Customer Reviews

Playing with Fire: Dungeons and Dragons, Tunnels and Trolls, Chivalry and Sorcery, and other Fantasy Games

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Quite simply, just reactionary foolishness from people who ought to know better but are hopelessly lost in religion. As an earlier reviewer mentioned, at least they have read through the material, but they don't understand the games. Very dated. Pretty much useless. The only reason I even saw the book was a local library had a copy. I certainly would never buy it.

I am a life time gamer (over 20 years), and believe it or not a committed Christian. However, unlike many Christians I seem to be able to separate reality from fantasy. I came across this book when I was doing a research paper at ORU (a major Christian university) defending RPGs. Most of the anti-gaming material I found, like "A READER" says are silly and seem to use each other as "sources." However, in defense of this text it has the advantage that the authors actually read the material that they are commenting on, and list more specific problems with D&D then just "it has magic in it!" or "it mentions demons!" A refreshing change. However, the book does have one glaring problem when facing the current RPG market: it is dated. The only game it talks about is D&D, but fails to mention newer games such as Rifts, GURPS, or Vampire: the Masquerade. They also fail to touch on the growing market in computerized RPGs. But as Christian books on D&D go, this is one of the better quality, academically speaking, books on the market.

I am a Christian and have been an avid RPG gamer for years. I have not converted to Satanism, have never once tried to cast a "real" spell, and I am a well-adjusted husband and father. I don't think that God will send anyone to Hell for using their imagination. This is the work of fundamentalists that live in a century where we can no longer burn "witches," so they try to burn books instead. Can we please focus on more important things in this world, and leave games alone? Sooo glad this garbage is out of print. I hope the silly Jack Chick pamphlets go out of print as well.

I totally agree with the review above. How can people trash D&D if they have never even played it. I atually find reading some of this material quite amusing. The authors of these books are uninformed and don't take the time to actually look at the game.

Basically this book has not given any values to a hobby so loved and played all over the world. A game that explores imagination, promotes arithematics, writing and literacy cannot be more bad then doing drugs and guns.

This a game and pursuit, and like violent computer games who has their fair share of blame when it comes to teenagers going on a shooting spree, cult worship, satanism has been linked time again to RPGs.

Whether as matured adults or teenagers, moderation is important along our education, and so is guidance. IF your kids is doing RPGs and you have no idea..it is bad..if they are reading it and you are not providing guidance and dismissed it straight away, they might even go underground and become more rebellious, and this is bad...

If something is not of your taste then don't do it, but dont kill people because they dont share the same vision as you.

I am ereding and collecting all this ANTI d&d literature trying to understand how they can ALL be so wrong. There are two good explanations, These authors never learn how to play the game from the rulebooks. They simply quote each others nonsense. Playing With Fire has the "advantage" of putting all the ridiculous and erroneous comments about D&D in one place.

I had this thrown at me when I was 18 - and in a pastor training program at a fanatic fundementalist christian church. After years of civil arguments, I brought the rule books for Dungeons and Dragons in to my pastor and told him, "These are the rules to the game you've been mindlessly condemning for a decade. We're having a game this Saturday and Im inviting you. I wont tell anybody who you are or what you do. We will probably eat evil pizza and drink evil Coca-cola, and perhaps cuss a bit. Aside from that, there isnt anything satanic or evil about this game other than what free-thinking, creative people make of it, which clearly threatens you. So why dont you read the books, come see the game, and decide with an open mind whether or not this game is the threat to your youth groups you insist it is without any education or evidence whatsoever. IF after that, you have a valid argument, I'll listen."

My pastor took one look at the books, and the Dungeon Master's Guide was on top - it depicts a middle eastern Effreet (genie, demon) doing battle against a group of knights and wizards. (By the way, every work of art from DaVinci to Dore, who illustrated the bible, to Meobius depicts the same thing). He slammed his finger down on the cover and said, "Thats Satan! I wont have anything to do with this game." He *literally* judged a book by its cover. I left the church that afternoon. There were other harsh words and feelings, but essentially, he chose to be mindless. Many off the deep end Christians would applaud him (also from the same church), but I feel safe in saying that Jesus would have gone to the game, played, had fun, and enjoyed it. He did, after all, hang out with hookers, politicians, and lawyers. (What would Jesus do? LOL)

So these books telling everybody that if they play this game they are going to hell amounts to the same thing the church has been doing for ten thousand years: controlling the masses through fear, threats, and guilt. If anybody were to have fun at anything like a game (instead of say, booze or drugs or crime) they might get a hint of intelligence and open-mindedness. A panic-worthy threat to these control freaks.

This book is a biased piece of propaganda, no better than Nazi-era textbooks given to kids that told them jews were evil. Maybe they read the books, but they sure didnt have open minds by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, my pastor used to say, "IF your mind is open, Satan will pour a bunch of trash into it."

I used to be into this sort of thing (D&D, etc.) and now that I know better, and have truly found my way home to God, I am not only repentant of what I have done, but also, I feel it is necessary to tell others about the dangers. PLEASE, don't allow D&D and similarly themed things into your home. I wish my parents had taken a stronger stand. This is a good book. I am Catholic, the book is from a Protestant perspective. If you value your soul and your children's souls: READ THIS BOOK AND HEED THIS BOOK!