Urge to rant.... RISING...!
During my entire 21 years as a gamer (both role-playing and miniature wargaming), I've had to put up with my share of the whole "
D&D is satanic" BS. Even though I never played a game of
D&D in my life--I always preferred sci-fi games like
Star Frontiers and
Traveller--it didn't matter. I was obviously a Satanist by association. Needless to say, this behavior on the part of the religious has done little to endear them to me. nor has it given me reason to respect them. When you whiz on my hobbies, you whiz on me. Therefore, I get to whiz on you.
What amazes is me just how supersticious the religious can sometimes be--I mean, besides the usual bullcrap about God, Heaven, miracles, etc.. The sort like this woman actually BELIEVES that black magic is real and somehow that you can actually cast curses and hexes in role-playing games rules! Take our old "friend"
Jack Chick for instance:
Another contention, often shared with me in email, is that there is nothing like real magic in the game. People who say that evidently have a very limited understanding of magic. Any serious sorcerer will tell you that magic can be as baroque or as simple as the magician him- or herself wishes.
Folk magic is usually pretty simple and rustic. Ceremonial magic can be very "high church" with robes, incense and elaborate rites that can take weeks to complete. Witchcraft is somewhere in the middle, depending on the tradition you are working in. Finally, true hermetic magic involves little more than the human mind....
...Now, admittedly, few people who play D&D actually intend to do magic when they play. But I knew some who did, and even today I have corresponded with people who were gamers and also active magicians on the "inner planes." If you are a gamer, you might be playing with such an individual.
Sigh... I think the inanity of Chick and his fellow fundies speaks for itself.
I can't really tell you what to do about this, zombiebex. If I know anything about the tyranny that is "customer service," you'll have to give up your games to placate this Jebus-freak cow. In your boss' mind, tis better to spoil the fun of some than to lose one cent in revenue due to an angry customer... no matter how delusional and vindictive they truly are. It's moments like that when I could almost hate capitalism.
The only thing I could recommend is perhaps setting up a Junior Role Player's Group. Talk to the hopefully sympathetic parents of your current crop of players and set up a time and place to met where you can continue your fun without rising the ire of Bible-humping soccer moms. (Who I find can be more overbearing and overprotective than regular soccer moms. The imagined fear for well being their spawn is amplified by their religiousity.)
As Arkan pointed out, it could be worse. You could have been caught playing
Call of Cthulhu. (Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!) Despite
D&D's diabolical reputation, I find it's actually pretty weak tea with it's generic, Tolkien rip-off setting. If you want a fantasy rpg that will really send the fundies into a seizure of indignant zeal, try one of the many incarnations of
Empire Of The Petal Throne. Besides the usual swords and sorcery, the setting features public nudity, unrepressed sexuality and polygamy, recreational drug use, religious-based prostitution, and even some of the "good" gods the PCs can worship require the occasional human sacrifice!
It's blasphemous! It's obscene! I highly recommend it!
