Magic in DragonRaid

As mentioned previously, DragonRaid did not find much favor in the Christian community, despite the fact that game's primary intent is to promote Christian growth.  Opposition to the game was seemingly due to the inclusion of “magic.”  The sentiments of anti-D&D spokesperson Sharon Sipos were presented in a 1986 newspaper article:

Sharon Sipos, a Chesterfield County housewife and mother of two who has spoken out against the game on about 30 radio and television programs throughout the nation, believes D&D is not merely a game, but an "alternate lifestyle." Mrs. Sipos said she is engaged in "a spiritual battle," led by the Lord.

She is opposed not only to Dungeons & Dragons, but to all fantasy role-playing games, including a "Christian" version of D&D called Dragon Raid. She said Scripture is used as magic in that game, which she believes is associated with the occult.

Unfortunately, since we don't have exact quotes from Mrs. Sipos; we must assume that the article's author accurately conveyed Sipos' meaning.  Alas, the “spiritual battle” faltered as D&D encroached upon popular culture during the past three decades.  Role-playing games are no more of an “alternate lifestyle” than golf and Christianity is not incompatible with D&D.  I noticed that the Christian Gamer's Guild had a booth at Gen Con this year.  (Maybe it's a regular thing, but this is the first year I noticed it.)

That “magic...is associated with the occult” may not be an astounding revelation, but it exemplifies Sipos' logic.  The occult is bad and magic is associated with the occult; therefore, magic is necessarily bad.  This is akin to saying:  arson is bad and fire is associated with arson; therefore, fire is necessarily bad.  If magic in a Christian RPG is bad, then what is an appropriate level of tolerance?  Harry Potter?  Stage magicians?  Fairy tales?

Sipos was correct when she said that DragonRaid uses Scripture as magic.  Players can recite bible passages which cause effects such as  starting a fire or temporarily increasing a character's attribute.  For instance, Ecclesiastes 11:1 (i.e., “Cast your bread upon the waters...”) gives a character “enough food for one day.”  To be clear, this is not “real life” magic.  In a flyer/letter included with the boxed game, DragonRaid creator Dick Wulf wrote:

It's good to memorize Scripture.  You never know when you'll need to recall God's truth.  Though scripture always works powerfully, it does not work magically in real life.  In DragonRaid, however, Bible passages sometimes have mysterious effects in order to create a fun incentive for memorizing scripture.  This means when your character says a verse or passage from the Bible by memory, the OverLord provides help.  It is in no way meant to encourage the study or practice of magic.  Using magic in any way, for any purpose, is absolutely forbidden (see Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

(The peculiar use of bold type is just as it appears in the original.)  These 'magic' verses are called WordRunes.  They each have a difficulty level, a requisite attribute minimum, and restrictions on when they may be used.  Difficulty level based upon the number of words in the passage.  WordRunes of difficulty level one have less than twenty words; higher difficulty WordRunes have more.  Each character has a 'Sword of the Spirit' rating that indicates the highest difficulty level of WordRune that the character can utilize.  However, as the character's Sword of the Spirit rating increases, WordRunes of lower difficulty levels are no longer available.  A character “may not use a WordRune more than three levels below his Sword of the Spirit rating.”

In addition to creating a magical effect, a successful recitation of a WordRune provides the character with “maturity units,” a form of experience points.  Typically, Sword of the Spirit and the requisite attribute each get one maturity unit.  Once twenty maturity units are collected, the applicable rating or attribute increases by one step.  Maturity units can also be earned by completing adventures; however, characters can also lose maturity units by “being caught in a dark creature sin enchantment” or “by being disobedient to the OverLord.”

All DragonRaid players are expected to use WordRunes.  Of course, the main purpose of the WordRune mechanic is to help the players become better Christians by memorizing Bible verses (thereby, one supposes, understanding them and applying them to real life situations).  Yet this is a mechanic where the character benefits from the player's effort – not due to role-playing or rolling dice or even spending narration points (or whatever).  Imagine employing this mechanic as the standard means of spellcasting in some other role-playing game.  The Bible need not be used, but the text should be appropriately atmospheric.  (I would consider using the works of William Blake – spiritual without being oppressively religious.)  Any character would be capable of magic, but only if (and to the extent) the player worked to memorize and recite the material.

Angels & Allegory

Luca Giordano     The Fall of the Rebel Angels (detail)     1660 - 1665

On page 76 of the DragonRaid Adventure Master Manual, there is an advice section named “When Players Try to Leave the Written Narrative.”  It explains that other role-playing games permit (or even encourage) players to deviate from a scripted adventure.  For DragonRaid, however, departing from structured adventure material is less than optimal.  One must remember that, first and foremost, DragonRaid is supposed to be used for “imparting Christian truth.”  Thus, “a departure from the text may cause players to miss out on valuable spiritual lessons.”  Should this happen, “DragonRaid may become just another game – fun, but without educational value” (or rather the intended educational value).

So, how should an Adventure Master 'shepherd' the players when they start to stray from the course of the adventure?  What would Gary do?  According to The Keep on the Borderlands :  “If a party attempts to move off the map, have a sign, a wandering stranger, a friendly talking magpie, or some other 'helper' tell them they are moving in the wrong direction.”  Dick Wulf (designer of DragonRaid) encourages Adventure Masters to be “innovative” with regard to bringing the party back in-line with the adventure.  As an example, “Tell the players that a talking magpie flies down in front of them and advises them that what they are about to do isn't in the OverLord's will!”  I don't know about you, but a magpie is not going to deter me from my intended course of action.  (O.K., a magpie might influence me, but it won't deter my character.)  I am generally suspicious of the motives of magpies.  In fact, if a magpie didn't want me to do something, I would be more inclined to do it.  What would discourage me?  A unicorn.

The “Celestial Guardians” section of the LightRaider Handbook (p. 56) states, “Both unicorns and pegasi are embodiments of angels in the world of EdenAgain.”  Sometimes they take other forms.  About a page is taken up with the “What we know about angels” section.  Twenty 'facts' about angels are listed, such as, “They can eat food. (Genesis 18:8)”  Each fact has a biblical citation except for one:  “They are personal spirits possessing intelligence, wisdom, patience, meekness, modesty, holiness, obedience, knowledge, will power, and the ability to speak languages.”  Anyway, why not just call an angel an angel?  Why equate them with unicorns and pegasi?  For that matter, why not just refer to the OverLord as Jesus?

Wulf employs allegory for a reason.  On page 50 of the Adventure Master Manual, he explains that allegory is necessary...

          ...because sometimes people have heard things about Jesus Christ (or about Christianity) to which they have developed very definite responses, both positive and negative.  These learned responses may block any further input.  By using an allegory to retell those spiritual truths, the game provides a comfortable and non-threatening learning experience.
          It is important that the Adventure Master maintain the integrity of the allegory by rarely allowing players to say Jesus Christ or Lord instead of OverLord.  It is too easy to be inconsistent and have the game lose its impact.  The wonderful world of EdenAgain and all of its marvelous creatures may give way to “churchy” words like salvation, which repel or bore some people.  Creativity and imagination are stifled, and as the game falters, God-given opportunities for teaching are lost.

Still, 'OverLord' sounds somewhat forbidding.  I am reminded of the main antagonist in Blackstar (which aired prior to the publication of DragonRaid).  Instead of OverLord, I would have gone with WorldLight.

The Cosmology of DragonRaid

 

Games are frequently used as educational tools, so it's no surprise that someone would employ a role-playing game for teaching purposes.  However, it is counter-intuitive that – during the heyday of the Satanic Panic – a role-playing game would be used “to impart Christian truth.”  Yet, DragonRaid, intended as a “discipleship tool,” was published in 1984.  According to the New Player Briefing:

Other fantasy role-playing games create open-ended situations that have the tendency to reinforce worldly values and philosophies.  Many of them even generate unrighteous interest in the occult.  But DragonRaid is radically different in that it uses the imagination to convey a biblical understanding of good and evil.

The game's designer, Dick Wulf, played Traveller and D&D.  He knew that role-playing games are not inherently satanic and recognized their engaging value; so he designed DragonRaid as an “Adventure Learning System.”  Unfortunately, many in the Christian community were not as open minded as Wulf and DragonRaid was decried.  Additionally, gamers were not inclined (nor are they now) to embrace a 'Christian' RPG.  DragonRaid was virtually alienated from the communities it attempted to serve.  Regardless, the game is sold to this day and the current publisher is evidently preparing a second edition.

The setting of DragonRaid is the planet EdenAgain.  (Wulf had a penchant for creating proper nouns by combining two words but still capitalizing the 'first' letter of the 'second' word.)  “[A]t the outer reaches of the universe,” EdenAgain orbits the star Warfare.  The planet was instantly “forested and peopled.”  Early on...

...that pristine world came under the aggressive attack by the Evil One...[T]he Great Red Dragon known as Abaddon took one malignant egg from the dragon Kakia and transported it across the universe.  In EdenAgain's atmosphere, the dragon ovum divided before birthing, hatching nine evil, writhing serpents in a land of peace-loving people.

The serpents were the forerunners of the nine varieties of dragons:  crystal, gaze, fluorescent, firedrake, dream, slime, shadow, sea serpent, and rainbow; each with its own attributes.  Due to the enchantments of the dragons, the people were deceived; they “found themselves separated from the Eternal Presence and discovered that their peacefulness had vanished.”  The dragons “invited...nearby worlds to send the worst of their kind” to EdenAgain.  From these worlds came goblins, orcs, trolls, and other “dark creatures.”

Eventually, the OverLord of Many Names (one of those names being Jesus Christ) appeared on EdenAgain to initiate the Great Rescue, “which continues to this day...”  The OverLord led “carefully chosen people toward the southern portion of the land and laid bare the deception that had gripped them.” At the southern end of the continent of Talania, the OverLord created the Liberated Land, a refuge for the chosen people.  The Liberated Land is completely protected from the Dragon Lands by the Peaks of the New Beginning and “a dense Mist Barrier that rises from the untamed oceans.”

The chosen people became known as the TwiceBorn “because of their 'second birth,' when the OverLord rescued them and set them free from dragon enchantment.”  They “have an everlasting desire to follow the OverLord in heart, mind, and will.”  Player characters are TwiceBorn inhabitants of the Liberated Lands.  Having graduated from the DragonRaider Academy, the PCs are LightRaiders who go on missions to the Dragon Lands in order to thwart evil.  Hence the titular 'DragonRaid' is not a raid by dragons, but a raid against dragons.  The OnceBorn (otherwise known as dragon slaves) are humans who reside in the Dragon Lands and remain under dragon enchantment.  LightRaiders are prohibited from killing the OnceBorn because some of them “will meet the OverLord” and “agree to be rescued.”  Other intelligent beings are fair game.

As indicated above, the New Player Briefing uses the phrase “Other fantasy role-playing games.”  This would seem to be an admission that DragonRaid is a fantasy RPG, yet on the same page is the statement, “DragonRaid is the polar opposite to fantasy role-playing games.”  Certainly, the point of DragonRaid – “promoting practical Christian growth” – is different from its contemporaries, but DragonRaid clearly falls under the rubric of fantasy role-playing games.  In many RPGs, the goal of the player characters is to amass material wealth and power.  In other RPGs, player characters confront a threat to civilization.  In DragonRaid, PCs aren't after wealth or power, nor is their civilization threatened.  Ensconced in the Liberated Land, the TwiceBorn are beyond the influence of the Evil One; instead, LightRaiders volunteer to be pawns of the OverLord in His machinations.  In this sense (at least), DragonRaid is quiet different from the 'other' fantasy role-playing games.

Inspiration: The World of Wulf the Barbarian

The Atlas (Seaboard) line of comic books was introduced in 1975.  By 1976, the line had vanished.  (The line was briefly 'revived' in 2011; this post does not address that incarnation.)  Most of the books were forgettable, but a few had potential – at least at the beginning of the Atlas endeavor.  One of those few was Wulf the Barbarian.  Certainly, it had its share of clichés and tropes, but it is not unworthy of consideration.

According to the first Atlas bullpen page, “[T]he saga of WULF THE BARBARIAN is set on a planet the size of which is beyond mortal comprehension.”  This aspect of the setting is never addressed in any of the four published issues of Wulf, neither is mentioned the name of the planet.  In the third installment, a map is provided; named simply 'The World of Wulf the Barabarian.'

The map as shown in WULF THE BARBARIAN #3

I have it from good authority that your humble host is mortal.  Since I seem to be able to comprehend the area that this map describes, I am forced to conclude that the map does not depict the entirety of Wulf's world.  It does, however, show the various locations that Wulf visits in his abbreviated saga as well as many locations he does not, such as Ulm, Kwan Jhoon, and the exotic Newark.

The same map, altered for legibility

Whatever charm Wulf the Barbarian held was supplied by artist/writer Larry Hama.  Alas, Hama did not continue beyond the second issue.  Still, we can reflect upon what we have.

Wulf is a Northern barbarian who goes on adventures in the lands to the South.  That part may sound familiar, but Wulf is really the heir to a kingdom.  Very well, that part probably sounds familiar too; however, after he witnesses the murder of his parents, he is raised by a family retainer and dedicates himself to vengeance.  Yeah, OK, that part is not exactly original either.  The thing is,  Wulf's ultimate goal is to defeat the evil wizard who has deprived him of his rightful domain...  Look, not everything can be original, it's how the concepts mesh together that's important.

Balik, the Eye of Mordek

Anyway, an army of trolls wearing “the sigil of Mordek Mal Moriak, the sorceror” (sic), attacks a hunting expedition of “Lord Wulfgar, Thane of Baernhölm and Master of Castle Silver Keep.”  Wulfgar and his wife, “the Lady Lenore,” die valiantly.  “Count Stavro Dar Kovin, Fencing Master of the House of Wulfgar,”  rescues the young heir, the titular Wulf.  Being a badass, Stavro kills Balik, “The Eye of Mordek,” (see depiction to the left) and makes off with his dragon.  Stavro and Wulf fly more-or-less South and pass some noteworthy locales (see illustrations below).  Eventually, the wounded dragon expires and Stavro and Wulf take up residence in the city of Azerbajia.  Stavro becomes a street performer, juggling knives, to generate a subsistence income for the orphaned prince and himself.  Of course, at night Stavro trains Wulf to be a badass in his own right.  After a montage of training panels, some exposition and a flashback, Stavro is killed by the same troll that killed Lenore.  Wulf, now a well-trained young man, gets vengeance and rides off in search of adventure and, in his own words, “To slay a sorcerer!”  (In proper barbarian style, almost everything Wulf says ends with an exclamation point.)  Thus ends the first issue.

Wulf's journey

In the second issue, Wulf meets up with some supporting characters, “Berithe of the Free Swordsmen's Guild...Rymstrydle the Blader, also of the Guild...and Zemba, a magician of Abba-Maroja.”  The foursome travel to the city of Rama-Kesh, which has suffered from the enmity between the two water merchants that control all of the city's wells...

These were men of wealth and power...one was Melekantis, a vain man motivated by pride...The other was Rasselas, whose only love was power, a bitter man driven by greed...Their animosity blossomed into violence and both men had armed gangs of hired thugs clashing in the alleyways...Some thought a stalemate had been reached but Rasselas dabbled in sorcery!  And he called forth a Nameless Thing to slay Melekantis!  But the very powers he unleashed had driven Rasselas over the boundaries [of] sanity!  And in his madness, he delved deeper into his sorcery...'twas Rasselas' magic what emptied the wells of Rama-Kesh...and loosed strange gibbering creatures upon the nighted streets.

Like any party of player characters worth their salt, our protagonists resolve to surreptitiously enter Rasselas' lair and – in Wulf's words – thrust “a yard of cold steel in Rasselas' gut.”  However, once they gain entry to the palace, our heroes find that the sorcerer's madness has warped the interior into an Escher-esque labyrinth.  Yes, the characters prevail and evil is defeated, but not until Wulf exclaims “Blood and Iron!” two more times and one of the characters dies in a noble sacrifice.

...A Sorcerous Manifestation of Rasselas' Insanity!