Monday, February 17, 2014

D&D 40th Anniversary, Day 17

First time you heard that D&D was somehow "evil."

I remember hearing vague stories, back in the early 80s, about some game that was supposedly linked to Satan worship or some nonsense like that.  I can't recall where or how I came by this knowledge, because I was frankly too young to care much about it.  None of the adults I knew seemed too upset by any of it, though I think they did talk about it a little bit.  I kind of assumed this game probably wasn't really evil, but it must be popular with the dark and rebellious sort of kids.  That assumption was reinforced when I went to a weeklong camp in the summer between fifth and sixth grade, and a group of kids regarded as troublemakers talked a lot about this "D&D" thing.  When I was in seventh grade, some of my classmates were apparently into D&D, or at least some sort of fantasy role-playing.  I remember being on my way to class one morning, and hearing one guy shout across a crowded court to another, "Olaf!  It is I, Sven!"  Yep, this game was clearly for weirdos.  Not exactly evil, but wacko.

It was only a couple years later, after I had read through the Moldvay rules, that I realized that really is not how the game is normally played, and not only is it not evil, it's entirely acceptable to enjoy the game without engaging in publicly embarrassing role-playing.

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