Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy: Raiding the Temple of Wisdom (Popular Culture and Philosophy, 70)

This volume will convince readers that the swift ascent of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons to worldwide popularity in the 1970s and 1980s is “the most exciting event in popular culture since the invention of the motion picture.” Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy presents twenty-one chapters by different writers, all D&D aficionados but with starkly different insights and points of view. It will be appreciated by thoughtful fans of the game, including both those in their thirties, forties, and fifties who have rediscovered the pastime they loved as teenagers and the new teenage and college-student D&D players who have grown up with gaming via computer and console games and are now turning to D&D as a richer, fuller gaming experience. The book is divided into three parts. The first, “Heroic Tier: The Ethical Dungeon-Crawler,” explores what D&D has to teach us about ethics and about how results from the philosophical study of morality can enrich and transform the game itself. Authors argue that it's okay to play evil characters, criticize the traditional and new systems of moral alignment, and (from the perspective of those who love the game) tackle head-on the recurring worries about whether the game has problems with gender and racial stereotypes. Readers of Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy will become better players, better thinkers, better dungeon-masters, and better people. Part II, “Paragon Tier: Planes of Existence,” arouses a new sense of wonder about both the real world and the collaborative world game players create. Authors look at such metaphysical questions as what separates magic from science, how we express the inexpressible through collaborative storytelling, and what the objects that populate Dungeons and Dragons worlds can teach us about the equally fantastic objects that surround us in the real world. The third part, “Epic Tier: Leveling Up,” is at the crossroads of philosophy and the exciting new field of Game Studies. The writers investigate what makes a game a game, whether D&D players are artists producing works of art, whether D&D (as one of its inventors claimed) could operate entirely without rules, how we can overcome the philosophical divide between game and story, and what types of minds take part in D&D. Contents 6 Rolling a Wisdom Check 8 I. HEROIC TIER: The Ethical Dungeon Crawler 12 1. Aristotle’s Dungeon 14 2. Does Dungeons and Dragons Refute Aristotle? 28 3. Beyond Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil? 40 4. Chaotic Good in the Balance 60 5. Elegy for a Paladin 66 6. Being Evil 76 7. It's Okay to Be Evil in Your Head 86 8. Elf Stereotypes 102 9. Dude, Where Are the Girls? 118 II. PARAGON TIER: Planes of Existence 130 10. THe Laboratory of the Dungeon 132 11. Expressing the Inexpressible 144 12. The Worlds of Dungeons and Dragons 162 13. A Role of the Dice 176 14. THe Secret Lives of Elven Paladins 190 III. EPIC TIER: Leveling Up 204 15. What Dungeons and Dragons Is and Why We Do It 206 16. Why Dungeons and Dragons Is Art 218 17. The Rules of Imagination 236 18. You Got Your Gameplay in My Role-Play! 250 19. Justice Is Not Blind, Deaf, or Willing to Share Its Nachos 266 20. The Gunpowder Crisis 276 21. To Know My Character Better than He Knows Himself 290 Player Characters 304 References 310 Index 320 This volume will convince readers that the swift ascent of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons to worldwide popularity in the 1970s and 1980s is?the most exciting event in popular culture since the invention of the motion picture." Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy presents twenty-one chapters by different writers, all D & D aficionados but with starkly different insights and points of view. It will be appreciated by thoughtful fans of the game, including both those in their thirties, forties, and fifties who have rediscovered the pastime they loved as Shows readers that the swift ascent of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons to worldwide popularity event in popular culture since the invention of the motion picture. This title explores what D&D has to teach us about ethics and about how results from philosophical study of morality that can enrich and transform the game itself.