Tabletop Role-Playing Games, Narrative, and Individual Development

Excerpt from Introduction In 1982, Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (BADD) was created. BADD was a group consisted of parents, teachers, and clergy who were worried about the spiritual and mental development of children, who they saw were at risk of being corrupted by a single game—Dungeons & Dragons. The group campaigned again and again, warning fellow parents about the detrimental effect that this game could have on a child’s life. They believed Dungeons & Dragons had a kind of power over its players—a power that could create meaning and even take children to their eternal doom. This is just one argument for the idea that tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons have the power to create meaning in a person’s life and influence their development. However, BADD was misinformed on how this meaning was created and how an individual’s development can be impacted by these games