D&D 5E Raise your hand if your mom...

[Gorgon Zee]

I mean...my brother is a Detroit Lions fan.

I am so, so sorry for you, and for your brother, and his sanity.

I never had an issue. Moved to the states in 92 and started a gaming group around people i met at church.
My current gaming groups includes one atheist, one deacon, one computer scientist who used to work in th church, an agnostic and a church-going couple.

i have no evidence that there is an relationship between belief and dislike for RPGs among the sort of mainstream Christians and other religious people I hang out with (our Jewish couple left for the east coast, and our Wiccan sort of faded out to be with a non-gaming partner).

 

[aramis erak]

I am so, so sorry for you, and for your brother, and his sanity.

I never had an issue. Moved to the states in 92 and started a gaming group around people i met at church.
My current gaming groups includes one atheist, one deacon, one computer scientist who used to work in th church, an agnostic and a church-going couple.

i have no evidence that there is an relationship between belief and dislike for RPGs among the sort of mainstream Christians and other religious people I hang out with (our Jewish couple left for the east coast, and our Wiccan sort of faded out to be with a non-gaming partner).

Hey, now, the Lions had a winning season recently... what, 3 years ago? (Many of my kinfolk are in greater Detroit, and are Lions, Tigers, and Wings fans. I'm a wings fan... the rest... not so much).

I have noticed that pagans are far more prevalent in my local gamer crowd than the general population. As in, they represent less than 1% of the local population, but are in excess of 10% of the gamers I've asked about it. (sample size >50.) But the same is true also for the SCA, (and only about 30% of the SCA group locally are gamers). Agnostics and atheists are likewise disproportionately represented. It would make an interesting sociological study.

I've noticed that the loudest opponents of RPGs have been fundamentalist christian preachers, especially "independent baptists". My obnoxious coworkers who have been vocally opposed to RPGs have all been "independent baptists" as well.

Most recent local book burning was about the time of the release of BOVD, ca. 2002. It was almost entirely these same "independent baptist" churches involved. (FLGS owner on record as not being opposed to the burnings, because it's (1) free press for him, and (2) they're buying them from him.)
2nd Most recent local protest was same time, and was dispersed by the police when a couple rabidly vocal types from the protest laid hands upon a customer at the FLGS. Same people protested every Harry Potter novel, and every twilight novel.

There was a last gasp protest at the release of the 4E's BOVD, too. About 10 people showed up. Didn't even last the whole scheduled time.

 

[CrusaderX]

I started playing D&D in the early 1980's with the Moldvay Basic set. Grew up in a fairly devout Catholic family. Nobody in my family had any problems with D&D whatsoever.

 

[MortalPlague]

I found D&D at a church garage sale. Moldvay Red Box. This would have been late 90s.

My folks never had any problem with it. My friends and I even played at lunch at school. Ah, elementary school...

 

[Elf Witch]

I never had this issue because I was over 18 and married when I started playing shortly after it came out. I did have an issue with one of my son's teachers in elementary school. It didn't help she was a born again Christian who belonged to a very fundamental church in my area. She thought it was wrong that I let him play Toon and Tunnels and Trolls. She even at one point felt the need to call child services when she overheard him tell another little boy on the playground my mom is a witch and has an altar. This was the height of the whole BS satanic scare of the 80s.

The child service lady was a little uneasy but her supervisor knew about Wicca and RPGs and knew that they were not dangerous to young minds. I made a huge fuss with the school until I got my son transferred to a new more open minded teacher.

 

[Vic Ferrari]

My mother encouraged it, better than staring at a screen.

 

[Bugleyman]

When I was 14ish (1986), my parents decided D&D was the work of the devil. They made me get rid of my D&D books (I gave them to a friend), and forbade me from playing. I just switched to playing at friend's houses.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

My mother saw the poorly done episode of 60 Minutes' and took my Basic & Expert books for a few days to take a look at them.

I got them back a couple days later with a simple "Hey Mom, can I have my D&D books back?"
She had skimmed through them and saw nothing horrible that the episode had flipped out over

 

[ephemeron]

My father ran red-box D&D adventures for me, one-on-one. Though I did later find out that part of the reason is that my mother was suspicious of the game.

 

[jimmifett]

Ah, Mentzer. Was there ever a more glorious cover art?

Yes, Plenty. I never cared for his art. In fact, it turned me away from DnD as a kid in the 80s because it looked so lame, like that atrocious Hobbit movie from the 70s. Yes, I know, I'm in the minority in disliking that movie and Mentzer's Art. I found it boring and put me to sleep. Good way to get me to go outside to play? Put on a cartoon from the 70s.

At least it inspired artists to eventually create art I do enjoy, so I'll give him that.