You’d think that prison officials would want to keep their prisoners out of trouble, but apparently that’s not the case in Waupun State Prison in Wisconsin.  While they are a fairly progressive prison, having hired a pagan priestess to serve as one of the institution’s two chaplains, they’re stuck in the 80’s when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons, which they see as a banned game because it “promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling.”  The argument is dumb, and that’s why inmate Kevin T. Singer is suing Wisconsin to get his D&D back.

Not all prisoners are bad people, which is why I have no problem with Singer getting his D&D back.  While it’s possible that Dungeons & Dragons fosters all those above behaviors, it’s no worse than sports on television, chess sets, a deck of playing cards, or a pencil and paper.  You can gamble on anything if you put your mind to it, and where there’s gambling there’s competitive hostility, violence, and escape behavior.  The fact that he’d written a 96-page adventure suggests that he’s in the game for the love of the game, not because he’s running a gambling ring based on dead orcs.

Tags: Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Kevin T. Singer, Waupun State Prison, Wisconsin, prisoner sues to play D&D, roleplaying game confiscated in prison, Dungeons & Dragons paranoia

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