Tip of the hat to our very own +Tim Kask for pointing me to Retro Report's video on D&D and the satanic panic.
It clocks in at just under 13 minutes (and has a nice little segment where Tim comments on the time period in question and the TSR days).
Watch it. It's well worth your time.
Satanic Panic reports were great ways for teenagers in the Eighties to learn about obscure RPGs and heavy metal bands. When you have lemons …
ReplyDeleteI remember explaining my mother, when I was 10, that GURPS is a kind of impro theatre game. In the end she was more happy that I finally hang out with friends.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memories! I was a Gamer in Junior College when this went off. Still gamed after leaving College for the Army. Utter nonsense, of course. Still, parent have to blame something when a child is lost.
ReplyDeleteMust have been a small town thing. Never experienced this anywhere without I've lived, even when going to Catholic school no one cared about "D&D = Satanism" nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI was from a small midwest town dominated by a Christian university. They managed to chase out all the strip clubs and porn shops through sustained protests blocking access and shaming customers. But we had a thriving D&D community and never experienced the satanic panic oddly enough. I really think it was because our parents recognized it for the bs it was. Rock music had been subjected to the same form of attacks a generation earlier. So i'm grateful we never encountered it.
ReplyDeleteAwesome...thanks Erik reaffirms that I have been raising my own children in the right way. D&D for everyone!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting; great report!
ReplyDeleteI recall this. A number of my old 1st ed AD&D books did not survive being on-loan to a friend with overzealous parents. Wasn't a small-town thing though, as it happened in Chicago. It was more what the people were exposed to and who was preaching at them.
ReplyDeleteCool video.
ReplyDeleteI live in Lansing MI. Right next to MSU. When James Dallas Egbert ran off the local cops rounded up us "dungeons & dragons cultists" yes they called us that. We were held without our parents and legal counsel even after asking or lawyers and our parents. The local courts let this crap stand. We had to go to Federal court for redress. My church did not buy the whole D&D is satanic thing nor did my parents. The local school sent teachers to my home and the sports ball players made us their favored enemies. I am 51,I am a Preacher and I still play D&D.
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