D&D in the 80s, Fads, and the Satanic Panic

[Jer]

It feels like B/X was always aimed pretty young, in both content and advertising.

I don't think so actually - I think B/X was aimed at older and teen players but not specifically at the pre-teen audience. Yes it had "Ages 10 and up" on it, but I think that was more of a "what's the actual lower bound on this" and not a real intent at targeting that audience.

By the '83 Mentzer revision, though, I think they were consciously aiming to write a D&D that everyone could play. So BECMI I think was aimed to be an all ages game in a way that B/X was not.

 

[Reynard]

B/X didn't have any of the nude/topless female human-appearing monsters and gods that the MM, DMG, and Deities and Demi-gods had, did it? (Although one female character in B had seemingly really powerful nipples under that armor). No harlot table. And no Demons or Devils.

If you look at the AD&D PHB and B/X Basic side by side (which i just did) they are about equivalent, except that there is more humor art in AD&D. I think people ever-remember the boobs in AD&D because, well, they were probably adolescent boys at the time.

 

[Cadence]

I don't think so actually - I think B/X was aimed at older and teen players but not specifically at the pre-teen audience. Yes it had "Ages 10 and up" on it, but I think that was more of a "what's the actual lower bound on this" and not a real intent at targeting that audience.

By the '83 Mentzer revision, though, I think they were consciously aiming to write a D&D that everyone could play. So BECMI I think was aimed to be an all ages game in a way that B/X was not.

I shouldn't have said B/X was specifically aimed at pre-teens (as opposed to including them), but it seemed open to them when I and my friends were pre-teens.

I've never flipped through BECMI. What do you think it did beyond what B/X did to make it explicitly all ages? (What separated the changes out as being explicitly more open to the younger group as opposed to the no-experience group?) Thank you for any insight!

Moldvay, et.al. thought about the 10+ group enough that they went to a children's librarian for recommendations for the bibliography - although they have those sections listed as young adult in the book list and not children. In the fiction side, I'm pretty sure the Black Cauldron books were read in grade school, and the Narnia ones were read in 3rd grade by a ton of people in my elementary school, and a lot of the non-fiction ones look like picture books.

If you look at the AD&D PHB and B/X Basic side by side (which i just did) they are about equivalent, except that there is more humor art in AD&D. I think people ever-remember the boobs in AD&D because, well, they were probably adolescent boys at the time.

I had pulled up the B/X too and the art on most monsters/PCs doesn't seem that different, but I'm not sure why they would. YMMV, but it feels like randomly throwing in naked monsters is a difference a lot of parents would notice when flipping through the books before buying things for their teens and pre-teens?

 

[Sacrosanct]

It feels like B/X was always aimed pretty young, in both content and advertising.

I don't think it was necessarily marketed to pretty young people (the ads are all late teens to college age), but with the word "BASIC" on the cover, I think many parents assumed it was more for kids, so thus the impression was made that it was for kids even if the company didn't present it as such.

 

[Reynard]

I don't think it was necessarily marketed to pretty young people (the ads are all late teens to college age), but with the word "BASIC" on the cover, I think many parents assumed it was more for kids, so thus the impression was made that it was for kids even if the company didn't present it as such.

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Plus "10 and up" meant kids like me could start begging for a copy 3 years earlier!

 

[Mannahnin]

I think the thing that makes it hard for people to appreciate these days is how much rumor was involved and how much of it was due to this being a new game that, to outsiders, seemed to blur reality and fantasy. Also there were a lot of mainstream experts and shows giving credence to it (so it wasn't just the 700 club, this stuff was on ABC). And it was a blend of a religious and psychological and legal panic. There were a lot of things, that I think were coming on the heels of some of the cultural chaos of the 60s and 70s, that made a scape goat like music or gaming very appealing (I don't know if people remember how many adults were traumatized vets in the early 80s, but I sure do, and I think stuff like that, also had a major influence: had a lot of friends parents in recovery for example). What I recall is my mother was fearful from a religious point of view, because we were very religious, but also from the point of view of worrying about me getting into drugs or losing my hold on reality (she had heard from a friend, who claimed her friends kid was killed because he played D&D and took PCP and they acted in the woods or the sewers---can't recall precise details: I think this was just a wives tale that spread from stuff like the story in the OP). Now we know how much of this was fantasy, how much was based on reality. At the time, if you were a mom or dad worried about your child's wellbeing, it was a lot less clear (moral panics tend to be like that when you live through them).

Yes, although the "a lot of mainstream experts and shows giving credence to it" is another part of the myth.

It was reported in a lot of mainstream places, mostly local newspapers and tabloid talk shows, though 60 Minutes most famously. I don't think there was ever actually a significant number of medical or psychological experts who had a problem with it. Pat Pulling's accomplice, fraud and later felon Thomas Radecki, founder of the "National Coalition on Television Violence" was the most prominent and loud "expert", and he was later shown demonstrably to be a complete charlatan. As was Pulling.

Radecki on Trial: The Psychiatrist who Attacked D&D

In the 80s, Dungeons & Dragons was all the rage with kids, a new target market for TSR who only recently discovered. As the D&D franchise expanded, including a cartoon, toys, and of course the Advanced and Basic versions of the game. The influence of the game did not go unnoticed, and it was...

www.enworld.org

For a while there was a little cottage industry of these fake experts on "satanic crimes" doing circuits "training" local police departments.

 

[Cadence]

I don't think it was necessarily marketed to pretty young people (the ads are all late teens to college age), but with the word "BASIC" on the cover, I think many parents assumed it was more for kids, so thus the impression was made that it was for kids even if the company didn't present it as such.

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Thank you for pulling those up!

Would explicitly aiming at young kids (as opposed to keeping it approachable and open to them) turn off the teens and older?

I guess Dungeon! did explicitly go further to include kids. I might have been conflating them in my memory.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I will have to ask my father what if any there were problems for him during the 80s involving dnd.

 

[Reynard]

Thank you for pulling those up!

Would explicitly aiming at young kids (as opposed to keeping it approachable and open to them) turn off the teens and older?

I guess Dungeon! did explicitly go further to include kids. I might have been conflating them in my memory.

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Board games, I think, were still very much considered the province of kids and families at the time. It wasn't until -- what, the early 90s? -- that "Eurogames" got a real foothold?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Plus "10 and up" meant kids like me could start begging for a copy 3 years earlier!

Exactly! I was 7 as well (I started reading early). Having a 10 year old brother who introduced me also helped a lot. Cuz my mom certainly didn't want to play, so she allowed me to get my own Moldvay basic book so we could keep each other entertained