The Dungeon Master

Game Overview

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a tabletop, role-playing game that allows players to dive into a mutual world of imagination and adventure. A typical game consists of a group, typically 3-6 players plus a Dungeon Master (DM). Each player creates a character based on sets of options laid out in the Player’s Handbook and supplemental materials. There are many aspects of creating a character and the possible combinations are infinite. Some players even choose to create their own material with the DM’s approval. A created character has some absolute features, such as race, height, and special abilities, and some relative qualities, such as will power, stealthiness, and strength. The relative qualities of a character influence the game by manipulating the odds of success on any attempted action.

The DM is the omnipotent creator of everything else in the game. It is his job to design and portray an environment for the players’ characters to interact with. A major part of this interaction is determined by rolling dice. Every action which the DM judges to be affected by luck or skill is resolved by rolling a die and adding or subtracting from the result based on the statistics on the roller’s character sheet. However the DM’s primary job is to make the game enjoyable for the other players. He has the power to do anything he deems necessary toward that goal.

Up Ahead You See…

Emanuel Swedenborg discusses some very difficult concepts in his works. Here we will examine some of them using D&D as an analogy, with players as the human race and the DM as God. In some places the game and reality as described by Swedenborg do not perfectly align. From these cracks arise questions which go beyond the scope of our examination. Here we seek only to cover a few things. First, we will consider how the different levels of reality in D&D relate to the natural and spiritual worlds. This will help us in the following discussion, which looks at how and why we make the decisions we make. And finally we will try to understand the knowledge and power that God gives us to act on those decisions and why.

Our World and the Other World

D&D is a game of representation. Nothing in the world of the game actually exists. Everything is represented and controlled by things in our world. Objects and creatures can be drawn, locations can be mapped out, events can be described, but all this does is feed the imaginations of the players. 

This is similar to the relationship between the natural world and the spiritual world. Everything that happens in this world is connected with the spiritual world. However, it is difficult to say whether the natural world or the spiritual world is more akin to the game world of D&D

On the one hand, we know that the natural world is the basis of heaven. Heaven was created by the Lord for the human race. But is was created by the human race in that it is made up of human beings. We are its substance, its foundation in in our existence. Swedenborg’s Last Judgement speaks on this more fully. You could take this to mean that

   A) the natural world is representative and the spiritual world is the imagination where things happen in fullness, i.e. that which happens in this world effects the spiritual world.

or 

   B) the natural world is where things occur in fullness, as in the imagined world of D&D, and the spiritual world represents what happens here in a more essential way.

In the context of The Last Judgement no. 9, the former seems more appealing to me. The natural world is a crude and limited system in comparison the space and time of the spiritual world described in Heaven and Hell, much in the same way that character sheets and combat boards are crude and limited in comparison the the richness of the imagination.

On the other hand, the nature of influx from the Lord, as discussed in Arcana Coelestia no. 880, puts this in a new light. All life in the natural man flows into him from his spiritual, which receives it from his celestial, with receives it from the Lord. This clearly shows that the higher forms must come first, must be the cause, and the natural world is the world of effect. This could still support  both the aforementioned A and B, but it seems that the latter is more likely now. The spiritual world is where our decisions are seeded, and then they are realized in the natural world, just as the events in D&D are based on player decisions and rolls of dice, and then realized in the player’s imaginations.

Influence, Not Determination

Why is it relevant which is the world of cause and which is the world of effect? The answer is in self determination. Swedenborg makes it abundantly clear in Divine Providence that there is no such thing as predestination, except predestination toward heaven, and all those who go to hell do so by their own determination.

In the world of D&D, every character has something called an alignment. Alignment is a relative quality in D&D, meaning that it influences the game rather than limiting it. An alignment is measured by two scales: lawfulness vs chaos, and good vs. evil. When creating a character, a player picks an alignment which helps determine the character’s behavior in situation of moral or ethical weight. However, no character’s alignment is set in stone. A player may choose to have the character act against its alignment. Doing so has the potential to change the character’s alignment at the DM’s discretion.

This is very similar to what Swedenborg describes concerning ruling loves. The more a person acts from a particular love—either love of self or love of the Lord—the stronger the Lord will make that love in him. However a person always remains in freedom to act contrary to his ruling love. The Lord has never and will never deny a person the freedom to act in accordance with or contrary to the thoughts and affections that he grants them. He shares with each person a constant relationship of reciprocal influence—a person may affect what loves he receives by his actions, and his actions are affected by the loves he receives. But the effect is never absolute.

Just as the Lord never denies us our choice, a DM should never deny a player any decision, for in that moment, the player has no influence on the game world, and may as well not be playing, and in fact, is not playing. It may not seem like sacrificing a moment of playing D&D is of great significance, but consider the parallel: what if God denied a single decision? In that moment, that person would cease to exist. And the Lord cannot possibly erase someone because of His infinite Divine Love and Wisdom.

The Power of the DM: Part 1

If we assume a DM is a good one then, like God, he will want his subjects to be happy. He will do everything in his considerable power to achieve that goal. However there are two things over which the DM relinquishes his power. We have established one—he will not take away the players’ free will. The other is the dice. The rolling of dice serves two purposes in balancing the game. First of all, it adds an element of unpredictability. Most players know their DM, or will get to know him over the course of the game, and they could use that familiarity to guess how events will unfold, which typically has a negative impact.

When players have knowledge of the DM and his tendencies, one of two things happens. Either the player suppresses the information and chooses not to apply it, or they make character decisions based off of knowledge that the character doesn't have. No real harm is done as long as the player chooses not to use the information, but it can lessen the suspense or surprise. If the player does choose to apply the information in the game world, it is known as meta-game thinking. It means the characters in the story are acting as if they are aware they are in a game, and as such, it ruins the suspension of disbelief.

A similar issue arises in real life when people act as if they know God. I don’t mean they try to know Him in a familiar, personal relationship way, but that they try to understand Him and His plan of infinite complexity. Swedenborg describes such people in Divine Providence and shows that anyone who claims to see signs from God is blaspheming, for no one could interpret the methods or path of Divine providence without Divine wisdom. Furthermore, seeing signs in the natural world is an absurd notion because God does not guide the natural world through natural things, but through spiritual things. It is of the utmost importance that we not see God’s influence, for then we would inevitably come to think that we know Him.

The Power of the DM: Part 2

The other element the dice contribute is to provide a buffer against DM liability. While the DM makes a nice representation of God in this analogy, one major difference is that the DM is fallible. DMs cannot write perfect adventures. No matter how talented, a DM is still human and thus imperfect and therefore cannot create anything without imperfections. Having dice determine much of the action relieves a great deal of the pressure on the DM. If a challenge turns out to be too easy and rather dull, it is due, at least in part, to the results of the rolls. Alternatively, if events turn out badly, it is not solely the DM’s fault.

Just as dice control the world of D&D, God created elements which govern the natural world, and He does not override them. God guides the universe through Divine providence, which is concerned with the infinite and eternal. He does not manipulate the natural world to mitigate disaster or bring good fortune to anyone. But has He really created this rule for Himself only to avoid Blame?

God does does not make mistakes like a DM. And certainly He has the ability to graciously deal with people who oppose His decisions. So while He is leading people’s eternal souls to heaven, why does He not also control the natural world to make things better? One consideration is our ability to make decisions, or more precisely, our ability to act on our decisions. If God were to control the natural world directly, we would have no power. Our freedom would be nothing because our decisions would have no impact. Good people must have the power to actually do good to the neighbor, and evil people must have the power to actually commit selfish and even malicious acts. But there are many things in this world over which we do not have power regardless of His intervention. Why does the Lord not prevent natural disasters while leaving guns alone? We have also mentioned that no one may be allowed to see God’s Divine providence at work, but He has the power to stop hurricanes in their earliest stages, so that His influence would remain invisible. Yet He does not do this.

Time to Make Camp

D&D shares many similarities with the universe as God created it. There are different levels of reality that influence each other, but are governed by slightly different rules. Players are free to do what they wish, but the DM can influence them. The DM possesses all the same powers over the D&D world that God holds over His creation. There are even more parallels which were not discussed here, such as the relationships between characters and between human beings, or the nature of advancing a character and the process of regeneration. The Lord guides each of us on our own D&D adventure, trying to lead us to heaven. Insofar as He allows us, it is good to understand, even if we cannot perceive, how he leads us so that we may follow Him better.