Signup
Welcome to... Canonfire! World of GreyhawK
Features
Postcards from the Flanaess
Adventures
in Greyhawk
Cities of
Oerth
Deadly
Denizens
Jason Zavoda Presents
The Gord Novels
Greyhawk Wiki
#greytalk
JOIN THE CHAT
ON DISCORD
    Canonfire :: View topic - The great 1980s Dungeons & Dragons panic
    Canonfire Forum Index -> World of Greyhawk Discussion
    The great 1980s Dungeons & Dragons panic
    Author Message
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: May 31, 2008
    Posts: 75


    Send private message
    Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:37 pm  
    The great 1980s Dungeons & Dragons panic

    You old timers you remember those days? I do.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26328105 Evil
    GreySage

    Joined: Aug 03, 2001
    Posts: 3310
    From: Michigan

    Send private message
    Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:52 pm  

    GreySage

    Joined: Jul 26, 2010
    Posts: 2695
    From: LG Dyvers

    Send private message
    Thu Apr 10, 2014 8:07 pm  

    Back in the mid-80s, after my friends and I had been playing D&D for a few years, my parents and my friends' parents had us gather at a home and game while they watched for about an hour. The parents then all went into the living room and discussed it while we continued our game.

    The end result was that they agreed that we were not being influenced to worship satan or to do any other evil thing, so we were free to continue. Of course, we purposely didn't mention that PC classes like the Assassin were available to be played. Razz

    SirXaris
    _________________
    SirXaris' Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SirXaris?ref=hl
    Black Hand of Oblivion

    Joined: Feb 16, 2003
    Posts: 3835
    From: So. Cal

    Send private message
    Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:22 am  

    Leave it to the incorrigible rasgon to post a pic of Satan in this thread. Laughing

    Oh, and here's one of my GENCON 91' souvenirs (a shirt):



    Suck it, 80's fear mongers! Razz
    _________________
    - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
    GreySage

    Joined: Aug 03, 2001
    Posts: 3310
    From: Michigan

    Send private message
    Fri Apr 11, 2014 5:14 am  

    That's part of the joke, yeah. He looks like the Devil, he's the host of a 1980s nostalgia show, and he has the voice of Uni the Unicorn from the D&D cartoon.
    GreySage

    Joined: Sep 09, 2009
    Posts: 2470
    From: SW WA state (Highvale)

    Send private message
    Fri Apr 11, 2014 9:58 am  

    Yeah, I remember those days well, and not with any degree of fondness. My grandparents really got worried when I started playing the game, and it somewhat bled over to my parents (who tried to defend me, and the game, but it was obvious they didn't approve) who did their best to dissuade me from continuing RPGs. Later in high school I challenged the position that RPGs, and ADnD in particular, was stigmatized because it was not a 'socially approved' activity in the same vein that athletics and sports are. This somewhat backed down my parents, and I dodged the subject with my grandparents growing up. Nowadays, my parents don't bother me with the fact, and my grandparents are all dead, so only my wife gives me any trouble (only partially serious mind you) about playing a 'teenage kid's game.' Nonetheless, the game has become a lightning rod for all sorts of people who have the wrong impression about it. I could go on with a diatribe, but I think I've made my point.

    -Lanthorn
    Journeyman Greytalker

    Joined: Jan 11, 2009
    Posts: 228
    From: Gulf Breeze, Florida

    Send private message
    Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:05 pm  

    Even though I was only about 8-12 years old at the time, I was already reading and playing AD&D (thanks to my uncle) and I thought all the talk about devil worship involved with the game was absolutely stupid. Everyone I played with was a good or neutral character and we spent adventures fighting demons and devils, not worshipping them. When I saw these people against the game on TV I immediately thought they were idiots. Now as I look back it reminds me of the fight against music and video games that would come later, which is in turn similar to the fight to ban certain books over the last decades. I guess small minded and poorly educated people will always fight against things they don't understand.
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Feb 15, 2010
    Posts: 60


    Send private message
    Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:39 pm  

    Well said xo.
    GreySage

    Joined: Aug 03, 2001
    Posts: 3310
    From: Michigan

    Send private message
    Fri Apr 11, 2014 2:53 pm  

    I scribbled the word "demon" out of my D&D books because I was genuinely concerned about that sort of thing. The advent of the word "tanar'ri" was a huge relief for me.
    Grandmaster Greytalker

    Joined: Nov 07, 2004
    Posts: 1846
    From: Mt. Smolderac

    Send private message
    Fri Apr 11, 2014 6:18 pm  

    Most of the people I played D&D with at that time were in my Boy Scout troop, and we had one Scout Master who went off on the whole devil-worship thing one camping trip when he overheard the DM describing one of the scenes in the Tomb of Horrors. I just mustered as much 13-year old contempt as I could pack into my voice and said, "We're fighting AGAINST evil monsters, devils, and wizards," then went back to playing. That was the last we heard of it. Years later I heard his hot wife who was out of his league (at least us Boy Scouts thought she was hot ... okay, she was hot, and definitely out of his league) divorced him when he cheated on her. So much for Mr. Morality.
    GreySage

    Joined: Sep 09, 2009
    Posts: 2470
    From: SW WA state (Highvale)

    Send private message
    Sat Apr 12, 2014 8:39 am  

    smillan_31 wrote:
    "We're fighting AGAINST evil monsters, devils, and wizards," then went back to playing.


    GOOD FOR YOU! In my experience, most players are agents fighting the forces of Evil rather than siding with it.

    Quote:
    ...divorced him when he cheated on her. So much for Mr. Morality.


    But at least he wasn't worshipping demons and devils, right?! Wink
    Yeah, you gotta love that sort of hypocrisy.

    -Lanthorn
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Jan 04, 2005
    Posts: 39


    Send private message
    Sat Apr 12, 2014 4:17 pm  

    When this started I was living in NJ where I was known to be a crazy redneck kid that punched Yankees for little or no reason, thus I got very little trouble from other kids (a situation not always shared by other gamers in the area). Adults were the problem every single time. Crazy religious people that didn't know me or any other gamer complaining to the school (D&D club was run by a very well respected science teacher), library (where we gamed in a meeting room), and stores (to the point the only local source for game books was the comic store at the flea market). All because their imaginary friend, whose rules most of them couldn't live up to, was gonna be mad if I spent time pretending to kill evil monsters.
    On a side note- gaming is actually why read the bible in middle school. As cool as those old bible movies with Charlton Heston were (for their time) I thought there might be good ideas in there I could use for games. And while there is good plot material there to be mined it's also very likely the main reason I'm an atheist.
    Grandmaster Greytalker

    Joined: Jul 09, 2003
    Posts: 1358
    From: Tennessee, between Ft. Campbell & APSU

    Send private message
    Sat Apr 26, 2014 8:49 am  

    Lanthorn wrote:
    ...GOOD FOR YOU! In my experience, most players are agents fighting the forces of Evil rather than siding with it...


    -Hmmm... varies. Perhaps you've forgotten the Assassin craze. Laughing Evil Grin

    Or was that before your time?
    GreySage

    Joined: Sep 09, 2009
    Posts: 2470
    From: SW WA state (Highvale)

    Send private message
    Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:10 am  

    jamesdglick wrote:


    -Hmmm... varies. Perhaps you've forgotten the Assassin craze. Laughing Evil Grin

    Or was that before your time?


    Perhaps so. This doesn't ring a bell. I started in the very early 80's during the 1e era.

    -Lanthorn
    Grandmaster Greytalker

    Joined: Jul 09, 2003
    Posts: 1358
    From: Tennessee, between Ft. Campbell & APSU

    Send private message
    Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:20 am  

    Lanthorn wrote:
    jamesdglick wrote:


    -Hmmm... varies. Perhaps you've forgotten the Assassin craze. Laughing Evil Grin

    Or was that before your time?


    Perhaps so. This doesn't ring a bell. I started in the very early 80's during the 1e era.

    -Lanthorn


    Biggest Impact your PCs have had on the Flanaess:

    http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=62805#62805

    ...and it featured in the editorial section of just about every other letter to the editor in Dragon.

    Oh, and then there were the arguments about rape... Largely a thing of the past, as far as I can tell.[/i]
    Grandmaster Greytalker

    Joined: Nov 07, 2004
    Posts: 1846
    From: Mt. Smolderac

    Send private message
    Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:42 am  

    jamesdglick wrote:
    Lanthorn wrote:
    ...GOOD FOR YOU! In my experience, most players are agents fighting the forces of Evil rather than siding with it...


    -Hmmm... varies. Perhaps you've forgotten the Assassin craze. Laughing Evil Grin

    Or was that before your time?


    Admittedly, in the younger days I was referring to we did sometimes engage in behavior that I would now consider morally questionable: killing defenseless humanoid females and children, thievery, etc...

    Now I cringe every time I read a discussion board and there's a DM asking for advice on how to run an "evil campaign."

    Now, funny anecdote time. I just started playing in a friend's 2e campaign. Wasn't sure I'd like going back old school after playing 3e and 4e for so long, but he's a great DM and the other two players are super cool and really good roleplayers. Anyway, we took out some goblins in the crypt we're exploring, and managed to capture one for questioning. Afterward, since we needed to go back to town to heal up, I was in favor of laying out the facts to the goblin, that we're going to be coming back and killing every goblin who fights us, so best thing for him would be if we took him into the woods and let him go, and then he should head north and don't stop walking for a few days. The other two players, new to the game, neither with any tabletop RP experience, and also very nice ladies I work with, weren't having any of it. They had the NPC thief we're working with take the goblin into the woods and "deal with him." The DM told me, "Okay, no way can you have goblins as your species enemy" since I haven't chosen one yet. I laughed. I guess I'm getting too merciful in my old age.
    Display posts from previous:   
       Canonfire Forum Index -> World of Greyhawk Discussion All times are GMT - 8 Hours
    Page 1 of 1

    Jump to:  

    You cannot post new topics in this forum
    You cannot reply to topics in this forum
    You cannot edit your posts in this forum
    You cannot delete your posts in this forum
    You cannot vote in polls in this forum




    Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises

    Contact the Webmaster.  Long Live Spidasa!


    Greyhawk Gothic Font by Darlene Pekul is used under the Creative Commons License.

    PHP-Nuke Copyright © 2005 by Francisco Burzi. This is free software, and you may redistribute it under the GPL. PHP-Nuke comes with absolutely no warranty, for details, see the license.
    Page Generation: 0.34 Seconds