This isn't a very good ice-breaker ...
but this problem came up a few days ago and I'm at a loss with how I should deal with. This gets rather involved, so I'm cutting for length.
Last Friday I was chatting with several friends about gaming, and the conversation turned to DnD: specifically, our various complaints about the rule mechanics (the existence of insta-kill spells and such). This led to a discussion of several other gaming systems, including Shadowrun. I had the most familiarity with it--which is to say, I know about the setting--so I gave a brief description of the world.
One of the first things a friend of mine paused to consider was how it would be possible to be a "good" player in such a setting; he proposed something akin to a special group of freedom fighters doing runs to keep the corporations from harming the oppressed of the setting--or at least, harming them excessively. This was not a positive prospect to me, as it seemed to defeat the entire purpose of the game. You don't play Shadowrun for morality plays, you play Shadowrun to do Black Ops. Tacking morality on to an essentially amoral world strikes me as missing the point.
This raises an interesting question, however: should Christians play in such amoral worlds? Lest anyone think I am being excessive, please consider that to play in a role-playing game is not just to read a book or watch a movie. In those cases one can assume that the author will not necessarily share your morality and be ready to engage the work critically as needed; I watch movies and read books whose plot I find morally problematic quite frequently. But playing an RPG is like writing a novel or a movie or a play. It entails a distinct act of creation. And I can't quite convince myself that it would be a good idea to write a story, either in print or through dice rolls, which is inimical to Christian virtue.
Now, I've played several characters of less-than-stellar morality--including the goblin rogue, the mildly autistic/pyro wizard, and the wanna-be pale master. But every campaign I've been in has been about essentially good people trying to right evil as they encounter it. The story, therefore, has always been about light triumphing over darkness. This is a very easy thing to do in DnD, which like many traditional fantasy settings has a very strongly built-in set of moral standards; it's also easy in superhero games, which is the other type of setting in which I've played. It's not really there in Shadowrun, or innumerable other games. And it could easily get removed from DnD and the like if we simply all chose to play evil (or even selfish) characters.
Now, for the past several years I've had a passing interest in playing Shadowrun; it's never really occurred to me before that there might be a problem with doing so. I also know that several members here (including the moderator) play in White Wolf or similar style games. Opinions, please? I'm curious to know what you think about it.
Last Friday I was chatting with several friends about gaming, and the conversation turned to DnD: specifically, our various complaints about the rule mechanics (the existence of insta-kill spells and such). This led to a discussion of several other gaming systems, including Shadowrun. I had the most familiarity with it--which is to say, I know about the setting--so I gave a brief description of the world.
One of the first things a friend of mine paused to consider was how it would be possible to be a "good" player in such a setting; he proposed something akin to a special group of freedom fighters doing runs to keep the corporations from harming the oppressed of the setting--or at least, harming them excessively. This was not a positive prospect to me, as it seemed to defeat the entire purpose of the game. You don't play Shadowrun for morality plays, you play Shadowrun to do Black Ops. Tacking morality on to an essentially amoral world strikes me as missing the point.
This raises an interesting question, however: should Christians play in such amoral worlds? Lest anyone think I am being excessive, please consider that to play in a role-playing game is not just to read a book or watch a movie. In those cases one can assume that the author will not necessarily share your morality and be ready to engage the work critically as needed; I watch movies and read books whose plot I find morally problematic quite frequently. But playing an RPG is like writing a novel or a movie or a play. It entails a distinct act of creation. And I can't quite convince myself that it would be a good idea to write a story, either in print or through dice rolls, which is inimical to Christian virtue.
Now, I've played several characters of less-than-stellar morality--including the goblin rogue, the mildly autistic/pyro wizard, and the wanna-be pale master. But every campaign I've been in has been about essentially good people trying to right evil as they encounter it. The story, therefore, has always been about light triumphing over darkness. This is a very easy thing to do in DnD, which like many traditional fantasy settings has a very strongly built-in set of moral standards; it's also easy in superhero games, which is the other type of setting in which I've played. It's not really there in Shadowrun, or innumerable other games. And it could easily get removed from DnD and the like if we simply all chose to play evil (or even selfish) characters.
Now, for the past several years I've had a passing interest in playing Shadowrun; it's never really occurred to me before that there might be a problem with doing so. I also know that several members here (including the moderator) play in White Wolf or similar style games. Opinions, please? I'm curious to know what you think about it.