Deities & Demigods: An Article on D&D and Religion

[Deleted]

Hey everybody — been a minute since I posted here, but I've been in and out of the OSR for a bit. My day job is writing for magazines on religion -- not "religious" magazines, but secular ones, on the subject of religion in media and society. My main gig is doing a column for The Revealer magazine on twentieth century religious ephemera (old evangelical tracts, Jewish textbooks, Lutheran rock operas -- that kind of thing). This month I'm focusing on Deities & Demigods and, by extension, the weird development of D&D from the Braustein games to 5th edition. The article is here.

It's written for the kind of audience that barely understands the hobby, so forgive some of the basic stuff that gets explained. I'm curious what you guys'll think.

Enjoy!

[jcstephens]

Dead link.

[Vile Traveller]

Is this it?

therevealer.org/archives/19724

[Deleted]

Who is your audience... NYU students, staff, alumni, faculty, all of the above? The general public?

[Deleted]

Sept 19, 2014 11:06:18 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

Who is your audience... NYU students, staff, alumni, faculty, all of the above? The general public?

Generally religious studies professors and graduate students, with hopes that a more general audience might filter in. A lot of Religious Studies programs have little spaces like this for "outreach," but effectively it's mostly people in the academy.

[xerxez]

Don

Since no one else has answered you yet, and you are curious as to what we think, I will offer.

Excellent writing! You are a very good writer. I read some of your other writing as well, and I, for one, encourage your aspirations.

With this article, well, I think you actually have two articles.

One is about the history of D&D and one is about religion and D&D.

The history part could seem irrelevant to people with no interest in D&D. The religious aspect would interest the audience for which you write.

The subject is very deep and there is an abundance of material on religion and D&D to be explored.

The history aspect will be relevant to the D&D enthusiast only, or so I imagine.

I think you take a lot of the fetishes of your past and try to relate them to the subject or audience to which you are writing.

This works and is vital to your energy as a writer but if the subject is completely alien to your audience and they have no interest in it, it may miss the mark.

I think you should write an article that explores the religious and D&D more in depth and perhaps gives only the most cursory explanation to those to whom the game is alien or a mystery, just enough to give them the premise, interest them in D&D and D&D players, and then get into the religious themes.

Of course, this is just my opinion, but again, in all honesty, you have talent as a writer...cogent, articulate, grammatically sound, and very pioneering.

That's my take Don. Good luck!

[oldkat]

I agree with Xerxez.
In fact, I'd go even further and say its way more of a general chronology of D&D--the game--with a sprinkling of the DDG thrown in.
If that was your intent, then you are spot on.
If it is meant as something else...well, I perceived it as more of a history review of the game.

[Deleted]

The article itself is well done, but I have to confess the massive TYPO in the masthead of the forum thread kept me from taking your efforts all too seriously at first.

Not trying to be intentionally mean, but, hell, that one really hurt your efforts.