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RPG Evolution - True Tales from Stranger Things: The Satanic Panic Comes to School
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<blockquote data-quote="Longspeak" data-source="post: 8875212" data-attributes="member: 7019284"><p>I only had mild brushes.</p><p>1979, my father says "Check out this cool game I bought for your friend for his birthday." A month later, I was hooked on D&D.</p><p></p><p>Later, my mom asked about the game with some odd, leading questions. (Child of divorce, here; so all my conversations were with one or the other parent, never both.) I was still 12 or 13, so I couldn't quite get as her angle, but she seemed satisfied by my comparison to kids' "let's pretend" games, but with some rules to stop arguments about who got who.</p><p></p><p>A couple years later, I go to visit my mom's family in a quaint little backwater in North Carolina. I brought my new copy of "Gamma World," with me. My grandma looked at it sideways, asked a bit about it, and there were the same leading questions my mom had asked. She left me alone after the same answers I'd given my mom, but always watched me. I was there the whole summer, and toward the end she cornered me to talk about "the hold" the game had over me. She's noticed I spent all my time with the game, reading it, making notes, drawing maps (which sucked!), notating encounters, etc. She didn't like "the hold" it had over me, or that I'd started giving her pushback on spending weekdays at was amounted to a daycare. It was in a park, but still.</p><p></p><p>I was 14, and my 11 year old sister was the second oldest kid at this, so naturally I spent time doing my own thing, or gazing lovingly at the (I think) 17-18 year old girl watching our group. She was very pretty, and I was very 14.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, grandma didn't like how I wouldn't play with the other children and spent my time reading the game book like it was the bible. Eventually, she let up, and I stopped going to "daycare" for the rest of my visit there, spending my days wandering the tiny town or hanging out at the house. I watched "The Empire Strikes Back" about a dozen times because it was the only theater in town (and let's face it, I loved it).</p><p></p><p>Then, I got home and my mother took her and grandma's concerns to my father, and my father took them to me. Now, my dad... he's cool. He started me on this path. But he WAS concerned that I did it to the exclusion of all else. I just explained that it was the only fun thing to do in East Podunk, NC, and now that I'd returned to civilization, I'd spend more time with my friends. Which was 100% true! I had a D&D game scheduled that week!</p><p></p><p>Flash forward a couple more years. I've already discussed this part elsewhere, but Pat Pulling became a thing, and I loudly and cruelly mocked her for being so stupid and worthless. Later, I got some perspective, but as a 16 or 17 (I think) year old, I was.... not nuanced in my opinions or in the expression of them.</p><p></p><p>A couple more run-ins with the parents in this time, but they were mainly of the "spending too much time" variety, not of the games themselves.</p><p></p><p>Then in college (went a bit late, so I was... 23, I think?), I ran into my first actual satanic panic. A friend in a couple of my classes learned I and another kid were gamers, and had some very pointed questions for us. He was a nice fellow, well-spoken, friendly, always polite.... and he wanted to know things like what "level" I was, and how many spells I knew and such. At first, I thought he was just ill-informed, since I wasn't a D&D player by this point, and my current game of choice was Mage. I began to explain Mage to him, and for a while things were very confusing as I talked about the nine spheres, and how you create effects by combining your knowledge of them to work various effects, all while working hard to-- then he goes, "But have you ever cast a spell?" Well, there's other games where magic is spells, and-- "No, have YOU ever cast a spell?"</p><p></p><p>Oh. Well, of course not. It's all a game, all make believe, like playing cops and robbers when we were kids and-- "Yeah, the (term for religious elders in his community I can't recall) warned us you would try to misdirect us like this."</p><p></p><p>Uh.... what the @#$%?</p><p></p><p>My gaming friend and I tried to explain it's make believe, accepting a set of rules and codes of conduct as true for the purposes of buying into the story. He rejected the idea of accepting alternate rules for purposes of a game. Mr. Christian seemed to vacillate between thinking I was a genius mastermind and some poor deluded fool who'd bought Satan's lies. In the end, we didn't convince him, and really stopped hanging out with him. He'd sit by us a lot, but we'd just politely brush him off after that.</p><p></p><p>Though, one time I caught him playing a card game called "I doubt it." You play a number of cards, hiding them, and tell the group how many and what suit. If they believe you, fine. If not, you'd have to prove it, or collect the entire discard pile. I asked "Isn't it wrong to lie, not matter the circumstances?" And he.... stopped. At least he was consistent?</p><p></p><p>And THAT was my brush with the Satanic Panic and its fore-bearers, ignorant parents. And it wasn't even D&D!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Longspeak, post: 8875212, member: 7019284"] I only had mild brushes. 1979, my father says "Check out this cool game I bought for your friend for his birthday." A month later, I was hooked on D&D. Later, my mom asked about the game with some odd, leading questions. (Child of divorce, here; so all my conversations were with one or the other parent, never both.) I was still 12 or 13, so I couldn't quite get as her angle, but she seemed satisfied by my comparison to kids' "let's pretend" games, but with some rules to stop arguments about who got who. A couple years later, I go to visit my mom's family in a quaint little backwater in North Carolina. I brought my new copy of "Gamma World," with me. My grandma looked at it sideways, asked a bit about it, and there were the same leading questions my mom had asked. She left me alone after the same answers I'd given my mom, but always watched me. I was there the whole summer, and toward the end she cornered me to talk about "the hold" the game had over me. She's noticed I spent all my time with the game, reading it, making notes, drawing maps (which sucked!), notating encounters, etc. She didn't like "the hold" it had over me, or that I'd started giving her pushback on spending weekdays at was amounted to a daycare. It was in a park, but still. I was 14, and my 11 year old sister was the second oldest kid at this, so naturally I spent time doing my own thing, or gazing lovingly at the (I think) 17-18 year old girl watching our group. She was very pretty, and I was very 14. Anyway, grandma didn't like how I wouldn't play with the other children and spent my time reading the game book like it was the bible. Eventually, she let up, and I stopped going to "daycare" for the rest of my visit there, spending my days wandering the tiny town or hanging out at the house. I watched "The Empire Strikes Back" about a dozen times because it was the only theater in town (and let's face it, I loved it). Then, I got home and my mother took her and grandma's concerns to my father, and my father took them to me. Now, my dad... he's cool. He started me on this path. But he WAS concerned that I did it to the exclusion of all else. I just explained that it was the only fun thing to do in East Podunk, NC, and now that I'd returned to civilization, I'd spend more time with my friends. Which was 100% true! I had a D&D game scheduled that week! Flash forward a couple more years. I've already discussed this part elsewhere, but Pat Pulling became a thing, and I loudly and cruelly mocked her for being so stupid and worthless. Later, I got some perspective, but as a 16 or 17 (I think) year old, I was.... not nuanced in my opinions or in the expression of them. A couple more run-ins with the parents in this time, but they were mainly of the "spending too much time" variety, not of the games themselves. Then in college (went a bit late, so I was... 23, I think?), I ran into my first actual satanic panic. A friend in a couple of my classes learned I and another kid were gamers, and had some very pointed questions for us. He was a nice fellow, well-spoken, friendly, always polite.... and he wanted to know things like what "level" I was, and how many spells I knew and such. At first, I thought he was just ill-informed, since I wasn't a D&D player by this point, and my current game of choice was Mage. I began to explain Mage to him, and for a while things were very confusing as I talked about the nine spheres, and how you create effects by combining your knowledge of them to work various effects, all while working hard to-- then he goes, "But have you ever cast a spell?" Well, there's other games where magic is spells, and-- "No, have YOU ever cast a spell?" Oh. Well, of course not. It's all a game, all make believe, like playing cops and robbers when we were kids and-- "Yeah, the (term for religious elders in his community I can't recall) warned us you would try to misdirect us like this." Uh.... what the @#$%? My gaming friend and I tried to explain it's make believe, accepting a set of rules and codes of conduct as true for the purposes of buying into the story. He rejected the idea of accepting alternate rules for purposes of a game. Mr. Christian seemed to vacillate between thinking I was a genius mastermind and some poor deluded fool who'd bought Satan's lies. In the end, we didn't convince him, and really stopped hanging out with him. He'd sit by us a lot, but we'd just politely brush him off after that. Though, one time I caught him playing a card game called "I doubt it." You play a number of cards, hiding them, and tell the group how many and what suit. If they believe you, fine. If not, you'd have to prove it, or collect the entire discard pile. I asked "Isn't it wrong to lie, not matter the circumstances?" And he.... stopped. At least he was consistent? And THAT was my brush with the Satanic Panic and its fore-bearers, ignorant parents. And it wasn't even D&D! [/QUOTE]
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