Faith and Gaming
Revised and Expanded Edition

M. Joseph Young

Beginning in 2001, Christian Gamers Guild chaplain Mark Joseph Young began a monthly series of articles addressing issues in role playing and hobby games.  Those articles became available some years later in book form.  Now BlackWyrm Publishing is pleased to announce the release of a new expanded edition under their Blessed Words Books division, containing several more articles on the subject not part of the original series.

The series began with five articles laying the groundwork for a Christian approach to role playing games, covering the social context, the mechanics, and aspects of setting, along with the concept of including bad things in our imaginary worlds.

The sixth through the twelfth articles address many of the objections raised against roleplaying games, that they include magic and false gods, might cause someone to stumble, or appear to be evil.  This is followed by articles about characters, good stewardship of our time, the place of Christian games, and psychic abilities.

The series then turns to ways in which Christians can bring their faith into their games, including obvious ways like playing the good guys, using wisdom, and seeking justice, but also less obvious ones such as playing the bad guys, showing awe, and playing well.

The question is then asked, quite seriously, just how Christians ought to treat Pagans anyway, and whether our conduct toward gamers has been at all Christian.

Articles after that explore such varied subjects as combat and war, sex and gender roles, whether there are genuine Christian stories, and how to relate to issues that would be different to our characters than they are to us.  It then moves into discussing what we can learn by roleplaying, and particularly by roleplaying different types of characters.

A few articles speak of how to glorify God within our imaginary worlds, and the series ends with an important warning of what not only can happen but has happened when people continue to propagate the lies about the supposed dangers and evils of role playing games.

The expanded edition adds the author's famed Confessions of a Dungeons & Dragons™ Addict, a short article answering objections to the Pokemon™ collectible card game, ...And I'm a Gamer, and a few other pieces giving advice on playing games as a Christian.

All of this is available under the title Faith and Gaming through booksellers such as Amazon.