GENTLE REMINDER: Things have been quite hectic with the page and events involving it.  If you have sent me a link or a link correction, and it appears that I haven't reacted, please contact me again. I'll do my best to get it posted. Thanks!

The links below will lead you to the wealth of other gaming pages on the web, pages that deal with much more than just advocacy... They also have my personal stamp of approval.
 

First, I must plug the Gaming Outpost, not only for supplying this great site, but also because it is an excellent site for gaming news, reviews, and messaging.  I make a point of stopping by this site every day... so should you.

RPGnet is another popular haunt of mine... more gaming news, and a lot of excellent articles, as well as some advocacy resources.

The Fandom Directory is the most comprehensive list of fandom all over the world. You'll find much more than just games and gamers here.

Prince Etrigan's RPG Resource Page, a great place to find convention info, and locate gamers in your area with their gamer registry.

Woodelf's RPG Index: I have seen no other list that is nearly as comprehensive. Go here. NOW!

Pro-Gaming Web Pages

The Interactive Literature Foundation promotes roleplaying as a form of art, education, and entertainment. And, they really know how to refute media attacks!

RPG.NET, an excellent site that covers much in the way of pro-game material, including an archive of all of David Millians' Gaming and Education newsletter.

Dracopolitics On The Web, Pierre Savoie's home page. We share a bunch of the same links (mainly because Pierre gave me a lot of these), but you can find other links on his page, as well as some excellent comments on the situation.

The Pulling Report: An updated and Web-ified version of Mike Stackpole's excellent essay "Game Hysteria and the Truth." My personal favorite is the section on NCTV's unorthodox book reviewing techniques. Check it out.

Stop The Nonsense, the Italian campaign to prevent the banning of RPGs through the entire country.

GAMA, the web page for the Game Manufacturers' Association. GAMA holds meetings that frequently deal with gaming advocacy.

The Ontario Center for Religious Tolerance: An organization that attempts to encourage religious tolerance and understanding. This is their page concerning the believed "dangers" of RPGs, specifically D&D, and it tastefully refutes them. Excellent.

CRPGA, the Christian Role-Playing Gamer's Association. Really. No kidding. Here you can find many who are using RPGs to teach Christian history and values. They also have a mailing list, and are (as of this writing) developing a Christian MUD. This page is still under large amounts of construction, so watch your step.

Club 252, a German role-playing game club that has collected a number of sources from news media and psychological literature on the controversy against D&D.

Advocacy FAQ, a Frequently Asked Questions file from the rec.games.frp newsgroups dealing with this particular topic.

D&D as an Urban Legend: There are no solid references here, only the opinions of the authors.

Tracts Unsuspecting People Read, the story of Pierre Savoie's successful bid to have a Catholic anti-D&D tract taken off the market.

Geoffrey Jacob Schaller provides us with a rant about the gaming situation (although, as rants go, it is very consistent and focused).

http://satanic.org: An interesting page, in which a self-professed satanist rants about the fundamentalist attacks linking D&D with satanism. His language does get a little "colorful," so please be forewarned.

Personality, Belief in the Paranormal, and Involvement with Satanic Practices Among Young Adult Males: Dabblers Versus Gamers, a study by Stuart M. Leeds. This is nothing more than a small, very dry blurb on the AFF anti-cult home page. Basically, it examines personality surveys of gamers and satanic dabblers, and finds many differences between the two.

Fantasy Role-Playing Games: Good For You, by Kenneth Mencher. An excellent paper, written in 1992, that covers the basics.

The Real Truth About Dungeons & Dragons by Charney Cale. Another excellent paper that covers the basics.

Psychological Effects of Role-Playing Games by John H. Kim. This is a collection of studies done on the effects of RPGs on gamers. As far as I know, all of these documents can be ordered from CAR-PGa. This page also points out an interesting fact: a book entitled INNUMERACY: Mathematical Illiteracy And Its Consequences, by John Allen Paulos, uses the D&D "suicide rate" as an example of how statistics are misinterpreted. Check it out.

Concerns Christians Should Have About Dungeons & Dragons, by Jeff Freeman. This page starts out with a statement by a "reformed" player, then Jeff takes the floor.

Anti-Gaming Web Pages

DARK DUNGEONS, the Chick Publications tract against D&D. Hilariously inaccurate, or tragically so, depending on your ability to laugh things off. Volumes could be written about what is wrong with this little tract. Although I believe that this has been posted by a gaming advocate, I've put it in the anti-gaming section because of it's subject matter.

DARK DUNGEONS: Text Only: This is the text-only version of the DARK DUNGEONS tract (see above). The pictures, however, are more than half of the story.

http://www.necronomi.com/magic/paganism-celtic/cult-fbi.txt: Pierre Savoie describes this page thusly: "A pagan group reproduced a report by FBI agent Kenneth Lanning concerning the whole Satanic Panic of the 1980's, which mentions that some Christian groups consider participation in D&D as "entry-level" Satanism." I haven't checked this one out for myself yet.

Yaohushua - The Healer and Exorcist, Apparently a page dedicated to the process of exorcising demons, aimed at the Hebrew faith. Only a passing mention of D&D appears, and it is well buried. According to this page, the exorcist must rid himself and his subject of the following "wicked occult objects" in order for the exorcism to be a success: "representations of the Virgin Mary, the Lord Jesus, St. Peter, and the other myriads of 'saints,' St. Joseph, Buddha, Angels... rock music cassette tapes, computer diskettes, CD-ROM's, videotapes, video-games gadgets, compact discs and records, together with posters, photographs of and reading materials on these rock music artists... hallucinogenic cough syrups, cigarettes, liquors... images of or real skeletons (human or animal), especially skulls and shrunken heads, and skeletons of dinosaurs and other extinct animals, or their preserved mummies... tarot cards, and the ordinary playing cards; computer diskettes, cards, magazines, books, toys and other gadgets related to demonic games such as: dungeons and dragons, garbage pail kids, dracula, vampires, dinosaurs, aliens, robots, and other video games which are full of horror, weirdos, violence, and filth... stuffed toys and animals, figurines (idols really) depicting humans or animals; all sorts of guns and ammunitions, grenades, swords (samurai or otherwise), spears, bows and arrows... starfishes, shells... christmas trees, bells, lights and decorations" The list goes on and on and on... This is actually a better example of Satanic Panic than it is of game-bashing.

Tipper Gore on RPGs: Here's a snippet from Tipper Gore's Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society, in which she, the wife of the U.S. vice-president, spoke out against D&D.

A Primer On Occult Philosophy, from the Christian Information Ministries. This mentions D&D briefly, but lists a pamphlet that you can send for that offers a "good critique of fantasy games."

Watchman Fellowship, an anti-cult organization, has two entries concerning RPGs on their 1996 Index of Cults, Occult Organizations, New Age Groups, New Religious Movements, and World Religions with Related Terms and Doctrines: Dungeons and Dragons (sic), and Fantasy Role-Playing Games. Both are terribly inaccurate. They also offer PLAYING WITH FIRE, an anti-game book offered for a donation of $5.00.

Reachout Trust, an organization in England, has this non-confrontational view on D&D.

Dungeons And (sic) Dragons - Concerns For The Christian, and Press Release From Washington, two documents found on the Christian Connection Home Page. The former is a lenghty list of ecclesiastical problems with D&D that contain Biblical scriptures mixed with quotes from "doctors" of whom no credibility is given. At one point, a "source" (no detail given) informs us that "60 suicides were directly attributed to D&D in 1981." This is not only news to us, but to many of the anti-gamers as well. The latter "press release" is terribly dated, especially since it claims that Joyce Brothers is a paid spokesperson for D&D, and that the D&D cartoon is shown every Saturday morning.

Just by poking around in this page, I have found a few other allusions against gaming in the Cults folder, including: demons01.txt, in which some of the symptoms of demonic possession are "possession (known or unknown) of occultic records, tapes, books, pictures, charms, tools, games, etc... escapism through thrill-seeking, science fiction, soap operas, or some other addicting hobby/activity."

Dead Pages:

Dial-The-Truth Ministries used to have an anti-gaming tract, but I can't seem to find it on their page anymore. I'm going to take this as a good thing for now, but please let me know if you find anything to the contrary.

Concerns About Dungeons & Dragons: This is a well-written little online pamphlet that used to be on the old TSR Home Page. It doesn't appear to be on the new one, and it also seems that I have misplaced it in the many transitions I have made from house to house and computer to computer.   If anyone out there happens to have a copy of it, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could e-mail it to me.  Thanks!

Questions And Answers About RPGs: This also appears on the TSR Page (above), but this one is written by GAMA. Excellent; I recommend capturing it, printing it out, and handing it out! As above, this doesn't appear to have made it to the new TSR page, and I will post it here if it doesn't. Until then, you can always e-mail me for a copy.

Special thanks go to Pierre Savoie, who supplied several of these links.

If you should find an error or a site that has moved or no longer exists, or you would like to add your own favorite gaming advocacy or anti-gaming site to my list, please drop me a line and let me know. I would appreciate it.