Moms who banned DnD

[Li Shenron]

I haven't heard of such stories in Italy, no problems at all. A D&D box was available for kids to play during summer camps at our churchyard site (don't really know how to call the place in English: the local church with facilities for sports, youth and whatever related activities).

I suspect that the concept of a game based on talking and inventing stories being evil doesn't even exist here And we are the country of the Vatican.

 

[Xorial]

I didnt start playing AD&D until 1984, after I graduated high school. But, I remember the movie Mazes & Monsters. Starred Tom Hanks as a kid that nearly commited suicide from playing the "demonic" game. My parents watched the movie on TV one night, and thought it was a load of crap that any game would be the "work of the Devil". They always had the attitude that a game was just a game. People are the ones that will use it for whatever they want. Was always happy they were a little more open minded than some other parents I met later.

 

[Arnwyn]

Never had a problem. In fact, it was my grandfather who bought me the basic Red Box way back when I was 12 (1986). Strangely, I never started playing D&D much until my first year of university, 5 years later.

 

[Sirius_Black]

Sounds like more than a few posters here had very classy parents. I need to make a mental note to thank both of mine the next time I talk to them. They never gave me any trouble about being involved in a game where I use my imagination. Considering some of the horror stories I've heard and seen over the years about parental reaction to D&D, I need to thank my parents for their open-minded nature.

 

[Trainz]

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.

Wow.

I find this highly offensive. I personally see more blindness and stupidity TODAY than back in the 80's. I lived my whole adolescence in the 80's, and stupidity was not to be expected. Today, everyone has the "Sure this is wrong, but why change it" attitude. That's what sicken's me, not a few grannies back then with misconceptions about RPG's that, you have to realise if you're not blind and stupid, had no real power overall on the hobby.
I get sick and tired of people talking about the 80's like some dark ages wedged between the rockin' 70's and the computer age 90's. Don't get me wrong, I love those eras as well.

I mean, just look at this thread, and see how many people "suffered" from the blind and stupid 80's v.s. those that say "actually, my parents where quite cool about it".


Q.E.D.

 

[dshai527]

I remember the summer after I started playing D&D we went to visit my Aunt and when my parents told her that I played this wonderful new game full of imagination, she went beserk and started filling their heads with all that garbage. This was right about the time the movie Mazes & Monsters (I forgot to use my sonar) hit the after school special and my Aunt just happened to have it recorded. She made my parents watch it and just kept telling them about the "evils" of the game. Soon after my parents made me sit down and watch the movie (I bet Tom Hanks wishes he could take that one back) and talked with me. Well actually they asked if I was still comfortable playing the game after watching the movie...I replied "uh yeah. That movie was stupid." MY dad shrugged and said "okay we trust you" and then told my Aunt to mind her own business. I knew of all the hoopla surrounding the game and I thought that my parents were going to make me quit, but nope, not even when my aunt threatened to tell our church that I played. my Dad just said, "well they can mind their own busniess too then. I trust my son, he can make his own decisions." (I was about 10 and this just proved to me that my mom and dad were the coolest people on the earth). I have met several people who woudln't be my friend because I played or would keep it a secret from their parents or relatives but luckily I have been able to enjoy it for a long time.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

I find it interesting just how many posters' parents were in fact cool with the game, when I know from my own experience the majority of parents in our area were not, and the airways and newspapers were full of anti-D&D FUD. Maybe those people whose parents were not rational about it tended to be driven away before becoming gamers interested enough to kill time on a messageboard talking about the game?

I'm thinking the Enworld posters are not a very representational sample from which I should draw any conclusions. It's not like it's the first time!

Much appreciation to everyone who has (so far) kept this away from the obvious potential flame-bait angles of the discussion. Small-mindedness and a lack of ability to rationally think things through don't go hand-in-hand with the 'R' word - they can be just as easily associated with politics or any other closely-held system of beliefs or allegiance. Let's not turn this into an exercise in bashing others.

And while some will say their parents were simply looking out for them - I agree in spirit they were trying to, but there's more to your parental duty than taking the spoon-fed knee-jerk reaction someone else suggests to you. It's your duty as a parent to think things through for yourself and make solid decisions based on your own experiences and your own children. That doesn't mean you have to come to the same conclusions as me (far from it!), but it does mean you have to research things before your make snap decisions.

Kudos to some of the parents like Elf Witch on the thread who are taking their parental duties seriously enough to do the hard thinking themselves instead of buying it pre-packaged.

 

[SimonMoon5]

Here's my story:

I was introduced to D&D (the blue box) by my "Big Brother" (from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization). Both my sister and I saw that this was a fun game, so we asked our mom if she would buy it for us. She made some comment about "Oh, I hoped you'd never ask to play D&D..." since she was the sort of person to believe *anything* especially if it was on TV. But nonetheless, she did buy me/us (my sister quickly lost interest) basic D&D, and then each of the hardback 1st edition books. In fact, for one birthday party, I even got her to decorate the top of the cake with a beholder, with gumdrops at the ends of each eyestalk. (She gave the beholder thirteen eyestalks but it was otherwise pretty cool.)

And then, she fell in with those religious nuts. She was a generally depressed person, and as so many desparate people do, she tossed away logic and went for its more comforting opposite.

She became close friends with a new priest at the church. This particular priest had 3 children who also had some interest in D&D; they were a bit younger than I was, so they weren't exactly gaming buddies, but we at least had something in common. Imagine my surprise when I went over to their house and looked at theird D&D books, only to find them censored! One of the parents had taken a marker and marked out everything that related to clerics worshipping gods and everything related to demons, devils, etc (The "D" section of the Monster Manual was quite a sight to see.). The kids could play D&D as long as they didn't use any of the "bad" parts.

And then they effectively had an intervention for me. They started telling me all the reasons why these elements of D&D were bad. I countered their arguments, but they were only in a mood for a lecture, not a discussion. In the end, I was banned from playing D&D. I sarcastically asked if we should organize a book burning for my books; they laughed at how people would react, but seemed to like the idea (just not the publicity it would draw).

So I got to keep my books. And since my mom was never around when I played D&D anyway, I just kept playing. When we moved to Connecticut for a year so that she could be closer to a large community of those religious nutsos (one family of them featured a gay man who had been "cured" and now had children), the friends I played with tended to play somewhat informally, since we only met during school, so we'd play an "oral" rules-loose mostly-diceless version of D&D. And then we'd play over the phone, and I don't think my mom ever knew just why I liked to talk to my friends for such long periods of time over the phone.


Later on, when I was at college, there were so many other games to play (Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu, Marvel Superheroes RPG, DC Heroes RPG, Palladium, etc), that I didn't play much D&D... but we did play *some* D&D, so I would lie about it (or at least selectively not mention it).

And then she died, and everything was fine again.

 

[Katowice]

My parents had more of a problem with how loudly I played Def Leppard albums in my room.

All my gaming buddies' parents never had a problem with D&D and seemed thankful we weren't out getting high, stealing cars or deviant behavior. I remember one Christmas showing my mother my Forgotten Realms: The Horde boxed set and telling her how it got me really interested in the Mongols. She thought that was really neat.

Of course, there were the occasional non-gamers who made comments like "D&D, isn't that satanic?" but it never went further than that. Most people just thought it was geeky.

Now that my young son plays, I try to stick to a more G or PG version of the game. Since he's young and we're Catholic, I also downplay things like clerics (make them channel the force of "good" rather than "dieties") and gods, so as to not confuse him. When's he a little older, I won't have a problem with it. He is really into Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, so I try to keep our game in a similar style.

 

[Gundark]

I don't think it's really bad that parents censor parts to the game. This means that they have gone through the books and taken stuff out that they find offensive. It's better than just banning the game based on hearsay.