seems to claim that people blow these aspects way out of proportion when using them as a basis to condemn D&D gameplay.

The first reference to race comes when a comical Chang paints his skin black and dons a silver wig, to which Shirley says, “So, we’re just gonna ignore that hate crime, huh?” not realizing that he was emulating an elven race in the game known as the drow.  The second comes when the group finds a tavern populated with “beleaguered gnomes” and Brita tries to speak to them.  In Abed’s game, there seems to be a caste system where these gnomes are very far on the bottom.  This leads to an interesting discussion in which Brita is telling the gnome that he should treat her as an equal, and Abed, as the Dungeon Master, role-plays the gnome’s dismay at such an idea.

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My First True Academic Paper

I’ve posted up some academic work I’ve done, but those are all little things.  None of it is anything worthy of attention by scholars, just rote work to prove understanding of concepts.  But now, I’m starting my first academic paper to submit to the college, and I’ve narrowed my interests down to a couple of topics.  Feel free to comment.

Number One

The social/psychological aspects of Dungeon Masters leading their groups and of the groups themselves. This is inspired by the recent news report of D&D being banned from prisons due to it emulating gang activity.

Number Two

The usage/treatment of current religions in science fiction. Someone once told me that certain religions, when used in future-based science fiction, must be assumed to be false. For example, it goes against the scriptures of Christianity for Christianity to still exist in the year 2500, and therefore must be false. People who worship Christianity in a world where the year 2500 is a possibility must have come up with—made up—a reasoning for why the return of Christ hasn’t happened yet. Another spin on this: Orson Scott Card is a Mormon, but you really couldn’t tell due to the absence of religion from some books, and the usage of Catholicism in his Ender’s series. I would love to find out how he, and other writers, handle it.

Number Three

The effects of productivity on the bottom line.  In my job, we were harped on the fact that if we could “save people 5 minutes, we would save them 5 minutes every time they did that, adding up to tons of saved time.” I’d like to find out, in dollars, how this works. I’d like to study the ways people can be taught, and perhaps methods on how to best train, en masse, broad groups of people to create a positive return on investment.

To Whom It May Concern

I’m sure that you are aware that recently, Wizards of the Coast decided to take a slightly different direction with their prized Dungeons and Dragons content.  They changed many aspects of the game mechanic, gave different entry methods to the game in the manner of modified classes and races, and overall, made the game more accessible to the newer player.

Whether you like the system, or hate the system, it bodes well from a business standpoint.  The old rules will persist for all time; no one would be forced to accept the new rules.  Third Edition rules will be available for people to play.  Besides, no one says that anyone has to play with any set of rules in particular, including the published ones: that’s the brilliance of Dungeons and Dragons!  But, add another layer of Dungeons and Dragons rules that allow “newbies” to get right into the throw of the game, and you have what almost amounts to a separate product aimed at assimilating more mainstream consumer base into your brand name.

People will have their preferences in game, Third Edition, Fourth Edition, or hell, I know some folks still playing Advanced D&D Second Edition.  But, it is still a common standpoint in which we can talk about the adventures we have had, because the emotions and actions span across the gaps of edition rules: only game mechanics change in each edition.  It should put us on a common plane.  And, as businessmen, put us in the line to make a lot of money from each subset of player, by providing the supplies for them no matter what their preferences are, supportively and with great passion for serving our customers.

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Quote Pantheon Unquote

Today’s release of episode 19 of the Save or Die Radio podcast brought back my trials dealing with gods and deities while playing Dungeons and Dragons.  Everyone has their ideas on how gods should work, and after many years of DMing, I came up with my own structure.  I lay that here for you.

But first, some back-story.

      When I started DMing, I was much more comfortable leaving the gods out of it, so to speak.  They were entities that were prayed to, that were worshipped, but we never really saw any action from (with the exception of the divine spellcasters, of course).  I had trouble understanding the true role that deities played.  It always made little sense to me how we could have all these gods that never seemed to interact with their followers, and for what reasons exactly did they grant their power to their clerics?  Why don’t we see epic clashes of good versus evil on a cataclysmic scale on a daily basis?  I had left them that way for a very long time, until one day a friend of mine was discussing with me an encounter he had participated in where a player challenged a deity to battle.

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Some Days Are Better Than Others

The dwindling sun of the first day saw them to the final outpost along the Black River, to the small mining village of Krim.  Krim was a transfer point for the Black Mine nearby, its ore standing by in large shacks.  When the occasional merchant’s boat or supply ship meandered its way this far downriver, the ore could be loaded and sent back upriver to the capital proper for use in its iron foundries.

Squint and his deckhands stayed aboard their riverboat Fortune, mooring to the rickety construction that barely had earned the word “dock.”  The adventurers stomped down the wooden planks and entered the town.

It did not take long for the party members to catch wind of the rumors that were floating around town: first, an eerie ship had passed the dock, heading downriver during the night.  The moon was hidden with thick clouds last night, and the boatwatchers at the dock had tried to wave them down for a safe pull-in to the bank, but the ship continued its journey.  A lone woman on deck, dressed in a white that shined despite the lack of any light save the small lanterns adorning the ship, stared blankly as she passed by.

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Dungeons and Dragons: Fourth Edition

So, my roommates, their cousins, and I started a beginner’s module to the new Fourth Edition of Dungeon’s and Dragons.  Now, before we played, I was pretty sure that I was going to hate the new ruleset.  I had been DMing before this, and I was pretty in depth on the rules of the previous version.  My friends and I had played it for years… since high school, really.  There was no way I was gonna like these new rules.

But they needed an extra body, and since it was the beginner module, it came with a starter set of pre-setup characters.  That, and I did not have to DM, since Ken was already doing it.  So I figured, what the hey, I’ll give it a shot.

…There will be those hardcores who will have contempt for me after this statement: but I believe the rules here are a MUCH more accessible set of rules.  I avoid using “watered down,” although some hardcores may use, as there is plenty of complication, but fortunately, it is mostly during battle, where you want lots of options and strategy! 

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