>> GAMES > GAMING CULTURE

Like Stryper, But With Funky Dice.

Okay, so I must confess that your friendly neighborhood Geek made a pop culture mistake, (I make a lot, but I’m fessing up to this one). To those who are just joining us, I mentioned the ONLY role playing game (before I found Star Wars) that was sanctioned and approved by my well meaning ,if very misguided, mother, was a game I called Dragon Quest. I was…was…ugh…wrong! The game was actually called DragonRaid! Fine, fine… mock me, punish me, just place me on the cross and have your way with me…Or, better yet… I’ll turn myself into a waterfall and let the dragons of SATAN evaporate me! ARGH!!!!!

Sorry…little too dramatic to say nothing of lame.

Don’t laugh though, that was the basis of the Christ’s death in the first (and in this humble Geek’s opinion) best Christian role playing game… Of which there are none by the way. But you gotta’ give mad props to the one that tried! DRAGONRAID!

Lesson time…

Role Playing Games were evil and the most evil and vile of them all was Dungeons and Dragons. Special sermons were being made just for parents whose children were quickly falling into the grasp of El Diablo (and poor, poor hygiene). It had to be evil; kids were offing themselves whenever their character died! Demons were being summoned in Drama Clubs all over the country! Black cloaks in our schools! Jesus being listed as a “demigod” in so called “rule books”. (Which isn’t true by the way, it took the French to give the Son of God stats within the pages of In Nonime, but I digress). Children were being assaulted on all sides by the great Lucifer and his minions: Ozzy Osborne and that bastard Gary Gygax! Well, Stryper saved the metal masses from Ozzy, but it was the unsung hero Dick Wulf who saved the hell bound dice tossers. Dick Wulf is the Gary Gygax, um no… He’s the Kevin Siembieda of...no…maybe, maybe the…Mark Rein Hagan, wait am I high? No, Dick Wulf was the Steve Jackson of the Christian role playing world. He set out to create a game that would allow Christian parents to feel safe that their children were not consorting with demonic forces as they consumed mass quantities of Mountain Dew and Doritos. What was Mr. Wulf’s goal? Well, to quote the box set:

DragonRaid is an exciting experience in adventure simulation. More than just a game, it offers hours of enjoyment while teaching participants to resist sin, counter deceptive arguments, memorize Scripture, and build moral and spiritual character. The DragonRaid system encompasses many different adventures. On the mythical world of EdenAgain, players meet challenges that parallel real life. The imagined dangers compel them to grapple with conflicting values, discover how faith in Christ can shape behavior, and reflect on what is really worth living and dying for.

(GitC Note: It also taught players that they needed the skill “Hatred of Evil” to properly use a Battle Axe, sweet).

I will forever remember the day my folks brought the shiny red box set home from the store. I heard the van pull up; quickly I hid my “Fiend Folio” in the carved trapdoor under my bed (sorry mom) and ran out to great them. My mom grinned ever so wide, she knew I had the mad love for fantasy and now her boy could have his fun and not burn in eternal torment. Truthfully, I was happy for her gesture but I’m sure for completely different reasons. See, she might have thought I was instantly converted. Alas, no, see the DragonRaid box was foolishly the same size as my Players Handbook with room to spare for a couple of character sheets. Thanks for enabling me mom! I did, however, take the box with glee and jumped right in. To be fair to the game it was pretty ahead of its time in presentation. It came with a couple of rule books. One for LightRaiders (the COOLEST name for PCs), one for the Adventure Master, some quick reference sheets, a couple of D10s (more on those later), a battle map (pre D&D 3rd edition folks), cardboard characters, some blank character sheets, and a tape with an audio example of EdenAgain and audio rule explanation. Be hard pressed to find so complete a game in this era of “to be explained in up-coming supplements” games.

Okay, so the game itself.

I can’t honestly remember the rule systems, but it was based on the D10. The game recommended that you only use the ones the game came with or buy clear D10s. Why? Heh, this is gold my friends. See, when the Jesus left this world he traveled to EdenAgain. A planet under assault from Satan and his Draconic hordes. He basically did the same thing on EdenAgain as he did here on Earth. With the same results: Some followed him, others hated him. Alas no Romans to have him crucified this time. No, this time he gave his life by turning himself into a waterfall and allowing the Dragons to evaporate him.

There were no grey areas in EdenAgain. Dragons and their monster minions: Evil! Humans who follow the Dragons: Quasi-Evil! (You weren’t supposed to kill them, but instead do your best to convert them, if that failed…Smite the buggers)! Anyway, the D10s. When EdenAgain’s Christ (here-after called EAC) came back, he told his followers that they could always see him in this special star encased in a gem. Now then, if you take a D10 and hold it up to the light while looking through the “pointy” end what do you see? Ah yea, the symbol of EAC. Little gimmicky, but when you’re an impressionable (read, easily amused) 10 year old, pretty friggen cool!

It had your standard fantasy monsters, your standard player classes though you could only play humans. It had some strange skills, like the before mentioned; Hatred of Evil. Again, to be fair, evil was a very REAL element in DragonRaid and not a simple moral choice. But then again, isn’t hatred also? Eh, who cares, I was going to kick Troll ass for the Lord! You’ll notice I’ve not yet brought up magic, without which fantasy games would be historical simulation, and that’s REALLY dorky. So how did DragonRaid handle such an occult tradition? Simple, your LightRaiders could channel the power of God by reciting real biblical scripture! I mean this in a very real way, according to the rules players had to memorize (not just read) real bible passages in order to “evoke miracles”. (That’s like religious people calling Halloween “Harvest Festival” look folks either celebrate it or don’t, it just confuses your kids and gets them mocked). When you think about it you are in effect casting a divine spell and let me tell you, if my folks ever heard of a game that required me to memorize lines from any other religious belief they would have flipped, but this was okay I guess. At first I thought this was a lame way to cast spells (of which I still called the “miracles” much to my mom’s annoyance). Then I came to understand the fun I could have and still claim I was doing the Lord’s work. Imagine if you will, a young Geek dressed in a really bad Moses style robe, standing on my bed, arms open to the sky, other players at my feet crying out:

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." - HEBREWS 12:28,29

Then rolling something like 20d10 for damage as I called force a pillar of heavenly flame to smite damn near anything within a 100 yard radius! Mind you, I’m not making this up. Again, from the rules:

BRINGS DOWN FIRE FROM HEAVEN TO CONSUME ALL SURROUNDING DARK CREATURES. (May only be used once in a LightRaiders life).

Needless to say family became concerned with the turn my gaming life was taking. Sure, they got me off the Devil’s game (or so they thought), but I was still a little zealous in my desire to smite and roll funky dice. Taking the game (that was now covered in highlights by my mom over so called “questionable material”) to my pastor for analysis, my dear sweet mom had me sit down and talk with him. Note to all parents who wish to save their kids from the clutches of evil fantasy games: Don’t go to a church whose pastor has signed copies of the first four Terry Brooks novels next to his bible. Needless to say, when she heard he and I talking about how Asmodeous killed his Paladin the gig was up.

So how did it all end? Well, I’m still a two-fisted dungeon masta' and I’m willing to bet my old pastor still reads Terry Brooks. I just wish I had that old box set of DragonRaid; it would have a place of honor among my other game books.

Until next time remember: Follow the Moon Bridge to your God...