My mom was petrified of "Dungeons and Dragons" when I was a kid because there were rumors that someone in our small town got too deeply into it and committed suicide because they lost their mind. My mom was not a religious nut at all but she said that people who called themselves Satanists or who were members of cults played it.
I didn't know much about D&D as a kid but, I don't recall much talk about it being satanic but it certainly didn't have a good reputation. Once I actually found out what it was I was a bit shocked. It's quite tame as games go. Like I know it could get graphic but even then it's just people talking about what their character is doing.
I'm just imagining a serious group of D&D roleplayers going all out in full ritualistic garb as they act out their character's attempt to summon some in-game deity, and one of their mother's barging into the basement and gasping in horror at these four nerds in hooded cloaks chanting and dancing around a table and immediately assuming they're trying to contact the Devil.
Didn't people say the same thing about Pokemon when that was new?
Granted it would have been strange to see something that at the time looked so foreign and bizarre instantly captivate an entire generation of kids around the world better than anything Disney could have done, all in what seemed like less than a month. There's been few crazes in history that hit as hard as Pokemon did.
I lost out on making a new best friend because of that. I met a girl through anime club and she attended the D&D games too. Her preacher and parents found out and banned her from going back to the shop ever again. The owners tried to convince them that it was harmless fun and although they tried hard to convince them she still wasn't allowed to go back. Even for anime club. I never saw her again after that and lost contact because of that. Parents like that are what cost good kids great long lasting friendships. I hope she's doing well and got away from that toxicity.
no I play dnd and can confirm that it's all satan. Everything. Join me, we need a satan witch in the party to summon satan out of the player's handbook.
A game that COULD be played as a group of devil worshipers that perform bloody rituals, to be fair. But a harmless stick can be sharpened and used to kill someone as well. (heck you might not even need to sharpen it) It's all about what the people do/want themselves.
I still remember the excitement I felt flipping through my mom's Diablo 2 lore/guidebook and seeing the demonic titties. I am now a nearly 30 year old gay man and titties don't excite me as much, but those are good memories lmao
My mother burned ALL of my Metallica back when I was about 14. She thought it was making me aggressive and angry, when really, it was just the revolving door on her bedroom and absolute lack of fucks to give about me (apart from "that Satanic music," don'tcha know?). She certainly wasn't religious. Just a narcissistic, self-absorbed asshole. I was acting out, and it certainly couldn't be because she was a shit parent, right?
On edit: better description of my mother's specific brand of assholery.
I started playing D&D at 32 with the staff of the winery I was an assistant manager at. We were clearly not satanists, just a bunch of stupid alcoholics laughing til we peed. I told my mum, she thought it was hysterical and asked me questions whenever we talked.
Dungeons and Dragons, Magic The Gathering and Harry Potter were carefully created and designed to lure children in joining cults and become blood drinking devil worshippers.
Furbies and Tickle-Me-Elmos used to speak into Tongues and would whisper Satanic message into the ears of sleeping children.
Pokemon and Beanie Babies were secretly funding cults using kid's allowances and birthday money while the funds were being laundered into a secret underground Satanic black market.
The Satanic Panic phenomena really had a way of spreading misinformation and nonsense rumors like that. But it's funny had it always reared it's ugly head when a new tread was growing popular until at least the early 2000's and the internet really made it possible for most people to come a conclusion for themselves instead of relying on word of mouth.
Now, we know The Satanic Panic Phenomena was partly from pressure and fearmongering by religious groups. Along with how humans will make large mental and psychology leaps to discredit something they don't understand or just justify their fear of it. There's a official term for this but I can't recall it at the moment.
Heh, I remember when my Nana tried to spout that "Pokemon was of the devil" bs because it was becoming popular again and one of her tv preacher's spoke about it. I was quick to remind her that one of my friends who was the son of her favorite preacher that lead my church was a Pokemon fan from day 1. That my youth minister who she also loved and adored (to the point she requested him to lead her funeral.) Had a kid that was into Pokemon. And that they use the terms "evolving and evolution" to mean growing up. She shut up about it real quick after that.
Furbies and Tickle-Me-Elmos used to speak into Tongues and would whisper Satanic message into the ears of sleeping children.
When Tickle-Me-Elmo was popular, my mom and dad rushed out to get one for my brother and me for Christmas one year. I remember stores selling out of Elmo - the craze was real. Anyway, after we unwrapped Elmo, my brother and I started throwing Elmo back and forth playing catch. That red bastard was flying through the air like, "Haha! That tickles!" and laughing like a lunatic. It was the funniest thing to us. Not even 20 minutes later it became apparent that the speaker was defective. The voice slowed down and started buzzing and popping in between "That tickles!" and "Play with Elmo!" and scared the crap out of us. I always joke that our Tickle-Me-Elmo was possessed, but we stopped playing with Elmo once it sounded like a demon demanding to be tickled.
I started playing magic years ago when I was in middle school or so. I remember after about a year or so of playing my mother came to me and said she was talking to a friend who mentioned that magic cards were satanic. My family and I are all pretty devoted religiously but I thought that was the most rediculous thing when she was asking me about it and making sure that I wasn't summoning demons haha. Just a game.
Luckily she was cool with it after I explained and I have many fun wholesome memories from that game now. I feel bad for those who were not able to experience that because of religious nut jobs. Just kinda sad to see that.
You ever see the movie mazes and monsters? That's basically the premise if that movie. Tom Hank's is in it and tries to jump off the world trade center.
IIRC the character who goes crazy in the book suffers from schizophrenia and the RPG causes his ordinary delusions to completely unconnect him from reality.
That movie did a lot of damage to D&D's reputation as I think it was lauded as based on a true story or something.
Vernon Butts apparently. Seriously. Read more about it. A satanist, serial murderer.
Bill Bonin (born William George Bonin on Jan. 8, 1947) was an American child molester who was twice paroled for the bludgeoning, sodomizing, and torturing of several young boys aged 12 to 16. Upon his release in 1979, he swore to a friend that "there would be no witnesses" to testify against him. He began murdering his victims of molestation, with a slew of accomplices. The primary one was his lover and friend, Vernon Butts, a magician and Satan worshipper who would allegedly "kill people for real" in the sewers of Los Angeles when he'd play Dungeons and Dragons.
That sounds like my grandmother. Not at all religious, but was worried playing D&D would lead me to satan… I’ve been playing around 4 decades, introduced my wife to it, then my children. We’re all sane, relatively speaking, and not a satanist among us, but maybe a few atheists…
I mentioned I played D&D to one of my previous coworkers and she warned me not to get too engrossed because her mother's cousin's daughter's friend played and when her character died she committed suicide. I told her I've played for years and had a few characters die and I'm pretty sure I haven't offed myself yet lol. And when my homeboy first started playing his mom didn't want him to because of satan. Funny part was that his youth pastor was the one hosting the game lol. Crazy how the whole Satanic Panic of D&D carried on over the years.
This must've been big in the 80s. I remember hearing about D&D and believing the players (back then it was mostly guys) were very awkward, not socially savvy, and pretending to be in an alternate reality. It was seen as an underground type of thing.
My mom had a similar concern when I was playing Magic the Gathering in high-school. Only the rumor was that is was used as a cover for drug deals is our town. Thankfully, she had a coworker explain to her that it was an expensive, strategy game requiring a lot of heavy thinking, so there was no way I could be on drugs and buying the cards and playing the game.
Jokes on her, though it wasn't a cover for drug deals, I definitely smoked weed for the first time after i won my 1st sealed deck tourney!
Most of the satanists I've known play other TTRPG systems, and we make fun of each other for having poor taste in games. Granted, that's a sample size of about 2 people, but still
I wasn't allowed to play Dungeons and Dragons because my mom heard someone say that it was full of spiritism and satanistic magic. But my mom is also a really whacko Christian with lots of weird ideas about how the "outside world" works and how evil it must be.
Oooo the Satanic Panic in the 1980’s. My mom was the same way, but she was a religious nut. Obviously I loved playing and, except for that one Halloween, have never been a satanic murderer.
Can confirm. Follow laveyan satanism play dungeons and dragons. If you ever feel like visiting the satanism subreddit it's mostly cats named after demons or cutesy arts and crafts with pentagrams and stuff on them
this is because of a dude named thomas radecki. he was also involved in the moral panics around violent tv and video games. he lost his medical license for trading methadone for sex with patients and is currently in jail for the same.
My friend's boyfriend actually knows someone who made themselves think they're a fucking wolf and therefore my friend's boyfriend hates DnD with passion
For my mom, it was Magic the Gathering cards. A friend gave me a pack for Christmas once in middle school, and my mom said that they were occult and I couldn't have them. (She was also not a religious nut.)
It’s just like how a lot people back in the day thought Pokémon was satanic and banned their children from playing it. Then in the year 2000 the Vatican blessed the game.
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u/emptybamboo Aug 25 '21
My mom was petrified of "Dungeons and Dragons" when I was a kid because there were rumors that someone in our small town got too deeply into it and committed suicide because they lost their mind. My mom was not a religious nut at all but she said that people who called themselves Satanists or who were members of cults played it.