You’re in the basement of a friend’s house, sitting around a table, and all of a sudden you’re hit with a spell or by a person, creature, plant, angel or demon.
You have just entered the realm of the Role-Playing Game (RPG) campaign. You are the actor, strong with your friends, potentially ignored by everyone else other than friends and family. You are a gamer.
Let us begin by going over the normal stereotypes that some gamers are showered with. People who play games within the likes of Dungeons and Dragons may often be accused of being involved in the occult. There is also an allegation of drug use that pops up on occasion. It is either any of those statements or we are just generally insane.
However, that is not necessarily true. Gamers are a group of people who are interested in various facets of life and existence. Gamers are creative people. Without the gamers within the realm of D&D, Magic: The Gathering or the World of Darkness spin-offs (Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, etc.), the story-lines in some of the console or PC games we have now probably would never have come into being.
While there definitely are aspects of the occult in table-top or live-action RPGs, they don’t endorse participation in the occult. Sorcery is merely a part of the story in which the player or character might be a magic user.
Table-top or live-action RPGs are pretty much the equivalent of theatre. You have a role. You play it until your character in that play/campaign is dead or until the campaign ends in defeat or victory. You interact with other characters in the game, live out your character’s life and mold him/her as you proceed.
The scenes in which the story takes place are described verbally. One need not be in a dark room, tunnel, or in any real surrounding area described to play.
Dungeons & Dragons sets aside a save haven for those who wish to dance on the side of fantasy, even though many are well-grounded in reality. Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf are some Live Actions Role Playing (LARPs) games out there which allow you to go through your characters normal life with basic challenges. These challenges are either met or failed by most likely through a game of paper-rock-scissors, rather than actually biting someone, killing someone, drinking literal blood or other things which might pop up in the game. As for drugs, World of Darkness games come with the disclaimer that drugs are not necessary to be able to further the game.
Games like Magic: The Gathering, is pretty much the same thing play although it is much quicker, more streamlined, and in card form. You and your opponents are both planeswalkers and you duel. Each game ends when either you or your opponent runs out of life points or cards in their deck.
Yes there can be draws. In terms of MTG, it’s understandable why there would be some reservations about the occult. You are able to summon zombies, plants, animals, demons, shadows and humans to fight in your army or just beat down on your opponent with artifice or arcane sorcery spells.
Is there any real problem with things like RPGs of different sorts? No, not really. One just needs to be able to approach them with an open mind rather than shutting out the possibilities.
People like movies. People like theatre. RPGs just are an extension of that into the social groups who play them.