It was only a few decades ago that Dungeons & Dragons was regarded as a symbol of moral depravity and a threat to vulnerable youth everywhere. Today, Dungeons & Dragons is the most popular tabletop game in the world, and has become a multi-million dollar company. That's a pretty big leap from the game's initially hostile reception.
While D&D was first published in 1974, it took a few years for the game to make a name for itself. D&D was masterminded by David Arneson and Gary Gygax. Both men were fans of the historical war games popular in the 1960s, but wanted to put their own spin on the mechanics.
Innocent Fun Or Something Sinister?
The result was a fantasy roleplaying game unlike anything else on the market. For the first few years, D&D spread mainly by word of mouth, but, by the 1980s, it had amassed a cult following—emphasis on the cult. Unfortunately, D&D's initial boom also coincided with the Satanic Panic.
The Satanic Panic spiraled from a 1980 book by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder called Michelle Remembers. The titular Michelle was Michelle Smith, Pazder's patient and future wife. In the book, the two made broad, scandalous claims pertaining to Smith's alleged abuse at the hands of Satan himself, all uncovered thanks to the discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy.
Michelle Remembers was a watershed moment in a highly conservative era. Once the initial dam was broken, people who believed in Satantic ritual abuse saw it everywhere. Daycares were targeted as sites of abuse, rock & roll was the devil's soundtrack and, yes, Dungeons & Dragons wasn't just a game—it was a cult.
People already fearful of the Satanic Panic saw D&D's grey morality, fantasy creatures, and arcane rulebook as emblematic of witchcraft. Teens who played D&D were more likely to be outsiders with insular, even cliquey friend groups. If one teenager summoned Satan with a natural 20, everyone else would want to do it as well.
Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons
While the claims that Dungeons & Dragons was actually a witchcraft manual in disguise were more fantasy than the game itself, the controversy around the game had real-life consequences. In 1979 and 1982, two teenage players took their own lives. There was no evidence that the teens—both of whom had histories of addiction, depression, and self-harm—were in anyway influenced by D&D.
That said, people will believe what they want to believe. And, if they have enough money, they can try to get everyone else to believe them too. Patricia Pulling, mother to one of the deceased, formed a coalition called Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD) shortly after the tragedy.
According to Pulling, D& encouraged a whole laundry list of diabolic behaviors, including but not limited to: "demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, satanic type rituals, gambling [and] barbarism." Pulling filed a wrongful death suit, claiming that D&D "cursed" her son; the case was dismissed and Pulling's claims easily disputed.
Breaking Into The Mainstream
While Patricia Pulling was just one person, she was one of many people legitimately worried about the hold D&D had over "outcast" teens. As the Satanic Panic wound down in the 1990s, so did D&D's popularity. The problem was no longer that the game was demonic, but that it was unpopular. Despite its edgy reputation, D&D was played only by a select few fans, seen as terminally uncool by the rest of the world.
Everything changed in 2014. That was the year that D&D, now owned by Wizards of the Coast, introduced the fifth edition. Known as 5e among fans, this edition streamlined some of the game's more complicated mechanics, making it more accessible than ever.
This change, along with the rise of actual play content like Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, and Dimension 20, opened the door for curious fans. Now, more people than ever before play Dungeons & Dragons. No longer seen as nerdy or satanic, D&D is definitely here to stay.
