Sex, Drugs, and D&D: The Demonization of America’s Favorite Role-play Game
The 1980’s, for those old enough to remember them well, were a unique decade in which mainstream, fundamentalist Christianity was seeking to moralize American culture on several fronts: music, movies, video games, and even role-play gaming.
Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) was released in 1974 and had a small, cult following primarily consisting of adolescent males. The game was very obscure and little-known until a strange case involving a Michigan State University student who went missing in 1979 brought it into the spotlight. The case of James Dallas Egbert became sensationalized in the media after it was discovered that he was an avid player of D&D and that the game was somehow linked to his disappearance. He was eventually located, alive and well, by the private detective, William Dear, who also wrote a book about the events called The Dungeon Master. Unfortunately, Egbert later committed suicide in 1980, and unwittingly gave rise to a witch hunt focused on D&D.[1] Dear became famous from the case, which led to a career of investigating the macabre and mysterious.
The phenomenon is an excellent study of the confusion between causality and correlation. It quickly became commonplace for the media, Christian groups, and many parents to place blame on the game when any troubled teen got into trouble, committed suicide, or had a violent incident. Many argue that Dear himself played up the case to propel his own career forward. Hollywood capitalized as well and released Mazes and Monsters in 1982 — the adaptation of Rona Jaffe’s novel that closely imitated the Egbert case. The film was Tom Hanks’ first leading role and an obvious social commentary on the dangers of role-play gaming.[2]
This bizarre past still haunts the game today, even while it enjoys its most successful year in sales (2017) and has become much more mainstream.[3] Critics can still be found, such as Jack Chick, who publishes short comics that provide a strong Christian fundamentalist opinion on D&D, Halloween, and almost any other topic imaginable.[4]
The primary question of this essay is to explore whether this crusade against Dungeons and Dragons can be categorized as a conspiracy theory. David Aaronovitch roughly defines it not as some grand scheme to overthrow a government or to manipulate the masses, but instead as the mistaken assumption that an event happened for certain reasons and was guided by a powerful entity, and not by pure coincidence. “So, a conspiracy theory is the unnecessary assumption of conspiracy where other explanations are more probable. It is, for example, far more likely that men did actually land on the moon in 1969 than that thousands of people were enlisted to fabricate a deception that they did.”[5] (Aaronovitch 6).
Themes
Keeping in mind Aaronovitch’s definition, let’s examine the re-occurring themes that run throughout the anti-Dungeons and Dragons rhetoric. There are several words and phrases that dominate the narrative: magic, Satanism, pagan, paganism, real, the game became reality, spiritual warfare, suicide, murder, occult, Jesus is the answer, teens, young boys, influential, vulnerable, obsession, belief, violence, rituals, summoning, changes in behavior, characters, alcohol abuse, drinking, sex, drug use, sacrifices, evil, horror movies, witchcraft, demonism, spells, Satan, mind-changing, mind-altering, spiritual forces.
Taking these words and phrases into consideration, it is easy to see the fears held by the parents and officials who were genuinely concerned about the effect of the game on a young, impressionable generation of kids growing up in the 1980’s. For them, the danger was real and ever-present. Several categories of claims begin to emerge within the dialogue that might be labeled: Occult Indoctrination, Changes in Behavior, and Learned Violence.
Occult Indoctrination
The largest, loudest outcry against D&D came from within the fundamentalist Christian community. For them, the game wasn’t simply a harmless pastime, but an actual entry into the world of the occult. The game’s mission was to introduce children and teens into outright Satanism through the gateway of the game. The adolescents would be drawn to the power they could attain and then begin to thirst for even more once they had gotten a taste for it.
For a very direct, no holds barred look at this theme, we can pick up Jack Chick’s comic, “Dark Dungeons.” Chick’s ham-fisted comic flip-book follows the moral descent of “Debbie” who is initiated into a witchcraft coven after learning to play D&D. Debbie thoroughly enjoys the game and is taken under the wing of the game’s dungeon master, Ms. Frost. Ms. Frost believes that Debbie is gifted enough to learn actual magic and to become a priestess in a witch cult. At first, Debbie blossoms and enjoys the attention and the new-found power that witchcraft allows her. It is only after Marcie, Debbie’s best friend, commits suicide after her Dungeons and Dragons character was killed in-game that Debbie begins to snap out of the game’s spell. She seeks help and ends up being saved by a charismatic preacher. Together, they build a bonfire and toss in all of Debbie’s occult paraphernalia (D&D books).[6]
Changes in Behavior
The uncomfortable reality is that some young adults and children who were also D&D players did commit suicide or murder in the 1980’s. These are profound tragedies that must be treated with respect and dignity. However, the question here is, was the game to blame for their mental health issues or their decline into violent behavior?
In a now-famous 1985 interview on the popular news program 60 Minutes, Patricia Pulling firmly asserts her point of view that Dungeons and Dragons definitely altered her son’s personality and directly led to his suicide in 1982. (The complete episode can be found on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yShqF1YSfDs&t=897s.) Mrs. Pulling claims that her son, Irving, was “smart, intelligent,” and had never had any “psychological problems.” He was “well-adjusted” and had never been in trouble in school. (Pulling 05:37–05:42) It was unknown to the family that he was psychologically suffering from a curse that his D&D character had been afflicted with in the game and was allegedly urged to kill himself because he was evil. During his exposure to the game, Irving’s nature had changed, and he had even once threatened to kill his younger sister.[7] For the Pulling family, the game had clearly altered their beloved son’s personality and manipulated him into taking his own life.
To add an air of gravitas to the episode, 60 Minutes brought in Dr. Thomas Radecki for his expert opinion on the topic. Dr. Radecki, at the time of the recording in 1985, was the sitting Chairman of the National Coalition on Violence on Television, and a licensed psychiatrist who was teaching at the University of Illinois Medical School.[8] He claims that the game can indeed modify behavior, as the players in role-play games “are rehearsing, developing the character hour after hour, day after day. We are really talking about intense involvement in a serious form of violence.”[9] (Radecki 08:06–08:16) He claimed that this dedication to developing a new alter ego can lead a person to take on these learned behaviors and to act upon them. Dr. Radecki claims in the interview that he can point to 28 cases between 1980 and 1985 that involve the death of a D&D player where involvement in the game was either a “decisive element” in the death or a “major element.”[10] (Radecki 06:44–06:54) In reality, the mid-1980’s were not a peak era in teen suicide rates. In fact, the statistics are unremarkable.[11]
Learned Violence
Are Dungeons and Dragon players more apt to become violent offenders? The conspiracy-backers would certainly say so. William Dear, the original private investigator on the James Dallas Edgar case at MSU stated that players of the game are “leaving the world of reality into the world of fantasy. It advocated murder and decapitation.”[12] (Dear 03:48–03:55)
Also disturbing is the testimony of a young man referred to as “Taylor” in a video produced by JCTV. His account is truly amazing and questionably over-the-top. In his disjointed statements, Taylor claims that he began his descent into violence and lurid depravity after he was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons by his friend, “Snake.” He enjoyed the power the game simulated for him through his character’s ability to slay enemies and creatures. He admittedly substituted the game for reality. Taylor claims that his Satanism/D&D group consisted of powerful people (doctors, lawyers, nurses) and participated in ritualistic sex and breeding to produce children for sacrifice to Satan.[13]
Officer Greg Corey was assigned to investigate a murder-suicide case involving two boys in Lafayette, Colorado in November of 1984. The deaths, according to the police department, were directly caused by their “obsession” with playing D&D. Corey stated in the 60 Minutes interview that the game was a “focal point” in the boys’ lives. They were “enthralled” by it and would stage marathon play sessions that could last over 48 hours. (Corey 10:15–11:50) The police department later amended their claims that Dungeons and Dragons was the cause of the killing under legal pressure from the game’s publisher, TSR.[14]
Conspiracy is in the eye of the Beholder
The moral panic that swept up anxious parents in the 1980’s was powerful and pervasive. Dungeons and Dragons was not the only target, as slasher movies, the emerging video game industry, and that old standard, rock and roll music, were all held up for scrutiny by law enforcement, the media, and the US government. This was the age of the Tipper Gore hearings that gave rise to censorship debates and the parental advisory labels on music cassettes and CD’s.
The narrative being sold by this community does approach conspiracy theory levels of poor reasoning and shoddy critical thinking. The whole issue seems to fall squarely into the trap of confusing correlation with causality. That is, some young people who played D&D committed suicide, but it does not mean that playing D&D killed them. The theory as a whole clearly rolled a 1 on its Wisdom saving throw.
Rather cruelly, Gary Gygax (deceased), the co-creator of D&D, placed the blame for the hysteria squarely at the feet of the parents. He held that there was no scientific or fact-based connection between D&D and teen suicide in America in the 1980’s. Gygax believed that these critics of his game were looking for a scapegoat, for a way to explain away “their own failure as a parent.”[15] (Gygax 13:54–14:01)
While being a very harsh statement, Gygax might not have missed the mark entirely. Parents of a suicide victim would naturally seek out answers to the question why. It is human nature to try and find an explanation and to struggle with accepting any small part of the responsibility. It is too critical to say they were “failed parents,” because the natural reaction is to cast about for answers. Also, it is very easy for parents to miss warning signs in their own children that might lead to the diagnosis of a deeper mental health issue.[16] Many stated, as did Pat Pulling, that their children were perfectly healthy before they began to dabble in D&D. It is more likely that they were not aware of the underlying issues that led to these tragedies. Add to this a growing uneasiness with the gradual secularization of society taking place throughout the decade, and you can rightfully expect some form of backlash from the religious community. Youth culture, through music, games, and new music videos, was pushing hard against the old, Christian parameters placed on society. It was a time ripe for controversy.
Returning to Aaronovitch’s definition of the term conspiracy theory, it is safe to say that the “Satanic Panic” ticks many of the boxes. While the effort to censor or eradicate the game was not terribly centralized organizationally, it did cause an uproar that still resonates in basements around the country. The theory that Dungeons and Dragons was linked to Satanism and actual occult practices that led to suicide and the murders of teens in the 1980’s was clearly a false assumption. The theorists attributed these tragic deaths to a role-playing game, where other, far less sinister and natural causes were the true culprits.
[1] Robbins, William. “Brilliant Computer Student Dies from Gun Wound; Intellectual Fantasy Game.” The New York Times, August 18, 1980. https://www.nytimes.com/1980/08/18/archives/brilliant-computer-student-dies-from-gun-wound-intellectual-fantasy.html
[2] Page title: “Mazes and Monsters.” Independent Movie Database, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084314/
[3] Hoffer, Christian. “’Dungeons & Dragons’ had its Best Year Ever in 2017.” Comicbook.com, March 14, 2018. https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/03/14/dungeons-and-dragons-2017-sales/
[4] Chick, Jack. Various Titles. Chick Tracts. https://www.chick.com/catalog/tractlist.asp
[5] David Aaronovitch. Voodoo Histories. Riverhead Books, 2011, page 6.
[6] Chick, Jack. Dark Dungeons. Chick Publications, 1984.
[7] Pulling, Pat. “Dungeons & Dragons.” 60 Minutes. 1985. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yShqF1YSfDs&t=897s
[8] It should be noted that the National Council, a non-profit he founded, is now defunct, and that Dr. Radecki lost his medical license after being found guilty of multiple ethics violations. He was also convicted of trading drugs for sex and impregnating a client. He is currently serving an 11–22 year prison sentence. See: Pittsburg’s Action News, June 2, 2016. https://www.wtae.com/article/addiction-doc-who-swapped-drugs-for-sex-had-baby-with-patient-gets-long-prison-sentence/7480392
[9] Segment title: “Dungeons and Dragons.” 60 Minutes, 1985. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yShqF1YSfDs&t=897s
[10] Ibid.
[11] McKeon, Robert E, Cuffe, Steven P, and Schulz, Richard M. “US Suicide Rates by Age Group, 1970–2002: An Examination of Recent Trends. American Journal of Public Health. October 2006, 96 (10): 1744–1751. .https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1586156/
[12] Haberman, Clyde. “When Dungeons & Dragons Set Off a ‘Moral Panic’”. The New York Times, April 17, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/18/us/when-dungeons-dragons-set-off-a-moral-panic.html
[13] Segment title: “Satanism Unmasked Dungeons & Dragons.” (0:06–9:46). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi0_8AcOoQI,
(0:06–9:46).
[14] “Dungeons and Dragons.” 60 Minutes, 1985. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yShqF1YSfDs&t=324s
[15] Ibid.
[16] Mayo Clinic Staff. “Mental Illness in Children: Know the Signs.” https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/mental-illness-in-children/art-20046577
