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Jeff Rients: The Dungeon As The Psyche

In response to a recent open thread on Grognardia, Jeff Rients posted the following comment:

I believe that the descent into the dungeon is a symbolic representation of the rational mind attempting to understand the irrational, unconscious self. Therefore dungeons should have something important to say but they are under no obligation to make any sense.

I don’t know how seriously he meant this, but I think it might be one of the most, if not the most, important things ever said about roleplaying games. I will be thinking about this pretty intensely, so expect a more substantial post about it soon.

This entry was posted on May 20, 2011 at 10:39 am and is filed under Dungeons & Dragons with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Jeff Rients: The Dungeon As The Psyche”

  1. Jeff Rients Says:
    May 20, 2011 at 11:33 am

    You bet your bippy I was serious.

  3. El_Bryanto Says:
    June 3, 2011 at 8:47 pm

    That makes some sense. I do know when I first started playing D&D again I was a bit annoying in trying to assign meaning to why things were set up the way they were. As if the fact that the kobolds were in a specific spot had meaning and was part of the puzzle of the dungeon. Why were they there? What were they trying to attempt?

    I suppose it is because I see the Kobolds as characters – trying to do something and accomplish something, rather than as representations of ideas. Something to think about.

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