Satanic Panic = 60 minutes D&D special ( 1985)

[Dungeonmastermark]

who remember this horrific event in D&D history ?
I know it caused me a great deal of grief at school and church as a youngling..

 

[Mark Hope]

Wasn't an issue at all where I was living at the time (Japan). Two of my players were members of a local church group and our school was very supportive of the game. Glad this was something that passed me by in the 80s

 

[Tonguez]

Wasn't an issue at all where I was living at the time (Japan). Two of my players were members of a local church group and our school was very supportive of the game. Glad this was something that passed me by in the 80s

Yeah, I think it was an American phenomena that didnt really affect the rest of the world. Other countries had their own Troubles

 

[TarionzCousin]

We had to tell one friend's mother that we were playing Top Secret instead of D&D. To her it was okay to pretend kill other humans but not evil monsters.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Umbran]

Thank goodness, my folks basically went, "They're just playing fairy tale myths like we had in the old country as kids. There's nothing wrong with that, and they are using their brains. Leave them be."

 

[atanakar]

My very religious aunt tried to convince my mother that D&D was satanic (1981). My mother told her she had never seen me have so much fun and interact with other people. She felt D&D had a positive influence on my teen age life !!!

Anecdote: One summer afternoon we are playing B/X in the kitchen. We had a large decorative sword on the table and candles burning, cause it's cool. Someone knocks at the side door. I open. Two Jehovah's are on the porche with their bibles in hand. When they see the DM screen, the candles and the sword they make cross signs and leave immediately. I can see them in front of the house praying for about 5 minutes then they leave. No Jehovah's came to our house after that. Marked as a house of devil worshippers I guess. My mother was glad not to be disturbed anymore!

 

[MGibster]

Thank goodness, my folks basically went, "They're just playing fairy tale myths like we had in the old country as kids. There's nothing wrong with that, and they are using their brains. Leave them be."

My Parents: "Are you going to go play your Satanic game at your friend's house?"
Me: "Yeah."
My Parents: "Have fun."

I started playing a lot of D&D around 1988 and I can only recall hearing something negative once. One of my teachers saw I was reading a D&D module, Keep on the Borderlands I think, and told me I shouldn't have that at school. But my parents were never bothered by it and I don't remember the parents of any of my friends being particularly bothered by it. By the late 80s the whole Satanic Panic was winding down and there were fewer people concerned that D&D could lure one to occultism, murder, or suicide.

Maybe they had all been exposed to that Dead Ale Wives skit by then?

 

[MGibster]

As a young person I thought Pat Pulling was very silly. As an adult I can't help but feel sorry for her. She lost her son and was searching for an explanation.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Yeah, I think it was an American phenomena that didnt really affect the rest of the world. Other countries had their own Troubles

Here in Sweden, we had one evangelical pastor, and two deranged drama-pedagogues (the latter wrote a book called "De övergivnas arme", which translates to "The army of the abandoned". They claimed to have been researching rpgs for years, but they would have gotten a big fail if they had tried handing in that book as an academic paper) waging war against rpgs. There were others as well. I and do recall that there was a tv-show led by a then popular host that railed against it. And then Kult came out, and rpg's vanished from tory-stores where they wee sold.

Of course, we also had the fun thing that the guy that translate the Lord of the Rings-books, denounced the Tolkien-societies at that time. He wrote a book called "Tolkien och den svarta magin", which translates as "Tolkien and the black magic". The best part is that J.R.R. Tolkien knew enough Swedish to not be happy with the work of said translator, and didn't want anything to do with him.