Satanic Panic of the late 80's

[MGibster]

Oddly enough, my parents' fears weren't targeted at the cartoon (no more than any other cartoon we watched) or even really at the game. Their fear was that Satanists were using the game to meet children, and my my friends and I might somehow accidentally run into some and get kidnapped and ritually sacrificed.

I don't think that's all that odd. Role playing games were rather new and wasn't something your parents were likely to have experienced when they were teenagers. Whereas people had been watching cartoons for the last 50-60 years and most parents weren't concerned it'd turn their kids into raving lunatics. And, yeah, it's hard to believe so many people took the the whole kidnapping and Satanic ritual belief of children seriously.

 

[aramis erak]

I started gaming in '79, and the only place I encountered the concept was in the media. I never met anyone in RL who took it seriously.

I started wargaming in 79, RPGing in 81... and I had many friends in Anchorage whose parents bought in on the panic, even into the early 1990s.
More than one friend was psychologically abused by parents who believed all games (even board and card games) were the work of the devil.

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

John Wiznewski, owner of Bosco's Comics and Games, said of the book burning being organized by Jerry Prevo, when D&D 3.5's Book of Vile Darkness came out, "Almost all of them were bough from me, and many of the affected players will buy them again."

Until I read some of your horror stories here, I thought the Panic was a joke. Because everyone and their parents didn't care if we played D&D or x,y,z.

You're lucky.

Now, my daughter's Superintendent of their School District is a former gamer... and several of her teachers as well.

But I've heard a few diatribes have happened. My daughters friends, the only reason parents have been anti-game is that the homework hasn't been getting done.

 

[MNblockhead]

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

I similarly remember reading Gary Gygax saying that after a local DJ in Minnesota burned a bunch of D&D books that sales increased in that area.

 

[MNblockhead]

I suspect the bible belt is where it hit the hardest. I say that because all the game cons retreated to wisconsin or the coasts.

Well, GenCon at least started in Wisconsin.

 

[John Dallman]

The satanic panic had zero impact on myself or on anyone I knew, but I was in the UK. I am dimly aware of the panic in the US at the time, for us it was just another example of how deranged we thought Americans were.

Likewise. We had satanic ritual abuse panics, but D&D was just too insignificant to be a target.

 

[Ulfgeir]

We had some (religious) nutcases going on a crusade against rpg's in general here in Sweden, and Kult in particular in the 90's... But then we also had a diocese publishing, I think 4 different rpg's, and using 3 of them in their confirmation-studies (Quo Vadis? Ansgar, Vägen). where the students would enact various moral situations.

 

[Bohandas]

More than one friend was psychologically abused by parents who believed all games (even board and card games) were the work of the devil.

Cards being the work of the devil actually seems to be an consistent trope in some of the more extreme belief systems. I'm not sure that was part of the panic specifically

 

[Ulfgeir]

Cards being the work of the devil actually seems to be an consistent trope in some of the more extreme belief systems. I'm not sure that was part of the panic specifically

Maybe they saw a connection to Tarot's minor arcana?

or a remnant from the puritan times..

 

[prabe]

Maybe they saw a connection to Tarot's minor arcana?

or a remnant from the puritan times..

I'm thinking it was more about gambling than Tarot.

 

[uzirath]

I'm thinking it was more about gambling than Tarot.

I think that's true, though I do recall some family friends who claimed that D&D was the first rung of the ladder leading to Tarot and eventually up (down?) to the Devil himself.