[eBook Code] Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy (eBook Code, 1st)

Abbreviations Used in the Text viii

Introduction: A Game Like No Other 1

Part I Lawful Good vs. Chaotic Evil 5

1 Sympathy for the Devils: Free Will and Dungeons & Dragons 7
Greg Littmann

2 Paragons and Knaves: Does Good Character Make for a Good Character? 23
J.K. Miles and Karington Hess

3 Is Anyone Actually Chaotic Evil?: A Playable Theory of Willful Wrongdoing 35
Neil Mussett

Part II So Did You Win? Philosophy and D&D Gameplay 61

4 Save vs. Death: Some Reflections on the Lifecycle of PCs 63
Christopher Robichaud

5 To My Other Self: Reflection and Existentialism in Dungeons & Dragons 72
Rob Crandall and Charles Taliaferro

6 Player-Character Is What You Are in the Dark: The Phenomenology of Immersion in Dungeons & Dragons 82
William J. White

Part III Crafting Worlds 93

7 Imagination and Creation: The Morality of Fiction in Dungeons & Dragons 95
Robert A. Delfino and Jerome C. Hillock

8 Dungeonmastery as Soulcraft 106
Ben Dyer

Part IV Foray into the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance 119

9 Menzoberranzan: A Perfect Unjust State 121
Matt Hummel

10 Who Is Raistlin Majere? 132
Kevin McCain

Part V The Ethics of Spellcasting 145

11 Expediency and Expendability: An Exhumation of the Morality of Necromancy 147
Matthew Jones and Ashley Brown

12 By Friendship or Force: Is it Ethical to Summon Animals to Fight by Your Side in Dungeons & Dragons? 163
Samantha Noll

Part VI Dungeons & Dragons out in the Real World 173

13 “Kill her, kill her! Oh God, I’m sorry!”: Spectating Dungeons & Dragons 175
Esther MacCallum-Stewart

14 Berserker in a Skirt: Sex and Gender in Dungeons & Dragons 189
Shannon M. Mussett

15 “Others play at dice”: Friendship and Dungeons & Dragons 202
Jeffery L. Nicholas

Contributors 217

Index 223