Court Rules D&D Promotes Gang Activity

[joneb1999]

There are dozens of problems with the United States' prison system, and apparently the age old role playing game, Dungeons and Dragons just got added to that list.



On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the seemingly-innocent board game invites a world of trouble.


No, it won't make inmates believe they are dragon-slaying knights sent to save a princess; instead, it helps prisoners organize themselves into gangs that inhibit prison security. As ridiculous as this may sound, the Courts argued that the structure of the game mimics the organization of a gang and therefore promotes gang activity.


Bruce Muraski, disruptive group coordinator for the Waupun Correctional Institute in Wisconsin stated, "During D&D games, one player is denoted the 'Dungeon Master.' The Dungeon Master is tasked with giving directions to other players, which Muraski testified mimics the organization of a gang."


The prisoner involved in the case, Kevin Singer, argued that the confiscation of D&D was a violation of his first amendment rights and that the game in no way promotes or encourages gang activity. Singer argues that it does the opposite and deters prisoners from joining gangs.


Despite the fact that Singer brought witness testimony from 11 other inmates all stating they have never heard of D&D leading to gang-related activity, the judges upheld their ruling. The judges claimed all of the witness testimony was irrelevant and all that was important was the fact that it was reasonable for prison officials to believe D&D may lead to gangs in the future.


Now, instead of playing harmless board games, prison inmates will have to find other things to do, such as form gangs and stab eachother. Great idea Appeals Court, we applaud your perseverance in solving the world's prison issues, one board game at a time.


Luckily for Dungeons and Dragons fans worldwide, this ruling only applies to prisons. So as long as you keep the dungeon-exploring, mythical creature slaying antics within the boundaries of the law, you won't have to worry about your imaginary swords and booty getting confiscated by the government.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/dungeons...news-9895.html

[Aurora1979]

lol. brilliant.

Glad to see the U.S court judges are just as mental as the judges we have here in the U.K.

The law truely is an ass

[pSINNa]

What a joke.

I sincerely hope i never see this level of idiocy brought to an Australian courtroom, though to be fair, I did see John Howard elected as Prime Minister here not too long ago, and that demonstrated a level of stupidity on par with .... well.. actuallly, there's nothing on earth to equal how stupid that was xD.

[SaisMatters]

So in prison playing D+D makes us cool gang members, but outside of prison playing D+D makes me "White and Nerdy" and usually resulted in me loosing my lunch money and shoes? lol, SEND ME TO PRISON!

[hityawithastick]

What.

[Yajerman01]

I guess the next board game son the chopping block will be:

1. Chess. A game using pawns to overtake an opponents king, i.e. a Gang leader using his chronies to knock out another rival gang member.

2. Risk. Yet another Tactic to take out another rival.

3. Hungry Hippo. An agressive challenge to consume as many items as you can grab. This will undoubtedly create an environment that will cause prison memebers to steal others food in a frantic fashion.

4. Operation: Sheds insight on how to pick things up/remove parts without getting caught.

5. Scrabble. This will eventually lead to inmates gaining intellectual prowless. We dotn want smart criminals!

I can go on and on, butr we get the point.

Next thing to go will be TV shows since they promote gang-like mentality, take the Mickey Mouse Club or the He-man cartoon shows.... ugh

[unionyes]

Can you imagine the named items in a prisoner run campaign?

Soap of Levitation....if dropped, it floats back up in the air.
Shiv of Invisibility....grants a +3 bonus to Remain Undetected during cell shakedowns.
Portable Hole...at last a more dignified way to sneak your dice past the guards.
Grease Clickie......hahahahaha.


Also, any Disease Immunity items would be sought after, and it may be the only player base in existence that actually thinks Close Wounds is a useful spell.

But all jokes aside, it's just crazy to ban D+D in prison. With the rationale that the judges provided (that having someone, in this case the Dungeon Master, provide direction mimics the formation of a gang), that someone refuses a work assignment because having to take direction from the boss also mimics the formation of a gang.

[EyeRekon]

Shaddup if you know whats good for yoos! Homeboy!

[eonfreon]

While they can ban the use of D&D products I don't know how they can ban the actual playing of D&D.

Any "DM" who knows enough about the rules can sort of make up his own game. It's all imagination and paper after all.

I've played D&D without books and dice. I just winged it. This Monster is hard to hit you'll need a 15 or higher. As for "dice", any system for random generation works. Cut up pieces of paper and write numbers on it. Put it in a hat and shake it up. Pull one piece out without looking. Voila! Randomly generated numbers.

Another ill-thought ruling. I wonder how much money was wasted with this.

There is real gang activity in prison. And this ruling won't make an iota of difference. It'll just make people that might have been pacified by being able to play a game, no longer pacified. Bored people can become troublemakers quite easily.

[424ever]

i cant help but wonder if any of the inmates chose lawful good for their alignment? lol

[katana_one]

Yeah, this has case has been going on for over a year. There was a thread about it here on the forums back then, too.

http://abovethelaw.com/2010/01/seven...ison-security/

[joneb1999]

4. Operation: Sheds insight on how to pick things up/remove parts without getting caught.

Like your cell mates kidney.

[Chai]

When I was growing up the judges and the school board in Green Bay WI (population ~100,000) ruled that we had a "gang problem" and budgeted for a task force....

Apparently some kids from the burbs were driving around the parking lot of Bay Park Square mall in their mommy and daddy's BMW with the stereo blasting hip hop turned up to 11, all wearing the same teams basketball get up, and now GB has a gang issue ZOMG!!!

Id like to drop some of these people off in the Congo region in Africa, or ShengDong province in China, and pick them up ina month or so. They would then have a pretty clear understanding of what a "gang problem" is.

[Qindark]

"During D&D games, one player is denoted the 'Dungeon Master.' The Dungeon Master is tasked with giving directions to other players, which Muraski testified mimics the organization of a gang."

Wait, as a DM, I never gave directions to players. I gave them a situation and they provided their own direction. Just more misrepresentation of the game.

[unionyes]

This could get worse for D+D.

One of the main avenues that prisoners have to leverage the rules in prison is religious freedoms. Judges that will rule, oh for example that D+D promotes gang activity, will often rule the other way if the religious freedom card is played.

There were a lot of high profile cases in the 60's and 70's about prisoners who wanted to practice Satan worship. Initially the prisons did whatever they could to disrupt it, and the courts sided with them, until a fairly high level appeal court (can't recall for certain but it may have been a state supreme court) ruled that in order to violate a prisoner's religious freedom the potential threat must be very high indeed. A fairly high onus was placed on the prison to show not only that there was in fact a potential threat but that there were no other reasonable ways for the prison to cope with it.

Basically, to stop someone from playing a game, you as a prison official have to show that you have a reasonably held (not necessarily correct) belief that it can contribute to security issues.

To stop someone from practicing a religion, you need to show that you have a CORRECT belief that it can lead to harm, AND show that there are no other reasonable ways to mitigate or eliminate that harm without denying the prisoner his religious freedom.

So, if these guys were smart (and they must be they play D+D) they should claim that they play D+D as a religious rite. With all the old school thinking about how D+D is somehow Satanic, it shouldn't be too hard to convince an old conservative judge that it is a religious rite.

Of course, that would be bad for D+D globally, since we have tried pretty hard to shed that stereotype, but it would be good for these guys.

[Yajerman01]

Of course, that would be bad for D+D globally, since we have tried pretty hard to shed that stereotype, but it would be good for these guys.

Does it have to be satanic, are there not any pagan-like or perhaps christiandome like qualities in DnD? Clerics and Favored souls unite!

[Hoglum]

This is positively absurd. I cannot believe how thoughtless these judges are. It reminds me of 4th grade. I taught some students in class how to play Dnd. We were doing math, reading, and studying. Our teaching was puzzled one day and asked what’s up. She said she never saw such a motley bunch of hooligan gangsters being quiet like we were during sustained silent reading. She was amazed by the game once I explained it to her. She borrowed some of my books and took them to a teachers meeting to spread the word how great it was. Then, in a strange turn of events, the state seemed to think the game was bad and actually banned it from schools thinking it lead to devil worship. This, after all of us were sitting there doing what school wanted us to do.

I was terribly frustrated. My friends and I decided to take action and seek out a higher power to look for answers. Then later, when we were caught sacrificing the cat to Asmodeus, they sent me to a “special” home for re-programming. Can you believe it? I was no longer allowed to play, whether it was in school or otherwise. This backlash against Dnd is just bogus. I cannot believe anyone thinks it’s a bad influence on anyone.

[NadgersFishtoaster]

As kid growing in the UK in the 70s, and playing early role-playing game such as D&D, we did sometimes our gaming group composed of white nerds of various ages made things a bit safer when we had to confront places with real gangs.

We used to meet up and go to a friend's house in a rough estate, where skinheads were the current craze, to play Gamma World. Fortunately we were older, and in a group, and this made the estate more manageable to cross.

Role-playing certainly promoted teamwork and improved organisation.

For people seeking a way to connect D&D with Satanism look no further than Chic publications with it's infamous Dark Dungeons comic! Warning - this link could seriously offend people sensibilities ...

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

[CrushingInklings]

187 on an undercover Beholder.

[Chai]

Of course, that would be bad for D+D globally, since we have tried pretty hard to shed that stereotype, but it would be good for these guys.

I like to do some throw backs from time to time when the missionaries are making their rounds to try to convert people. When you answer your door and theres a pile of D&D books on the end table, sometimes thats all it takes for them to turn right back around and try to convince your neighbor instead.