Introduction
Why Crusaders and Kings? The world is rampant with influences, both positive and negative, that affect the way our children learn, think, and develop moral systems. Some of these influences are very strong--and some are very dangerous. Among the most powerful and dangerous of these is the role-playing game (RPG). An incredible learning tool by anyone's standards, the danger shows itself when we ask ourselves: What is it teaching? The RPG often seems quite innocuous, and its proponents say it teaches things like cooperation, imagination, and creativity. But what else is it teaching in the process? And how is it that a game can have such power? And what can we do about it? The answers to these questions, I believe, point resolutely to the answer to the question we started with: Why Crusaders and Kings?
First, let us look at what role-playing games teach our children--both what their proponents claim, and also what their opponents claim. This is the only way to come to a complete picture of what it is that an RPG does. As mentioned before, RPG proponents point to the fact that the RPG is a powerful teaching tool, which is certainly true. They also claim that RPGs teach kids how to use their imagination to solve problems in new and creative ways. This is also true, if the game is well-designed and well-led. They claim that it teaches cooperation, and understanding of different cultures and peoples. Again, this is true, with the same qualifications.
You see, I've spent rather a lot of my time playing and leading RPG sessions, and I know that no matter how well the system may be designed, a poorly designed adventure, or a poorly led one, will ultimately fail in these high-minded objectives. All too often the RPG degenerated into what is known as a "hack-and-slash." Some players prefer this sort of game, where the only real objective is to kill, and the only thinking that needs to be done is looking up attack numbers on one of the many arcane charts and tables that inevitably accompany RPGs. It is with the hack-and-slash games that many of the opponents of RPGs find their biggest objections. What the game is teaching at this point, they argue, is wanton, unthinking killing and violence. It is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre of games, and tends to lead to a calloused attitude toward violence and death that can sometimes overlap into the real world. The lesson: violence is a viable--and preferable--solution, and might makes right. I've gamed with a number of players that show that attitude in both their play and their life. When I encounter these players while I'm the referee, I do my best to curb these tendencies by posing riddles and puzzles that prove dangerous if approached too violently or clumsily.
Another danger is this: many (if not all) RPGs are efficient introductions into the realm of the occult. Magic, sorcery, witchcraft and groovy new-age syncretism are all parts of the fantasy RPG system, as are worship of strange gods, demons, and the self.
Dungeons and Dragons, the mother of all RPGs, states in one of its rule-books: "No fantasy world is complete without the gods, mighty deities who influence the fates of men and move mortals about like chesspieces in their obscure games of power. The gods serve an important purpose for the players as well. Serving a deity is a significant part of D&D, and all players should have a patron god.
"Deities of all types...expect a great deal of work from their clerics in return for the power to perform miracles...A cleric, no matter where he or she is, acts as an agent and representative of his or her deity. The cleric should miss no opportunity to explain and show others, through both word and deed, the truth and rightness of his or her religion...Depending on the religion (and the DMs decision), certain rituals and services must be performed. ...The cleric should also freely undertake the performance of exceptional duties...and voluntary martyrdom."
This same philosophy of religion and the occult is present in all the RPGs patterned after D&D. "Sword and Sorcery" is the way of the RPG, and many people now realize that a powerful teaching tool like the RPG is dangerous when what it is teaching is a fondness for violence and the occult.
While it is true that nothing as simple as a game can actually cause a person to do anything that the person was not already willing, at least in part, to entertain, it is also true that a steady diet of sex, violence and the occult will eventually make a person calloused and complacent about these things. This is why I avoid both extremes of the RPG debate and classify those RPGs currently on the market as "dangerous," and neither "evil" nor "harmless." They are safe when used with caution, and even beneficial--but we know that not everyone has the know-how to play an RPG "safely." It's like a loaded gun.
My purpose is not to teach gun-safety, but to unload the gun. The RPG is a powerful teaching tool, and we must be sure that what it teaches is beneficial. That is why CRUSADERS AND KINGS had to be invented--an unloaded gun. Or better yet, a gun loaded with "magic bullets" that heal, instead of kill.
following is an excerpt from a term paper I wrote in Bible School detailing the pros and cons of RPGs. It should be noted that this scenario is designed to demonstrate the cons.
In a dim college dorm five students sit in a circle. One, the obvious leader of the group, rolls an odd shaped die.
"As you step through the door, you are confronted with the withered form of an old man, obviously very dead, though still moving around," he announces to the group.
"Aw, another ghoul?" moans one of the group, a freshman who is playing the role of a barbarian warrior, "I hate them. My club barely distracts it. I swing."
"Okay, Hrothgar, you take a swing at the pale figure in front of you. Roll."
He rolls: "twenty-five."
"Stunning. You smash right into the creature's middle, and he explodes into millions of tiny gobbets of rotting flesh, smattering the party with stinking ooze."
"What, again?" moaned Hrothgar.
"In the name of Shiva I bind the spirit of the creature before it can reform and attack," said Tina, who was playing an Indian priestess in a steel bikini.
"Roll," said the leader.
"Yes! Ninety-five!" yelled the priestess.
"Good job. The ooze remains inanimate--though still quite unpleasant."
"What's in the room?" pipes up another.
"The room is dark," answers the leader, "though you can just make out something glittering in the back corner."
"Treasure!" they all cry in unison, and in their mad scrabble to get at it, they completely fail to notice the pale, thin woman enter the room behind them. When finally one of them sees her, he gives an evil grin: "I go over to her and...well, you know what it is I do."
"Her screams are quite satisfying, Evil John, though she's not up to much of a fight. Good role-playing, by the way. You'll get points for that," says the leader.
"I hate having evil characters in the party," murmurs Tina.
"But what else would I play?" asks Evil John.
"I think you like it too much, " answers Tina, inching away from his leer. "Let's get on with the game."
"As you get up and straighten your clothes, John, you notice that about her neck is an amulet..."
"Let me have it this time, John," whines one of the group, "You always get the good stuff"...
The game continues on into the night, until dawn stops their play. They plan to meet again the next night, after recovering from that night's session. The leader spends his time devising nastier traps and viler monsters for his group to combat. "It'll be a bloodbath," he chuckles with glee," a bloodbath."
acknowledgements: My Alpha testers: Ai, Pete, Mark, Jake, Scott, Karen, Matt, Brian, Shawn, and Nikki, Dan, Rob
Back to Haven Home
by Matt Van Alstyne, Scott S. Maddix