What is the weirdest thing you've been asked about pen and paper gaming when it's come up in conversation with people who don't really know what it is?
(I have no stories because pretty much everyone I know plays...including my parents.)
Whether or not I'm worried about going to jail for doing something illegal.
Ahh, the good old moral-panics of the 1980's. MADD - Mother's Against Dungeons & Dragons.
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What is the weirdest thing you've been asked about pen and paper gaming when it's come up in conversation with people who don't really know what it is?
(I have no stories because pretty much everyone I know plays...including my parents.)
The usual, "Do you dress in costumes?" and "Have you killed your parents?" (back in the 80's... to which I always would respond, "Not THESE parents." It was true, after all...)
But the BEST question I was ever asked came back when Shadowrun was a new game. I was an electrician all those years ago. At lunch, I sat in our usual room with the new Street Sam's catalog which was meant to look like a catalog of weapons for your Shadowrun character.
I'd already been seen as the "you shouldn't be here" type because... well... not to toot my own horn too much but they said I was too smart. I was building the training school's databases and network, etc. They all said I should be doing that for a living (which was eventually prophetic).
So when they saw me reading a book, it was typical. My foreman came over to see what I was reading (I didn't see him) and his jaw hit the floor. All he saw were pages and pages with pictures of guns and highlighted text from people commenting on their own experience with the weapon. "WTF are you reading????"
Not really putting together what he'd actually seen and just figuring he was making fun of me for having a book on the job, my answer, "Its for a hobby of mine." did not make things any better...
...but weirdest inquiries usually assume tabletop is the same as LARP
This became so standard that I now preface the conversation with something along the lines of "there's no replica armor or weapons, just character sheets, dice, and a mountain of notes".
If I wear a wizard hat while I play. Also my mother thought that it was evil at first. Then I got into the hobby and she was happy that I was playing it. After all it makes me happy and I have a lot more friends because of it.
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-While playing on an open concrete pad in front of an enormous drainage pipe-
-Voice from a few blocks up echoing down- "What are you guys doing down there?
Response- (which keep in mind, to them sounded like it was comming out of a sewer grate) Playing dungeons and dragons.
"Isn't that worshiping satan?"
Player 1 starts into the usual no its just a game,
My response, echoing down the sewer with what i must say was a rather impressive reverb
"Dennstaedtia punctilobula Amanita phalloides ix neris draconis BRING ON THE VIRGINS!"
-While playing on an open concrete pad in front of an enormous drainage pipe-
I've played in some interesting places, but you guys were kickin' it homeless style.
I love it
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Being yet another veteran of the moral panic of the '80s, I've heard many, many weird things. Some things were asked more tongue-in-cheek. Some were straight up crazy. Sometimes it was hard to tell what the person was after.
But to throw a few out...
The mother of one girlfriend asked if that (D&D) wasn't "that game that causes kids to kill their parents with an axe?" I thought she was kidding, but she turned deathly serious, and swore she had read it in an article in the newspaper. After discussing it, she decided that maybe she had not read it herself, but maybe a friend told her about the article, and so on... She removed herself more and more from the article as she came to her senses.
Another girlfriend's mother just straight out thought the game was "satanic," but she didn't try hard to stop us from playing. What was funny about it was that she pronounced the word "sa-tonic." Like an elixir or something.
I've had born-agains calmly advise me about the repercussions for my soul. I had one lady ask me what I was writing, only to make an outraged face and shout out, "I would NEVER let my son play those horrible games!" when I told her. (Well, then don't ask me what I'm doing when I'm writing on my lunch hour.)
I remember somebody advising that I was never going to have a date in my life. Thanks, but by then I was working on the end of my third or fourth long-term relationship (not to mention the years I spent in a rock band; 'nuff said).
Sometimes I paint models on my lunch hour, when I'm pressed for time or doing something up to sell at a con. Two times now, two different idiot twenty-something temps have walked into the break room, taken a look, and mentioned the Forty-Year-Old Virgin. My response on one of those occasions? "I'm somebody's dad, which means there's proof I've procreated. How about you? Any proof?" Childish, I know, but oddly satisfying.
And after 26 years of trying, I still don't know what I'm doing wrong when I play... no suicide, no summoned demons, no throngs of mind-controlled chickies.
That's because you're doing it wrong. ;)
I think that the weirdest thing I was ever asked was "You know this isn't real, right?" And it was about an anthology of short stories based on an RPG. Which had "Fiction" written on the spine.
Of course, once I assured my mother that I knew that it wasn't, pointed out that it was no different than any other fiction out there, and asked if she wanted to read it to see if she thought it was appropriate for me to be reading at 13 she realized that there wasn't really anything to worry about. When I actually started gaming she even made snacks and meals for the group.
Whether or not I'm worried about going to jail for doing something illegal.
Ahh, the good old moral-panics of the 1980's. MADD - Mother's Against Dungeons & Dragons.
Actually, that's BADD -- Bothered about Dungeons and Dragons.
MADD is Mothers against Drinking and Driving -- I'm not bothered my them. :D
Two times now, two different idiot twenty-something temps have walked into the break room, taken a look, and mentioned the Forty-Year-Old Virgin. My response on one of those occasions? "I'm somebody's dad, which means there's proof I've procreated. How about you? Any proof?" Childish, I know, but oddly satisfying.
Oh so true. The funny thing is that of the 7 people in my gaming group, 6 are in healthy long term relationships (4 being married).
The strangest thing I have encountered, is we play Pathfinder at a local pizza place, and they were super nice, no strange looks, no peeking around corners, they were super nice to us. they even make a cute little sign for us, saying "reserved for dnd" I keep expecting them to make fun of us or be mean to us.
if they ask i usually give them this video here
When my sister was 18, she came over to watch movies. I had the dinner table set up still from our weekend game, hexmap with rooms drawn and miniatures on it. She asked me "Whoa! You make your own Monopoly?" I told her "No, it's more a version of Life, just a little more complicated."
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My mother once asked about whether or not D&D had anything to do with devil worship. I told her that it didn't, showed her the materials, and offered to let her sit in on a game. She accepted and, after only about a half hour of watching, she stated that she didn't "understand what everyone was so upset about."
Turns out, D&D had been brought up as a "gateway" to Satanism at her church. She took the information and experience I provided to the pastor, told him, essentially, that he was wrong, and effectively cleared D&D's name with that congregation (this was the early 90s).
The strangest thing I have encountered, is we play Pathfinder at a local pizza place, and they were super nice, no strange looks, no peeking around corners, they were super nice to us. they even make a cute little sign for us, saying "reserved for dnd" I keep expecting them to make fun of us or be mean to us.
Yep, I've found if you order and pay for their food services (and take care of any servers) and don't take up tables during peak times, they're unfailingly polite -- and not especially narrow-minded.
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Whether or not I'm worried about going to jail for doing something illegal.
Ahh, the good old moral-panics of the 1980's. MADD - Mother's Against Dungeons & Dragons.
Actually, that's BADD -- Bothered about Dungeons and Dragons.
MADD is Mothers against Drinking and Driving -- I'm not bothered my them. :D
And then there's DAMM - Drunks Against Mad Mothers
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My mother once asked about whether or not D&D had anything to do with devil worship. I told her that it didn't, showed her the materials, and offered to let her sit in on a game. She accepted and, after only about a half hour of watching, she stated that she didn't "understand what everyone was so upset about."
I didn't get into roleplaying till my late teens. When my mom found out I was into roleplaying, she was very concerned, because she had seen "Monsters and Mazes"...
So, while my friends and I were playing in the basement, she came down to "confront" us...and we were playing Robotech.
Had the repair guy come to fix something in the apartment. He left a note about the repair, and left another note on my D&D books: "You need to quit Satan and look to the Lord!"
I think it only gets weird if you try to explain it. I do this sometimes at work to my neighbor in the cube next to me. ....."hey did you hear about the latest big thing on the forum? they are arguing about bear traps! (i laugh) he looks puzzled.."yeah so"
this guy is trying to put bear traps on his hammer what a weirdo yeah?
my neighbor: i don't get it
me: a long explanation of craft weapon and why beartrap mauls would be broken or not broken
My neighbor: .....I am going to get back to work now
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I didn't get anything really weird from my family. My parents read the books and did research on the game before they would let me play since they had heard some odd rumors (it was the 80's, but once they did their homework they found out it was mostly harmless.
That being said I've had some weird questions from others such as (and my responses);
"Do you sacrifice virgins?"
Not in the way you're thinking about.
"Do you actually have a magic sword?"
No, but if I get one you'll be the first to find out.
"Wow, you look less psychotic/suicidal/anti-social then I expected."
Yeah, but it's early. Give me a few minutes to get up to speed.
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My wife's cousin asked me one time if we ran around in fields in our underwear playing with swords.
My aunt asked me if that was the game where you killed your parents.
A friend of mine in my group wanted to game at his house one evening. We didn't particularly care, so we told him to run it by his mom. He went to the same church as me, and when he asked her she told him that since she knew us all from church she guessed it would be alright as long as we didn't sacrifice any goats. He laughed and told her that we weren't up to goats yet, we were still on chickens. She didn't laugh.
Had the repair guy come to fix something in the apartment. He left a note about the repair, and left another note on my D&D books: "You need to quit Satan and look to the Lord!"
I had a repair guy do the same on a book of mormon I had laying out.
No, I'm not a mormon, it was a dare.
The oddest one I was ever asked was, "So you never gotten laid before, then?" What made this really strange was that my 6 year old daughter (4 at the time) was hanging out with us while we played.
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And then there's DAMM - Drunks Against Mad Mothers
Okay, so this is what it feels like.
People have asked me if I realized what it was like to be offended by what other people say off-handedly on the Boards, what with my pretty ruthless attacks against right-wingers and WotC and a few other groups I, er, don't support.
Now I know what it's like to be offended by someone else's off-handed, insensitive remark.
Hmmm, doesn't make me less pissed.
Hmmm, not sure if I could actually stop my own insensitive remarks against right-wingers, child molesters, WotC or racists.
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I would have to say and this was only a couple of years ago. i was in a book store forget which one and looking at a DnD book. This boy was nearby maybe 10ish not sure how old. He leans down to look at the cover and then asks me.
"Is that the game about Harry Potter, you know the one with wizards and dragons and stuff?"
I could decided if I wanted to weep or laugh. Instead I just told him sorta, which lead to a discussion on what the differences was.
Another girlfriend's mother just straight out thought the game was "satanic," but she didn't try hard to stop us from playing. What was funny about it was that she pronounced the word "sa-tonic." Like an elixir or something.
The gruff dwarf staggers into the tavern... "Barkeep! Gimme a gin & satanic!"
I introduced several friends to D&D, one took it back to his university and started the D&D game at Oral Roberts U. Ack!
He passed it off as something between opposition research and a training class!
Is that the game about Harry Potter, you know the one with wizards and dragons and stuff?
-Could be worse. When i was working at a nature center giving a tour I had a girl say out of the blue "You look like Hagrid"
I had a friend once come up to me and ask me (word for word):
"Hey, have you ever heard of a game called Balder's Gate? It's just like that D&D game you play, except less satanic."
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Had the repair guy come to fix something in the apartment. He left a note about the repair, and left another note on my D&D books: "You need to quit Satan and look to the Lord!"I had a repair guy do the same on a book of mormon I had laying out.
No, I'm not a mormon, it was a dare.
I don't know if that would be an independent contractor, or if he was working for a company, but I hope you made mention of it to his employer if he was working for somebody else. And if he was an independent contractor, I would be certain to disavow him to everybody I know and put up a bad review on any of those sites people check when deciding on contractors. (Angie's List and the like.)
You're paying good money (whether that be out of pocket or part of the cost of your rent paid to your landlord) for a service. I don't care if I leave a book out on my coffee table entitled "Christianity is for Suckers: Selling Your Soul to the Dark Lord for Fun and Profit" opened to page bearing the schematic for virgin goat sacrifice, he should fix my toilet, say have a nice day and piss off. Pray for my soul later, if it makes you feel better. People who confront or leave passive aggressive little notes like that don't give a damn about your immortal soul, anyway, and don't do it for your benefit.(Despite their protests to the contrary.) They just like feeling superior.
/rant. Sorry, it's kind of a sore spot as I've had this happen to me quite a few times. Life lesson for the day: Never put a Darwin fish on your car.
I think the weirdest question I was ever asked was if D&D teaches you witchcraft. That was by my mother when I wanted to join a game at our local hobby shop during my teen years.
I'm a christian and I always found the darwin fish to be quite clever.
I have a rather irreverent sense of humor.
I wasn't offended. It wasn't worth a guy losing his job over. Why should I get pissed about a person who's worried about my eternal soul?
If he was in my face everyday about it, well that's a different story all together.
I don't know if that would be an independent contractor, or if he was working for a company, but I hope you made mention of it to his employer if he was working for somebody else. And if he was an independent contractor, I would be certain to disavow him to everybody I know and put up a bad review on any of those sites people check when deciding on contractors. (Angie's List and the like.)
You're paying good money (whether that be out of pocket or part of the cost of your rent paid to your landlord) for a service.
In my case, the contractor was his own employer, and also my landlord. Same guy. This was a small property in South Carolina, and it was in most ways a good deal; I didn't want to get asked to leave over something that's considered par for the course there. South Carolina was the original target state for the Christian Secessionist Movement, after all.
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True story.
I once told a woman I regularly met with a Dungeons and Dragons group in the basement of the local comic shop. She seemed shocked that I would drop such a bomb into casual conversation and, after making an "ewwww" noise, asked me if I was really into "all that S&M stuff with the whips and chains and leather" and wanted to know if we had a gimp. I laughed and told her she was thinking of an entirely different kind of dungeon...and then we got into my car where I had a bound and gagged plush rabbit hanging upside down from one of those hooks cars have for hanging your drycleaning.
6 or 8 years ago I was watching the counter at the game store my friend owns.
The phone rang and a reporter sounding voice said, "Do you carry role playing games?"
"Yes we do," I said.
"Dominate and submissive?"
(pause) "No, we only carry fantasy and science fiction," I reply.
"Click"
I wondered for years whose news story research I ruined.
I've been fortunate in my years of gaming: mixed gender gaming groups, various age ranges and so forth. I've had the standard fair of questions matching those from above and have dealt with them efficiently. I went to a Catholic high school and when one of the Fathers came and inquired about the game we play I had a talk with him.
I said something along the lines of "It is like drama class, Father. We create our characters and don't have a script so we improve all our replies. One person acts as the Director who tells us the situations we find ourselves in and it is up to us to overcome it. The dice add an element of chance and fair play. The end result, if written out would create a novel in similar format to The Hobbit and other fantasy style book."
He nodded and walked off, wishing us fun. He checked up on us for a few more days / weeks but always saw us laughing, having fun and not hurting anyone else. So it became approved and we got our own room to use for this for the rest of my High School years.
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At work I was doing bag check at the end of the night while not at my regular building. This just consists of me reminding them to put back their supplies from work and to make sure they did not steal anything. They simply walk up, open their bag, I glance and move on. Well one kid comes up, opens his bag to reveal a collection of 3.5 D&D books. He quickly looks at me and I can tell he is prepared for the standard assault when 'The boss' sees such things... more or less waiting for me to ask him any of the questions we have been reading here. I simply enquired if he has checked out Pathfinder, recommending it to him as a great alternative, chatted for a few minutes and sent him on his way to go look into it. I think it made his day.