Moms who banned DnD

[night_lord]

Well I came into contact with DnD when I was 12 years old. There was this kid who brought it to school and wanted to play it. Once I played I was hooked and for Christmas I asked my parents for this game called DnD. So that Christmas I got the DnD "red box". Well things were going good until my mom got talking to some of her friends and they told her..."DnD is a game that's of the devil"..."people commit suicide when they play that game"..."etc". So my red box was put up on the shelf. Ironically enough my mom still let me play rpgs as long as it wasn't DnD. So i played TMNT, Hero's unlimited, Robotech, Rifts (I can't stand Palladium games now). I still played DnD once in awhile but had to hide it.."oh we played TMNT". Once I hit my mid 20s I pretty much quit rpgs for other games (warhammer). Then I discovered d20 system and started playing DnD again. Now I'm pushing 30, I'm married and am a father now and my mom still gets a little concerned when she hears that I'm playing DnD. I've talked to her aboput the whole DnD scare of the early and mid 80s and she has realized that I'm not worshiping devils or going to comitt suicide. Anyhow the reason why I'm posting is to see if any of you have had similiar experiences. and if you wouldn't mind sharing them

 

[Psion]

Well, our group is mostly made up of couples. One couple had kids and both wanted to play, so they found a sitter.

When their sitter found out WHY they needed a sitter, she stopped sitting for them becuase D&D is demonic etc.!

 

[Crothian]

I had that happen once when I was a kid back in the 80's, but nothing since then.

 

[der_kluge]

I worship devils and play D&D.

No, just kidding.

In High School (and college), I had a friend named Chris who loved to play Berserkers. He even had one named Lothar (go figure). Anywho, he had to hide the fact that he played D&D with us from his parents, who were very religious. He would comment about how, at his church, they would hold sermons about how evil D&D was, and how Satanic it was.

Chris is married now, and probably has kids. I suspect that he never did tell his parents that he played D&D. Well, he didn't play a *lot*, but he enjoyed it whenever he did play. I had to keep his character sheet, and he never could have any of the books. He was always "playing computer or board games" when he came over to my house. Sad.


My Mom had a similar worry, but a discussion with my then high-school Physics teacher, whose own son played D&D, assured her that it was safe. It probably didn't help much that the particular guys that I was playing D&D with were all quite ..., how shall we say, not the upper crust of society.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I never had any problems with my parents (I got the Otus cover box when I was 10 for a birthday gift), in fact my Mom encouraged me to play, as it got me out of the house and doing something creative.

A friends Mom, however, wasn't so receptive to D&D. One time we were playing at his house, his mother came into the kitchen, grabbed his books, and threw them away. The rest of us were ordered out of the house and to go home. Next time we saw him, he told us she had just come back from a church group meeting where they were given the "D&D is Satanic" speech, and that was the end of it for him. She wouldn't let us into their house if we had any games with us.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

My Mom had a similar worry, but a discussion with my then high-school Physics teacher, whose own son played D&D, assured her that it was safe. It probably didn't help much that the particular guys that I was playing D&D with were all quite ..., how shall we say, not the upper crust of society.

My mother had the same worry because me and my high school friends played in a group of guys 25-40 when we were 16 on average. She still thinks its evil, even thought she knows both my wife and I both play. :|

 

[Mercule]

My dad used to be concerned, but he didn't stop me. I think I finally convinced him when we had a discussion about five years ago and he said, "Are you _still_ playing that game?"

I very politely explained that without D&D I likely wouldn't have delved into medieval and ancient history. Without looking at those histories and the history of the Christian church and other religions I never would have been able to put certain things in perspective. Without that perspective I don't think I would have ever really embraced Christianity and would probably be an agnostic or atheist.

Therefore my involvement in D&D is directly related, through a definite path, with my being a Christian today -- and I'm a very strong Christian, too. I fail to see how anything that directly responsible for the Christian faith of even one person could be a tool of the Devil. Stop me if I'm wrong.

 

[shouit]

. So i played TMNT, Hero's unlimited, Robotech, Rifts (I can't stand Palladium games now). I still played DnD once in awhile but had to hide it.."oh we played TMNT".

I had a very similar situation, except is wasn't parents it was teachers at school. We would play on our lunch break and they thought DnD was evil, never complained when we played mutant animals..

 

[Scorch]

When I was around 10 or 11 my mother gave me a choice of either stop playing D&D or stop playing video games but this was because of the bad grades I was getting in school at the time. They basically were removing one of my time consuming activities so I would spend more time studying which was understandable.

I gave up the video games for a few months until my grades improved. I knew if I wanted to get my ColecoVision Donkey Kong fix I could always go over to my friends' house.

My parents were pretty cool about D&D, all things considered. In fact, it was my born-again uncle (who used to be a pretty bad-assed biker) who bought me the AD&D Monster Manual that got me interested in the first place. My parent's actually played a game of TSR's Top Secret with me once and my Dad and brother played a few impromptu sessions of AD&D 1E. And this was back around 1980 to 82...

It wasn't until later that I was around 23 and my mother got a little more conservative in her religious views (and those clucking hens at the Church's coffee hour filled her head with a few lies) that she actually sat down and talked with me about it. Fortunately by then I was pretty knowledgable in how to address such matters thanks to a few college courses in logic, reasoning, and public presentation. I addressed her concerns with facts and logic and she has not brought it up since.

Scorch

 

[Tsyr]

My dad used to be concerned, but he didn't stop me. I think I finally convinced him when we had a discussion about five years ago and he said, "Are you _still_ playing that game?"

I very politely explained that without D&D I likely wouldn't have delved into medieval and ancient history. Without looking at those histories and the history of the Christian church and other religions I never would have been able to put certain things in perspective. Without that perspective I don't think I would have ever really embraced Christianity and would probably be an agnostic or atheist.

Therefore my involvement in D&D is directly related, through a definite path, with my being a Christian today -- and I'm a very strong Christian, too. I fail to see how anything that directly responsible for the Christian faith of even one person could be a tool of the Devil. Stop me if I'm wrong.

Though the particulars of the "why" are different (It wasn't so much an interest in medieval history, though I have one, that did it), this story is actualy fairly similar to mine.