Ten dollars and ninety-five cents doesn't buy much these days. However, it will buy a ticket into the fascinating and possibly dangerous world of Dungeons & Dragons.

The "ticket" is a small cardboard box containing a 48-page instruction book and several dice with six, seven, eight or more sides. The world of Dungeons & Dragons is inhabited by a ravenous monster who consumes vast amounts of time and money and can drive its victims crazy.

D&D, as it is called, is the invention of two military-game enthusiasts, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Gygax operates TSR Hobbies Inc. in Lake Geneva, Wis., the manufacturer of the D&D game and paraphernalia and several other fantasy games.

D&D has grown from an obscure pastime enjoyed by a few ($50,000 in sales in 1975) into one of the most popular games of the 1980s. It is estimated that D&D will bring in $600 million in 1982.

Perhaps sales have mushroomed because the basic package -- the dice and introductory book -- doesn't take a player very far. True indulgence in the game requires such books as the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, The Monster Manual, and Deities and Demigods. Once those books have been mastered, there are more accessories, including ready-made charts for game settings and even intricately detailed and painted figurines for use as game pieces.

While the D&D fad has spread into high schools on down, (there is a TSR game for 5-year-olds called "Fantasy Forest"), its most fanatical devotees are found on college campuses. Campus D&D games received national media attention several years ago when a student at Michigan State University disappeared and some people suggested that he was acting out his D&D role in steam tunnels underneath the campus.

D&D, along with games such as "Tunnels and Trolls," "Chivalry and Sorcery," "RuneQuest" and "Arduin Grimoire," is called a Fantasy Role-Playing game (FRP for short). Explaining them to the uninitiated is difficult, but here we go.

In most FRP games, there is one player appointed the Dungeon Master, who controls the game by drawing up maps, setting the location of treasures, monsters and dungeons, and establishing magical spells. Only the Dungeon Master knows where each of these items is located in the game.

Each player, through his game character, then embarks on a quest for the secret treasure. Combining the adventure of a J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy, the thrill of a Conan the Barbarian adventure and the strategy of war games, the players try to outwit the Dungeon Master's schemes.

Unlike most games, boards and pieces are unnecessary in D&D. All the action occurs in the Dungeon Master's head. He calls the shots and tells each player how the game is going.

Of course, the Dungeon Master is bound by some rules. At the outset of the game, each player chooses what type of character he will have -- a druid, cleric, elf, magic user or assassin. A roll of the dice determines a character's ethical orientation (ranging from very good to very evil) and special abilities.

The game is quite complicated, as a glance at any of the aforementioned manuals will prove. A D&D player can spend hours just studying the game manuals.

The investment of time in D&D does pay off. A player's powers of imagination improve as he pictures the characters' action in his mind. Creative thinking is developed and definitely pays off in D&D.

For this reason, many schools have introduced D&D into their curricula. Such a game is often the thing that brings certain bright but shy students out of their shells and into class participation.

However, a closer look will show that the potential hazards of D&D far outweigh its benefits. Ministers have seen what this game has done to the lives of many Christian youths whom they have counseled. It has never helped the growth of the Christian. It has always stunted that spiritual growth.

There are four reasons why D&D is harmful:

1. It emphasizes violence.

In even the most basic levels, the players often confront violence that would make an R-rated Clint Eastwood movie look tame.

In the November 1980 Psychology Today magazine, in an article called "Confessions of a Dungeon Master," Dr. John Holmes says that the "level of violence in this make-believe world runs high. There is hardly a game in which the player does not indulge in murder, arson, torture, rape or highway robbery."

Of course, this violence is all imaginary, but Christians should remember that our imaginations can have a powerful effect on our attitudes and on our lives. The Bible says of man: "For as he thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7); and "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart." (Luke 6:45)

People who spend their time dwelling on the violence and evil deeds prevalent in a D&D game run the risk of letting those attitudes prevail in their lives. We humans, as sinners, are already inclined toward evil. (Jeremiah 17:9) We don't need any more encouragement.

The game rewards violence. In the words of Rett Kipp, a college student who devotes at least 40 hours a week to the game:

"In D&D, it's better to be evil. You get more advantages being evil and it's easier to go on and not have to think of what to do and what not to do. If for some reason you had the idea in your head that you no longer trust someone, if you chop him down from behind -- as an evil character there's no penalty for it..." (Cornerstone, Vol. 9, Issue 52, pg. 14)

In real life, there is a penalty for such behavior. The danger of D&D is that some impressionable youths will lose track of the distinction between the game and real life.

Some day, each person will have to answer to a creator who is righteous and just. He sees no benefit in our being evil.

The Christian should heed Paul's advice:

"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything is worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things." (Philippians 4:8; cf. Colossians 3:1-2)

2. It emphasizes occultism.

All FRP games include plenty of occult subjects: demons, witches, gnomes and spell-casting to name a few. Gygax, in the Player's Handbook, says D&D is best described as "Swords and Sorcery." (pg. 7) That is, the game stresses violence and occultism. Furthermore, he says that "most spells have a verbal component, and so must be uttered." (pg. 40) The players memorize such magical formulas and recite them during the game. In most of his books, Gygax has included hundreds of spells and incantations; there are even some instructions on how to raise a familiar spirit, seance style!

Gygax claims that he made up the "spells" and "seance" incantations by himself. Whether or not they are genuine incantations, no Christian has any business reciting them.

As a result of the occult elements, the game has become a major occultic influence in America. It cultivates a curiosity in the occult and may lead some to indulge in more serious study of sorcery and related matters.

This has been acknowledged by occult practitioners themselves. Phillip E. Bonewitz, the only man ever to receive a B.A. in sorcery from the University of California, has recently written a book designed to show D&D players how they can go all the way into real sorcery, titled Authentic Thaumaturgy: A Professional Occultist on Improving the Realism of Magic Systems in Fantasy Stimulating Games (Chaosium Inc., Berkeley, Calif., 1980). The book is now out of print.

The Bible condemns all forms of occultism as an "abomination." (Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Galatians 5:20; Exodus 22:18; Isaiah 47:9- 12; Leviticus 20:6,27) No Christian should dabble in occult practices -- even the make-believe ones of D&D.

3. D&D emphasizes paganism.

In the Deities and Demigods book, one will find the following comments:

"No fantasy world is complete without the gods, mighty deities who influence the fates of men and move mortals about like chess- pieces in their obscure games of power ..." (page 105)

The book also says:

"Serving a deity is a significant part of D&D, and all player- characters should have a patron god. Alignment assumes its full importance when tied to the worship of a deity." (page 5)

Among the deities are the Egyptian gods Ra, Isis and Osiris; Hindu deities Varuna and Vishnu; Babylonian gods, American Indian gods and Norse idols. Other beings commonly referred to are elves, ogres, satyrs and goblins.

While the players don't really bow to worship such heathen idols, we must face the fact that those who have submitted to the one true and living God ought not even play a game that demands service to a deity -- even in "harmless fun."

4. It is addictive.

D&D is a time-consuming game. Gygax himself says that "The most extensive requirement is time." (D&D Basic Manual, 1979, page 3)

Moira Johnston writes:

"Good or evil, it becomes a compulsive force in the lives of those who play." (New West, Aug. 25, 1980, pg. 34)

The Dungeon Master must devote hours of preparation time before the game even begins: the complex manuals, map-drawing and priming of the imagination require enormous amounts of work.

The addictive nature of D&D involves a distortion of reality as well. D&D devotees sometimes have difficulty drawing a line between the real world and the game world. Holmes says:

"Moreover, just a Dungeons & Dragons players sometimes begin to think of their characters as real persons with a separate existence of their own, the Dungeon Master sometimes begins to think, 'I wonder what is really beyond the Southern Jungle,' forgetting that he alone has the power to put something there. The make-believe world assumes an eerie sense of reality." (Psychology Today, Nov. 1980, pg. 93)

One D&D player added these thoughts:

"It's hazardous... The more time you spend in your fantasy world, the more you want to walk away from the burdensome decisions in life... the more I play D&D, the more I want to get away from the world. The whole thing is getting very bad." (New West, Aug. 25, 1980, pg. 38)

Even D&D enthusiasts recognize the danger. The publisher of one FRP game magazine says, "The stuff that makes me nervous is over-identification with characters. I've seen people have fits, yell for 15 minutes, hurl dice at a grand piano when their character dies." (New West, pg. 39)

Holmes notes in his Psychology Today article that sometimes when a game character is killed off, the person will suffer "psychic shock and may go into depression." (pg. 93)

The dangers are obvious and documented. It is bad enough that D&D emphasizes subjects that are anathema to Christians -- occultism, paganism and violence. That D&D players devote huge chunks of their time to it makes it all the more dangerous.

The Christian will have a hard time reconciling D&D with Paul's advice in Ephesians 5:15-16:

"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil."