The good ole days of Satanic Panic

[Cadence]

Started playing in 1981 in northern Illinois in 6th grade. I don't even remember the panic existing.

 

[pogre]

My Mom was a widow and a tough lady when she had to be. We grew up in a village in downstate Illinois and she heard from friends and neighbors that we should not be playing this satanic game. My Mom resisted their interference and even played with us from time-to-time.

The prejudice still is out there with some older folks. I take on student teachers from time-to-time and I had a university professor warn me once that a potential student-teacher was into "those cult D&D games." I immediately agreed to have him as a student teacher, and he did great. That was only about 10 years ago!

I do think if D&D gets even more popular and mainstream it will be targeted by some in the religious community in the United States. There was even a religious backlash against Harry Potter a few years ago (nothing to do with the author's current controversies).

 

[the Jester]

I had a friend in high school whose dad burnt all his D&D books and a bunch of science fiction and fantasy novels. He ended up storing his new stuff at my house for several years.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

My two DnD is evil stories...

As a kid (early 80s) my best friend who lived next door and I had a collection of random DnD materials. Mostly Basic rulebooks and modules. At some point his mom got drawn into the panic and demanded he get rid of all his DnD stuff. He gave it to me, we shared everything as desired, and we carried on as if nothing changed.

As a young adult, my brother got into a nasty divorce with custody issues. At some point in the various lawyer discussions I had been accused of "Forcing my nephew to stay up all night playing Dungeons and Dragons". The actual story is one New Years Eve my nephew and his friend asked me to play DnD so I did a makeshift intro game with some scratch paper and some yahtzee dice for about 20 minutes after the ball drop was on TV.

 

[J.Quondam]

This got me thinking about another incident in early 1984, a few months after I'd received Red Box Basic for Christmas. A kid at my elementary school was handing out pamphlets which had the words "Dungeons and Dragons" printed prominently on the outside. Seeing this, I became excited and started talking to him, chattering about how great a game it was, and did he play, and all that.

He just said I really needed to read the flier, handed me one, and wandered off.

Later that day, I actually read thing... and was a bit vexed and perplexed, because it didn't jibe with my (at the time very limited) experience of the game. I never interacted with that kid again after that, even though he was in my class.

I held on to the pamphlet for years, but finally tossed it during a move after college in the mid 1990s... and I've regretted that ever since. But after a bit of googling today, I finally found it again!

(Clicking the pic links to a blog post; scroll down a bit to see images that include scans of the full text.)

What stood out to me as a 10 year old was that real, thinking adults would confuse a game book with a religious text. (And also its weird focus on quotes with words like "crotch" and "genitals" pulled from various FRPGs.)

As I've grown older, I've learned that adults really aren't nearly as bright as I thought they were when I was a kid.

 

[TarionzCousin]

As a young adult, my brother got into a nasty divorce with custody issues. At some point in the various lawyer discussions I had been accused of "Forcing my nephew to stay up all night playing Dungeons and Dragons". The actual story is one New Years Eve my nephew and his friend asked me to play DnD so I did a makeshift intro game with some scratch paper and some yahtzee dice for about 20 minutes after the ball drop was on TV.

How long were you in jail for your crime?

 

[TarionzCousin]

1. In junior high school, my closest friend's extremely religious mother forbade him from playing "that devil game" so we only played Top Secret at his house. According to his mother, it was okay for us to play characters who killed humans but that "even being heroes who kill devils" was inviting Satan into our lives.

He played D&D at everyone else's houses.

2. The bookstore run by six "good Christian" retired ladies asked me about D&D. I spent ten minutes explaining to them. After that, they were the only place in my small hometown that carried D&D books.

 

[Sacrosanct]

This got me thinking about another incident in early 1984, a few months after I'd received Red Box Basic for Christmas. A kid at my elementary school was handing out pamphlets which had the words "Dungeons and Dragons" printed prominently on the outside. Seeing this, I became excited and started talking to him, chattering about how great a game it was, and did he play, and all that.

He just said I really needed to read the flier, handed me one, and wandered off.

Later that day, I actually read thing... and was a bit vexed and perplexed, because it didn't jibe with my (at the time very limited) experience of the game. I never interacted with that kid again after that, even though he was in my class.

I held on to the pamphlet for years, but finally tossed it during a move after college in the mid 1990s... and I've regretted that ever since. But after a bit of googling today, I finally found it again!
View attachment 149384
(Clicking the pic links to a blog post; scroll down a bit to see images that include scans of the full text.)

What stood out to me as a 10 year old was that real, thinking adults would confuse a game book with a religious text. (And also its weird focus on quotes with words like "crotch" and "genitals" pulled from various FRPGs.)

As I've grown older, I've learned that adults really aren't nearly as bright as I thought they were when I was a kid.

They're charging as much for a block of pamphlets as the MM costs. There's the real crime, right there, and also the telling truth of their motivation.

 

[MNblockhead]

My best friend's parents wouldn't let him play D&D. They were very conservative Catholics and even though their priest didn't have a problem with it, they still were not comfortable with it because of all the bad press. The good thing to come out of that was we played a lot of other TTRPGs that we might not have otherwise, starting with Star Wars, but also Star Frontiers, Gama World, Marvel Super Heros, etc.

What was always funny to me is that would have no problem with us playing Warhammer.

I also ran games at the local public library and would sometimes have to address parent concerns but I didn't live in an area of the country or small town where anyone would try to prevent games from being run in a public library.

The geek/nerd stigma was much more difficult to deal with than the Satanic Panic nonsense. Heck, being a "Satanist" was a step up in 1980s school cliques.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

How long were you in jail for your crime?

I promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the LA underground. Today, still wanted by the government, I survive as a soldier of fortune. If you have a problem, and no one else can help, and you can find me maybe you can hire...