D&D and Satanism!

By: Calvin Cockell

In 1974, Gary Gygax of TSR, Inc. gave birth to a new hysteria. It was called
Dungeons and Dragons, and it would spawn a thousand games and books of its type,
but none would come close to comparing to Dungeons and Dragons. It wasn't until
1979 that the explosion of role playing games struck hard. It was exhaustingly
popular and spread like wildfire all across North America and Europe. It is estimated
that more than ten million copies are in print today. Dungeons and Dragons quickly
became a culture, a way of life for some people. Since it's release in 1974, there have
been over one thousand other similar games that have followed in the tracks of D&D,
not to mention the seemingly endless quantity of novels the game has created in it's
wake.

Today, Dungeons and Dragons is subject to supposed accounts of Satanism, and is

accused of counting 'occult' content. Many blame the game for suicidal and criminal
activity among youth.

Dungeons and Dragons is played by a group of people, possibly ranging from 3-6,
where one person is the Dungeon Master (DM) and the others Player Characters
(PC's). The players create imaginary characters using the rules in the D&D Players
Hand Book. The characters created can differ greatly, from the mighty warrior to the
quiet and secluded wizard or even the charismatic elf. The possibilities are limitless.
The group will usually meet at a designated playing area, (usually one of the player's
houses) and the DM will have pre prepared a 'quest'. The DM decides what monsters,
obstacles, traps and people the characters meet, and the players guide their characters
through the DM's dangerous and mystical world using their unique and reserved
skills. Polyhedral dice are used to decide the outcome of most encounters.

The DM's imaginary world is usually a medieval one, only with dragons, magic,
hideous creatures, gnomes etc. Typical quests involve rescuing people, seeking
artifacts, destroying evil wizards, slaying wicked dragons and searching for
knowledge, power or treasure. Many DM's are skilled writers and create highly
intricate adventures with well thought out plot lines, equally good as the plots of
some of Hollywood's best films. There is no 'winner' to the game, you simply go on
as long as you desire, until your character becomes so powerful it is no longer a
challenge, or until your character dies.

Most dungeons and dragons players are in their teens to early thirties. They are more
than often highly creative, intelligent, analytical and tireless.

For the past fifteen years, Dungeons and Dragons has been set upon by many
Christians and other religious groups for causing 'harmful' effects to those who play
it. Patricia Pulling, the leader of BADD (Bothered about Dungeons and Dragons)
seems to have started this war and continues to lead it ever since the suicide of her
son, Bink Pulling in the late 1970's. She began a campaign to restrict availability
to the game by collecting numerous newspaper articles and reports of accounts where
RPG players committed suicide or performed criminal activities. Groups such as
BADD, concerning the satanic content of Dungeons and Dragons have written many
books.

Dungeons and Dragons has been accused of being the cause many things such as
rape, murder, suicide, assassination, insanity and prostitution. It has also been
accused of teaching necromantics, witchcraft, demonology and voodoo.

All these groups and individuals seem to become so obsessed with proving Dungeons
and Dragons to be satanic, that they loose sight of the facts at hand. There is
absolutely no evidence that role-playing games contain harmful content at all, and
they have been studied immensely.

BADD estimated four million gamers world wide, and this number has most certainly
increased since then. With the approximate teen suicide rates, five hundred of those
four million gamers would commit suicide in a year. It was actually found that only
four gamers committed suicide in the documented year... four. This means that
gamer's suicide rate is substantially lower than normal teens, four hundred and
ninety-six lower.

James Forest and Suzanne Abyeta conducted extensive studies of criminal activities
committed by gamers and found that gamers committed fewer crimes than the same
number of non-gamers.

Dr. S. Kenneth Schonbert analysed over seven hundred adolescent suicides and
discovered D&D was not a factor in any of them. FBI Special Agent Kenneth
Lanning states in his book that there is no connection between role playing games
and crime.

With facts like these right in front of them, it's a wonder organisations such as BADD
have not halted their constant assaults on role playing games. It seems that anti role-
playing organisations judge what they see by word of mouth. The main problem with
these people, it seems, is that they have not witnessed a gaming session or read the
manuals. They accuse the book of containing descriptive procedures for casting
spells. Gary Gygax, creator of the game stated: "I made all those spells up out of my
head, how can they take it seriously?"

Patricia Pulling also believes the game to be blasphemous because it contains words
like spellcraft, resurrection, deity and demon. The bible too, contains these words, yet
is it any less holy? Terms such as these are commonly found in current media, and
they are not criticised.

At no point in the D&D Players Handbook does it even hint at devil worship, animal
sacrifice or occults. It does not encourage random killings, murder or rape. It allows
you to choose your character alignment, and it suggests your character being lawful
and good. Most DM's don't even like evil characters to play in their quests.

Those who blame D&D for their child's suicide don't take into consideration drug
abuse or previous criminal activities. They are frantically searching for something to
blame it on and D&D seems a logical enough decision, since their child was
interested in it. What about the child's other interests, like reading? Of course reading
is educational, so no one blames it for their child's suicide or criminal purges. Well, if
it were to be looked at a little more closely by some people, D&D contains just as
much educational value as reading, if not more. It teaches much about medieval
society and culture, for the game revolves in a flourishing medieval society. It teaches
new vocabulary and acting skills, since the players often change their voice and speak
in medieval terms, taking on the role of their character. Basic math skills are
constantly used. Adding up dice totals quickly and calculating whether or not they
'hit' their opponent can greatly benefit younger players.

While parents have the reserved right to censor what their children read and do, they
should not censor on groundless fears. I recommend Dungeons and Dragons to
anyone for it's highly educational content, and for it's fun, seamless game play. It's a
good opportunity to get together with your friends, eat snacks and have some fun. I
also find it keeps kids out of trouble, for when Friday nights come along, parents
know their kids are safely downstairs, playing D&D and drinking coke, instead of out
partying, getting high or comitting crimes.