Scars Unseen
Hero
Given that I've seen religious schools with a ban on dancing, it's not hard to believe that going to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe Demonic Invasions would be beyond the pale to certain points of view
4 Reasons Black People Don't Play Tabletop RPGs
- Thread starter Mezuka
- Start date
Aldarc
Legend
...who FYI was a Presbyterian minister: aka Reverend Fred Rogers.
Mezuka
Hero
I had an religious aunt who tried to convince my mother D&D was bad. Mom told her to bug off. She says, to this day, D&D was the best gift she ever gave me. I was a loner before. I quickly made friends and learned to socialize thanks to D&D. Being the DM boosted my self-assurance.
As to the OP, I never had a POC in my groups, mostly because of localisation. Recently, I had a Vietnamese and a Peruvian in one of my VTT groups. The cultural mix is changing at the local gaming store. Much more diverse. It's only a mater of time.
As to the OP, I never had a POC in my groups, mostly because of localisation. Recently, I had a Vietnamese and a Peruvian in one of my VTT groups. The cultural mix is changing at the local gaming store. Much more diverse. It's only a mater of time.
MGibster
Legend
At least growing up, it was to the point where I'd never tell my non-gaming friends what I was up to on a Saturday afternoon. i.e. I'd never say, "I can't can't go to the mall, I'm playing AD&D this afternoon." Even now, if my boss asks me if I'm doing anything fun this weekend I'll never reply, "I've got a Warhammer 40k game this Sunday."
I never have either. My parents weren't particularly religious and would sometimes jokingly ask, "Are you going to your friend's house to play your Satanic game?" Even among my friends who did attend church regularly, their parents didn't object and we often played at their houses.
Bedrockgames
Legend
I think a lot of it depended on where you were and if you were in close contact with religious communities that were concerned about it. It also depended on the kind of church you attended and how tight knit the community around it was. I saw it a lot, and experienced it. It also wasn't strictly religious, RPGs were new, and as part of the satanic panic there was also this idea floating around that RPGs messed with your brain (think of Mazes and Monsters for example). So some of it was also that parents were just concerned about the unknown dangerous of a new activity. Plenty of people who bought into the satanic panic, weren't even religious. The Satanic Panic was a much broader panic outside gaming, over the idea that there were widespread Satanic cults ritually abusing children, committing murders, etc....and D&D fell into the orbit of that). It wasn't helped that you had the occasional high profile event like Nightstalker (a serial killer who was into Satanism). But if you were in a religious community this stuff was particularly pronounced. Keep in mind, there was concern over fantasy in general there. I remember at my church my father wanted to show the movie Willow and he couldn't because several people said it was Satanic. And I wasn't allowed to have RPG books for several years (my mom changed her mind and allowed them when I was in 7th grade----I had started playing in 3rd or 4th grade).
MGibster
Legend
I think this statement kind of encapsulates all of our experiences in a nutshell. In another thread, I jokingly said the most unrealistic thing I found about Jack Chick's Dark Dungeons comic wasn't the supernatural but rather the idea that three women would be in the same D&D campaign. And while my experience with AD&D growing up was that there was a dearth of girls, other people had different experiences and gamed with them. Likewise the same is true with the moral panic of the 80s. I never directly encountered religious objections to D&D because those most likely to make such objections were not part of my monkey sphere.
Yeah, gaming was a tiny facet of the moral panic we saw in the 80s. And I don't think it was the Satanism that really brought it into the mainstream so much as it was the fear of harm being done to children.
Black since 1967, D&D player since 1977.
I agree with his points, though not necessarily his pathways to his conclusions; my experiences have differed somewhat.
But #3 #4 are HUGE, full stop, end of story.
I agree with his points, though not necessarily his pathways to his conclusions; my experiences have differed somewhat.
But #3 #4 are HUGE, full stop, end of story.
MGibster
Legend
That seriously cracked me up for some reason. I'm just waiting for the punchline being something like, "Born in '65."
It's often very interesting how we can reach the same conclusion as someone for completely different reasons. I'm going to get on my soapbox for a moment.
Let's talk diversity. One of the great advantages of having a diverse range of representation in any endeavor is that you are exposed to different points of view. Even if it doesn't change your opinion, it often gets you to reexamine your beliefs or walk away with different perspective or a greater understanding. So in regards to point #3, I got to thinking that "white" culture discouraged people from gaming and I've never really given that a whole lot of thought outside of Satanic Panic moral crises of the 1980s. Oh, I've acknowledged that gaming was a somewhat nerdy hobby and one that I took great care to hide from most of my peers when I was in school. But I've never really thought about why gaming was disparaged until watching RPG Elite's video. It can't just be the Satanic stuff, right? Because nobody looked at me askance for listening to heavy metal back in the 80s nor did I try to hide it.
AD&D was for nerds. "Well, hey, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons & Dragons without learning a little something about courage." was a joke line from the X-Files back in 1996.
I suspect it really depends on where you lived.
I got into D&D at an “Intro” session hosted in my middle school library in Aurora, Colorado. We were all nerds (Duh) and had experienced bullying of some kind, but none of it was D&D related. It may be because D&D wasn’t really on anyone’s radar, yet.
When I moved to Manhattan. Kansas a few years later, I found a bunch of other players and again- including Curly, my first other black gamer- we played a lot at school. I had another group I played with in my neighborhood. Just like in Colorado, nobody really picked on us because of gaming.
Gaming in Texas since the mid-1980s has been different, though. By the time I got here (as a HS freshman in a private Catholic school), the Satanic Panic was in full swing, and I had just discovered metal. Generally, among the kids, one was cool, one wasn’t; the parents were worried about both. Despite her misgivings, Mom didn’t do anything to interfere with m interests in either. Some of my relatives (visiting from out of town) would talk about them both as “not black“ or “satanic”. I saw my first Chick tracts.
Amusingly, the monks let me start an RPG club. The only pushback on either from faculty came from the art teacher who had become “born again“ mid-semester. But even that was minor. (We still talk to this day.)
I haven’t made a secret of my participation in the hobby, but also, I rarely bring it up. Occasionally I get the same old satanic pushback, almost always from mainline Protestants and Evangelicals. And that’s a big percentage of the local faith community,
I’ve only encountered Reason #5- overt racism from gamers- a few times,
