Moms who banned DnD

[WayneLigon]

I think my Mom would have liked to ban it at one point, but I always kept up good grades and never got in any trouble otherwise. She liked most of the friends I made through it, as well. So that might have kept her from really listening to the few spurious news articles in the early 80's. She was never a big church-goer, so that probably helped as well.

I have known friends who had to stop playing (or, rather, would simply have to lie about playing).

I also know two kids right now, not in my games, that can play any RPG under the sun as long as it's not the dreaded D&D. Never did understand that reasoning.

 

[buzzard]

Here's the weird one for y'all. I have been playing since I was a wee lil munchkin (9 or so). My parents never particularly cared one way or the other and never expressed any concern about it.

Now, in my 30s, married and all that jazz, my mother now expresses concern about it when I talk to her about going to cons and whatnot on the phone. I imagine it is a function of two things.
A) She's getting rather old and a touch dotty.
B) She lives in middle of nowhere Georgia and her friends are probably telling her idiotic things about the game. (however she, herself, is not at all religious, and never has been, so we can't blame that)

It is, of course, annoying since she's always been stubborn (she used to argue physics with me until I gave up due to grief, I have a PhD in engineering, she has no science training at all). I try to make brief stabs at explaining that it is innocuous, but they don't make a dent. It's probably a lost cause.

buzzard

 

[Arravis]

My mom banned both D&D and comic books... my two favorite hobbies at that age. Both for the same reason, they were "evil", etc. We were able to play non-D&D RPG's (as seems common by this thread); and we got into Gamma World. We would still play D&D though, stapling new Gamma World covers on our D&D books (too bad we had all these coverless Gamma World books around though, lol). Anyway the D&D ban lasted about 2 years I think, till we confessed that we had been playing it all along and A: we didn't worship the devil, and B: we didn't commit suicide.

The one that really hurt was her throwing away my comic book collection, which included X-Men number 1, and 92-175, Weird Tales 1, and several other very valuable comics. They would have easily paid for my college... *sigh* the ignorance of parents is sometimes astounding.

I don't want to complain too loudly though. My mom reared 3 kids on her own (my father died when I was 3) and did a great job at that .

P.S.: Keep in mind that all this was during the moronic D&D hysteria. I'm a geezer of 31 at the moment.

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

Not a "Mom" per se but by uncle, who introduced me to the game in 1980, later got very religious and told me that I should stop playing.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I started playing very recently, so happily I missed out on most of the anti-DnD stuff I've heard about. My mom was a bit leery about it when I wanted to play, mostly because one of my friends who played was a bit of an oddball. We researched it together, and she as fine with it. Two of the kids I'm playing with haven't told their parents about it yet, though.

 

[howandwhy99]

I remember that my mom had a huge problem with roleplaying of any type. She still does, but no longer holds some of the more ludicrous beliefs. I can still remember when I was at a Boy Scout campout and she was furious that I was playing D&D! against her permission. She felt I was helping in warping some of the other boys' minds.
The worst part was when she told us all that playing the game would insert subliminal messages in our minds to call special phone numbers. Supposedly, after everyone in your house was asleep, the dread D&D gamer would awake in a trance, call this phone number and be told to horrible things like kill their parents or light fire to their siblings. Really outrageous stuff. I didn't start gaming until '87, but every book I ever bought (before I left for college) was hunted down and destroyed. Regularly.

 

[howandwhy99]

I remember that my mom had a huge problem with roleplaying of any type. She still does, but no longer holds some of the more ludicrous beliefs. I can still remember when I was at a Boy Scout campout and she was furious that I was playing D&D! against her permission. She felt I was helping in warping some of the other boys' minds.
The worst part was when she told us all that playing the game would insert subliminal messages in our minds to call special phone numbers. Supposedly, after everyone in your house was asleep, the dread D&D gamer would awake in a trance, call this phone number and be told to horrible things like kill their parents or light fire to their siblings. Really outrageous stuff. I didn't start gaming until '87, but any book I ever bought (before I left for college) was hunted down and destroyed. Regularly.

 

[d4]

i never had too many problems with my mom about RPGs. at best, i might get "you still waste your time on that game?" even today.

one thing i find odd is parents who ban their kids from playing D&D, but then let them play other RPGs. that just shows they have a complete lack of understanding about the whole subject. (of course they do, why else would they think D&D is Satanic?)

it's like being told, "I don't want you driving cars because driving is dangerous!"

"well ok, how about i get a motorcycle instead?"

"sure, that's fine."

 

[jarlaxlecq]

wow it amazes me to still hear people that have parents that ban D&D for its "demonic" influence. i mean you kind of expect to hear people being that blind and stupid back in the 80's but in todays day and age to seems so medievel. Sure my parents werent huge fans of D&D but that had more to do with the cost of the books then it did the material. The fact that it would get me away from the TV kind of balanced that out. I guess you guys must live in the "bible belt." Its scary that those people are still out there, When i saw the news about the 10 commandments statue being taken out of that court house, and you saw people and their knees, looking like a bunch of zelots screaming, "YOU CAN TAKE OUR GOD!!!" i though to myself i bet they don't let their kids play D&D

 

[Nifft]

I fail to see how anything that directly responsible for the Christian faith of even one person could be a tool of the Devil.

That really depends on your view of the christian faith...

-- N