D&D General Satanic Panic at the Disco- Did Beelzebubba Cause D&D's First Crash, Y'all?

CleverNickName said:

In Oklahoma, we had the fiasco of Sean Sellers, and the allegations made by his defense team. What a nightmare.

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Never heard of this one. Interesting read, thanks.

Voadam said:

I had never thought of the shift from 1e Deities & Demigods with the Erol Otus cover to renaming it Legends & Lore with the Odin cover as a Satanic Panic reaction maneuver. It still had all the topless goddesses inside.

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Probably counting on the Church Karens breezing on by an inoffensive cover.

NEW SNARF ARTICLE LFG!!!!!!!

Ulorian - Agent of Chaos said:

Probably counting on the Church Karens breezing on by an inoffensive cover.

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@Voadam

TSR formed a religious prosecution response group in 1982. An action plan, known internally as RPR03, was instituted- numerous changes were made (see, e.g., the Code of Ethics, supra) and it was suggested that Deities & Demigods be renamed. (GW 234),

In 1984, TSR chose to implement the Deities & Demigods recommendation from RPR03 with a new name and by replacing the Otus cover with the standard "high fantasy" that TSR was using- as noted in Alarums & Excursions, it was a sop to the moral majority. (GW 281-82). Gygax himself said it was because of Falwell whispering in Reagan's ear.* (GW 282).


I try not to make unsupported claims. After all, do you know how a Bard says "Eff you"?

Trust me.


*Obviously not literally. Probably. Maybe. But he was saying that these types of changes were inevitable given the tenor of the times.

Warpiglet-7 said:

I am still deciding if Pluto should be counted as A planet or a god of the underworld.

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Why not ... neither! It's not a planet, and Hades throws shades at Roman pretenders.

What is Pluto?

The poor dog abused by a tyrannical, despotic, narcissistic, and megalomaniacal mouse. Even Pluto knows the difference between being stumbled over and extortionate rent-seeking.

Snarf Zagyg said:

Why not ... neither! It's not a planet, and Hades throws shades at Roman pretenders.

What is Pluto?

The poor dog abused by a tyrannical, despotic, narcissistic, and megalomaniacal mouse. Even Pluto knows the difference between being stumbled over and extortionate rent-seeking.

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I will buy that for a varying value dollar!

Snarf Zagyg said:

Why not ... neither! It's not a planet, and Hades throws shades at Roman pretenders.

What is Pluto?

The poor dog abused by a tyrannical, despotic, narcissistic, and megalomaniacal mouse. Even Pluto knows the difference between being stumbled over and extortionate rent-seeking.

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Snarf Zagyg said:

While there were other incidents (detailed in Game Wizards, and leading to TSR having a rapid response team) the primary one that began to become an issue for D&D was the death of Irving Lee Pulling in 1982; his mother, Patricia Pulling, blamed D&D for his death. She sued a school principal and TSR- all cases were dismissed.

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I've made Pulling the butt of some jokes in the past, but as I've gotten older I started feeling more sympathy for her. To lose a child is difficult enough, but when it's suicide it can be especially difficult. Was there something I could have done? Was there something I missed? I can't help but think Pulling was clinging to something that would bring meaning to her life after the devastating loss of her child. It would have been nice if she could have channeled that drive into something more constructive and ultimately healthier for her own mental wellbeing.

Snarf Zagyg said:

This became the basis for the later book and movie, Mazes and Monsters.

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You might be interested in checking into the Satanic Panic documentary made by Sylvester Stallone called Cobra. It's all about a Satanic cult called "The New World" who even have members in the police department.

Snarf Zagyg said:

The Satanic Panic had a massive impact despite not causing the 1984 crash, and I hope that people use the comments (if they chose to) to tell any stories that they might have.

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In sixth grade I was reading Keep on the Borderlands in the cafeteria and one of my teachers said something like, "I don't think you're supposed to have that here." But she didn't stop me from reading it, take it away, or even continue with the conversation. When I was in 4th grade, my mother sent me to a neighbor's house to be babysat while she was at work during the summer. The lady babysitting me wouldn't let me watch Thundercats or some other cartoons because they were Satanic. Later, when I started playing AD&D, my parents would ask me, "Are you guys playing your Satanic game today?" When I'd answer yes they'd tell me to have fun.

When I worked at a museum, we would sometimes allow ghost hunters to show up at night to do what they do best. While I found them a bit goofy, they always treated the building with respect and would make a nice donation, so I didn't mind. One day they had a guest speaker who used to be a police officer in a small town here in Arkansas during the 1980s. At the start of his lecture he mentioned all those "occult based crimes during the 1980s" and my immediate thought was there were no such things. I kept my mouth shut because I wasn't really invited to speak, but there are still people today who are convinced we were awash in occult crimes during that time.

Snarf Zagyg said:

Originally, TSR was set up to just publish various rules for the wargaming market. But as people began to play D&D and began to see how it was played (remember, the OD&D rules were notoriously opaque and were hard to just learn by reading) it slowly caught on

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Although this isn't the point of the post, I think this is once again the case, but due to the VOLUMEN of content, rather than its dearth.

Funny how history is psychoanalytical

MGibster said:

I've made Pulling the butt of some jokes in the past, but as I've gotten older I started feeling more sympathy for her. To lose a child is difficult enough, but when it's suicide it can be especially difficult. Was there something I could have done? Was there something I missed? I can't help but think Pulling was clinging to something that would bring meaning to her life after the devastating loss of her child. It would have been nice if she could have channeled that drive into something more constructive and ultimately healthier for her own mental wellbeing.

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My sympathy hasn't increased for her, it has decreased. I have two girls - one of whom grappled pretty hard with suicide ideation a few years ago. It's nerve wracking to be in that position as a parent. But there's a gap between grabbing onto something erroneously as a cause of a child's suicide (or illness, or disability) and turning it into a conspiracy or a crusade. One's a tragedy but the other's more of an atrocity and shouldn't have been given any publicity. But it was indulged by corporate media looking for a sensation and sleazy politicians and social movements looking for a wedge issue. And it still goes on in different forms - we're starting to see how that plays out now with respect to autism and vaccines here in the US as it infects thinking at public policy maker level.