Because it is based upon stuff that isn't true....

Wait a minute....

Demons, devil's, necromancy - you know, evil shit for fun. Not a good president if you're a holy roller.

Been playing since I was 17, still get together with basically the same group of friends. To us its just like playing poker, or bridge, or monopoly - its just something we do as friends for fun.

Wow! This is a real blast from the past. The last time I played D&D Regan was in the White House and MTV had just gone on the air.

I think the problem they have with it is that these are silly ppl who think magic and the supernatural are real things and playing the game is like invoking evil powers to come in and fuck up your life.

Like I said, silly ppl.

Played D&D starting in 1978. The conservative Christian lot branded it satanic. I taught me about teamwork and the power of a well executed story. Since I was on the inside, I knew the claims about satanism was misinformation. If we were playing D&D on Sunday we were not in church and not receiving our weekly brainwashing sessions.
If it took you away from church, it was Satans work at hand.
At its core fantasy role playing and religion were in competition for the minds and the money.

I truly believe that a lot of them don't distinguish between the reality of the world and the fantasy they live in.

Years ago I found a late 19th century book of spells at a used book show. It was fascinating to me because the authors seriously believed their stuff. There were probably a dozen useful spells like "How To Make Your Lover See Your Rival's True Odious Nature". Lol. And safety warnings about procedures that were supposedly too dangerous for laymen to attempt.

I didn't try any of the spells because even the simplest took months of preparation. You had to make your magic brazier and your magic athame knife (among other tools) first. And of course for me it would fail anyway because I didn't believe hard enough. Ha, ha. For me it was a window into the way some people thought then. It was a popular enough point of view to get a book published.

Then one weekend my mother visited and later that week I noticed the book was gone. She never mentioned it but I'm sure for the rest of her life she thought she saved me from the forces of evil. Knowing her, she was afraid of Satan's forces corrupting the world with dark magic and she was appalled that I would allow myself to see any of their works.

I don't distinguish between Christian magic and Satan's magic. To me it's all fantasy.
Believers don't distinguish either but for the opposite reason. To them it's all true.
I can't imagine trying to live that way -- just accepting everything and not trusting even myself enough to explore and examine ideas because I could be corrupted.

Basically, it's for the same reasons that many burn books or try to ban movies, etc.
They don't like competing fantasies. It's all they can do to keep up with their own fiction.
Why do you think so many christians are so against the Harry Potter series?
Witchcraft and wizardry made to be appealing to the young folk??
Lordy, lordy!!! It's the devil's work!!
LOL

The same reason they don't like Harry Potter. It has magic in it, magic that people can perform. For Christians, magic is the province of their god and no one else is supposed to do it unless God gives them the power.

Just plain stupidity and ignorance

@TCorCM

What does "D&D" stand for? Please spell out words.

Design & Development
Dungeons & Dragons
Deaf & Dumb
Drunk & Disorderly
Decontamination & Decommissioning

The D&D thing came from the Satanic Panic time during the 80's damn near everything was demonized. The compamy changed its packaging and the names and nature of some of the creatures etc. The game survived and nownis experienceing mor interest in groups that play together from all over the world.

I was raised in a religion that perceived any interaction, or even encounter, with Satan’s realm as a possible first step toward the loss of one’s soul. In my youth, Satan’s domain included witchcraft, Ouija boards, seances, mystics, fortune tellers, tarot card or palm readers, etc. All of these were “of the Devil,” according to the Christian faith in which I was raised. These were all Satan’s attempts to snare us. The Bible teaches that witches and witchcraft are real, so it is no wonder that Christians today remain spooked by the ‘magic,’ ‘spells’ and ‘curses’ found in everything from Dungeons & Dragons (very retro, indeed) to Harry Potter, and beyond.

My take on it, after all these years, is a little more subtle than "They don't like it because it encourages magic and witchcraft".

Players act out the role of characters that they invent, and inhabit a fictional world. In that fictional world, the character they portray, almost by default, will worship some deity that is not Jesus or his Dad, because- Gasp!- in these fantasy worlds, Christianity doesn't exist! Imagine the horror of a world without Christ! If your teenager can successfully imagine being a dwarf who worships Dvalin, the God of all Dwarves, it's only a step away from turning their back on the One True Church!!

And those fictional gods are even better than Jesus, because they grant actual magic powers to their clergy. When did you last hear of the Pope calling down a lightning bolt to smite someone with whom he disagreed sharply? If the Pope had the power of even a middling-level D&D cleric, he'd be able to cast Control Weather and do something about all these tropical storms with which we've been vexed lately. Just pop him on a plane to wherever the trouble is. And no famines, because they can magically Create Food and Water. Imagine having to explain to your kids why your god can't do what the D&D gods can do.

Your run-of-the-mill Xian may not know enough about the game to realize this stuff, but I'd bet my boots the higher-ups do, and that's why they don't want their youth involved in it, nosiree.

As has been mentioned below fundamentalist Christians believe in the Devil and wicked spirits. They believe this is a gateway in to demonism, demons and Satan. I came out of a sect that really believes that shit.

The more you prohibit the more you control

I'd think the presumed magic system in D&D as well as the stretching of imagination and fantasy. It seems anything that pulls a person's thoughts and actions outside of what the church preaches and teaches specifically is at risk.

It's too closely associated with things in the Bible and those who played might realize the bible is a game of fantasy as well

Somewhat similar, I love to annoy Jesus and Gawd by taking my warlock, mage or paladin through eviiil dungeons in World of Warcraft.

I suspect it's a case of 'How DARE you play games with wizards! Magic and wizards are BLASPHEMOUS - with the single exception of the white bearded, teenage girl raping, mass killing, bigotted, vicious, brutal sky wizard we worship! By playing games which include sorcery, you are getting WAY too close to showing that our own, holy sky wizard is just a figment if the imagination too!'

Evangelicals seem to have a very similar response to the Harry Potter books and movies too.

I remember when I worked for the Salvos their magazines were anti anything that mentioned witchcraft or similar topics. It must make life interesting to be so against things that you have no knowledge of.
I did work with some lovely Salvationalists though, ‘there is good and bad, in everyone’ as Mr Wonder says in his song Ebony and Ivory

I don't know why. I wasn't aware it was contentious though that's probably because I don't know many christians. I gave up talking to them a long time ago. I do know a young twenty something that play's it two or three times a week in Lismore NSW. She does it for the socialisation factor I believe. She needs it after long days at work.

Maybe because anything that is fun makes you think Must be "evil"??!!!!

fear.

In D&D we try to convince our brain that this false narrative is a new reality no matter what our senses and logic says otherwise. The PFC treats this as yet another experience to learn from ... draws the comparison internally (myths are not reality) ... and tries to adjust our own internal narrative accordingly. This makes them question their internal narrative and creates a mental dissonance. This insecurity causes them fear and they lash out.

It's just so fucking ridiculous like the fact they tried to ban Harry Potter too, there's just no limit to the brainwashed who think they own the planet, fuck them!

D&D is a game nothing more. I as DM, (Dungeon Master) make a maze and a story/plot line with places where you , the players, interact with my traps/obstacles. It is a puzzle of sorts. It can be (usually) a giant time waster.

Anyone who thinks it is otherwise is a stupid person. Sorry one must be blunt at times. iI is like my distant relatives who thought Harry Potter was the way to hell. Never bothered to read one, or even ask about it while with a fan.

WOT for me, a great passtime for others. Just like Baseball and NASCAR harmless and time waster depending on viewer.