Satanic Panic = 60 minutes D&D special ( 1985)

[atanakar]

1d4chan : « Perhaps the greatest blow to B.A.D.D, Patricia Pulling’s and Thomas Radecki’s credibility was the publication of Michael Stackpole’s “Pulling Report” in 1989, which severely criticized the ethics and methodology of anti-RPG campaigners, provided conclusive evidence that the suicide rate was lower amongst roleplayers, and was widely distributed amongst law enforcement, educational bodies, game manufacturers, gamers and government agencies. »

Wiki: « In 1989, game player and designer Michael A. Stackpole wrote Game Hysteria and the Truth, which went into all the flaws, misconceptions, inaccuracies, omission of relevant details, and questionable practices (including calling her editing of newspaper accounts illegal, since newspapers are copyrighted material and the owners were not contacted about the use of these articles) regarding Pulling's claims about RPGs in general and D&D in particular, concluding: "If the suicide statistics for the 14 years since D&D's introduction show anything at all, gamers kill themselves at a rate that is a fraction of that of their peers."[11][12] A year later, the main points of Game Hysteria and the Truth regarding Pulling were reiterated by Stackpole in The Pulling Report, a review highly critical of B.A.D.D.'s methods of data collection, analysis and reporting.[9] Stackpole determined that Pulling had misrepresented her credentials, and after the report was published in 1990, Pulling left B.A.D.D.»

Wiki: «By 1991 the American Association of Suicidology, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and Health and Welfare Canada all concluded that there was no causal link between fantasy gaming and suicide.»

 

[Fanaelialae]

I was too young when that special came out for it to really impact me (1985, so I was 4).

That said, I attended a Catholic grade school and actually got called to the principal's office, because someone saw my Rules Cyclopedia, and got a lecture on the "dangers". He was weirdly misinformed, talking about spell casting monster classes as if they were player facing options (maybe that came from the special, idk). Fortunately, I was considered a good kid, so he assumed I only allowed fighter and thief as classes and a stern warning was as far as it went, but I was a lot more careful from then on.

If the school contacted my parents, they didn't mention it to me. Fortunately, the only issue my parents had with D&D was that they thought it was a waste of time.

 

[Hussar]

Heh, my first D&D group had two pastors in it. My high school group had a Mennonite friend of mine. I never really knew anything about the "satanic panic" stuff until way after it was over.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Heh, my first D&D group had two pastors in it. My high school group had a Mennonite friend of mine. I never really knew anything about the "satanic panic" stuff until way after it was over.

You missed out on all the fun!

 

[Longspeak]

As a young person I thought Pat Pulling was very silly. As an adult I can't help but feel sorry for her. She lost her son and was searching for an explanation.

This is where I ended up a few years after becoming a dad. She's still responsible for her actions, but I can see how losing your child, especially to suicide, would screw you up all over. I nearly lost my daughter and I was a mental case for the hours she was in surgery.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My parents never cared one iota for the satanic panic or D&D's reputation. To them it was just a game that we all played. They didn't understand how it worked, but then again, they were asking a bunch of kids to explain something.

That being said, my brief-lived D&D club at school was doomed from the get-go as certain teachers still operated under the belief that there was something dangerous about the game, years later.

Patricia Pulling was a person in pain and unimaginable grief, absolutely. But yeah, she and the other Satanic Panic instigators are responsible for a lot of harm.

 

[Dungeonmastermark]

As a young person I thought Pat Pulling was very silly. As an adult I can't help but feel sorry for her. She lost her son and was searching for an explanation.

yeah its a horrible thing for any parent to go thru.. sadly the media blew things out of proportion ( as usual )

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I was introduced to D&D in 1983 by a cousin of mine, the son of a minister. This happened in Oklahoma, where the Satanic Panic was a real thing. So far as I know, my parents never had any problem with the game.

I only had a couple brushes with anti-D&D folks in the first couple years I played, when I was aged 10 or 11. One that I recall in junior high school was a fellow student handing out flyers. I initially saw "Dungeons & Dragons" on the front and immediately became interested, of course. I babbled on and on about how amazing the game was as I took it from him. When I finally looked at it more closely, I was really confused by what I was reading, since what was described bore NO resemblance to the game I was playing.

I avoided that kid after that.

 

[dragoner]

Ah the 80's, the decade that ended with me having a busted grill, walking with a cane, and an even funnier accent missing three teeth. Back home, my friends were getting drafted and sent to Afghanistan, Chernobyl exploded, and those were the good times, by the 90's civil war levels of violence were filling the cemeteries with guys my age. No matter how poor or unhappy I was, the choice in leaving was good. Scored in the 90th percentile on my exams, so getting into school wasn't an issue, paying for it was, so I joined ROTC, that was weird; didn't last long, had an accident.

I remember learning about nuclear war, it saddened me, such as what is wrong with adults? I didn't get religion, having it explained to me, I was like what? One sister believes in fairies and unicorns (same one that introduced me to D&D) and we have had many arguments about it, if they don't exist in the fossil record, then they don't exist. Same as having Marxism class, and I criticized the leap of logic in that, such as how is agriculture suddenly collectivized? Of course that didn't go well for me either. I have learned about the same with religion, to keep my mouth shut. So with the D&D panic, I just nod sagely, saying yes, yes.

 

[MGibster]

I used to work in a museum, and on occasion we'd allow ghost hunters to stay overnight and do their thing. They were kooky but friendly, it generated revenue for the museum, and they were always respectful of the building and artifacts. The ghost hunters were in our theater listening to a guest lecturer who was a former police officer who brought up "all those occult connected crimes from the 1980s." Which piqued my interest because I couldn't help but be surprised that he didn't know there had been no such thing at the time.

Of course RPGs were a very small part of the moral panic that engulfed the United States in the 1980s. Most Americans were preoccupied with accounts of Satanic ritual abuse. There were actually many people who truly believed there was an underground network of millions dedicated to sexually abusing and sacrificing children in elaborate rituals. Not only that, but this network included prominent actors, businessmen, and government officials. It seems so ridiculous today but many people were taking it pretty seriously thirty years ago.