Mr. Topp and the Big Bad Blog

In 2004, Wisconsin prisons banned the playing of D&D. Earlier this week, an appeals court upheld the decision, and I have spent several days mulling this over in my head.

The rationale used for banning the game is that it forms a gang-like structure. It creates a close-knit group of players with a clear-cut person in charge (the DM), and that the violent fantasy basis of the game could lead to a divorce between fantasy and reality with violent repercussions.

Usually, I would simply scoff at this, but the ruling states that punishment is a fundamental aspect of imprisonment, and prisons may choose to punish inmates by preventing them from participating in some of their favorite recreations. No arguments here. I would not expect to be able to engage in all the recreation I currently enjoy were I in prison. Skiing, for example, would quite clearly be out.

But what of their actual arguments? Again, worrying about gang-forming and violent behaviour seems ridiculous when formed outside of prison, but inside prison could be a different manner. These are, presumably, people who have already been convicted of such behaviour and incarcerated for it.

However, the Wisconsin government has admitted that there appears to be no link between roleplaying games and increased violence or gang activity in prison — that being “divorced from reality” is not particularly induced by roleplaying games. People in such a state should be in a mental institution, not a regular prison. There are many books that could also encourage such escapism, but books are not banned — unless they contain rules for a roleplaying game. Or a shiv.

Still, that does not mean that roleplaying ought to be allowed — prison is a place for punishment, after all. However, here at the Big Bad Blog we do not understand how taking away a creative non-violent outlet from prisoners is productive to their rehabilitation; a prisoner writing a 96-page manuscript for a D&D game scenario that he hopes to run for other prisoners is doing something positive, non-violent, and for other people.

In other words, if the world inside a prison turns out not to be so entirely crazy that a D&D group turns into a gang, running a roleplaying game for other prisoners would seem to be the sort of behaviour that prisons should be encouraging, not prohibiting. These inmates will, after all, be freed eventually.

Of course, with the manner in which Wisconsin has phrased their roleplaying ban — it is not simply a ban on any sort of collective make-believe — diceless systems like Amber which depend on few stats could still be used. Inmates simply need to keep track of everything in their heads and talk.

Wisconsin prisons — and the court — seem to be missing that, at its core, roleplaying is simply pretending to be somebody else in a collective, storytelling, environment. Dice, papers, 96-page-plans, rulebooks and character sheets are just tools that make it easier. Two like-minded people free to converse can roleplay, anytime, anywhere.

Hence their ban — that inmates are not allowed to engage in or possess written material that details rules, codes, dogma of games/activities such as ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ because it promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling — is pointless. The activity is still permitted, so long as they do not have a rulebook for it.

Seems odd, does it not? A prison will allow prisoners to play, so long as they do not play by the rules …

The final verdict? Legal, but dumb.

Sources
BoingBoing
Inside Bay Area
New York Daily News
The Volokh Conspiracy

Photograph: Roleplaying Pro

observations and opinions, roleplaying D&D, dungeons and dragons, inmates, law, prisoners, prisons, punishment, rehabilitation, roleplaying, wisconsin

One year ago, Mr. Topp started a D&D 4E campaign for his friends. His players have all done little to no roleplaying prior to joining the game — Mr. Topp’s first experience with an entirely novice group since childhood.

We hope it makes sense to people who are not in the game itself.

It has been one year since the Big Bad Blogger has brought us new, rag-tag bunch of role players together.  I wasn’t exactly a virgin to the land of Dungeons and Dragons but I was certainly inexperienced.  My only adventure to date was when I was 16 in high school.  Our game play lasted about 4 sessions before degrading into watching strange videos brought in by our DM and generally devolving into random conversation.  I recall that my character was a mage of some sort and that our entire band of people was cursed.  The DM and most of the other players were in grade 12 and so there was a bit of an intimidation factor going on.

With this game I had a better understanding of what D&D was.  My knowledge was basically from general pop culture references and also knowing some others interested in role playing.  Still, there is a lot of input from general experience in game play that was missing.  It is easy enough to say I know what the rules are but interpreting events, goals and the actions of other characters is easier said than done.

My main concern with starting out was ‘Holy crap, I don’t want to die.’  I think this was reflected by most of those playing.  We were VERY tentative with our actions; coming up with elaborate and ridiculous plots and schemes to get us out of tough situations, which then turned out really not to be as dire as we thought.  The turning point, I think, came after our first actual skirmish.  Time for the Dice.    Within that skirmish, you figure out how everything works and the feel of the game begins to take shape and make sense.  It answered questions and sort of broke that initial tension.   We kind of knew how to handle things, what all these skills and feats were for and how to use them in a fight.  Also, how fickle a mistress the dice can be.

I should perhaps mention my character.  I wanted to be a bastard.  This was my goal, no namby pampy mage person this time. No. I was a half-elf/human, bastard son abandoned in the forest.  A rogue, thief, liar, perhaps a bit of a coward but a fun person to play.  One of my favourite moments was when A. was guest playing one day.  Her father had been kidnapped and we were supposed to rescue him.  My response, “how much do you love your father?”  Not really taken with the idea of going to rescue him.  Another when we had almost finished our first major goal in the game but were all dying very quick.  There were mages on our asses and every turn we were losing HP.  Two of our group decided to fight, I decided to get the hell out of dodge.  Screw ‘em, they are dead.   I did the noble thing and help rescue them though, so I guess I’m not all bad.

The best part of the game is the humour that Mr. Topp interjects into the game play.  Sometimes, his characters that pop up from time to time to give us advice, send us on errands or that we have to defeat are a bit intimidating but in different ways.  There are the Baddies, who are generally difficult to defeat or we have to figure out a way to steal stuff from them but then there are the one’s that are a bit…well…you don’t know why they are helping you.   My favourite character by far is Bob.  He’s a bartender in a bar that seems to be in all places at all times.  We often end up in Bearclaw and the bit of banter enters the surreal.  It’s never a dull moment with Bob.  It is many of those kinds of details that keep me interested in the game.  I like to get a sense of the entire world and Mr. Topp has more than supplied enough richness and detail in the world for my imagination to invest in.

I think as a group we have gained some more confidence but are still hesitant in some of our actions.  We are all over the fights and skirmishes but when it comes to overall strategy and plans we are more lost, sort of flying by the seat of your pants gaming.  We go where we are chased out of, fleeing from or sent on a mission to without much kind of real idea of why we made that decision.  However, I think we have a definite feel for our characters and genuinely do like playing them and interacting with each other in the game.

We’ll see what happens in year two.  Will we get the Orb?  WILL WE? All I know is we are going to Germany and everyone has paid me back the gold I lent them.  I have shuriken and enough arrows to last me awhile.  I’m a bit afraid of G.’s Axe as it seems to be possessing him and making him insane but we’ll jump that hurdle when we get to it.  Onward to year two!

roleplaying 4e, D&D, dungeons and dragons, fourth edition, learning to roleplay, new players

Guestblogger Curgoth here again on the RPG beat.

This time around, I’d like to talk about “monster races”.  Orcs, Kobolds, Drow, Dragons, Trolls and their ilk.  Entire species whose ecological niche is being antagonists to adventurers and heroes.

It is my contention, dear readers, that any campaign (D&D or other game), should have only a handful of monster races.  Too many monsters, I feel, disrupts the narrative flow of the game.  Compare the average D&D game to your favourite fantasy series.

The Lord of Rings has  wargs, goblins, orcs, ringwraiths, wights, fell beasts, balrogs  and trolls.  Middle Earth has dragons, but none appear in LotR.  Not including Sauron, that’s eight.  Even if we include elves, dwarves, olyphants and Tom Bombadil (hey, *I* wanted to kill him), that’s only an even dozen, over a beefy trilogy.

Compare this to even one volume of the D&D Monster Manual, or just one published adventure.  Lots and lots of monsters.  This is fine if your play style is hack n’ slash – in a dungeon crawl, the dramatic tension is created by the wacky monsters the PCs find and hack to bits.  If you’re looking to create a larger story arc, though, narrowing it down will have the PCs feeling like there’s something big going on that they’re involved in.

This doesn’t mean every encounter has to be the same – sure, units of orc shock troops to mow down are fun, but having specialized orc units as the PCs get more powerful gives them more involvement in the great orcish invasion of the kingdom.  As the PCs realize that a lot of their opponents are working together to some common (and nefarious!) goal, they get an idea that there is more at stake than the local village and the reward they posted for the rescue of their prize cow.

It also goes some way to reinforcing the believability of the setting.  A single world can only support so many critters – there are a limited number of ecological niches, and even goblins need to eat more than they can forage unless they have an isolated area to hunt and gather in.

To sum up, my recommendation is to keep it down to a dozen or so types of enemy, and your story will thrive.  Overdo it, and your epic battle for the universe may devolve into “what the hell is a slaad?!”

roleplaying D&D, dungeons and dragons, lord of the rings, monsters, roleplaying, Tom Bombadil

Hello, Kitty indeed! Mrowr! When I first looked at the photos behind that link, it made me think that somebody was starting up a Hello Kitty themed airline with fetish/Hello Kitty stewardesses. Yes. My mind thinks strange things sometimes. That is also why you either should, or should not, click on the link.

(by Mario Armas)

Care to skydive without a parachute? Apparently it’s a thing.

Were people ever really this insane when it came to Dungeons and Dragons? (Or, as described in the video “The D&D phenomenon”.) Today, D&D and its ilk is associated with intelligent people socializing awkwardly — which is not too far wrong, to be honest. But a fount of evil in our schools, corrupting the young? Really?

morning coffee airlines, borked planet, D&D, darth vader, dungeons and dragons, evil, fetish, hello kitty, hot air balloons, latex, parachutes, roleplaying, skydiving, star wars, stewardesses, wings