Trick Tracts: The Truth Behind Those Little Comics

Trick Tracts Review: "Dark Dungeons"

Synopsis: D&D is more than just a game - it is a powerful recruiting tool for witch covens around the world. Who knew?

If any serious D&D player were told by their DM that they would now be able to learn "real magic" and would be initiated into some witchy cult, as is done in this tract, they would quickly find another game to play with a less kooky DM.

No one plays D&D to get into an occult organization, and no occult organizations use the game of Dungeons and Dragons (or any game for that matter) to recruit members.

It seems as if this would go without saying, but as we have learned Jack Chick is a kooky fellow himself with some pretty kooky ideas. Let's look at some such of those ideas that he presents in this tract:

A woman is using a Dungeons & Dragons game to recruit new, young members to her witch's coven.
A girl actually commits suicide because her D&D character dies in a game.
Anyone playing D&D believes the magic they "cast" in the game can be done or performed in real life.

I'm not sure which of these is the most laughable. No one, no cult, organization, group, society, so on and so forth, uses a game - any game - to recruit new members. Why would they do this? What would be the point? And if Satan has so many other tools that he uses to "lure" people in, as Jack Chick seems to think, why a game that only pretends to do these "evil" things? It makes little to no sense.

If this girl, or anyone, chose to take their own life because their dice-rolled, imaginary, pencil-and-paper character died in a game then that person has far more issues than simply being addicted to an engaging game. If anyone were to get that wrapped up in the game, to where they could not tell the fantasy from reality, then that person was messed up to begin with and most likely would've gotten that caught up in any activity that took their fancy. For someone to do something as drastic as this, there are much bigger and deeper problems than a game; a point that Jack Chick seems to completely (and conveniently) ignore.

If there are people that believe the monsters they fight, and the spells they "cast" in this game are real or can be reproduced in real life then, again, there are bigger problems here; the main one being the persons in question are either mentally disturbed, complete morons, or very young and immature.

Playing D&D is not going to suck you into some hidden, mysterious cult, it is not an initiation into some secret coven and, obviously, it is not a tool for the devil to lead you into evil and away from Jesus. It's a game, plain and simple. If you are ignorant enough to believe it is anything but then you probably aren't mature enough to be playing it in the first place.

Yet again Jack Chick proves he is grasping at straws in an attempt to terrify people into subscribing to his beliefs, buying his tracts and littering the world with them. You want to talk about cults; there's a fine example of one right there.

Read the actual Chick Tract: Dark Dungeons