Satanic Panic of the late 80's

[Scott Christian]

My friends and I were in it at its height. Ugh. The social pressures were strong, against both geek and D&D. We were fortunate enough to have parents that, when confronted about the satanic structure, would ask the other parent: "Do you know what your kid is doing right now? I do. He is sitting at the table playing a game that requires them to read and do math." That generally ended the conversation. But, I can say, both my parents and my friends parents were confronted. That alone says a lot.

 

[Matchstick]

But overall my friends and I were lucky. The Twin Cities more liberal and well outside the bible belt. The gaming community was large. D&D was not banned in my school and my friends and I ran games in our local library.

But for those who lived in that time, even if not directly impacted, it continues to effect us in our reluctance to discuss the hobby in general company. I'm still getting used to the fact that D&D, anime, computer games, etc. are so main stream.

Just over the river in Hudson my friend group also played without any interference from parents or church. My parents did, I think, take a few minutes to investigate what D&D was, but even that little bit of investigation planted them solidly on the side of the game, and my Mom bought me the Players Handbook and DM's Guide.

Yet, like you, I'm still hesitant to proclaim myself a D&D'er, and I guarantee that it's due to growing up at that time.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I have a musical project called Wurm Fang. Haven't done much with it since the pandemic, alas - everything that's going on has just been Too Much to focus on it. Maybe I just need to put my keyboard in front of me and noodle for a bit.

If you were asking more on the how, I play keyboards (an Arturia MicroBrute with a lot of effects pedals) and do vocals, but also program stuff using Fruity Loops, mostly for drums, and Soundforge for drones. The recording part is done using Soundforge and Cubase. While I might wax nostalgic on the old analog methods of recording, using a computer is so much more convenient.

Make in what way? Sorry for the side track, but I'm intrigued.

Hah, yes! That's a deep cut, too. My influences tend more towards Brighter Death Now and Deutsch Nepal, but Aghast is good stuff. If you're into Aghast, I'd recommend Hexentanz's Nekrocrafte.

Wasn't "Hexerei im Zwielicht der Finsternis" by AGHAST released on CMI ?

Yes, not only the people whose reputations were irreparably damaged, who went to jail, but even those that espoused these beliefs. A lot of mentally unwell and susceptible people were preyed upon by figures of authority. Think of Michelle Remembers, of the McMartin case children that became convinced that they had experienced horrifically traumatic events. It all seems laughable today, but the Satanic Panic did real harm.

The Satanic Panic was not just about D&D. Many peoples lives were ruined by unfounded accusations that seem hard to believe, sitting here in 2020, that anyone took it seriously.

 

[Nytmare]

I have a musical project called Wurm Fang.

... Did I see you at Black Forge Coffee up in the slopes like 4 or 5 years ago?

 

[Sacrosanct]

I remember Tim Kask saying they almost welcomed the Satanic panic, because it dramatically increased sales.

 

[Cyan Wisp]

It's still around, and still fueled by ignorance. My wife is Christian and urged me not to mention my association with the game around her churchie friends because they just wouldn't understand. Despite many of those friends being avid Dominion players.

I did "come out" eventually to them... at our wedding reception. I had made monodrone modron wedding cake toppers and explained how these particular monodrones, from my beloved game D&D, were tasked with "loving one another" - and they would follow that directive until the end of their days.

Amazingly, the sky did not fall!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Holy carp, you did indeed! Small world.

... Did I see you at Black Forge Coffee up in the slopes like 4 or 5 years ago?

 

[TarionzCousin]

My gaming group in Junior High School went from almost 20 regular players to six or seven when the Satanic Panic happened. I was in a small town in Oregon that wasn't particularly religious. Almost none of the guys who dropped out attended church.

I had a friend that wasn't allowed to come over and play D&D with the group. However, he was allowed to come over to play the D6 Star Wars RPG with us, so we just always told his mom that we only played Star Wars.

Similar situation here, only we (actually) played Top Secret.

It was odd, because the one guy that killed every monster in D&D insisted on killing every non-helpful (aka "innocent") human in Top Secret. So our semi-realistic spy game was much more of a "chaotic evil bloodbath" than any of our D&D games ever were.

So eventually we returned to playing D&D and just told that guy's parents that we were playing Top Secret.

 

[Dr Magister]

During the 90s, for a long time before I was ever really aware of roleplaying, my mum wouldn't let me play Warhammer because it had demons in, and she said it blended reality and fantasy too much. It was only much later on that I realised that she was conflating it with D&D and buying into the whole Satanic panic thing.

 

[MGibster]

The Satanic Panic lingered on for quite some time. I remember getting into Magic: The Gathering in the late 90s and my buddy got his cards taken away by his mom and she gave him Pokemon instead. All because of the implied pentagram on the back of the cards. Lame. And we were already teenagers!

By the late 1990s, the moral panic surrounding D&D and the occult was no longer part of the national dialogue and many consider the case of the West Memphis Three here in Arkansas to be the last big hurrah for Satanic Panic. But there will always be a subset who is concerned about such things. In the 90s, I remember moral panic amongst some Evangelical christian groups in the United States surrounding the Goosebumps series of books, after that Harry Potter became the popular target, and I can count on hearing someone complain about Halloween because it's Satanic.