Dungeons and Dragons, and the Satanic Panic

Dungeons and Dragons 1980s television series

In 1984, the cartoon series, Dungeons and Dragons (D & D) appeared on Saturday morning television in the UK. It told the story of a group of kids from Milwaukee who, whilst enjoying a day out at a carnival, buy tickets to go on a ride. The ride was similar to a ghost train and began with little commotion, but after a short time, the scenery distorts, and suddenly gives way to some sort of wormhole which teleports the kids to a fantasy world populated by various characters including a short old man called, Dungeon Master, and a very tall being called, Venger.

If the strangeness of the initial teleportation wasn't enough, in the fantasy world, each kid discovers that they have a special skill or magical power including: Ranger, Barbarian, Magician, Thief, Cavalier, and Acrobat. The series followed the adventures of the group fighting battles against evil as they try to find a way of getting back to Milwaukee.

D & D was part of the Saturday morning quiet zone in our house, when you’d get up early and have the whole downstairs to yourself whilst the grown-ups slept off their Friday night indulgence of the local pub. Embedded within each episode, there was often some sort of moral lesson to be learned, which was similar in sentiment to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. After 20-minutes or so of violence, betrayal and deceit, there would be some sort of Yoda-esq monologue at the end warning of the dangers of violence, betrayal and deceit.

Dungeons and Dragons, and the Satanic Panic

The cartoon's name stemmed from a game originally created in 1974, which fell under the umbrella category of the 'Role-Playing Game’ or RPG genre, which in the 1980's would go on to cause a furore throughout schools across the UK.

In response to the cartoon, the game experienced a surge in popularity. Groups of kids would spend their school lunch breaks taking on the role of an imaginary character, and then via the use of various dice, booklets, and a friend with a vivid imagination (known as the Game Master or GM), would undertake various internal / imaginary adventures. Some players pushed things further and would engage in LRPG or Live Role-Playing Games which involved them actually dressing up in character, and battling each other with weapons made of foam and plastic (Think Cosplay). Unlike the high definition motion graphics we now take for granted, D & D relied largely on the creative imaginations of the players.

A range of polyhedral dice use in D & D

The controversy surrounding the game came off the back of a series of incidents involving children who allegedly began having difficulty discerning the difference between their characters in the game, and themselves in the ‘real’ world. Some religious groups accused the game of encouraging sorcery and the veneration of demons, and a 1985 segment of 60 Minutes hosted by Ed Bradley stated that: "Dungeons & Dragons has become popular with children anywhere from grammar school on up. Not so with a lot of adults, who think it's been connected to a number of suicides and murders.”

In the late 1980s, I was part of a D & D group in school and played the part of a wizard. Whilst taking part in our regular lunchtime campaign, one of the Religious Education teachers came into the room and said that we couldn't play it any more. Concerns from the US had made their way into the UK media, and some schools (including ours it would seem) had taken them seriously. Without hesitation our GM (Game Master) asked if we could play Call of Cthulhu (CoC) instead, which was another RPG which was originally released in 1981. The teacher thought for a moment and said we could play anything we liked, so long as it wasn't D & D. We couldn't work out whether or not he was encouraging us to 'read between the lines', or simply didn’t know that the two games were of the same genre.

A couple of weeks later when we were about to start a new campaign, someone came up with the idea that we should do a 24-hour campaign to raise money for charity. With all the negative press that had been circulating about the potential dangers of the genre, this would be an opportunity to show how it could be used to help others. Our GM asked his parents if they would provide the accommodation and supervision, and they agreed.

On the day of the marathon mission, one of our group who was a superb skateboarder, arrived with his board and joined us as we settled in for the all-nighter. The campaign went smoothly, and we were doing great until about the 22-hour mark which was about 6 am. We had agreed to have 5-minute breaks every hour for rest and refreshment, but after 22 hours, we only had to sit in a comfy chair for 30-seconds or so before our eyelids would start to droop.

To fight off the tiredness, I asked my skateboarding friend if I could have a quick go on his skateboard outside hoping that the fresh morning air would wake me up a bit. He agreed, and I ventured outside to attempt a skating trick known as an ‘Ollie’, which is one of the fundamentals for beginners.

After building up some speed, I stomped down hard on the tail of the board to generate lift, and immediately fell backwards propelling the board at speed along the pavement and into the road. At that very moment, a bin wagon just happened to be turning out of the junction and drove over the board breaking one of the board’s wheel trucks in half. Upon returning the damaged skateboard to its owner, I was relieved to discover that he was too tired to express much horror. We raised over £100 for charity that day, but I was £10 down, which was what I paid my friend to replace the damaged truck.

Looking back at the controversy surrounding D & D, I can’t help but make parallels between it and what we have access to now in terms of social media, VR, and gaming. Are we really the people we portray ourselves to be online? Do we really look like our heavily-filtered portraits? Would we say the things we type about people online to their face, in-person? Would making the claim that social media is 'fantasy' be reasonable?

In terms of D & D's potential to interfere with our ability to discern fantasy from reality, based on my own experience, I'm confident that I've managed to keep the two separate, although what I do find interesting is that I remember details from that 24-hour campaign in exquisite detail, far more detail than I do the 'real' skateboarding incident, even though they happened over 30-years' ago.

Whatever your stance on role-playing games may be, at their most fundamental they depend upon the imagination to generate imagery, rather than employing physical objects or pixels on a screen as is the case with board or computer games.

Of the two options (with digital technology practically impossible to avoid these days), which one would you be happier with if your kids had to choose between the two?