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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
 Posted - 25 Nov 2012 : 03:01:41
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My first D&D experience was in 1982 or so, when the red D&D basic rules were still pretty new. My parents had a friend who brought the box over one night and wanted to teach my parents how to play. I was 6 or 7 at the time, and there was some discussion over whether I should be included, since the box said ages 10 and up... and I imagine some of the artwork raised some concern since they were all pretty sheltered and conservative. Ironically, I was far more interested in the bright green dragon on the cover than in the bare feminine thigh. I remember it being my mom who pushed to let me play, and eventually the guys agreed.
My parents decided at the outset that we would only play in the summers when our friend was able to play too. I forget what his degree was going to be in, but the dude had a ton of homework. It ended up only being that first summer... I think he got a girlfriend or something. Crazy, right? My parents lost interest and the D&D stuff got shelved. I found it, unshelved it, and read through the rulebook and adventures, and started imagining the dungeons as three-dimensional places. We never played as a family again, though I know dad wanted to.
I still have our (now pretty faded) green character sheets, from The Keep on the Borderlands and The Lost City, and I randomly came across them the other day. I figured I would see if mom remembered, and dropped her favorite character (Merlin the magic-user) on her desk. Her reaction made my day:
"Ooh, I had eleven hit points!"
(pause)
"What's this Armor Class?"
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Kilvan
Senior Scribe
Canada
896 Posts |
Posted - 25 Nov 2012 : 14:27:32
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| Cool story, but I can't say I had a similar experience (far from it). I can't imagine my mom playing D&D any more than I could see her skateboarding. |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36968 Posts |
Posted - 25 Nov 2012 : 14:55:39
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quote:
Originally posted by Kilvan
Cool story, but I can't say I had a similar experience (far from it). I can't imagine my mom playing D&D any more than I could see her skateboarding.
Same here. Except that for me, it's three stepmoms (two are no longer stepmoms, obviously) and a biological mother that I've not seen since I was 12. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
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I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen!  |
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Thauranil
Master of Realmslore
India
1591 Posts |
Posted - 27 Nov 2012 : 06:54:14
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| Your lucky. My mom barely uses her cellphone , forget about her playing FR. |
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froglegg
Learned Scribe
317 Posts |
Posted - 20 May 2013 : 01:44:49
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Nice story.
John |
Long live Alias and Dragonbait! Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb the Realms need you more then ever!
On my word as a sage nothing within these pages is false, but not all of it may prove to be true. - Elminster of Shadowdale
The Old Grey Box gets better with age! |
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Cbad285
Learned Scribe
161 Posts |
Posted - 23 May 2013 : 08:31:36
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| My Mom married our neighbors son uhh, sometime in 2001 I believe. This was her third marriage of four. She also moved my brother and myself from Florida to Michigan to live with this guy Gary. Well a summer rolled on and we spent most of the time the house via not having any friends. One day, Gary broke out his D&D books and said "So have you ever played this game?" we had not. He went about setting us up on a little adventure where my first character was an Avariel who's wings had been cut off and I was kept in a goblin dungeon and used for sport fighting until I was rescued by my little brother. I was hooked after that...Mom tried to learn how to play once. But she never got into it. She just liked to stand in the background and laugh at us or make odd remarks like "Hey you can't kill my pookie's character! He worked hard on him. I know cause he didn't do any of the chores he was supposed to do!" - Now that I've shared this story I feel slightly concerned with telling all of you my mother call's me pookie. :) |
"Beware the Dream Fever!" |
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Erik Scott de Bie
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
4598 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2013 : 18:24:13
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I played D&D with my parents exactly one time, and basically the only thing I remember is my dad's fighter buying up holy water because it was multi-functional: Damage to undead and hydration in a pinch. Clearly, he was playing a paladin and I just didn't realize it. 
Cheers |
Erik Scott de Bie
'Tis easier to destroy than to create.
Author of a number of Realms novels (GHOSTWALKER, DEPTHS OF MADNESS, and the SHADOWBANE series), contributor to the NEVERWINTER CAMPAIGN GUIDE and SHADOWFELL: GLOOMWROUGHT AND BEYOND, Twitch DM of the Dungeon Scrawlers, currently playing "The Westgate Irregulars" |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2013 : 19:14:25
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| Candlekeep needs a Like button. |
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Darsson Spellmaker
Seeker
56 Posts |
Posted - 05 Jun 2013 : 08:21:57
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At least some of you guys have fond memories of your parents regarding D&D.
Me?
Back when I was in high school, my mom found my copy of the Wheel of Time RPG and confronted me about it. She pointed to the ogier on the cover and pronounced that this was a Satanic book, that it was full of "demon language" that would lead me to "sacrifice puppies in the woods at midnight."
Another time, she saw the cover of my copy of Monsters of Faerun (it's a shadow dragon casting a spell IIRC), and that prompted her to break out with the prayer and holy oil.
I wound up giving my whole D&D collection to my best friend (who was also an RPGer) for safekeeping, for fear of what my mom would do to my books when I wasn't around.
*sigh* Good times. Or, you know, not.
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"Know, O mages, that there is learning, and there is wisdom, and they are very far from being the same thing."--Azuth the High One, Utterances from the Altar: Collected Verbal Manifestations of the Divine and Most Holy Lord of Spells (holy chapbook, assembled by anonymous priests of Azuth circa 1358 DR)
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 05 Jun 2013 : 12:37:57
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| If mom even considered playing D&D I would drop dead from shock. |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
Amazon "KindleUnlimited" Free Trial: http://amzn.to/2AJ4yD2
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36968 Posts |
Posted - 05 Jun 2013 : 13:04:00
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quote:
Originally posted by Darsson Spellmaker
At least some of you guys have fond memories of your parents regarding D&D.
Me?
Back when I was in high school, my mom found my copy of the Wheel of Time RPG and confronted me about it. She pointed to the ogier on the cover and pronounced that this was a Satanic book, that it was full of "demon language" that would lead me to "sacrifice puppies in the woods at midnight."
Another time, she saw the cover of my copy of Monsters of Faerun (it's a shadow dragon casting a spell IIRC), and that prompted her to break out with the prayer and holy oil.
I wound up giving my whole D&D collection to my best friend (who was also an RPGer) for safekeeping, for fear of what my mom would do to my books when I wasn't around.
*sigh* Good times. Or, you know, not.
My dad's second wife was like that. This is what led to the habit I had for many years: putting book covers on all my hardcovers, and keeping everything else in folders. She was strangely blind to D&D stuff when it wasn't obviously D&D stuff. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
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lordsknight185
Learned Scribe
USA
104 Posts |
Posted - 05 Jun 2013 : 22:53:06
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I wish I had experiences like most of you...but coming from a conservative/christian environment, it was more so the lesser latter experiences that I connect with.
My introduction with the forgotten realms and dungeons and dragons was the baldurs gate crpg (my uncle by marriage gave it to me for my 15th birthday, I am 28 now) the only reason this went under the radar was because "dungeons and dragon" was stamped nowhere on the box, and infact it was many years before I realized it was d&d at all. |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 05 Jun 2013 : 23:30:36
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| I've never understood why SOME christians freak out about D&D. Just because you use your brain creatively in a game that may or may not include demons and devils doesn't mean you worship Satan. Wake up people. |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
Amazon "KindleUnlimited" Free Trial: http://amzn.to/2AJ4yD2
Try Audible and Get 2 Free Audio Books! https://amzn.to/2IgBede |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jun 2013 : 18:03:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Entreri3478
I've never understood why SOME christians freak out about D&D. Just because you use your brain creatively in a game that may or may not include demons and devils doesn't mean you worship Satan. Wake up people.
I'm sure this is rhetorical, but I'll comment anyway. I don't want to give the idea that I had a wonderful childhood punctuated by laughter and weekly gaming sessions with my parents. It kinda sounds like none of us had that. Which is sad, and I hope that those of us who have children will introduce our kids to role-playing (D&D or otherwise) at an early age and make happy memories for our kids.
It's the "you are what you associate with" idea that causes problems here. If you let your kids hang out with druggies, they (not invariably, but quite often) become druggies. In general people are influenced by their friends, and it seems more often in negative ways than positive.
There are probably several reasons why conservative folks of various religions condemn D&D and all of its players. One of the big ones is the monsters. Demons and devils are the servants of Satan, and if kids start associating with them, then they're going to be influenced by them. That is apparently a glimpse into the mind of a conservative fearmonger. 
Another is the idea of magic; the fear is that players will start believing in magic and casting spells (taught/granted by Satan, of course) outside of the game. They don't seem to grasp the irony that they have to believe in magic and spells before they can be afraid that their children will believe it's real... so maybe they're the ones who've lost their grasp on reality, rather than their kids? Noooo, the kids are in danger.
I was raised in a pretty fundamentalist, conservative Christian group. They're not violent or suicidal, but they would probably fit most reasonable definitions of a cult. They didn't have a stated position on D&D, and my parents, fortunately for me, were open-minded enough to give D&D a try. The guy who brought the box over and showed us the game was also a member of our "church" and that probably made a big difference.
When my parents put D&D on the top shelf of the closet and tried to quietly forbid me from playing, the monsters were one of the reasons. They said they would be more amiable to D&D if the monsters were removed. I said fine, and that's when I started thinking about political campaigns rather than going out into the wilderness and looking for monsters to slay. There were still monsters, but they were human, and somehow that makes everything okay to these folks. Personally, I would worry more about a kid looking for evil among his own kin and less about someone finding enemies outside his town, but maybe that's a sign that I'm not crazy.
Somewhere in my teens I finally nullified this squeamishness about monsters by pointing out that an adventurer's whole purpose in life is defeating evil and saving people from monsters. I was also utterly immune to peer pressure: my parents had the peace of mind of knowing that I wasn't smoking or drinking anything I wasn't supposed to, which suggested that I was resistant to the "you are what you hang out with" phenomenon that they heard about from other parents.
That left only one objection to D&D: the fact that I spent all my time reading D&D books instead of doing my homework. That wasn't a problem with D&D, but my parents didn't accept my reasoning on that point.
By that point my imagination was dialed up to 11, though, and their taking the books away and forbidding me from playing accomplished zilch.
tl;dr: D&D is about defeating evil; your argument is invalid.  |
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Ze
Learned Scribe
Italy
147 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jun 2013 : 19:03:37
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quote:
Originally posted by xaeyruudh
There were still monsters, but they were human, and somehow that makes everything okay to these folks. Personally, I would worry more about a kid looking for evil among his own kin and less about someone finding enemies outside his town, but maybe that's a sign that I'm not crazy.
Perfectly put.
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classic mom
