Moms who banned DnD

[d4]

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.

see, it's this kind of stuff that really chaps my hide.

saying, "I don't want you playing D&D because I believe it's a bad influence or it offends my belief structure," is one thing. spreading blatant, outrageous lies about it is something totally different.

 

[night_lord]

ouch

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.

Oh man I almost cried when I read that :'(

Seriously though I remember reading that there were ministries set up to stomp out playing DnD. I remember reading a track back when i was a teenager. Are these still around? Or is it mostly just the few lingering parents/uncles/teachers that remember the hype from the 80s

 

[night_lord]

i mean you kind of expect to hear people being that blind and stupid back in the 80's

No kidding I mean look at the clothes and hair stytles they wore back then

You know I thought that it was weird that my parents let me play other rpgs as long as it wasn't DnD. Surprises me that there were other parents/teachers that were the same way.

 

[shadow]

My mom never really banned D&D. She never got into the whole D&D = satanic thing. (After all, my uncle, my dad's brother, was really into D&D in the late 70's and early 80's). However, she has subtly expressed from time to time the fact that I waste too much time and money on the game. (The fact is that she's probably right.)

 

[Rel]

My mother not only didn't ban D&D when I started playing, but actually paid to send me to D&D Class during the summer! I'll never forget it. It was run by a guy named Wes Ives. He seems like just the kind of guy who would be an ENWorlder, so if you're out there, Wes, thanks a ton. I played a Thief and I had a Portable Hole. Good times.

My mother did ban me from playing for a couple months or so once because I got bad grades. My solution was to continue to get bad grades during the ban to illustrate that they had nothing to do with D&D. (I'm sort of halfway kidding about that. But only halfway.)

I did have a friend (who is a fellow board-member) who's Southern Baptist parents banned him from playing D&D. As with many similar stories above, they were fine if he played Gamma World or Star Frontiers. In fact it later turned out that they had no problems with the fantasy genre, just the letters "D&D". That's how we started playing MERP and then Rolemaster and it ultimately led to us writing one of the Rolemaster companion books together.

The lord moves in mysterious ways.

 

[Voadam]

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.

We are in a different age now? Who knew?

 

[Gallo22]

I feel kind of bad for those of you who could not play or were told not too when you were younger. I'm 35 now and remembering all the fun I had growing up and playing D&D/AD&D is a very fond memory for me! I've created many good friendships during that time. My parents never really had a problem with it.

The only thing I really remember was my dad telling me years later that he was never worried about the devil thing, but about it taking up all my time. Sounds like a reasonable concern to me!

What really gets me is people still today give D&D that stigma of it being bad! I still can't believe the ignorance of it!. I work at a law firm and have mentioned my gaming in passing afew times and you should see the looks I get! For educated people they sure can be dumb sometimes!

I even got "talked" to about looking at D&D stuff on the internet (during my lunch time). Oh!, its alright to look at sports, news, vacation research, but not D&D! (sarcasim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Gallo22

 

[Arravis]

Yep night_lord, me too. I've purposely not looked at the prices that those comics go for now. I'm still a bit miffed at my mom for doing that. Ugh... if only she had saved them.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

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.

 

[Southern Oracle]

My parents divorced when I was five because my father joined a strange cult called the Glory Barn (later changed to Faith Assemby), and my mother wouldn't convert. Because the cult didn't believe in medicine I was never allowed to stay with him; I've always had poor health, and my mom was always afraid my dad wouldn't get me medical attention if I needed it. On the rare occasions when he would visit he'd always buy me something, and while he didn't like D&D, he always let me pick something for D&D or fantasy related because that was what I was interested in.

When I turned 15, my mother decided to marry her high school sweetheart and move to Tennessee, and I was shipped off to stay with my dad for the summer so my mom and new stepdad could have a honeymoon. Naturally, I brought my D&D stuff, and my dad never said a word. HIS wife, however, wouldn't allow me to bring the books into the house...I had to keep them in my dufflebag -- outside -- under a bush where they wouldn't get ruined if it rained.