The curse placed on Irving Pulling?

[Bullgrit]

Most long-time D&D gamers know the name of Patricia Pulling. Something that I've been slightly curious about for a long time is what was the supposed curse put on her son, (presumedly on his D&D character, not on him as a real person, but his mother seemed to have a hard time seperating the two on this subject)?

I've only seen/read article references to this curse, and I've read the Pulling Report by Micheal Stackpole. I've never seen any mention of what the curse actually, specifically was.

Has anyone here read anything, anywhere what this curse supposedly was?

Bullgrit

 

[Umbran]

The reading I've done on this suggests we'll never know - the players in the game claimed to not recall any such curse in-game.

Many of the sources are worded such that it seems like it was Patricia Pulling's claim that there was such a curse, not that it was a recorded fact of the gaming session, or even her son's claim.

 

[ExploderWizard]

It was the curse of looney mom. Many people suffered (and continue to suffer) from this affliction. In most cases the curse is merely annoying and easily dispelled with a 0 level use common sense cantrip.

 

[Minicol]

My theory was it was the curse of "Sex, Drugs, and Rock'N'Roll".

Wait, Sex and Rock'N'Roll are actually blessings, so ...

No, all jokes aside, adolescents all over the world are sadly committing tragic acts when the bearing of our sad lives gets too much, in a phase when your body changes, and adults are expecting different things from you, and you have to learn ... responsability ... and the problem is not limited to RPGers.

Now, blaming the mother for this is out of line. Whatever she may have done / said / or NOT .... I still empathise for her loss. God knows it would hurt if that happened to a child of mine.

 

[jaerdaph]

Having that old bat as a mother would be curse enough...

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Now, blaming the mother for this is out of line. Whatever she may have done / said / or NOT .... I still empathise for her loss. God knows it would hurt if that happened to a child of mine.

I know I could riff on this theme for an hour (and might do so on another day in less mixed company) but it does seem inappropriate to me at the moment to joke much about it. She deserves PITY, not ridicule, for having experienced her own staggering ignorance being combined with inconsolable grief.

 

[billd91]

I know I could riff on this theme for an hour (and might do so on another day in less mixed company) but it does seem inappropriate to me at the moment to joke much about it. She deserves PITY, not ridicule, for having experienced her own staggering ignorance being combined with inconsolable grief.

Pity only goes so far when the staggering ignorance becomes stubborn refusal to accept an education on the topic. She deserved pity for her circumstances, she also deserved ridicule for her behavior.

 

[jonesy]

No, all jokes aside, adolescents all over the world are sadly committing tragic acts ... and the problem is not limited to RPGers.

The opposite actually. The research Stackpole did suggested that D&D players had a _vastly lower_ rate of suicides than the national American avarage. I'm more inclined to believe him than, well, it's a really long list.

 

[Umbran]

She deserved pity for her circumstances, she also deserved ridicule for her behavior.

Just because she might have deserved it, doesn't mean it is a good thing to do.

Ridicule of a person who has been dead longer than a decade, and whose work you're criticizing had dissolved to an empty nothing even prior to her death, on a forum where probably exactly zero of the posters are apt to make her error - what purpose does it serve, exactly?

Seems to me like spitting on a shadow.

 

[the Jester]

Now, blaming the mother for this is out of line. Whatever she may have done / said / or NOT .... I still empathise for her loss. God knows it would hurt if that happened to a child of mine.

She deserves PITY, not ridicule, for having experienced her own staggering ignorance being combined with inconsolable grief.

There's nothing wrong with holding people accountable for their actions. Grief doesn't justify starting a witch hunt imho.

I don't know if you were around in the Anti-D&D Craze Days of the 80s, but I had teachers hand me flyers at school that claimed D&D taught satanism, assassination, poison, witchcraft and more. The teachers didn't know it wasn't true. How could they? This is a niche hobby, and was even more of one then! Certainly while I feel for Pulling's loss, I don't feel that it justifies her subsequent bad behavior, spreading of misinformation and out-and-out lies and attempts to persecute a game for her misfortune.

As for whether her behavior helped push her son towards his tragedy- well, I'm sure having a crazy mom wouldn't do anything for anyone's mental health.