Hello tickles,
I guess by now you've learned a bit about how the game works. A group of players get together (often in person, like for a bridge game). Each person creates a character (often a long-standing persona they develop over years.) The leader, the dungeon master (DM), weaves an interactive story, often guided by published material. As the story progresses, each person gets the opportunity to make certain decisions for their character (You see a doorway. Do you go through? or, A hostile being approaches. Do you flee, fight, hide, etc?) Some decisions are made by the DM, often by rolling dice. (You stepped through the doorway. Die comes up 1, you get challenged; 2, you get attacked; 3, you find a book; etc.)
Is the game good or bad? It's like asking if reading, or acting in a play is good or bad. Kinda depends on the book or play, and the maturity of the person.
Try asking the question from a different viewpoint. Your daughter wants to get together with friends and weave a long, complex story. It can be lots of fun, and like any well-told story, emotionally gripping and satisfying.
Put this way, the question becomes, how well do you know the friends, or how well do you trust your daughter to choose her friends. I don't know your daughter, but were I in your shoes, I would want to know the friends or the parents, and would want the game to take place in a home where trustworthy parents will be quietly in the background.
My best friend has been a DM for years. He started at age 13. His dad let the kids meet as his house. As he said, the grocery bill was huge, and worth every penny for his peace of mind. That group of kids became close. My friend married a girl from the group. They played regularly until they scattered for college, and as often as possible even then. Many went to the military together. They still get together for holidays, now that they're in their 30s. In college, they dabbled in life-action play, running around in the desert acting out the game. A couple years of that and they decided it was more comfortable around the dining room table. A few of the married couples incorporated some sexual play and partner swapping into the game briefly. Perhaps remarkably, they had fun, the friendships are all still intact, and they still run a game every few months.
Yes, crazy people sometimes play the game, too. I was a student at Texas A&M when some folks were breaking into the steam tunnels to play live-action down there. Tore up some property, one got hurt, made the headlines. But those guys probably would have gotten into trouble some other way if they weren't playing the game.
And yes, there are some role-playing games out there that are much more adult, or that are much darker. There are several local vampire games here in town, some with pretty questionable sex and health practices.
But like I say, D&D can be safe and lots of fun. Just use your best judgement about who she plays with and the setting she plays in.
The fact that you're asking the question means I'm not too worried you'll make the right choice!
🙂 E. Bunbury
