D&D is satanic - does anybody think so?

[Planetourist]

Hello everybody!

I've read and heard numerous times that D&D has an opinion of a satanic game in USA. Once at religion lesson the priest has shown us an American English movie that had to warn of sects in which a page from AD&D Player's Handbook was used as an example of 'Book of Dark Arts'. I'm wondering if anybody of you had the problem of being perceived 'satanist', 'heretical' or something like that and be very glad for telling me how does it really look. I'm asking about USA because I've heard such strange news mostly about this country, but I'd be thankful for stories from elsewhere - both soothing and scary.

To begin with, in Poland this problem doesn't seem to exist - probably because we don't have a long tradition of D&D and it's completely absent from our media. It's hard to consider something you don't know and has no pentagrams on it 'satanic' - at worst, you could be considered to be strange or infantile.

 

[deganawida]

My father is a Southern Baptist minister. Needless to say, he wasn't too thrilled with me playing D&D, and forbid it growing up. I still get grief about it every so often, but as he knows that I'm a Christian active in his church, I think he just thinks nowadays that it's silly.

Mom, I don't know about. I told her once I was going to play a game, and she asked me what I was doing for masks. I actually gawked at that question.

 

[sev]

The last time I heard somebody link D&D and satanism (other than as a joke) was probably 30 years ago. While there may still be people who believe it (and, I suppose, indoctrinating a new generation into the myth), at least in west-coast urban US, people haven't taken it seriously for a long time.

 

[jaerdaph]

From non-gamers? Not since the 80s.
From gamers with less than 5 posts? Every other day.

 

[Sunseeker]

My girlfriend's mother thinks so, yadda-yadda ultura-religious-type yadda-yadda, you get the picture.

 

[MortonStromgal]

On rare occasion by people who obviously take whatever is said behind a pulpit as 100% truth, because obviously they cant make mistakes ever. My mom still refuses to buy me D&D or Vampire books other RPGs she is ok with.

 

[BlubSeabass]

D&D is fine, rock&roll on the other hand...

My mother raised "quite the brow" when she heard I was going to play an RPG. It was more because some guys in Brazil decided to take their roleplaying to the next level and ended up killing a player. But after seeing a session, she was fine. Except that she was really disturbed by the fact that I made such freaky friends =3.

 

[jonesy]

From non-gamers? Not since the 80s...

There was a thing in 1999, but that was about Magic:The Gathering and other satanic things like studying Aztecs in school, studying owls, taking field trips to a cemetary...:
The Escapist - Archive - Satanism Lawsuit Has Weighty Issues

For more collected craziness:
The Escapist - Archives

 

[IronWolf]

I haven't heard the satanic thing for quite some time. Late 70's? Early 80's?

 

[Plane Sailing]

There was a lot of fuss in the 1980's, but I'm not aware of it being much of an issue nowadays. Lots of Christians play D&D (and other RPGs) just fine - quite a lot of Christian DMs and players on ENworld alone, for instance.

I don't think this thread is likely to go anywhere useful, so I'm going to close it, but please stick around - start a new thread telling us about the game you play or asking questions about how people here squeeze the most fun out of their own games - you'll get lots of helpful advice from the people here!

Cheers!