Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/27 ... ss&emc=rss

Gotta love those people who cant wait to kill D&D for good.

Sounds pretty stupid to me, but prisons really do need to have the ability to crack down on prisoners wherever they see the need. I would hazard to guess that after some time goes by and these prisoners demonstrate good behavior they may be rewarded with the right to play. At least I would hope so. My experience with prisons is that outside of maximum security and lockdown areas, they dont want to outright restrict everything. That kind of thing leads to too much trouble. They just want to have a carrot and a switch to use as tools to maintain control.

No one can kill DnD, they'll just go ruleless, it'll be chaos.

I had no idea people still played D&D.

Very similar episodes have been reported for years. I've got RPG magazines from the late 1970s and early 1980s with letters to the editor on this very subject.

In addition to the "escapist fantasy" angle, there's another very good reason that prison officials generally don't allow RPGs: they have found out that it's an extremely bad idea to give any prisoner power over any other. And that's what happens with the DM/player relationship.

I don't blame them at all, actually (the prison officials). Their business is tricky enough as it is without having to worry about some horrible argument over an RPG.

Freakzilla wrote:I had no idea people still played D&D.

Well I don't watch sports so I need something to do every Sunday.

Too be fair this week I'm running a D6 Star Wars game. I've been a gamer since I was 12 and I turned out ok. Y'know, sorta.

EDIT: I've never seen a game argument escalate to physical violence. But I'd totally shiv someone if they suggested we play 4th Edition.

My brother is a HUGE gamer. I think he ran a D&D campaign a few months ago.

I played D&D and a few other RPGs when I was a kid. Mom was convinced it was evil and threw all my books away.

TheDukester wrote:In addition to the "escapist fantasy" angle, there's another very good reason that prison officials generally don't allow RPGs: they have found out that it's an extremely bad idea to give any prisoner power over any other. And that's what happens with the DM/player relationship.

This is closer to the argument as I heard it - that the roleplaying group resembles a gang.

On its face, this is absurd. One could make the case Dukester does, that there is a power structure of some sort, which is a bad idea. There are two (at least) counterarguments to this, however:
1. If you are roleplaying together, it requires the cooperation of everyone. If anything, this demands means that the activity, if it works, will be beneficial.
2. A lot (a lot!) of activities have a "power hierarchy", and banning all of them is absurd; eg. setting up a play, choir practice, football or most team sports really.

You seem to be under the impression that US prisons serve some other purpose than punishment, like rehabilitation.



The prison system could care less if there are "benificial" activities.

Those not smiling in fond remembrance can read the entire truth about D&D right here:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

Ms. Frost is hot.

Dark Dungeons is so hysterical.

Even as 12-year-olds in backwater Reno, Nev. — overall, one of the least-sophisticated and most provincial places on Earth — my buddies and I were making fun of it. Even we could see how over-the-top wrong the whole thing was, right from the first panel.

the TDC banned all those kind of games in 80s - back then, their rationale was about the maps -
maps of any kind are contraband - you could be planning your elaborate escape and claim it was
a fantasy-game. don't know what they say about it now.

BTW - Chick Comics are the tool of Satan, I don't think there's ever been a doubt about that.
That dude was seriously fucked up....

I have to agree there. Those people are a menace. I have to clean out the Harry Potter books about once a month. In HP's heyday I was cleaning them out every other day.

or see it here

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/27/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Penny Arcade speaks Truth, yet again.

editing difficulty.

LARPERS. im sure theyve got a bit to do with this.

ill try to paint a picture:
dorks en masse pretending to battle in prison yards. unhip prison staff observes said 'combat'. measures are taken. dorks get hurt. dorks sue prisons. guards are fired and replaced. dorks resume larping. new unhip guards take measures. cycle repeats into infinity.

or:
dorks gather to larp. gang members mistakenly recognize dorky larpers for a rival gang. larpers are severly harmed by actual practitioners of real-world combat. prison officials are held responsible.

maybe:
dorks get together and start roving the yards engaged in larping activity. repressed gang members find themselves jealous of how freely these larp dorks are able to GANG up, and sue the prisons for discrimination.

What's up with this Penny Arcade thing? Is this new, or what?

been around since last Thursday ....

I've been reading penny arcade irregularly since the fourth compilation book came out

At the time I was filing the comics section at my local Border's before Manga came in it's army of Giant Robots and laid waist to entire aisles of corporate bookstore utopia.

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/7637 ... xAfz-L.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;