Thread by @RTalsorianGames

Let's chat about the Satanic Panic and TTRPGs. Some of you are young enough you might not remember it.

The 1980s were an important time for tabletop gaming. TTRPGs were growing. D&D hit the mainstream with a cartoon, action figures, and novels. The hobby was, in a word, huge. 1/

The 80s were also a weird time for America. Many people grew concerned about the mortal state of the country. Crack cocaine use was up. People were dying from HIV/AIDS. MTV was showing Michael Jackson dance with zombies. Clearly, America's youth had lost their way. 2/

Trigger warnings from this point out. There will be some discussion of child abuse. 3/

What was behind the moral decay of America, they wondered? The answer, according to many a televangelist and to tract writer Jack Chick, was Satan.

Let's get some broader context here. While fear about morals did fuel the Satanic Panic, it actually began with child abuse. 4/

Starting in the 60s, people started actually taking child abuse seriously. Hotline were established, allowing people to report suspected abuse. This is a good thing, of course, and it eventually lead to better reporting of domestic violence and rape as well. 5/

The hotlines were fielding vast, vast numbers of calls. That was news and the TV news magazines of the time covered the story. Only, they didn't do so great a job, reporting not just the number of substantiated claims but the total volume of calls. 6/

It seemed like almost every kid in the country was being abused. How could that be? Who would do such a thing?
7/

The answer came primarily from two places. First, a book: Michelle Remembers. A now completely discredited "autobiography" in which a woman hypnotically "recovers memories" about being "ritually abused" by her parents and a Satanic Cult they belonged to. 8/

Second, from the McMartin Preschool Trial. In it, various staff members at a preschool were accused of ritually and Satanically abusing their charges. The children were questioned using bad methods, leading them to make up stories to please their questioners. 9/

Needless to say, these stories were false. Michelle's memories were fake and the preschool wasn't a front for a cult. But the damage was done. People across the US were seeing a broad Satanic conspiracy. The police were taking it seriously. The Satanic Panic had begun. 10/

What does this have to do with gaming, you ask? Let's go back to 1979, when college student and D&D player James Dallas Egbert III vanished. 11/

James' mother hired a private investigator to find him. The P.I., William Dear, theorized James' disappearance was related to D&D and the rumored "live action" games played in the MSU steam tunnels. The media loved this and went wild with the story. 12/

The idea was, a game went wrong and James either died or was killed or vanished in the tunnels.

There was no truth to it. James had tried to commit suicide, twice, failed, and gone into hiding. He eventually revealed himself to Dear. 13/

In 1980, James completed a third suicide attempt and died. Dear wrote a book about the case, called The Dungeon Master. In 1981 Rona Jaffe wrote Mazes and Monsters, about a college student who goes insane playing a LARP in steam tunnels. 14/

The publicity about the case and the two books (and the movie starring Tom Hanks) all merged together in the public consciousness. D&D was a game, many people thought, filled with arcane rituals that drove people mad and lead to death. 15/

At the same time, roughly, a youg man named Irving completed suicide. His mother, Patricia Pullman, believed his death to be directly related to his D&D hobby. She sued his school's principal as well as TSR, then publishers of Dungeons and Dragons. 16/

After the lawsuits were dismissed, Ms. Pullman founded Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD). The organization's goal: to "educate" the police and public about the dangers of D&D. Many, primed by the Egbert case, were ready to believe and link D&D to the Satanic Panic. 17/

BADD described D&D as a fantasy game using demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, homosexuality, prostitution, satanic rituals, cannabilism, demon summoning, and other teachings. 18/

To many, D&D, along with heavy metal and drugs and sex and homosexuality and Wicca was a cornerstone entryway into the secret Satanic Cult spread underground across the world. 19/

Ms. Pullman and BADD distributed their materials to schools and the police. Ms. Pullman served as an consultant to police departments and an expert witness in court trials. She served as a director of the National Coalition on TV Violence beginning in 1984. 20/

By "coincidence", in 1985 the National Coalition on TV Violence demanded the FTC run a warning before the D&D cartoon about how D&D had been linked to real-life deaths. 21/

BADD and the Satanic Panic affected D&D and gaming in a few ways.

1. It increased sales. For every concerned parent burning D&D books there were two or three people who wanted to find out what all the fuss was about. 22/

2. It caused companies to self-censor. TSR wanted D&D to be the next Monopoly. A game in everyone's home. And they felt they couldn't do that if it wasn't at least somewhat "kid friendly". Demons and devils were renamed. Topless succubi were covered up. 23/

3. A lot of kids ended up not playing D&D (as kids at least) because their parents were convinced it would lead them down a path of moral depravity. The same parents who destroyed AC/DC tapes also tore up and burned D&D books. 24/

Pulling died in 1997 and BADD died with her. @MikeStackpole wrote a great takedown of her bad science called "The Pulling Report" that helped reduce her credibility. Today, you'll still find some people railing against D&D as Satanic but that particular mass panic is over. 25/25

If you want to read The Pulling Report by @MikeStackpole, you can check it out here:

skepticality.com/assets/pulling…

It is a key piece of gaming history and we highly recommend it.