Source (Mastodon)
She may buy into hype but still thinks for herself
Good point, actually. Seems like these days, a lot of people wouldn’t change their opinion after seeing what this grandma saw.
These days, some people wouldn’t even attempt to see the game with their own eyes and completely makes up their mind based on one FB post.
There are 2 sorts of ignorance. Incidental and willful. Incidental can be fixed easily, with more information. Willful only look to support their pre-decided views, and so are far harder to change.
Before the internet became a big thing, both were common on topics. We were forced to rely on what we were told. This lead to a lot of incidental ignorance. The internet made it easy to fix this.
The end result is the ratio has changed. It used to be, say 80% incidental, and 20% willful. Now 90% of the incidental is mostly fixed. So it’s 29% incidental, 71% willful. And so looks a lot worse to casual observation.
The Grandma seems the incidental type. Going to a game gave her the information to update her views.
Also to note, the numbers here were pulled from my arse for example purposes only. Actual ratios may vary.
The conspiracy and accusations must always go deeper.
I’m also surprised it ended with the grandma realizing it was just math, because it could have just as easily ended with her thinking that they’re obviously hiding what the real game is about, and how bad it must be be that they’d go to such great lengths to cover it up.
I have to assume having a good, strong relationship with her grandchild must also be a contributing factor. If D&D remained something only anonymous ne’er-do-wells do, it’d be easy to continue buying into the satanic panic. But someone you know and trust to be responsible telling you it’s no big deal might make it a bit easier to accept.
D&D players aren’t satanists. They’re much worse. They’re math addicts.
A friend calls it “narrative gambling”, because eventually we’re all throwing dice and hoping it doesn’t “ruin” us.
You don’t even need the dice! I was definitely gambling last session when I attuned to a prosthetic eye filled with the trapped souls of everyone that’s ever used it. It gives me 60 feet of Truesight though!
60 feet of truesight, unfortunately you can’t see shit because of all the souls in the way
Exactly why I dislike D&D, it’s more about combat and math. I prefer systems that are less math heavy and more narrative/roleplay focused.
You should check out GURPS. Its a simpler system with universal campaigns (modern, fantasy, mech, dimension hopping, steampunk). The system is super easy. You start with 100 points to make your character. You can spend them on stats, skills, spells, and perks. You can even gain more points by taking quirks.
You roll 3d6 for everything. Your goal is to get under your skill number. Fireball of 13 needs to roll under 13. If its raining or something, your GM can choose to put a -4 on that. So now you need to roll under 9. Just simple addition and subtraction, but it works really well.
