I have played D&D all my life and it has helped me form some very strong, lasting friendships. Fortunately, my mother is a librarian and receptive to thinking outside of the box. I have notified here of this program and maybe, just maybe she might consider it. Thanks for the heads up Wil.

Posted by: fatblond at August 29, 2005 01:41 PM

w00t. First post. I've been missing my gaming which happens every other Sunday due to conventions, Ren Fests and the like. Now, I'll just tell my boss I'm going to do research at the library for the day!

Posted by: jslicer at August 29, 2005 01:42 PM

Whoa.. this is totally going to bring out the crazies.

As a librarian, I'm torn, I think it's a great idea, but I really feel for those public librarians who are going to bear the full force of parents who think D&D leads to satan worshipping.

Posted by: Tim at August 29, 2005 01:42 PM

As a librarian, I thank you for mentioning how underappreciated we are.

Posted by: Liz at August 29, 2005 01:52 PM

I will be printing out that page from WOTC and giving to my friends at the local library tommorow. They just had a knights and dragons themed month last month and this would have worked out great! D&D helped me when I was younger get better at doing math off the top of my head as well as wanting to read and write more. I am going to see if I am allowed to DM a game or two in the winter. I hope it doesn't catch flak since it is a smaller town that has alot of a "Christian" influence if you catch my drift....

Posted by: kilnpublications at August 29, 2005 01:53 PM

That is an excellent strategy; there need to be more after-school programs for children these days; there are so many negative influences out there that a program like this would be awesome in helping kids make like-minded friends and actually spending time in a library. Clever clever...

Posted by: J.M. Lankenau at August 29, 2005 01:56 PM

I wonder how the institutionalization of D&D will affect the coolness of it in the minds of the kids who will potentially be playing the game in this library. Part of the appeal of D&D was that, even though it's perfectly wholesome, it has the aura of unwholesomeness about it, and when you're a kid, that makes it seem pretty cool. If it's endorsed by librarians, who to a common kid are part of The Institution and therefore the arbiters of un-cool, how appealing will the game be?

Posted by: popejeremy at August 29, 2005 01:59 PM

Wil:

I started DM'ing D&D games for my son when he turned 10, and he started writing comic books based on the games we played. This is very cool news.

Ever play Paranoia? That's the game system I'm teaching him now.

Posted by: Animeraider at August 29, 2005 02:04 PM

This is awesome! As a hardcore geek that has been playing pnp RPGs for over 16 years (I'm 27) I *wish* they would have had something like this when I was a kid. As a parent, I fully support this idea and think it has a ton of potential. I wonder if they'll have to hire people to DM?

Posted by: Chaz at August 29, 2005 02:16 PM

Oh my gawd. That is SO cool. I'm having some difficulty starting up a group at my college right now. I wish that when I started out in D&D I'd had the kind of resource that a library game would offer. The prospect of a free D&D game for all the little geeks-in-training is awesome!

Posted by: Code Pirate at August 29, 2005 02:18 PM

This truly is an excellent program, and I hope it spurs lots of people to drink Mountain Dew and attack the darkness.

BTW, this: at some kid's house (unsupervised, where they learn how to sigh and roll their eyes more effectively) ... Comedy. Gold.

Posted by: Andrew at August 29, 2005 02:19 PM

I sure hope the fundies don't screw this up. D&D is a great way to encourage kids to be creative, use lateral thinking, excel in math

Posted by: wolfger at August 29, 2005 02:34 PM

Good deal. I cut my teeth on D&D the summer before the first AD&D Players Handbook was published (1978?). A local Parent/Teacher Supply store had Saturday games. 50 cents bought your way in. The DMs were college students (Rice University, Houston, TX). I'm glad to see this idea coming around again as a good, organized activity for young minds.

Posted by: ChuckEye at August 29, 2005 02:34 PM

FWIW, not all fundies are anti-rollplaying. I disagree with them on many issues, but overall they're not as bad as you think.

I attended a Christian high school in the buckle of the Bible belt run by a fundie church (half of my teachers were church deacons or elders _and_ Bob Jones University alums which should tell you something) 15 years ago. I rollplayed with friends during study halls and class breaks all throughout my high school years without any problem from the teachers.

There are some fundies who are anti-fantasy in general and that's what most of them object to in D&D. Show them a non-fantasy RPG and they're much more receptive to the games. Then just don't rub it in their face when you switch to D&D.

Posted by: Taran at August 29, 2005 02:52 PM

This is *SUPER* kewl.

Who's in charge? How can a former DM like myself volunteer?

Posted by: AJ at August 29, 2005 03:09 PM

My husband was the supervising teacher over a D&D club at the highschool in which he teaches. The boys that were in his club still keep in contact though they graduated last year. The club ended a couple years ago in favor of a drama club that my husband also supervised.

Posted by: Becky at August 29, 2005 03:14 PM

I'm a fundy of fundies, but loved D&D as a teenager, and then later on got into Paranoia - hours of manic fun!!! Personally I think this is a great thing; rpgs in general are fantastic tools for interaction and the development of the inmagination. Now, if we could only get them to sponsor stuff here in the UK...

Peter (yes, I remember when "Wizards" were TSR...) O

Posted by: Peter O at August 29, 2005 03:41 PM

How cool! I'm going to contact my library and see if I can get involved. I've been meaning to volunteer anyway, and this is the perfect reminder. Three cheers for WotC.

Posted by: Annika at August 29, 2005 04:00 PM

I can understand Tim's mixed emotions and apprehensions on this. I was a volunteer at both Books-A-Million and Toys-R-Us in Lafayette, LA for several years for Wizard's of the Coast's Pokemon League. It was a great experience for myself and my kids. It encouraged thinking skills, Math skills, and a chance to make new friends and get over shyness. However, on the other side of the coin, once they opened it up to Yu-Gi-Oh League as well, things went downhill. Many of the new kids who showed up early for Yu-Gi-Oh and sat in on Pokemon League, were a bad influence. I personally have nothing against either Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh, however, a lot of the Yu-Gi-Oh teenagers caused lots of trouble including scamming younger kids out of valuable cards, and stealing from the stores. We ended up calling it quits when it got too bad.

Posted by: Sue R at August 29, 2005 04:19 PM

This is, as you say, so so so so so so so way cool. Man, I wish we'd had D&D at the library when I was a kid. We didn't even really have it at school (despite the best attempts of my mates and I, and out home-made magazine ... sigh). Oh man, they really should get that started up over here in the UK.

I do remember White Dwarf magazine doing a mock-up A-Level exam on the subject of role-playing, which I'd love to get another copy of...

Posted by: Markham Eggleton at August 29, 2005 04:23 PM

It's a double edged sword. Although I think it's an excellent idea, I just hope the general public has gotten passed the "Satan Worshipping" aura that's been loosely linked with Roleplaying . . . because it's the ignorant ones who shout the loudest . . . but with that said, maybe Harry Potter has increased the whole sentiment about using ones imagination being actually "cool" among kids . . . I know I wouldn't mind sponsering a gaming session at the library for kids who want to play . . . sparking ones imagination while they are young could change a person's life . . . I saw STAR WARS when I was 5, thank god, because I give that experience credit for sparking my imagination - well, that and living in the country with very few toys other than stick-guns with shoestring slings. :)

-

Posted by: Wil at August 29, 2005 04:23 PM

That is nifty. I know for me, role-playing has been not only a good outlet for imagination, but a means toward making enduring friendships...pretty much all my friends from my undergraduate years who don't live in my area and whom I still keep in touch with are people I'd role-played with.

Posted by: Alun Clewe at August 29, 2005 05:05 PM

I wish that I had something like this when I was a kid. This absolutely beats what most kids do after school.. which is often absolutely nothing. I really do hope that we don't have worried fundies passing out chick tracts in front of libraries.

Posted by: Nemmeran at August 29, 2005 05:46 PM

I also have personal experience on how "fundies" try their hardest to thwart any gaming activities. My family is a bunch of hard core fundamentalists who thought that playing D&D was tantamount to worshipping the devil. I always had to sneak around and play on the sly. Maybe if enough learning institutions get behind this some eyes will be opened. This is one of the coolest things I've heard of in a long time. Please keep us posted on any further developments.

Posted by: Squirrelgnome at August 29, 2005 07:28 PM

Despite the grief they get here and elsewhere, I consider myself a fundamental Christian. However, I don't think of this as a bad thing, as I believe in the fundamental teachings of Christ: in a nutshell, love God and love your neighbor.

I grew up in a Pentecostal denomination--one of the more, shall we say, "fervent" denominations. When I was first introduced to D&D in elementary school, I wasn't sure what to think. I had had this preconceived notion that D&D was evil drilled into my head, so I was wary at first. But then I realized that it was basically just a bunch of kids using their imaginations and telling stories that they shaped with their actions and decisions. The first D&D group I participated in was very story-oriented, and there was very little die rolling or stat checking.

I was hooked immediately, but I didn't tell my parents. When a friend lent me some D&D books to do some research for a character, I had to hide them in my room. One day my mother found the PHB and asked me if I was playing D&D. I said yes. She didn't flip out, but she was concerned, and she suggested that we go talk to the youth pastor about it. Our youth pastor was a really cool guy, so I went along with it.

I don't remember exactly how the conversation went (this was maybe twenty years ago), but he asked me some questions about our sessions and about how I felt about D&D. His conclusion was that there was no problem with kids using their imaginations, as long as I understood that it was a fantasy and had a healthy relationship with it. He was wise enough to know that most well-adjusted kids are quite capable of making the distinction between fantasy and reality.

So, with my youth pastor's blessing, I continued to play D&D into university. Then I moved halfway around the world and haven't played since then (about ten years), but I still look back fondly on my D&D days. I think it's a great idea to have after school D&D in the library. Think of how it could be worked into learning and research exercises! I know I'm thinking like an adult now, but I think I would have had a lot of fun learning like that as a kid.

Sorry for the long comment, but this is my first comment here since the typekey system was installed (I signed up just to post this), and I guess everything just came gushing out.

Posted by: Suho1004 at August 29, 2005 07:36 PM

No, we can't have roleplaying in our schools! Why this might lead the children to think for themselves and start to ask questions, especially about the holes in Intelligent Design theory.



The preceding statement was brought to you by Sarcasm™.



All jokes aside, I highly doubt I'll see this happening in my area of the country. I went to school with a girl who tried to tell me the earth was only 60,000 years old and carbon dating was a farce! She's now teaching at the local middle school. Scary, huh? The only thing that goes on either before school or after school in my old high school are bible study meetings in certain teachers' classrooms. *shudder* Yes, there are still people who tie D&D into Satanism. Heck, I knew people whose grandparents had a cow that they had a deck of regular old playing cards! They were tools of the devil.



Fortunately for my son, we're moving out of here before he starts his education (he's only 18 months old). Maybe I'll push to have an afterschool D&D program when we move. :)

Posted by: Jade at August 29, 2005 07:44 PM

Wowza wow.
that is excellent for the game and the kids. I remember playing (since 1980, I AM old) in my high school basement every lunch hour. A group of fundie parents were all in an uproar as well as a few who saw the cheesy movie "Mazes and Monsters". Our principal was a decent (and intelligent) guy who took me aside and actually asked me to explain the game to him. I assured him that no, we did not think the characters were real and no in the game we did not worship Baelzebub, but in fact fought (pretend, I was on the ball enough to say PRETEND) evil. We were allowed to continue. He even sat in on a game.

(sigh) I miss playing... Then again, there is always Neverwinter nights!!!

Posted by: gorthos at August 29, 2005 08:10 PM

Back in the early 80s, when I played D&D in the lounge at the student union, we'd get the "Campus Crusade" folks coming around to hassle us. They'd always wander off confused, though, when they found out that the two guys who'd started the group had met at Bible Study, and one was a Doctor of Divinity!

This new program may provide a little more work for Mike Stackpole and GAMA's Industry Watch, but remember, it's no longer a niche company like TSR promoting D&D, but Hasbro - the same folks that bring you Mr. Potato Head and Monopoly . . .

Posted by: robespierrette at August 29, 2005 08:27 PM

You know, you could do a _double_ volunteer and DM an adventure then teach a creative writing workshop based on the adventure you've just written, maybe even for kids, maybe even leading them to write their own fantasy stories as a result. That should up the literary value to the library, and make the whole idea more attractive. And it should drive you to make sure you have a top-drawer idea, besides.

For your next community service, use role-playing to springboard into an improv workshop. The possibilities are profound.

Posted by: AccordionDad at August 29, 2005 08:32 PM

my 17 year old sister is an aspiring librarian :)

i wonder what the world would be like without librarians?

Posted by: nkicroft at August 29, 2005 09:02 PM

Geez and to think that back when I was in school they were considering banning D&D. (Too many news articles about kids committing suicide.)

Posted by: SRF at August 29, 2005 10:14 PM

Reading this post reminded me... a friend of mine who is a linguistics major gave me this site and I find it facinating... this guy is doing his doctoral dissertation on the sociolinguistics of D&D. I heart scholarly discourse on geekyness.... makes me excited to do my anthropological study of IRC! Anyways, the link is: http://homepages.nyu.edu/~knl201/diss.html

Posted by: Kethryvis at August 29, 2005 11:09 PM

to all who are afraid of the fundies attacking it:
i grew up in texas where the fundies were always throwing a fit about d&d. (i'm still shocked my mom let me play.) i just showed them my character sheet -- my god on record was 'yahweh' and i usually played lawful good type characters.
the game is what you make it.

i used to invite the ultra-christian parents over to a game i ran -- just for the ultra-christian types -- that was based on the old testament. not quite as fun as dungeoning, but it worked and it was interesting in a different way.
most of those parents shut up after that.

prolly won't work for everyone, but it's certainly worth a shot.

ender

Posted by: enderFP at August 30, 2005 05:17 AM

thanks Wil for this wonderful post about D&D

Posted by: Master Foley at August 30, 2005 07:59 AM

man I was so scared of D&D because I just didn't want to reach that level of geek-dom as teenager

I probably missed out on some good solid fun, and I did buy the book and make some characters... just never got into a game.

Posted by: Jabbertrack at August 30, 2005 08:57 AM

Wil - this is great! I have a friend who is the big boss at her local public library... I'm sending her the link now!

Posted by: jadeddo at August 30, 2005 09:30 AM

As an enthusiastic college librarian it warms a budget ravaged heart to read your kind words regarding our great profession. We are information tour guides shining torches in a vast fog of facts and data. We are more important now than ever before. However we are under appreciated, under staffed and under budgeted. Thanks for remembering us and appreciating us on your blog. Please visit your local library - its all for free!!!

Posted by: Joanna Neon at August 30, 2005 09:34 AM

Hey now.... let's keep a couple of important things in mind:

1. Closed-mindedness, whether inspired by blind adherance to religious principles or other causes, is not limited to fundies, religious or otherwise.

2. Just because someone is a Christian (and as a Catholic, I'm a Christian in spite of what some other fundies might think ), doesn't mean they're anti-fantasy!

3. D&D roolz!

4. Libraries rool!

5. This is a great idea. Anything that gets the kids into something that makes their imagination grow and forces them to THINK is super.

Posted by: fgw_three at August 30, 2005 12:45 PM

I agree with Ender FP and Suho1004. Churches need not be afraid of D&D. Given enough thought, churches and faiths could INTERATE D&D with their youth programs. Wizards of the Coast or some appoved entity could create "modules" where characters play Christians of the time and have to work out spiritual problems:

--Noah needs to get these animals in the Ark fast! Anyone got a Bag of Holding?

--Players play Jesus or Moses and get experience points based on reacting to Biblical situations like Christ, or Moses. A literal "What would Jesus do"?

--"Well David it looks like you got a natural 20 on your "to Hit" roll against Goliath. Goliath drops where he stands. Saul doesn't look overjoyed though....

(can you tell I played 1st Edition AD&D?)

Roll playing is what you make it, and this could be an oportunity for not just libraries but CHURCHES to benefit from D&D's brand of potential youth Bible study.

Posted by: CaptainNaraht at August 30, 2005 04:43 PM

CaptainNaraht: Actually, there was a Christian fantasy roleplaying game that came out quite a few years ago. I don't know if it's still in print (and I can't really remember the name... Dragon something or other. A googling for "christian rpg" brings up something called "Holy Lands," which sounds interesting, but is not the game I remembered), but it was very well thought out and integrated with Christian theology. Some of the things I remember were that the various armor and attack values were tied to the "armor of God" passage in Ephesians 6. Also, players memorized Bible verses rather than spells, and used them to invoke certain promises of God. I know that some Christians had a problem with the game, because they felt that it was a distortion of Christianity (for example, they felt that it was wrong to teach kids that Bible verses were like spells--which isn't what the game taught, just what they thought it taught), but you're always going to have people like that. I thought it was a very admirable effort.

D&D or no, some Christians will always be opposed to fantasy and roleplaying. They don't believe there is such a thing as Christian fantasy or Christian roleplaying (like some people don't believe that there can be such a thing as Christian rock music, since rock music is a tool of Satan).

Posted by: Suho1004 at August 30, 2005 07:24 PM

As one of the world's underappreciated librarians (and a high school one at that), I'm always glad to see that someone likes us, and doesn't think we're just lean, mean shushing machines. I personally don't grok D&D, but kudos to any librarians willing to take this on!

Posted by: littlenicola at August 31, 2005 10:17 AM

I have a wonderful little license plate on my 97 Green Jimmie. It says,

JESUS SAVES,
Everyone else takes 235 points of damage.

the cool thing is, alot of the local bible thumpers only see the Jesus SAves part and start thanking me for standing up for Jesus.

that just goes to show that "they" see only what they want to see.

now then back to work, where is my +2 ink pen of speed ? damn I knew I should have memorized a locate spell before I went to sleep last night.

troy

Posted by: troyleenall at September 1, 2005 10:12 AM

WotC asked several librarians for input when they were getting this kit going - mainly on an email list devoted to YA literature. I played D&D in the library many years ago (in the - ulp - 70s) and it was a great place to play. The staff tolerated us fairly well, and I try to pass that experience on where I work now, not only by tolerating, but by running games in the summer.

I think a lot of the "D&D is Satanism in disguise" was over by the 90s. On the other hand, there are still scary articles out there - Google D&D and Satanism and you'll be able to see for yourself. I also urge you to judge for yourself ... one article states "Contrary to the ramblings of D&D defenders like Michael Stackpole, the Necronomicon and the Cthulhu mythos are quite real." Well, now I know! (Stackpole, by the way, debunked a lot of the claims made by fearmongers about D&D, and is the same Mike Stackpole who has written a couple of Star Wars books, in addition to his own fantasy work.)

--Ian

Posted by: kitharion at September 2, 2005 10:06 AM

As a Librarian, I say thank you, Wil.
Glad somebody appreciates us.

Posted by: crystal at September 4, 2005 08:31 PM

Heh, I used to play D&D in the public library with my friends in high school, and the librarians hated it. Of course, we always got loud and obnoxious and some point.

Anyway, this is great to see!

Posted by: Jim at September 6, 2005 12:55 PM