PDA

View Full Version : Need help with a speech



HandofBlades
2007-11-12, 05:13 PM
I am giving a speech on why people should play DnD, and I wanted as much input from people other then the group I normally play with. So far my main points are: great social interaction with friends and strangers, it stretches your imagination, and it poses difficult mental challenges.

Any input would be great. Thanks in advanced.

Townopolis
2007-11-12, 05:17 PM
For 4 hours in every week, I get to be someone truly exciting with no danger to myself. Or, if I want, I can be someone I would never be. Playing a twit character can by very cathartic at times.

For 4 hours every week, the world becomes much more vibrantly interesting, yet at the same time, the vast majority of the problems faced are straightforward enough, and afterwards we're lauded by the peasantfolk as heroes.

AKA_Bait
2007-11-12, 05:19 PM
I am giving a speech on why people should play DnD, and I wanted as much input from people other then the group I normally play with. So far my main points are: great social interaction with friends and strangers, it stretches your imagination, and it poses difficult mental challenges.

Any input would be great. Thanks in advanced.

It's cheap. Initial investment in the core books: 90 bucks or so if you buy them new. Less if you aren't the DM as you only really need the PHB. $90 total for everyone if you are willing to share. Nothing if you can make do with only the SRD.

Each gaming session can last 2 - 5 hours. The legnth 1 -3 full legnth motion pictures. At $10 bucks a movie you recoup that initial investment pretty darn fast. Not to mention the popcorn is cheaper.

Jack Zander
2007-11-12, 05:20 PM
Dungeons and Dragons: Satan's game. Your children, like it or not, are being drawn to the occult, and a game like DnD fuels their imaginations and makes them fell "special" while drawing them deeper and deeper into the bowels of El Diablio!

Oh wait... wrong speech...

AKA_Bait
2007-11-12, 05:30 PM
Also, who is your audience? There are a few ways to spin things that depend upon who you are talking to. If it's a group of parents a good question to pose is:

Where would you rather your kids be hanging out? Some unknown place, with unknown people, doing unknown things or sitting around your kitchen table, eating chips and laughing?

Would you rather they be watching TV, playing a video game, or reading a book? Because believe me, reading books goes hand in hand with Dungeons and Dragons.

HandofBlades
2007-11-12, 05:39 PM
My audience is the professor and the class. Age ranging from 18-24 for the students, and the professor is the head of campus ministries here.

AKA_Bait
2007-11-12, 05:40 PM
My audience is the professor and the class. Age ranging from 18-24 for the students, and the professor is the head of campus ministries here.

Ah ha... you will be graded on this?

mostlyharmful
2007-11-12, 05:41 PM
-try stressing the "morality Play" aspects, use shakespeare and the greek tragedies to illustrate the point, if you want a more modern feel to the examples try star trek. Use DnD to illustrate ethical debate in an informal, entertaining format, (see any one of hundreds of alignment threads, paladin threads and "what the hell do I do now..." threads.)

-use the "storytelling" roots of the roleplay genre to link it into human history, from myths to novels to modern news media, with the bonus of personal involvement, for as long as humanity has existed we have told each other stories that we know are ludicrus for the sake of entertainment and communal underatanding, etc...

-finally, it's fun DAMMIT, it really doesn't need to be any more complicated than that... so long as you and your close friends can rlax long enough to live out a short segment of an exciting "escapism laced" segment of anouther beings life why do you have to justify it beyound that? You're not forcing others to try it, but you enjoy it and you don't hurt anyone so what's the harm?

Grynning
2007-11-12, 05:42 PM
If this is a speech for school, it's likely your teacher is going to require some sources. For (somewhat) obscure topics like this, start from wikipedia, and click the links down at the bottom - there's one that points you toward actual scientific studies on RPG players. Web sources are going to be your primaries for something like this since there isn't much published material about playing RPGs besides RPGs themselves and Chick Tracts.
One thing that helps your speech have more impact is to tell a story from your personal life that sets up your thesis. Leave out some of the story and come back to it in your conclusion to give the audience nice bookends for the content.
As always when writing a speech or paper, WRITE OUT YOUR THESIS STATEMENT. Your thesis is the point you are trying to make, without one an informative speech is just someone rattling off facts. A good way to come up with a thesis statement is to say "I will argue that...." and then drop those words from the beginning of the sentence you finish. Include that statement somewhere in your introduction to let the audience know where you're going.

Seffbasilisk
2007-11-12, 05:48 PM
For part of the speech, try to mention how it's 'Interactive Storytelling', and how each player controls every aspect of how their characters' reaction (within reason enforced by the rules), and the DM is the one who creates the background for the story to unfold. The base environment if you will. And it's so dynamic that even in fighting situations, it's more open-ended then a RPG videogame as you can do more then just 'attack', and everything you can imagine to be interactible you can interact with.

At least that's the basis of what I tell people when I explain it to them.

Renrik
2007-11-13, 12:32 AM
As has been mentioned before, it's interactive storytelling and it serves as an informal forum for morality and social debate.

Moreover, though, we play it for the same reason peopleplay video games and watch movies: escapism. For two hours each week, I can be the most powerful wizard in the kingdom. Or I can be a depraved assassin commiting unspeakable deeds. Or I can ride a dragon. Or I can engage in political intrigue with scheming nobles. It's things I cannot do in real life, and it lets me play out and explore my desires, to come to a better understanding of myself. While simultaneously sitting in my basement eating pizza and rolling numbered polyhedrons.

AslanCross
2007-11-13, 02:04 AM
As always when writing a speech or paper, WRITE OUT YOUR THESIS STATEMENT.

Yep. As an English teacher, this is the foremost thing that I have to say. You have to have your main point around which all your other arguments will revolve.

I take it your thesis statement is "People should play Dungeons and Dragons," expand it to "People should play D&D because...(3 reasons should be enough)."

Heard somewhere that it's best to keep the number of reasons odd. Always more than one, but never more than five. I think 3 is the best number here.

It really depends on your context. In my opinion it's best to stray away from reasons like "People should play it because it's not satanic as some people claim" because this makes you sound apologetic. The ball isn't in your court when you say something like this; you're playing on the terms of Jack Chick. Even as a Christian myself, I don't think it's good to use this argument simply because you're merely refuting someone else's accusations. It's best to use your own arguments.

It boils down to what you want to say about it. Draw from your personal experience; show how it's made a positive impact on you and your friends.

I run D&D games because they help the imaginations of my students develop (those who are part of my Creative Writing club at least), especially since we're in a so-called science high school that is very much bent on hammering these kids into little boxes that are only concerned with the empirical and the physical, completely ignoring the reality of creativity and thinking outside the box being very important in science. However, that's what I would argue, and this may not apply to your context.

kamikasei
2007-11-13, 06:04 AM
You might find this rant (http://www.pvponline.com/rants_dd.php3) by PvP author Scott Kurtz to be worthwhile. It's more directed at parents than academics, but at least might provide a decent reference to lend weight to whatever else you say.