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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Drifter Bob" data-source="post: 1607236" data-attributes="member: 17723">Persecution of D&DMy experiences were probably different from most.  My mom was foreign, very liberal, well educated, and non religious.  She actually had a vague understanding what D&D was and, as another poster mentioned, due to where I grew up and the schools I was attending, was glad I was into such a relatively intellectual pursuit.That all changed when the 60 minutes hit piece came out.  It was a revelation to me because I knew D&D, for all it's faults, was a long way from being "evil".  But Gary Gygax came across like a crooked TV evangelist or corrupt defense contractor or something.  It was fascinating to see how they could really set someone up, and how someone who was just wierd or confused could be made to come across evil.  They implied all kind of negative associations with D&D, nothing specific, but a vague threat of satan worship, drug use, and suicide.  My liberal educated mother suddenly became negative toward D&D.Ironically, all my firends who weren't into D&D actually WERE into drug use and all sorts of crime.  As I moved from the sort of geek world (I was a regular in the computer room in 9th grade, back in the early 80's when it was still wierd even for geeks) into the punk rock scene, I had another friend, a hard core punk, whose parents thought D&D was going to ruin his life.  They felt D&D was holding him back from good grades, keeping him in some retrogressive childhood state.  To be sure, D&D was an escapist outlet, but all this guys other friends were into stealing cars, dealing drugs on a serious level, etc. and etc.  I had two other friends, who were black, who played with us, and used to play their own spin off game with their own totally made up rules all the time.  I gave them some dice and they used to make up these games, pure role playing, really imaginative stuff.  Perfectly harmless IMHO.  Funny thing was, the teachers always thought they were 'throwing dice', i.e. gambling, and they kept getting busted, in serious trouble.  The heavy irony of that was, the teachers who were busting them every time they saw them with dice, but leaving white kids alone, were themselves for the most part black teachers and staff.  That was, for me, an insight into the actual meaning of institutional racism.  I even tried to talk to the principle about it once and he thought I was totally full of it.In general, in my school which was kind of like Rock and Roll high school, a very, very wild place back in the 80's, and D&D was a very positive thing which was looked down on.  It actually led to an interest in literature and history, and was an alternative to a lot of criminal activities... D&D led to an interest in intellectual matters among a lot of kids I knew who were basically becoming just thug like.  The irony was that the whole school administration was against it.  It was definately an insight into how distorted society can be toward something perfectly innocuous.  I also put a lot of the blame on TSR, they acted so suspicious, it was like they didn't believe in their own product.  I think that was where a lot of the stagnation in D&D set in which we see so much of now.DB</blockquote>

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