Moms who banned DnD

[FoxWander]

Like many here I never had a problem with my Mom thinking I was gonna join a cult because of D&D. I think she saw it as a way for a somewhat shy kid to get some much needed social interaction, and she saw my renewed interest in history. So she was fine with it.

But my friend Glenn's parents weren't so reasonable. They banned him from playing. Then, when he played anyway, they had him talk with their pastor. Luckily the pastor's wife was there also and suggested they see what this D&D was about before they jumped to conclusions. So, we all got invited to the pastor's house one saturday to play D&D while they watched. Boy, talk about a bunch of nervous gamer's. We felt like we had to prove D&D was wholesome and pure, so we went a little overboard. We had 2 paladins, a ranger and a bard rather than a thief in the party. Our magic-user was very careful to use only storybook-like spells: sleep, web, shield or magic missile. Nothing that could be interpretted as satanic or summoning in nature. We didn't even bring a cleric so they wouldn't think we were worshipping pagan gods or something. It was such a cliche good guys vs. bad that we almost ruined it by laughing sometimes. But in the end it worked and the pastor saw it was just a game, and potentially educational at that, so our gaming continued.

I did benefit from another kid's irrational parents though. Right when I was getting interested in D&D back in '83 this kid's parents bought the "D&D is the devil" line all the way, and insisted he get rid of ALL his D&D stuff. So I got the whole suite of 1st edition AD&D hardbound books AND a stack of modules almost a foot high for $28!! Best allowance money I ever spent!

 

[Dagger75]

I never had a problem with my parents about D&D except the wasting all your time and spending all your money thing. I don't think I was wasting my time but I was spending all my money

It was only 3 of us when I was into gaming in the 80's. Our parents used to drive us to each others houses to play D&D and take over the basements with all those crazy maps an what not.

The only problem (and it was minor) was in 6th grade. Instead of going outside for recess we would stay inside and play D&D. Our teacher sat in on one game to see what it was all about. I guess she found it boring cause after 10 minutes she got up graded papers and never bothered us again. I guess I lived a sheltered life.

 

[Aaron L]

I luckily come from a rather intelligent family, and never had any problems with it. I actually listened a few times to my grandmother defend D&D against the gossiping old bitty women from church (my grandmother was a layspeaker, and would preach when the preacher couldn't).

Unfortunately, the community I live in is not the most intelligent out there (read: redneck) and I and the rest of my friends who played were ostracized from our church. We were even told once that we would burn in Hell. Messy situation all around.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Mom never bought into fundamentalist dogma, and just laughed at people who talked about Satan. However, she did lock up my games once or twice when I did especially bad in school. While she was correct in that I did read them all the time, she seemed to be operating under the delusion that removing D&D from the equation would equal more and better homework. She never really got that I hated school, homework, jerky classmates, jerkier teachers, stupid tests, and the pressure to get into a good college I had no intention of attending. Bereft of my beloved games, I just sought my kicks elsewhere. I recall catching up on a lot of great television I'd somehow missed with my nose buried in the Fiend Folio.

Now I'm 26, hold down a job, own a house, and all of my mother's dire predictions didn't come to pass. And playing D&D all those years did more for me now, as a writer, hell, as a human being, than all those wasted hours of mindless drudgery in the suburban conformity factory we call public education.

 

[S'mon]

Reading posts like these make me glad I live in England. I'm sure it was never so bad over here as it was there. The Bible Belt in the USA still worries me sometimes.

I think it was quite bad in Cambriddgeshire, East Anglia, some parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland where I grew up. Probably not at a Bible Belt level though, but the culture is similar.

The rest of the UK is far too decadent to worry about D&D.

 

[Agback]

As a Christian, I feel like these closed-minded hate-mongers give my religion a bad name.

They do. They completely discredit Christianity. People like me see them and think "A belief set that produces people like these can't possibly be the work of the Benevolent Lord. Hmm. Those Buddhists seem like nice people...."

Regards,


Agback

 

[Darklone]

I have some friends in Spain who have a real problem with that kind of stuff. But then... if I am there, everyone thinks I deal with drugs just because I have long hair and wear leather.

 

[Thresher]

I think by the time I got into roleplaying heavily (20) my mum was probably thankfull I playing that and wasnt pissed drunk and passed out in the arms of loose women.

Actually I was doing both

But she dosnt need to know that...

 

[Lord Rasputin]

Never had a problem. In fact, I was the one with the basement for gaming. My father dated a gamer, and he was a guy who didn't care if I drank or smoked dope or had sex (of course, it was high school, and I didn't get much of the last one and I was not into drugs), so D&D was pretty much blah. Heck, my grandmother even bought me my first red box.

We did have one guy in the group whose parents thought D&D was satanic. We once did some fake "Haoummmm" noises like a sacrifice when he called home ... ticked him off.

Come to think of it, being an atheist since age 6 helped me out a little. Everyone figured I was pretty much going straight to hell anyways, so it was expected of me.

 

[Harlock]

My parents gave me D&D stuff for Christmas and Birthday celebrations. My mom and dad had this really unique, amazing and radically different approach to child-rearing called "knowing what their kid was doing and caring enough to set them straight even if it was embarassing". My mom would always let me invite a few friends over to game at our kitchen table. She' be in there cleaning, preparing dinner, fixing us a snack, or in the living room which ajoined the dining room reading a novel. Amazingly enough she never heard one Satanic-Demon-Summoning-Orgiastic-Ritual-of-Doom. All she heard was a bunch of 8-13 year olds using their imaginations playing a fantasy game where they could overcome the evils in a world and save the princess.

Imagine my surprise when all that crap in the 80s hit and one of my grandmothers telling my mom she shouldn't let me play "that" game only to have my mom say, "Mom, I listen to those kids play all the time. All it is is playing a pretend fairytale. I'd rather him do that than run around getting into trouble," and it was never brought up again. My mom also appreciated the good marks I got in school for skills I learned playing D&D. Now she and my dad even babysit their grandson (my three year old) occasionally on game day so my wife and I can game care-free. I love my mom and dad; they cared enough that had D&D been evil they'd have gotten me away from it, but cared more still to make an informed and educated choice rather than be swayed by radicals and knee-jerk fundamentalists.

EDIT: And for the record my parents were Southern Baptists and when I was 23 I joined the "Mormon" church.