D&D Urban Legends: I new this guy who...

[Selvarin]

This actually dates from earlier than 1983. I graduated from college in 1983, and was playing D&D by then. I was turned off by the game in the late 1970s because of this story, which I know ran in Newsweek magazine, because that's where I read it. It happened while I was in high school (1974-78) or junior college (1978-80). There was a group of people at junior college who played D&D and asked me join them, but I said no. I later started playing in 1981 after a high school friend asked me.

Anyway, I can't remember the school where it took place, but it was in the upper Midwest. And it did involve a search of the steam tunnels, which were being used for a live-action version of D&D. They never found a body because the missing student was found alive, back home in Dallas. He went home and didn't tell anyone he was going. People at the school got worried and assumed something had happened to him down in the tunnels. I don't know if the exact reason why the student went home was ever made public.

This is the incident Rona Jaffe based her book, "Mazes and Monsters," upon.

I did a paper on this in college. James Dallas Egbert III was a young genius type who operated on a level that even his teachers had trouble comprehending. Gaming was his only real way to connect with other people.


As far as personal D&D stories go, I remember my gamer friend coming to school with a scabbed-over notch on his nose. I asked him about it and he said his mother smacked him with a stick. She accused him of sacrificing animals in the woods, etc. and wanted to 'save' him by disciplining him. Despite her concerns he turned out OK. Gee, I wonder if he's working for Microsoft now?

 

[SWAT]

Urban Legend? No...
Something I wouldn't believe if I hadn't seen it myself? Definitely...

"Nobody Touch the Table!"
Source: Saw it with my own two eyes
Premise: A d20 was rolled and stopped on an edge. It wasn't resting on anything else. Of course, the edge might have been slightly wider than your average d20 edge, but nonetheless... never heard anything like this before.

 

[WayneLigon]

A Christian friend of mine was hesitant to play D&D in college because he'd heard a story from a woman who went to his church. The story was that her son had played D&D and when she found out what he was doing she decided to burn all his books. She took them to the back yard, put them in their grill, and dropped a match on them. But the match went out!!
Clearly Satan was work!

This is the only D&D-based urban legend I've ever heard, save in the version I was told, the books screamed as they burned. Source: Word of Mouth, but I no longer know the location of the source, so I cannot ask them where they heard it.

Source is probably an embelllishment of the 'Dark Dungeons' pamphlet, where you can see demons departing Debbie.

Common memes in this and other such urban legends I've noticed:

1. It's always the mother, never the father, that takes away the books. Interesting that the Chick pamphlet features a female DM in order to make the D&D=Diana=Witchcraft connection.
2. There is never a mention of dice, even though you would think the dice-gambling connection would be an easy one to exploit. Always wondered about that.
3. There is never any mention of miniatures. The miniatures=ikons/idols would also be an easy one to exploit. But it's always books.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

What about the Geraldo TV show when they did a special on D&D in the 80s? They had a woman on who claimed she threw a bunch of dice in the fire (b/c they were possessed) and the dice screamed as they burned!!! I still remember rolling on the floor with laughter when I saw that episode...

 

[BryonD]

2. There is never a mention of dice, even though you would think the dice-gambling connection would be an easy one to exploit. Always wondered about that.

When I was in high school (mid-80s), the dice = gambling idea was used as an excuse to disallow gaming at school.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Urban Legend? No...
Something I wouldn't believe if I hadn't seen it myself? Definitely...

"Nobody Touch the Table!"
Source: Saw it with my own two eyes
Premise: A d20 was rolled and stopped on an edge. It wasn't resting on anything else. Of course, the edge might have been slightly wider than your average d20 edge, but nonetheless... never heard anything like this before.

I've seen something similar to this, except it was a d4 which landed on an edge.

It was a normal d4, but the table on which it was rolled was a wargames table, and had sand stuck to it, making a sort of sandpapery surface.

However, it's still pretty amazing that the d4 landed along an edge, right where there happened to be the right arrangement of sand grains to support it...

 

[Caspian Moon Prince]

The power of the book legend I heard was that a group of players was taking their D&D books with them in a backpack into church. When the books got near the church demons supposedly fled out of the books and dissappeared.

...yep, that's likely

 

[Henry]

Here's not so much an urban legend as a superstition:

"NO ONE SPEAKS WHILE THE DICE ARE ROLLING!"
Source: personal experience, secondhand stories.

I actulaly had a player who got demonstrably upset if you spoke while his dice were rolling, or if you mentioned a specific number, becauswe he believed you influenced his dice rolls by doing so. I'll let you be the judge of the credence I lend it. :0

Great strategy-oriented player, though.

 

[Krieg]

This is the only D&D-based urban legend I've ever heard, save in the version I was told, the books screamed as they burned. Source: Word of Mouth, but I no longer know the location of the source, so I cannot ask them where they heard it.

Source is probably an embelllishment of the 'Dark Dungeons' pamphlet, where you can see demons departing Debbie.

Common memes in this and other such urban legends I've noticed:

1. It's always the mother, never the father, that takes away the books. Interesting that the Chick pamphlet features a female DM in order to make the D&D=Diana=Witchcraft connection.

I heard this one from a bus driver when I was in the 4th grade (circa 80-81). She claimed her pastor's children were coaxed to playing D&D by some other kids at his house. That night he got up to get a drink of water (or somesuch) & just happened to notice a demon sitting in the corner where they had been playing (Oh my!).

He immediately called the parents of the kids who had brought the D&D books over & had them burn them. Screams were of course heard coming from the flames!

The damn story had me so freaked I boxed everything up until my next confession (I went to a Catholic school) & asked our priest about it. He of course calmed me fears about "demonic influence" from the game, but did say that it probably wasn't the best choice of hobbies for the mentally unstable...

 

[Caspian Moon Prince]

Here's not so much an urban legend as a superstition:

"NO ONE SPEAKS WHILE THE DICE ARE ROLLING!"
Source: personal experience, secondhand stories.

I actulaly had a player who got demonstrably upset if you spoke while his dice were rolling, or if you mentioned a specific number, becauswe he believed you influenced his dice rolls by doing so. I'll let you be the judge of the credence I lend it. :0

Great strategy-oriented player, though.

My own superstition is thus: Before the game and after I have rolled my dice, I will place them with the most favorable number sticking up(20 on the d20 for example). There is a theory I have that if a dice was sat this way long enough, the molecules would slide downward and make the dice heavier on the opposite. I get this from seeing old windows in houses that are thinner on the top than on the bottom. It has to be caused by gravity pulling the molecules downwards.