Wizards of the Coast -- with gratitude
Ron R.'s spreadsheet character generator. Thank you, Ron!
Kismet Rose. Benefits of roleplaying games include their being a social activity where people work together to accomplish a task, encouraging reading and math, and learning about other cultures and history. The great drawback is time concerns.
Mental Health and D&D -- the four scientific papers in abstract form. Findings: (1) Gamers are not, on the average, more neurotic or suicidal. (2) If gamers feel less a part of mainstream culture, they also find life more (not less) meaningful than their peers do. Otherwise, they seem no different. (3) Menninger's psychiatriatists had to ban adventure gaming on their inpatient unit, and reminded the world that fantasy isn't healthy for people who can't distinguish it from reality. (4) One victim of extreme childhood emotional deprivation was reached by therapists and learned new life-skills by talking about what he loved about gaming.
The Escapist -- deals with the disinformation campaign by an ultrafundamentalist comic writer. Elsewhere, he calls Roman Catholic communion "the death cookie" and that the Vatican financed Hitler's war machine. If you want Jack Chick to do your thinking for you, that is your business -- but most decent people would conclude that you are confusing fantasy with reality.
Dungeons and Dragons Controversies -- Wikipedia
Charney Cale -- on personality characterics of gamers
Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Michael Stockpole -- index of scholarly work
The Escapist -- gaming advocates
Simon Gooch -- graduate paper on D&D and learning.