Good through Games

Last night, I asked myself a question: Can one do good through gaming? The situation that prompted that question was that I had been asked to help with with a Young Men's activity. The activity was playing Magic: the Gathering, but despite some interest in the game, none of the young men knew how to play the game. So, I let them each use a deck that I had built, I taught them the basic mechanics, and I walked them through the strategy of their decisions. Ultimately, they seemed to have a good time, and I count that as a good thing. In a small way, I did a minuscule amount of service through gaming. However, I don't know if I would have blogged about doing so if I hadn't passed up an opportunity to do so tonight.

Earlier this evening, I was at the comic book shop, waiting for the DM to arrive (the bus system gets me to the comic book shop early). Then I received a message telling me that the usual DM couldn't make it. Normally, that's not much of a problem. I've substituted for the normal DM the last several times he couldn't make it, and the adventure I created as a filler, backup, mini-adventure has now evolved into a grander story with a looming threat and an evil plot and lots more fun stuff that I won't describe in too much detail in case any of my players ever end up reading this.

However, perhaps I bit off more than I could chew, or maybe I was simply focusing on the wrong areas of the plan over the last few days. I was making tentative plans for the distant future, neglecting to make concrete plans for the immediate future. Sure, it's nice to have an idea of what might happen some time down the road, but it's essential to have an idea of what's happening right now and what's going to happen very, very soon. I neglected that part of the plan in that I didn't nail it down in time. So, when the usual DM let me know that he couldn't make it, I wasn't prepared to sub for him. Tonight's game was canceled because I wasn't prepared to run it. I had an opportunity to improve some people's evening, but I wasn't prepared to do so, and I missed an opportunity to serve them through gaming.

Of course, I hope that I can ultimately do more good through gaming than just helping a few people enjoy a fun evening. I want to actually improve people's lives and help others to improve themselves as people, and I think gaming can do that. D&D can force people into tricky moral dilemmas, and while some characters/players may not care much, I might be able to give them reasons to care. As the DM, I can largely influence the outcomes of the characters' behavior. I can reward good player/character behavior in realistic ways, like a non-player character  being kind to the player character after the player has their character do something kind. By establishing rewards for good behavior, I can encourage good behavior, both in and out of the game.

That may be what I most want to get out of running D&D. I play D&D to become a better person (and because it's fun). I want to get to the point where I run D&D both to help others have fun and to help them become better people. That, I believe, would be a small service to humanity, a service I could render through games. I love gaming, and I plan to keep doing it, but I don't just want to play and run games. I want to accomplish good by doing so.