Car News

Hooper from the Quilt City O.G.R.E.S. (http://ogres.wikia.com) left a
message on The Escapist's Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/
rpgadvocate) yesterday to let me know about an unusual occurrence.
Someone on the Focus on the Family forums expressed a concern about
their children getting involved in role-playing games, and another
forum user replied with a link to the O.G.R.E.S.' RPG Myths page
(http://ogres.wikia.com/wiki/RPG_Myths), a page made from various
'clippings' from The Escapist.

What makes this unusual is that Focus on the Family isn't what you
would call a RPG-friendly organization. In fact, on August 4th and
11th, 1990, they aired a two-part episode of their radio drama series
"Adventures in Odyssey" about the imagined dangers of RPGs.

I was reminded of this when Hooper left his message yesterday, and I
did a search to see if I could find recordings of the episodes
somewhere. As it turns out, FotF sells individual episodes on their
website, and the Castles & Cauldrons episodes (http://www.whitsend.org/
vault/A000000157.cfm) can be had for just a couple bucks each. I
considered purchasing them to review them on the site, but I have a
hard time giving even a few dollars to an organization like Focus on
the Family.

The good news is that a pretty good synopsis of the episodes can be
found on the site:

"The Barclays have a visitor for the summer: Len, George's nephew.
Jimmy is excited to have his cousin stay with them, especially when
Len shows Jimmy a new game called Castles & Cauldrons-- it's even
better than Zapazoids. Castles & Cauldrons (C & C) is a fantasy role-
playing game. The players become medieval characters who use battle
skills and other means to conquer their enemies. Len is "Luthor the
Magician," and he names Jimmy "Jondel the Apprentice." Jimmy thinks
the game is harmless-until Len takes it a step further, and
imagination starts becoming reality. Plastic swords ring with the
sound of steel; epic battles are fought against the forces of darkness
and won. Jimmy is amazed by these things, but Len wants him to go
further still, into incantations, spells, and conjuring-which sounds
suspiciously like black magic. What's worse, Len swears Jimmy to
silence. He's not to tell anybody about the game, especially his
parents or Whit, because "they won't understand."

"Whit suspects something is wrong with Jimmy after he and Len visit
Whit's End acting strangely. One night, Donna's doll is mysteriously
ripped apart, and she blames Jimmy and Len. Whit questions her about
the boys' activities. Then George tells Jimmy that Len didn't come to
Odyssey just to visit them. His parents thought it would be healthy
for Len to get away from a "questionable group of friends." That
night, Jimmy and Len go camping out in the forest. Len decides to
include Jimmy in the ultimate C & C initiation: a ritual to summon
Shalman, the most powerful magician of all. Len starts the ritual.
Jimmy resists, but Len gets so caught up in it, he begins forcing
Jimmy to participate. Just before things get ugly, Whit and George
show up to put a stop to the ritual-and to Castles & Cauldrons. Whit
destroys the game. Len gets some professional help. The Barclay family
retuns back to normal, and everyone realizes that even Odyssey isn't
immune from Satan's wiles."

In another description of the episode (http://
www.religioustolerance.org/d_a_d2.htm), it is mentioned that a cat
possessed by some sort of evil spirit is the one who ripped Donna's
doll apart, Whit becomes filled with an inexplicable feeling of dread,
and a roast in the oven begins to smoke - all clear signs that
something sinister is afoot at Whit's End.

(You heard right - Whit's End. I would be remiss if I didn't point out
the irony that this and every other episode of Adventures in Odyssey
take place in a town seemingly named for the state of mind that most
of its citizens must be in, due to the weekly barrage of evil that
assaults them in every episode.)

The bad news is, according to the listings on the site, FotF is still
airing these 20 year old episodes - the most recent airing happened on
January 4th and 5th of this year. So even though someone lurking in
the FotF forums seems to have a level head when it comes to RPGs, the
organization itself is still promoting ideas like:

- RPGs make imagination become reality
- RPGs involve real magic that the players - not the characters -
participate in
- RPGs involve "initiations"
- RPG players have to keep their games secret from parents and other
authority figures
- gaming groups are "questionable" people
- playing an RPG can make all sorts of strange supernatural things
happen around you
- it's perfectly okay to take someone else's belongings and destroy
them if you suspect that those belongings might be evil
- people who play RPGs act strangely and need professional help

Discussion questions are included on the site for parents, educators,
and anyone else who is using these episodes for lessons, but they
don't seem to be intended for any sort of open and objective
discussion - one of them is "Why is it a bad idea to play games like
Castles & Cauldrons?"

Here's a discussion question I would like to suggest: Actors and
actresses play roles all of the time, in movies, television, and even
on the radio. If it is wrong to play a role in a fantasy RPG, why is
it okay to play a role in a radio drama of a character that is playing
a role in a fantasy RPG?

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