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Rev. Chris Ode joins Peter and Grant in a very personal episode this week! Chris is a Lutheran pastor, and an actor and religious consultant for Zombie Orpheus Entertainment. We cover a lot of ground in this discussion, including: Zombie Orpheus’s new project, “Attacking the Darkness” (Kickstarting now!); ZOE’s “Dark Dungeons” movie (an adaptation of the original anti-D&D Chick tract); the lingering effects of Dark Dungeons and other anti-RPG material on the Church, gamers, and gaming; scapegoating; and our own Patreon campaign. (We’re on Patreon now—check out the video for more information!)
Also mentioned in passing:
- Game Store Prophets’ “Bonus Content” episode with Rev. Chris Ode
- STG 74, “The Myth of Redemptive Violence (with Rev. Derek White)“
- STG 63, “An Introduction to Roleplaying Games (with Rev. Jason D. Wood)”
- Zombie Orpheus Entertainment’s YouTube channel
Scripture: Isaiah 44:22, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Ephesians 4:31-32
2 thoughts on “Episode 88 – Dark Dungeons and Lingering Pain (with Rev. Chris Ode)”
I listened to this podcast the other day, and enjoyed it. Having been born in 1992, I missed the actual moral panic but I enjoy hearing about it due to my love of history.
I’ve only been DMing since the summer of 2010, so I am still a relative newcomer to RPGs.
Coming from a conservative old school church, I feared that I was an oddity as a christian and a gamer. Also I am Kargaroth a newer subscriber to the Dark Dungeons subreddit. I will try to start listening to your podcast more regularly once I get back to college and its unlimited data connection.
Really enjoyed this episode! I was born the same year the Chick tracks were released so I grew up on this side of the anti-d&d movement. However, I grew up and played d&d in a small town in NE Georgia where there were more churches than people. I knew to be careful who I told about my gaming hobbies to as most people only knew d&d from the hysteria from the decade before.
I even had one issue arise within my own family where d&d was blamed for my back talking and bad attitude. I WAS A TEENAGER! Not back talking a little would be weird I think. Parents over reacted. Luckily that passed quickly and they were mostly supportive of my hobby. The issue was that they didn’t try to play d&d or really learn much about it.
Fear of the unknown I think caused the majority of the anti-d&d panic.