4 ms·

Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

61 points by reaperducer 3y ago

tb_technical 3y ago
Many prisons don't allow dice. And some don't allow DnD books ("too stimulating"). This leads to many interesting and remarkable adaptations to play. As an example, I heard from a guy that they rolled a d20 by drawing paper lots with the numbers 1 through 20 written on them. He also memorized the entire PHB. Cool dude.
jgalt212 3y ago
[flagged]
- ivann 3y ago
  Because there can be nice things in bad people. The world is complex and subtle.
  - failTide 3y ago
    True enough - and sadly this complexity and subtlety is sometimes taken advantage of in order to create propaganda, such as to create sympathy for various issues.
- soulofmischief 3y ago
  Who is the bad person you're referring to? I read the article twice and saw no mention of anyone bad.
  - jgalt212 3y ago
    so "death row" is a label with no other information attached?
    - soulofmischief 3y ago
      I grew up living with a chaplain who worked death row at a large prison, so I have considerable hands-on experience interacting with death-row inmates, and no, the label "death row" does not provide enough information for judgement.
      - jgalt212 3y ago
        [flagged]
        soulofmischief 3y ago
        Please review the Hacker News contributor guidelines. > Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. > Eschew flamebait. > Please don't post shallow dismissals https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - IE6 3y ago
      has anyone earned that label but later been found not guilty?
      - soulofmischief 3y ago
        Well, that's the problem with the death penalty in the face of our current legal system. The prison I mentioned was majority black. I knew a man personally who had been in prison for over 40 years, since his early 20s. He wasn't on death row, but he spent his entire life in prison for a murder he maintained he never committed. I believed him. One day in this man's late 60s, another man at the prison who was on death row was executed. At his execution, he confessed to another murder... the same one that the first man had been charged with. It took 40 years for this poor man to be exonerated, because he was locked up in a time where being black was enough to get the book thrown at you. If he was on death row, he wouldn't have gotten 40 years to prove his innocence. But the best part? The prison warden maneuvered to gum the process up with as much paperwork as possible, and this man died in prison as a free man.
boomboomsubban 3y ago
http://archive.is/9dh7a http://archive.is/9dh7a
TotempaaltJ 3y ago
This is a heartbreaking story. I love playing D&D, and I can only imagine how important it is to these people in a setting like this. I hope the United States joins the rest of the western world and bans capital punishment soon--preferably yesterday.
- ThrowAway1922A 3y ago
  Some crimes deserve no less. I can somewhat buy arguments about not trusting the government, but I can't buy arguments that capital punishment is actually bad.
  - Bjartr 3y ago
    Is there more to a death sentence than revenge?
  - joefife 3y ago
    The rest of the civilised world manages just fine.
  - Loughla 3y ago
    I'm going to step outside the political fight about whether or not the state should be able to kill people. I don't want to get into that. So, whether or not capital punishment should exists depends mostly on your theory of incarceration. If you believe prison and the law exists to remedy a wrong inside the person committing the crime, via rehabilitation, capital punishment serves no purpose. If prison exists as a holding cell (ha) until individuals within the system are rehabilitated and provided with supports to reintegrate into society, killing them serves zero purpose. If you believe prison and the law exists to remedy wrongs by punishing the person who committed the crime and allowing victims legal means of retribution/revenge, then capital punishment is absolutely necessary for some crimes. I'm not honestly sure where I fall on that scale. I believe we (the US) is failing in our duty to individuals who are in prison, via piss-poor rehabilitation services. But I also believe some crimes deserve the death penalty. Not sure what to do with that.
    - 3y ago

61 points by reaperducer 3y ago

Many prisons don't allow dice. And some don't allow DnD books ("too stimulating"). This leads to many interesting and remarkable adaptations to play. As an example, I heard from a guy that they rolled a d20 by drawing paper lots with the numbers 1 through 20 written on them. He also memorized the entire PHB. Cool dude.

jgalt212 3y ago

[flagged]

ivann 3y ago
Because there can be nice things in bad people. The world is complex and subtle.
- failTide 3y ago
  True enough - and sadly this complexity and subtlety is sometimes taken advantage of in order to create propaganda, such as to create sympathy for various issues.
soulofmischief 3y ago
Who is the bad person you're referring to? I read the article twice and saw no mention of anyone bad.
- jgalt212 3y ago
  so "death row" is a label with no other information attached?
  - soulofmischief 3y ago
    I grew up living with a chaplain who worked death row at a large prison, so I have considerable hands-on experience interacting with death-row inmates, and no, the label "death row" does not provide enough information for judgement.
    - jgalt212 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - soulofmischief 3y ago
        Please review the Hacker News contributor guidelines. > Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. > Eschew flamebait. > Please don't post shallow dismissals https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - IE6 3y ago
    has anyone earned that label but later been found not guilty?
    - soulofmischief 3y ago
      Well, that's the problem with the death penalty in the face of our current legal system. The prison I mentioned was majority black. I knew a man personally who had been in prison for over 40 years, since his early 20s. He wasn't on death row, but he spent his entire life in prison for a murder he maintained he never committed. I believed him. One day in this man's late 60s, another man at the prison who was on death row was executed. At his execution, he confessed to another murder... the same one that the first man had been charged with. It took 40 years for this poor man to be exonerated, because he was locked up in a time where being black was enough to get the book thrown at you. If he was on death row, he wouldn't have gotten 40 years to prove his innocence. But the best part? The prison warden maneuvered to gum the process up with as much paperwork as possible, and this man died in prison as a free man.

boomboomsubban 3y ago

http://archive.is/9dh7a http://archive.is/9dh7a

TotempaaltJ 3y ago

This is a heartbreaking story. I love playing D&D, and I can only imagine how important it is to these people in a setting like this. I hope the United States joins the rest of the western world and bans capital punishment soon--preferably yesterday.

ThrowAway1922A 3y ago
Some crimes deserve no less. I can somewhat buy arguments about not trusting the government, but I can't buy arguments that capital punishment is actually bad.
- Bjartr 3y ago
  Is there more to a death sentence than revenge?
- joefife 3y ago
  The rest of the civilised world manages just fine.
- Loughla 3y ago
  I'm going to step outside the political fight about whether or not the state should be able to kill people. I don't want to get into that. So, whether or not capital punishment should exists depends mostly on your theory of incarceration. If you believe prison and the law exists to remedy a wrong inside the person committing the crime, via rehabilitation, capital punishment serves no purpose. If prison exists as a holding cell (ha) until individuals within the system are rehabilitated and provided with supports to reintegrate into society, killing them serves zero purpose. If you believe prison and the law exists to remedy wrongs by punishing the person who committed the crime and allowing victims legal means of retribution/revenge, then capital punishment is absolutely necessary for some crimes. I'm not honestly sure where I fall on that scale. I believe we (the US) is failing in our duty to individuals who are in prison, via piss-poor rehabilitation services. But I also believe some crimes deserve the death penalty. Not sure what to do with that.
  - 3y ago