So how bad was the 'D&D is satanic' moral panic?

[OgreBattle]

I only read about it in articles, was wondering what it was like to be playing D&D when that was going on

[hyzmarca]

I only read about it in articles, was wondering what it was like to be playing D&D when that was going on

For the most part, it was a tiny portion of the overall Satanic Panic, and no one really gave a shit except Patricia Pulling.

The who D&D Satanism connection was greatly overshadowed by the whole Satanism child abuse connection, because deviant sex is a hell of a lot more interesting than rolling dice.

I mean, what makes for a better story, covens of Satanists meeting to play a tabletop game, or covens of satanists meeting to have a deviant sex orgy? I can certainly tell you which one sells more papers.


In my experience, it did nothing to stop bookstores from having shelves full of D&D products.

[Occluded Sun]

I'm confident it did a lot to induce ignorant and uptight parents to forbid their children from having anything to do with RPGs. Those teenagers who had enough freedom to do so anyway probably found D&D more interesting as a result; those who didn't were made that much more miserable.

Ever see Mazes and Monsters? A lot of (stupid, easily panicked) people thought it was a documentary.

A comparison could be made to the increased scrutiny and stigma faced by isolated teens after the Columbine Massacre - a mildly ridiculous annoyance to those who weren't vulnerable, potentially life-destroying if you were.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

From my understanding, it was a small part of a larger Satanic panic the country was going through at the time. I do remember quite a few teachers and daycare workers were jailed because they would take kids and interrogate them for hours until they made up some crazy story (and not let go if they said their teachers and daycare minders haven't done anything wrong).

[Emerald]

I'm confident it did a lot to induce ignorant and uptight parents to forbid their children from having anything to do with RPGs. Those teenagers who had enough freedom to do so anyway probably found D&D more interesting as a result

Yep. When I innocently asked my parents if I could get the books for this newfangled "D&D" thing to play with some friends, they absolutely forbade me from having anything to do with it, so we just chipped in to buy the books for one friend with more reasonable parents and played at his house. The way we had to sneak around to play this magic elf game, you'd think we were dealing drugs or knocking over convenience stores or something.

[...You Lost Me]

That one book about D&D history said that sales increased because of the satanic panic. But my memory of it is hazy.

[RobbyPants]

I only read about it in articles, was wondering what it was like to be playing D&D when that was going on

I came in on the late side of it ('94), so I only had to put up with this claptrap for about the first year I played.

Anecdotally, my dad was fine with it and even played a few games with me. My (increasingly fundamentalist) step dad would not allow me to bring the books or play D&D at his house on the weekends. For further context, he also bought Turmoil in the Toybox about six years earlier, which basically declares almost all toys to be Satanic for some reason. After reading this, he confiscated all of my He Men and burnt them to a lump of plastic in a barrel.

books for one friend with more reasonable parents and played at his house. The way we had to sneak around to play this magic elf game, you'd think we were dealing drugs or knocking over convenience stores or something.

Well, that's how it starts. Those books are expensive, and you have to pay for them somehow. Pretty soon, you're giving out hand jobs for a set of glittered dice, wondering where it all went wrong.

[Prak]

If I'm giving handjobs and getting glittery dice, I'm thinking it all went so right somehow.

[Whipstitch]

I never had a first hand issue with concerned parents despite going to a private Catholic school. I suspect that it's a bit of a regional thing. We had some crazies in my area growing up, but they were enough of a minority that they just nursed their goofy siege mentality and whined in the op-eds rather than actually accomplish much with their immense butthurt.

[erik]

My parents were okay with my brother and I playing D&D but at occasional family gatherings we were instructed not to talk about it or let one of our aunts know about our interest of it since she thought it was satanic (we had to be told this since we brought some D&D books and what not with us on a family reunion vacation).

Mostly only the nutter fundamentalists gave a damn (and people afraid of what the nutters thought). It was positively represented in ET and the cartoon in the early 80's made it more pop-culture and less geeky (if only a bit).

The satanic panic, as it were moved on pretty quickly to rock and roll and it didn't hurt that any either.

[JigokuBosatsu]

Yeah, I started playing in the middle of it, in the South, but I think unless the town you were in was church-crazy already you wouldn't get any more shit about it than you would from any random unfamiliar person now.

The biggest game in our little town was run by my best friend's older brother in the basement of the Episcopal church (their dad was the minister), but tons of people played it. If you went into Richmond (the nearest city) the game books had their own section in B. Dalton.

To be honest, I think busybodies in rural VA were more concerned with the idea that people might be gay or blacks and whites might actually talk to each other than whether some kids were playing D&D or listening to Slayer.

But again, your mileage would have varied if you were living in Missouri or something.

[violence in the media]

I remember being stopped by some lady, as I was walking out of a bookstore in the mall back in '89 or '90, so she could warn me of the dangers D&D posed to my soul. She told me a story about how her own son had begun seeing demons and being haunted after playing the game, and that I should be careful and return or burn the book I just bought.

That was probably my only encounter with the Satanic panic in relation to D&D.

[tussock]

Saw it all the way down in Australia and New Zealand, though we only got the tail end of it being ten years behind the stupid things as well as the awesome ones. Not so many religious folk up here either, even though we are closer to Heaven, but as usual if they had the power to make your life slightly less fun then they would try that (and usually fail, because you can play D&D anywhere), and if they didn't then I saw the odd indignant walkout of the common room.

Had a few conversations set off by people curious about why anyone would be involved with that Satanism thing. Which might have ended better if I had been involved in Satanism, rather than just D&D. Again, not really a religious country.


So fine compared to, say, Peter Ellis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_care_ ... e_hysteria

Roleplayers didn't spend years in prison for dealing with Satan, but childcare workers did. Religious people be crazy bigots, news at 11.

[Occluded Sun]

Be fair, and remove the adjective 'religious' from the word 'people'.

[Chamomile]

My parents were quite hesitant to let me get into D&D with some friends when I was in high school. In 2006. So the panic had some longlasting effects, too.

[fbmf]

My mom lost her mind when I said I wanted to start playing in late 1990. Much like Emerald, I just hung out with the kids who were allowed to play and we played at their house. 1991 - 1992, she attended a women's church group with my aunt and read some book or another and was convinced my soul would forever burn in hell or something. I'm still fuzzy on the details. My mom eased up somewhat by 1993 (when, time having passed, it was obvious that I was not in league with the Dark Ones) and would let play in the house, but only during the summer (her excuse being that playing might effect my grades. Yeah, I don't know either.)

My parents were divorced though, and my father had been playing since 1978. Pre-teen me manipulated their bitterness towards each other into Dad hooking me up with the core books almost immediately with splats (were they called that back in 2E?) for birthdays and Christmas. I just had to hide it from mom.

As late as 2011, when I mentioned at a work function that I was a gamer, someone's husband felt the need to chime in that his best friend was murdered back in 1985 by a bunch of people playing D&D. When I replied that in the 20 years I'd been playing I'd never seen a rule about murder being a part of the game and had never murdered anyone myself, he only shrugged, his wife (my colleague) laughed nervously, and the party went on.

Game On,
fbmf

[Prak]

I think if I got some satanic panic shit for gaming these days, my response would either be "and Hitler ate sugar, what's your point?" or a blank stare as I fiddle with the sigil of baphomet I wear around my neck.

[JigokuBosatsu]

Prak, every time your mom hassles you I think you should affect a Transylvanian accent and say "Buh-BLEAH" after every sentence.

[Prak]

She's kind of gotten used to the satanism thing. She still thinks it's a phase, but at least she's realized that I'm not particularly different from who I was before it (which she sees as evidence that I'm not really a satanist, but I digress). Now it's more about being trans, and her continuing belief that I'll grow out of Satanism and settle down with a nice catholic girl.

[AndreiChekov]

I'm confident it did a lot to induce ignorant and uptight parents to forbid their children from having anything to do with RPGs. Those teenagers who had enough freedom to do so anyway probably found D&D more interesting as a result

Yep. When I innocently asked my parents if I could get the books for this newfangled "D&D" thing to play with some friends, they absolutely forbade me from having anything to do with it, so we just chipped in to buy the books for one friend with more reasonable parents and played at his house. The way we had to sneak around to play this magic elf game, you'd think we were dealing drugs or knocking over convenience stores or something.

I had to stop playing with sticks and mud because my neighbours thought I was doing drugs. I was 15 at the time.

[Ancient History]

My mom still asks if any of my books are "anything demonic."

[Koumei]

"No, nothing demonic! The creatures of the Lovecraftian mythos are otherworldly, nightmarish, inhuman and malevolent when they care about our existence at all, but not demonic!"

[K]

"No, nothing demonic! The creatures of the Lovecraftian mythos are otherworldly, nightmarish, inhuman and malevolent when they care about our existence at all, but not demonic!"

Yeh, the Great Old Ones are gods, and thus are holy.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Now it's more about being trans, and her continuing belief that I'll grow out of Satanism and settle down with a nice catholic girl.

Nice catholic girls can be a lot of fun if you find the right one... Unfortunately they're either more fun that you can handle or no fun at all, so it's a real crapshoot which one you get.

[Prak]

Also I'm getting a bit old to be messing with the actually corruptible catholic girls. Anyone my age or older whose catholic is likely going to be pretty devout.