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“Evil” Dungeons & Dragons1
Eric La Freniere
James Madison University
Professor Michael Smith
Writing 400: The Essay
Fall 2007
1
This is a “footnote happy” essay, with lots of details and examples, quotes and asides. You can constantly pause to
peruse the footnotes as you go (a choppy, challenging read). Or you can read the essay straight through, then scan it again
while perusing the footnotes (smoother, recommended). Or you can skip the footnotes altogether (quick, easy). Your choice.
1
“Dungeons and Dragons is a tragic and tangled subject.
It is essentially a feeding program for occultism and witchcraft.”
— Chick Missionary Publications
Everyone knows that if you play Dungeons & Dragons,2 you’re a nerd. At least that’s the
stereotype. In fact, Stephen Colbert, Moby, Mike Myers, Vin Diesel, and Jack Black have all admitted to
geeking3 on D&D, and at least one of those guys isn’t a nerd.4
In any case, the hobbies of nerds aren’t usually considered cause for concern,5 but throughout the
1980s, members of the Christian right worried about D&D like they now fret over the prospect of gay
marriage.6 Back then, domestic fundamentalist watchdogs warned the public that the game was a kind of
“do-it-yourself brain-washing” that would bring about “a clash of world views” leading to a “hall of
shame.”7 Inherently evil, D&D inexorably wrought personal disintegration and social decay. It led to
insanity and suicide, rape and murder – and worse.
2
I am a D&D gamer. I have been playing D&D for most of my life.
There – full disclosure. (Did that sound a little like I was introducing myself at a support group meeting?).
3
D&D gamers have, through much discussion and debate, sussed out the difference between a nerd and a geek (to say
nothing of the related species of dorks, dweebs, and freaks). Nerditude is an all-encompassing state of being that places one
beyond the pale of normal human relations. A nerd is a socially inept loser. Geekishness, on the other hand, suggests only a
strong esoteric interest that does not, in and of itself, preclude normal human relations. A geek can be interesting, perhaps
popular, in spite of, or even because of, his obsession. Normal people might not make that distinction – and often it’s a very
thin, very subjective line – but D&D gamers know it comes down to this: the geek gets the girl.
4
You decide which.
5
Unless the nerds involved are “Mad Genius” types, like computer hackers, Frankenstein or Ted Kaczynski.
6
Although they never actually tried to amend the U.S. Constitution over D&D….
7
Quoted phrases from William Schnoeblen’s “Straight Talk on Dungeons and Dragons,”
http://www.chick.com/articles/dnd.asp, accessed on November 9, 2007. This piece’s opening quote is the first couple
sentences from that site.
2
But before we examine and analyze what could be characterized as the demonization8 of D&D,
we should get to know the game a little.
* * * *
Dungeons & Dragons is a heroic fantasy role-playing game. Let’s unpack that. “Heroic”: Quests and
rescues, honor and valor. “Fantasy”: Monsters and wizards, elves and magic swords. “Role-Playing
Game” (RPG): Acting and problem solving, improvisation and cooperation. In an admittedly simplified
formulation, then, you might call D&D the acting out of fairy tales and heroic adventure epics through a
dynamic, rules-based yet creative group narrative. D&D is a never-ending story9 created among a group
of friends and associates whilst carrying on around a table10 scattered about with sheets of paper,
rulebooks,11 pencils, maps, miniature figures, and a lot of weird dice.12
8
“We have Dungeons and Dragons and all these other demons … and all these games that are out. And luckily
within our area, we have nothing concerning repercussions from those types of games…. It’s to the point where, in the game
itself, you portray yourself – you take on the characteristics of another person and what you are really supposed to do at that
point is make believe you are that person and you are supposed to rob, pillage; you’re supposed to murder – anything you can
do to achieve power in the game” (italics added).
Those are the words of Detective Gary Sworin, speaking at a “Cult Crime” seminar in Richmond, Virginia, as
quoted by David Waldron, “Role-Playing Games and the Christian Right: Community Formation in Response to a Moral
Panic,” The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, Vol. IX, Spring 2005, accessed online on November 5, 2007 at
http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/art9-roleplaying-print.html.
9
If you thought of the movie, you might be a nerd – but hopefully you’re just a geek. If you’ve never heard of or
watched the movie, you’re woefully normal – perhaps even a jock.
(D&D gamers sometimes have an attitude that non-gamers are “mundanes” or “muggles” – people who just can’t
seem to comprehend the magical power of the imagination. Given that many D&D gamers have experienced social exclusion
themselves, this attitude seems understandable – if a tad vengeful and somewhat hypocritical).
10
A recent D&D magazine ad showed a bleary-eyed late night computer gamer (there are so many these days),
slumped and isolated, staring at his monitor. The caption read: “If you’re going to sit in your basement pretending to be an
elf, you should at least have some friends over to help.” As one D&D gamer told me emphatically, “D&D is social!”
In addition to lacking face-to-face human contact, computer-based RPG’s are severely limited in terms of story-
telling. D&D gamers complain that the actions of electronic player characters are restricted to, say, a few hundred
predetermined – as opposed to infinite imaginary – possibilities, and that the electronic world, monsters, and non-player
characters are relatively unresponsive, much less truly adaptive and inspiring.
Some gamers think all that will change once true AI evolves (Google “Turing test” for more info). Of course, as a
recent RPG discussion board posting pointed out, Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom argues that it probably
already has, and that we’re all characters in a sentient supercomputer’s RPG program (John Tierney, “Our Lives, Controlled
From Some Guy’s Couch,” The New York Times, August 14, 2007).
11
Those rulebooks cost about forty dollars a pop, and a regular player will need at least The Player’s Handbook. A
Dungeon Master will need the Dungeon Master’s Guide, too, as well as the Monster Manual. There are hundreds of
supplementary D&D manuals and other publications available, and some D&D gamers collect them feverishly. I have seen
bookcases sagging under the weight of gaming material detailing myriad monsters (giants, undead, goblins, lycanthropes,
dragons, of course – and devils and demons); spells (of enchantment, illusion, alteration, conjuration – and divination,
3
In a gaming group, there’s a single moderator – or “Dungeon Master” (DM)13 – and two to eight
players.14 Each player creates and controls a character – an imaginary persona with carefully defined
attributes, abilities, and possessions – through which he or she interacts with environments, monsters,
and other characters in an imaginary world created and controlled by the DM. The game rules are used
to statistically model anything of story-telling interest to the gamers, and the dice are rolled against the
probabilities thus generated.15 So, a good D&D campaign16 is a collaborative effort based on the
harmonious interplay of four factors:
necromancy, and summoning); magic items (weapons and armor, wands and rings, scrolls and potions, cloaks and boots,
belts and bracers); character professions or “classes” (paladins and priests, acrobats and assassins, barbarians and bards,
samurai and sorcerers); character races (elves and dwarves, half-orcs and halflings); and worlds (of Oriental or Arabian
cliché, astral sailing or “spelljamming,” faerie fantasy, dynastic conflict, hellish cold and ice, hellish heat and glass, undersea
adventure, multi-planar intrigue, etc, etc, etc).
12
Dice so uniquely shaped as to be iconographic. Oh, to be sure, there are normal dice (“six-siders”), but there are also
four-siders (cute little pyramids), eight-siders, ten-siders (two such dice, called “percentile dice,” can randomly generate
numbers from one to one hundred), twelve-siders, and twenty-siders (one gamer informed me that those last two “Platonic
solids” are, respectively, dodecahedrons and icosahedrons, in “geometric nomenclature”). Once, at a gaming convention, I
saw a thirty- and a one hundred-sider (the former came with its own book of dedicated charts and tables, and the latter just
didn’t want … to … stop … rolling).
The dice are usually plastic, but are available in pricey wood, metal, bone, and stone, too. Back in the day, the
plastic dice were chunky, pointy-cornered, and solid-colored, and gamers had to color the indented numbers themselves, by
mashing wax into them. Nowadays, the plastic dice can be beautiful multi-colored affairs, smoky translucent or crystalline
transparent, speckled or swirled, and they have rounded corners and easily discerned numbers.
Don’t use a gamer’s dice without asking. Dice are personal, precious, talismanic. Otherwise proudly rational /
skeptical gamers have their “lucky” dice, and regularly switch out “cursed” dice. Such superstition has its parallels in the
sports world, of course – but that just makes it worse.
13
Or Game Master (GM), to use the generic term. Generic makes sense, since there are literally hundreds of different
moderated RPGs, modeling everything from Feudal Japan to the Old West, Cosmic Horror to Cyberpunk, ‘Toon Town to
Gotham – infinite worlds, infinite stories. But D&D is the original and most famous (or infamous) RPG.
14
You can probably play with one less player, but without a Dungeon Master, you’re screwed. This has always been a
problem, since most people aren’t willing to DM. It takes a lot of time, energy, and imagination, and requires a certain
amount of confidence and charisma. You must be willing and able to bullshit.
Curiously, I’ve never encountered a female Dungeon Master. Does that mean male gamers are sexist? On the other
hand, I’ve also never encountered a feminist critique of D&D as part of the patriarchal power structure. Does that mean
feminists don’t even notice male gamers? Maybe it just means women prefer not to bullshit.
15
If that smelled like math, that’s because it is. D&D can get pretty mathy.
16
In D&D, the overarching story is called a “campaign,” which can be likened to a book series (for better or worse,
D&D fueled that explosion of fantasy fiction you see at the bookstore). A campaign can last for months or years, real or
imaginary. Within a campaign, more or less discrete sub-stories, or “adventures,” are much like individual volumes within a
series. An adventure can last several days or several weeks, again, real or imaginary. Adventures are broken up into gaming
“sessions,” rather like chapters in a book. A game session typically lasts a few hours’ real time, although I’ve seen gamers
ingest ungodly amounts of caffeine so as to ferociously play through the night and into the next day.
4
1) The Dungeon Master
2) The Players
3) The Rules
4) The Dice
Ideally, the DM and the players find themselves on the same page, so to speak, and their
respective activities mesh to give rise to an internally consistent story – hopefully something with a solid
plot, good pacing, and an authentic emotional core.17 The rules recede to just below the level of
conscious awareness, until somebody tries something audacious, or until the randomness of a dice roll
shakes things up, discouraging cliché and demanding creativity. D&D gaming is its own buzz; you can
see it in animated hands and faces, and hear it in loud, excited voices:
Player 1 (human duelist): Ha! A natural 20! [die roll] Critical hit confirmed! Yesss! [die roll] Let’s
see… 15 points of damage total.
DM: Ouch! Your rapier skewers the bandit leader’s heart! His hateful glare fades and his tusked mouth
slacks open, as he falls backwards sliding off your blade. He was the last orc standing.
Player 1: That’s what he gets for messing with my boyfriend! How badly are you injured, baby?
Player 2 (half-elf wizard): I’m down to less than half my hit points. I could really use some healing.
Player 3 (halfling rogue): I’m searching the bodies!
Player 4 (dwarf cleric): I’ll say a prayer for you as I fondle my holy symbol. [chuckle, die roll] Nine
points. Everyone else OK for now? Good – I’ve got two more cure light wounds spells.
DM: Your wounds are engulfed by an anesthetizing, bluish glow, and they miraculously mend.
Player 2: Sweet! I’ll sacrifice a chicken at a temple of the Soul Forger. Later.
Player 4: Metals and minerals only, my elfin friend! And how about I just collect a donation right now?
Player 3: Do I find anything on the bodies? Should I make a search roll?
Player 5 (human ranger): What time is it in the game?
DM: It’s late afternoon / early evening. It’s still drizzling. The sky is bleak, and the forest trees are bare.
It’s chilly, and it’ll get colder as the sun sets. You’re all covered in blood and mud.
Player 2: I have cleaning cantrips! [Cantrips are minor spells, often considered frivolous].
Player 5: I saw the tracks of a dire wolf earlier. We should leave the area – set up camp somewhere else.
Player 1: [to player 2:] I’ll take a cleaning cantrip, please. [turning to DM:] Have I ever seen a dire wolf?
How big are they?
DM: Do you have the wilderness lore skill? No? You’ve never seen a dire wolf. But they’re common
enough that you’ve heard of them.
Player 5: I’m rolling wilderness lore. [die roll] 15, plus [consulting character sheet] …six.
DM: That’s solid. One time you were tracking an ogre who’d murdered a family of farmers. As you
were watching him from hiding, two hungry dire wolves set upon him. The wolves were about
17
Unfortunately, D&D can be like war or baseball: long periods of boredom interspersed with brief moments of
action. Gamers generally agree that the key to overcoming this problem is to emphasize the role-playing process, rather than
combat outcomes (which tend to emphasize themselves). This makes for engaging, often very quirky story-telling, but is
easier said than done. An adventure can easily degenerate into pure “hack and slash.”
5
three feet high at the shoulder, and maybe 10 feet long. So they’re about the same size as a lion in
real life.
Player 5: Hmm…lioness, maybe. What about the ogre?
DM: He put up a good fight, but he never stood a chance. He was torn to pieces – eaten alive.
Player 1: O-kaaay! Let’s get away from all these bloody bodies.
Player 3: Speaking of bodies, DO I FIND ANYTHING ON THEM?
(And so on)
Dungeons & Dragons evolved from wargaming (think armies of miniature soldiers). During the
late 1960s and early ‘70s, wargaming geeks were developing more and more intricate rules, attempting
to model more and more detail into their battles. Eventually, at the same time that fantasy troops were
being introduced to medieval wargaming, miniatures were imbued with enough personality to act
individually.18 Wargaming was no longer just about mass combat – the role-playing game had been
born.19 Still, each of the three rule booklets included in the original 1974 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
boxed set was subtitled20 “Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and
Pencil and Miniature Figures.”
Although D&D would never entirely abandon its wargaming roots, the emphasis of the hardback
rulebooks produced in the late ‘70s was squarely on role-playing and story telling. For the D&D gamer,
the primary inspiration ceased to be historic battles. Instead, the worlds, characters, and plots of myth,
legend, and fantasy fiction came to the fore.
Despite its creator’s21 claims to the contrary, the game obviously owes an appreciable amount to
J.R.R. Tolkien, which explains why D&D gamers anticipated and devoured each of the Peter Jackson
movies with a fervor that can aptly be described as fanatically religious.22 Other obviously influential
18
It was as if the wargamers – God-like – were breathing life into their miniatures.
19
Role-playing had previously been used for diplomatic, psychiatric, educational, and dramatic purposes – but this
was the first time wargaming rules had been applied to role-playing.
20
Rather in the style of an eighteenth century treatise, except not in Latin.
21
Gaming guru Ernest Gary Gygax (whose first name sounds kind of nerdy and last name sounds kind of wizardy)
first published compiled rules for D&D.
22
Or shredded those movies with a rage that can aptly be described as fanatically religious. I remember standing in the
ticket line next to a hardcore gamer, a former multi-term president of my university’s Science Fiction Fantasy Guild (he
looked like the comic book store owner in “The Simpsons,” only without hair). After gravely reading aloud a passage from a
battered, taped-together copy of The Silmarillion, (a history of Tolkien’s Middle Earth posthumously assembled from his
unpublished manuscripts) he used the word “blasphemous” – without humor or irony – to describe a scene he’d heard we
were about to watch. Then he threatened to “go berserk” if Jackson strayed too far from scripture. When we finally got into
the theatre, I made sure to sit far away from that guy.
6
fantasy writers include Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, C.S. Lewis, Andre Norton, Jack
Vance, and Roger Zelazny, along with H.P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock.
The creations of the latter three writers were featured alongside traditional and classical myths
and legends in the first edition of Deities and Demigods (1980).23 The gods and heroes detailed in that
much-referenced tome were incorporated, more or less whole cloth, into countless campaigns, and they
inspired the creation of countless original divinities and myth cycles, too.
Speaking of myth, we’re ready to return to the domestic fundamentalist reaction to D&D.
* * * *
In 1979, a highschool-age college sophomore and computer prodigy disappeared from the
grounds of Michigan State University. Sixteen-year-old James Dallas Egbert III was socially awkward24
and had been constantly badgered by his mother to make perfect grades. He may also have been an
epileptic in need of proper medication, a drug addict who concocted his own poison, and a fearfully
closeted homosexual.
At least those are the claims later made by William Dear – the private detective hired by Egbert’s
uncle – in his book The Dungeon Master (1984), in which he unveiled his final account of the case.
According to Dear, James had snuck into the steam tunnels under the campus to attempt suicide by
overdosing on Quaaludes. When he failed, he quietly retreated to a friend’s place before leaving town.
In New Orleans, James tried to kill himself again, this time using cyanide. He failed again and was
eventually recovered by Dear, who handed the young man over to his uncle. In 1980, almost a year to
the day after his first suicide attempt, James shot himself to death.
But during the initial, well-publicized weeks of his investigation, Dear used second-, third-, and
fourth-hand stories (campus rumors, really) to speculate that James had disappeared while playing D&D
alone, with a fake sword, in the steam tunnels under the campus.25 Dear’s statements led to gross
23
Millions of young gamers were exposed to American Indian, Arthurian, Babylonian, Celtic, Central American,
Chinese, Egyptian, Finnish, Greek, Indian, Japanese, Norse, and Sumerian “mythos.” It was a mini-education that fostered
much cultural and historical curiosity – and not a little relativism.
24
In 1979, being a computer genius was far more potentially nerdy than it is today. (Some computer nerds are
billionaires now!)
25
Even though: Dear found no evidence that James was an obsessed – or even a regular – D&D gamer, the weapons
and action in D&D are imaginary, and the game is played by a group while seated at a table.
7
misrepresentations of D&D in the local press – misrepresentations that were quickly (and carelessly)
picked up by larger media outlets. Thus, an urban legend was born.
Soon, the legend was elaborated and driven deeper into the American psyche when novelist
Rona Jaffe mined media accounts to quickly churn out26 Mazes and Monsters (1981) – a fictionalized
version of sensationalistic news stories based on Dear’s early guesswork. In the novel, college friends
use an abandoned mine to play live-action D&D,27 and one of them suffers a psychotic breakdown.
Mazes and Monsters became a national bestseller, and in 1982 CBS adapted it into a made-for-TV
movie.28
Also in 1982, precocious sixteen-year-old Irving “Bink” Pulling II killed himself with his
mother’s handgun. At high school, Irving had been socially isolated and publicly humiliated. Although
coming from a Jewish family, he’d admired Hitler. In one notably horrific incident, he slaughtered
seventeen rabbits as well as a neighborhood cat. Nevertheless, Irving’s mother, Patricia Pulling,
described her son as “a happy, well-adjusted kid” and attributed his suicide to the way he’d sometimes
played D&D as a part of his school’s gifted and talented program.29
To be fair, Dear was completely unfamiliar with D&D before he stepped onto campus. When he heard (to his mind,
bizarre) stories about the game, and rumors about James (and other students) sneaking into the steam tunnels, his own
imagination seems to have taken flight.
26
As in a week. Jaffe erroneously thought she was racing against someone else who was chasing the same ambulance.
27
A couple of years later, some RPGers would start to really engage in Live Action Role-Playing. LARPers are a
theatrical lot, who physically act out all aspects of their game stories – social and psychological, combative and heroic.
LARPers use costumes, toy weapons, and other props, and they’re usually the most colorful people at gaming conventions.
Many RPGers consider LARPers to be “complete freaks,” even though LARPing can easily be seen as a logical
extension of RPGing. Perhaps the emergence of LARPing was also partly a satirical reaction to urban legends of crazy
RPGers exploring caves and sewers dressed up as their characters – a form of reappropriation, if you will.
28
A young Tom Hanks plays the James Egbert stand-in character, and you can watch his rather rapid and inexplicable
slide into insanity. The movie is hokey as hell, but Hanks does a decent job. Mazes and Monsters is, of course, a cult classic
among D&D gamers (much like Reefer Madness is among stoners). It’s available on DVD.
29
Paul Cardwell, Jr., “Attacks on Role-Playing Games,” Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 18, No. 2, Winter 1994, 157-165.
Pulling claimed that, while Irving had been playing D&D on the day he shot himself, his character had been “hexed” to
commit murder. Irving had nobly sacrificed himself, rather than kill someone else.
Obviously, Patricia Pulling’s idea of the situation centered upon a conflation of player and character, of reality and
fantasy (she also claimed to have received extra-sensory knowledge of her son’s death). In any event, Irving’s fellow gamers
confirmed that no such “hexing” had occurred.
8
First, Pulling tried to sue the school, then the company that produced the game.30 After her
lawsuits were dismissed as groundless, Pulling joined forces with several Christian fundamentalist
groups to form Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons, or B.A.D.D.31 The new organization’s stated goal
was to combat satanic-occult influences and outbreaks in America,32 and D&D in particular.
B.A.D.D. representatives (Pulling was foremost)33 saturated public places with anti-D&D
“educational” literature;34 directly approached priests and pastors, law enforcement professionals, school
teachers and administrators, and parents, to alert them to the “dangers” of D&D; petitioned government
bodies and individual politicians to regulate or outright ban D&D;35 made current affairs and talk show
appearances “exposing” D&D;36 gave lectures on the links between cult crime, youth violence, and
D&D;37 compiled a list of the alleged victims of D&D;38 and offered to give “expert” testimony in high-
profile legal cases involving D&D.39
30
Tactical Studies Research (which sounds like the name of a Defense Department research and development think-
tank). TSR was eventually bought out by Wizards of the Coast, which makes the hit collectible card game Magic: The
Gathering.
31
Apparently they were trying to piggyback off the righteousness of M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving),
which had been founded just a couple years earlier.
32
Which expressly included Heavy Metal and Punk Rock, Neo-Paganism, and the Satanic Ritual Abuse conspiracy
(another scare based on urban legends).
33
Her B.A.D.D. message: “Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game which uses demonology, witchcraft,
voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, satanic type
rituals, gambling, barbarism, cannibalism, sadism, desecration, demon summoning, necromantics, divination and other
teachings. There have been a number of deaths nationwide where games like Dungeons and Dragons were either the decisive
factor in adolescent suicide and murder, or played a major factor in the violent behavior of such tragedies.” As quoted by
David Waldron, op cit.
34
For example, “Dark Dungeons” (1984) was the name of an oft-disseminated anti-D&D tract produced by Chick
Missionary Publications. Its influential comic book-style story featured occult initiation, spell casting, mind control, and
suicide, as well as a positively depicted book burning. The first edition also warned readers to avoid the fantasy fiction of
both Tolkien and Christian writer and thinker C.S. Lewis. “Dark Dungeons” is still available today (look it up online), and is
much loved, hated, and satirized by gamers.
35
On the federal level, B.A.D.D. demanded that the Federal Trade Commission ban D&D, or at least require a hazard
warning label linking the game to emotional disturbance, murder, and suicide. The FTC declined.
36
Including Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Donahue, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club … and CBS’s 60 Minutes, as part of a
segment implicating D&D in the gunshot suicides of brothers Daniel and Steven Erwin (ages sixteen and twelve). The boys’
parents objected to the piece’s inaccuracies, but no retractions were made
37
For an example of a B.A.D.D. guy in action, see footnote 8 above.
38
James Egbert and Irving Pulling headed that list, which was poorly documented and sometimes disputed by relatives
who insisted that gaming had nothing to do with their loved ones’ deaths.
It wasn’t the first time a vague list of names had been waved about to frighten and manipulate people….
9
As the ‘80s progressed, B.A.D.D. and other Christian fundamentalist40 groups made increasingly
extraordinary claims about the power and evil of D&D. Around the mid-‘80s, D&D was said to include
the working of magic spells with real-world effects, and was presented as an occult vehicle through
which dark, supernatural forces could enter the lives of unsuspecting young people,41 inducing
confusion, depression, and suicide. Then, during the late ‘80s, D&D was declared an introduction to
sorcery and demon-summoning which could lead to possession, madness, rape, and murder. Finally,
around the turn of the decade,42 D&D was branded full-blown, deliberate Devil worship, an ultimate
corruption which inevitably included acts of ritual torture and human sacrifice.
D&D’s detractors had loudly made claims that no parent, politician, or police could dare
43
ignore, but by the early ‘90s, reality began to catch up with fantasy (in more ways than one). B.A.D.D.
simply lacked any of the extraordinary evidence – any peer-reviewed research or well-documented data
– so sorely needed to back up its extraordinary claims of correlation between D&D and all things
harmful and illegal.44 Without this, fundamentalists couldn’t get the traction they needed to crack down
on the game, much less wipe it out entirely. Also, as more people played D&D or knew people who did,
the less mysterious and threatening it seemed. And the news was filled with so many real problems….
By the mid-90s, the mainstream D&D scare was over.
39
The “D&D defense” was a kind of insanity plea (“The game made me do it”) attempted a few times by minors
accused of killing or wounding their parents. B.A.D.D. types were particularly interested in suggesting and enabling this
defense as a means of establishing legal precedent, i.e. legitimacy, for their cause. No judge or jury ever bought it.
40
It’s important to recognize that not all (or even most) Christians are fundamentalist. Many mainstream Christians
play D&D (and listened to Heavy Metal and Punk Rock), although sometimes with misgivings.
41
Like the Ouija board currently marketed by toy and game giant Parker Brothers.
42
In 1989, Pulling released The Devil's Web: Who Is Stalking Your Children For Satan? In that book, she treated H.P.
Lovecraft’s Necronomicon as a real-world occult manual. It’s actually a fictional device Lovecraft used to bolster his tales of
cosmic horror. Nonetheless, Pulling recommended that police interrogations of teens suspected of occultism begin with the
question: “Have you read the Necronomicon, or are you familiar with it?” (Kind of like: “Are you now, or have you ever
been …?”).
43
Using fear, a minority was able to influence the majority, and an extreme perspective became, for a time,
mainstream.
44
Psychological studies actually suggested gamers were better socially adjusted and less likely to be depressed or
commit suicide than average.
10
Still, a credulous national media had engaged in an anti-D&D feeding frenzy for over a decade,
parroting false and unsubstantiated information45 as news, and allowing B.A.D.D. and other Christian
fundamentalist spokespersons to spout their wild claims unchallenged.46 And a large segment of the U.S.
population had allowed themselves to be sucked in, apparently believing anything they were told, no
matter how incredible. D&D gamers were thoroughly baffled. How had their innocent, geekish hobby
come to be perceived as some satanic menace?
* * * *
There’s no simple answer to that question.47 Christian fundamentalists were (and still are)
“weirded out” by a variety of factors associated with Dungeons and Dragons, e.g. its strange dice and
manuals, exotic gaming methods and terms, non-Christian mythical references, and imaginary magic
system.
To better understand what happened back then, let’s do a little role-playing ourselves. Pretend
it’s 1980, and you’re a sleepy fundamentalist, slipping downstairs for a midnight snack. When fully
awake, you consider yourself a member of the Christian right (although you’ve never actually used that
phrase), an evangelical who sympathizes with Jerry Falwell’s newly formed Moral Majority. Along with
your husband, you fear that the radicalism of the ‘60s bled into the ‘70s, and that the U.S. has become
immoral and soft. But the times they are a-changin’…
…for the better! Ronald Reagan (he’s such a handsome man) just took the White House, and did
you see how quickly those nasty Iranians let our people go? Soon, we’ll put those Godless communists
in their place, and then we’ll focus on cleaning up the home front. I’m not talking about more
government handouts; I’m talking about getting back to core values. Some people have forgotten that
this is a God-fearing country – that things are right and wrong, black and white. Kids are acting so
strange these days…. Let’s take back the schools – boot out all that Darwin claptrap, and get children
praying again. That’ll ma-…oh …what’re Johnny and his friends doing in the kitchen this late?
Well, goodness gracious, look at you all, studying so hard, with your papers and your
pencils…and on a Saturday night! Laura, do your parents know where you are at this hour? Good. Can
45
And even rank superstition.
46
And, since D&D sales had been going through the roof, TSR took the attitude that any publicity was good publicity,
and said virtually nothing to defend their product – or their patrons.
47
For example, it wasn’t just that Patricia Pulling may have been in some sort of denial, and needed a simple
explanation for, and a way to channel, her pain. Even if that were the case, there is no way she could have single-handedly
created, funded, and manned B.A.D.D.
11
I get you kids some lemonade? Oh, you’ve already made tea. Goodness, Howie, you are so tall now, but
we need to put some meat on your bones – like Stevie here! Hmm…that tea looks strong. How many
bags did you use? Say, what’re those things? Are those…dice? Awfully funny looking….
Now, Jonathon Martin, you know we can’t have gambling in this house. The Lord doesn’t abide
games of chance. Your faith must be in Him a-…. What…in Heaven’s name… is on the cover of that
book? There’s a devil on that book! Holding a naked lady!48 What are these books? There’re devils on
all of them!49 What’re you kids doing?
You watch your tone of voice, young man! You’re not making any sense. “El-e-mental”…? Just
because you’ll be going to college, doesn’t mean you can toss big words about and expect you to get
away with…with….
“A game with no winner”...? Mercy sake, now I know you’ve lost your mind. Every game has a
winner and a loser, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth playing. That’s just common sense! Now what on
Earth is going on in here?
“Creating a world”...? Oh my G- …. Look what you just did! You almost made me take the Lord’s
name in vain. Let’s get something straight, all of you! There’s only one world, and HE’s already created
it! Laura Lawson, I’ve known you since you were a baby. Now tell me what this is about, before I call
your parents.
“Playin’ a priestess of” WHAT...? Young lady, you’d better- ….
“An Egyptian GODDESS”...?50 Don’t you dirty this house with pagan blasphemy. You walk
home right now, young lady. Go! …The rest of you, sit down! A good cry is just what she needs. That,
and a stern talking to by her father. Or minister McKenzie. Hmph. Steven Huffman, take off that
ridiculous hat! Is that supposed to be a wizard hat? Don’t you “ma’am” me! Now – for the last time –
somebody explain this whole thing to me.
One at a time! Ohhh…. Howard Evans, you’re a straight-A student. If you can’t make this sound
right, then I know something must be wrong.
“Just pretending YOU’RE CASTING SPELLS”...? Sweet Jesus! Oh!”
As illustrated in the imaginative exercise above, many of the particulars of D&D gaming could
be disturbing enough to domestic fundamentalists. But when searching for an overarching explanation
for their hostility towards D&D, we should note that members of the Christian right often seem hostile
48
From the “Foreword” of the first edition Dungeon Master’s Guide: “The book cover painting shows an encounter
between three adventurers and an efreet [kind of like a genie] on the elemental Plane of Fire. The fabled City of Brass can be
seen floating over a flame-swept sea of oil.” The horned, red-skinned monster depicted is, in fact, holding a scantily clad
female character (probably a magic-user or rogue, and definitely attractive / titillating) in one of its clawed hands, and the
background does look quasi-hellish….
49
The first edition Player’s Handbook features a cover painting of an enormous Moloch-like idol illuminated by
flames from an oversized bowl held in its massive hands. It does look very devilish … but a closer examination of the image
reveals a heroic party of characters who’ve just vanquished the idol’s lizard-man cultists, and are looting its giant eye-gems,
while planning their next move.
50
From a B.A.D.D. introductory letter (italics added): “We are concerned with violent forms of entertainment such
as: violent-occult related rock music, role-playing games that utilize occult mythology and the worship of occult gods in role-
playing situations like Dungeons & Dragons, teen satanism involving murder and suicide, and pornography as it is affecting
adolescent behavior and reshaping attitudes and values in a negative manner.”
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towards the imagination in general. For example, domestic fundamentalists have publicly denounced
such varied engines of the imagination as Hollywood (a dream / nightmare factory), Halloween (an
ancient seasonal festival), and Harry Potter (a pop publishing sensation).51 And they’ve done so with an
emotional hostility usually reserved for perceived threats as serious as gay marriage (as already noted),
the teaching of evolution, and competing (“false”) religions. In short, religious fundamentalists often
react to the exercise of the imagination as if it undermines their belief system at the root. Why would the
imagination be perceived as a threat to faith itself?
I submit that, in brief:
1) Fundamentalist faith (dogmatism) is the imagination masquerading as fact.52
2) Fundamentalists are unconscious of this, i.e. they are in denial.53
3) Were they to concede the power and primacy of the imagination54 (much less consciously or
playfully exercise it), they might be forced to concede the origin and relativity of their faith and
question their belief system.55
4) Since the best defense (or defensiveness) is a good offense, fundamentalists are often hostile
towards the conscious play of the imagination, especially when its forms are unfamiliar, or the
symbols it employs are powerful enough to encroach upon dangerous or sacred (taboo) ground.56
Fundamentalism represents a form of binary or Manichean cognition, where there is only Us and
Them, black and white. The Other can only be the Devil, which is not an imaginary construct, an idea,
metaphor, or symbol – but a metaphysical reality, a fact. When fundamentalists deny the imagination to
51
Concerning the latter two items, especially – as with D&D – public comments (e.g. on the radio or in the newspaper)
by rank-and-file fundamentalists have included talk of “satanic,” “occult,” and “evil” influences and agendas.
Perhaps these are extreme examples, though. Often fundamentalists are simply indifferent towards manifestations of
the imagination; they dismiss or ignore anything outside a narrow band of self-proscribed expression. This has the effect of
sometimes making them seem a bit closed-minded.
52
The Bible may contain words of wisdom, but it also contains myths and legends. Fundamentalists, however, adhere
to the doctrine of “biblical inerrancy,” and take all these imaginings literally – as fact. They’re quite stubborn and proud on
this point. Indeed, this is precisely what “fundamentalism” means.
53
Perhaps the most common, fearful accusation fundamentalists level against D&D is that its players can no longer
distinguish between fantasy and reality. That is pure projection.
54
Albert Einstein: “The imagination is more important than knowledge.” Science often begins with the imagination.
Faith, however, never moves beyond the imagination. William Blake: “Jesus is the imagination.”
55
Or at least seek to justify it in non-faith terms, as with so-called Scientific Creationism, or “Intelligent Design.” Such
efforts indicate that a certain loss of faith has already occurred, so for true believers they are just window dressing.
56
Fundamentalism hoards archetypes – manipulating, withholding, and expressing them with absolute authority. It
alone holds all significant meaning, and tells the one true story. And it’s quite jealous of this self-bestowed prerogative.
13
protect their faith (as they must),57 the imagination itself becomes the Devil. Any imaginative exercise –
which might, even unintentionally, threaten to deconstruct faith – must be of the Devil. Hence, D&D is
evil.
In closing, we should note that, lately, some Christian fundamentalists are beginning to
appreciate the fantasy writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien58 for their Christian themes.59 This is a
hopeful sign, for in the final analysis, there is no such thing as fundamentalist fantasy.60 By stripping a
sacred story down to its bare nodes of meaning – to its archetypical themes – and by reformulating the
story’s particulars to approach and embody that meaning anew,61 fantasy eliminates the necessity for
faith in any literal interpretation of the original sacred story. Thus, even religiously inspired fantasy
subverts religious fundamentalism. Such is the power of the playful exercise of the imagination.
57
Cultural schizophrenia: Holy Writ vs. Imagination, writing vs. the image, left hemisphere vs. right hemisphere, male
vs. female, etc.
58
In the 1920s and ‘30s, Lewis and Tolkien (a literature geek and a language geek, respectively) were both teaching at
Oxford. The two men shared a strong interest in myth and story-telling, and they’d become friends. One night, while walking
and talking together, Lewis (then a skeptical Anglican) chided Tolkien (a devout Catholic) for his religious belief, calling
Christianity “a myth,” and stating: “Myths are lies.”
“Myths are not lies,” Tolkien countered – sparking in his companion a flash of enlightenment: Lewis suddenly and
forcefully understood that the value of myth is primarily symbolic, i.e. a matter of meaning. And he understood that, for
Tolkien, "The story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others [e.g. Greek or
Norse], but with the tremendous difference that it really happened."
Lewis’ Christianity was revitalized, and he later engaged in much apologetics. However, his simultaneous use of
pagan and sci-fi symbolism to explore the meaning of Christianity suggests that Lewis may still not have believed
Christianity to be “a true myth.” Of course, Tolkien used pagan symbolism, too….
59
Mainstream Christians have always appreciated Lewis and Tolkien, as they have Dante, Milton, and Bunyan.
60
Fundamentalist fans of the “Left Behind” series don’t recognize it as fantasy. They consider it a kind of exegesis.
61
For example, Aslan has very definite Christ-like characteristics, as do Gandalf and Frodo (although perhaps not as
obviously).
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