How We Won the War on Dungeons & Dragons

[Potoooooooo]

http://io9.com/how-we-won-the-war-on-dungeons-dragons-1550936588
Dragons, and the conservative parent groups who believed that gaming was debauched at best and Satanic at worst. Lives were ruined. People died. And now that war is over. I still can't believe we won.

 

[Keith&Co.]

As at least one report mentioned at the time, if you started with the average teenager suicide rate, then took every single death that could possibly be blamed on AD&D and compared it to the estimated number of players (based on sales of game merchandise), AD&D players were far, far, far below average for suicide threat. AD&D STOPPED suicides.

 

[braces_for_impact]

I agree. It helped nerds come together and socialize. I still miss playing RPG's nowadays.

 

[Perspicuo]

The article is all the more interesting because it sheds light about the 1980's "satanism cult" rage, of which anti-D&D seems to be a part.

 

[Perspicuo]

By the way, how regardful were D&D monster descriptions, towards actual world mythologies? Was it all bunk or was there serious research behind it?

 

[braces_for_impact]

By the way, how regardful were D&D monster descriptions, towards actual world mythologies? Was it all bunk or was there serious research behind it?

Well, I'm no historian, so YMMV, but I found the various resources provided for that aspect of the game to be rich, detailed and as accurate as you can be for a fantasy game, at least. As the game gained in popularity more and more resources were provided to make it easier on the DM to create his modules. There were Monster manuals of various volumes, Monster compendiums, and books about Deities and Demigods. The latter was especially fun even just for reading and was divided by culture, for example Babylonian gods, Sumerian gods, Chinese gods, Native American gods, etc...

Sometimes the mythology behind different monsters was included for context and sometimes not. I wish I had my old books right about now

 

[Perspicuo]

I found this copy of the Monster Manual. Beautiful BTW. http://www.feuros.com/D&D/Monster Manual v3.5.pdf

 

[KeepTalking]

I started playing D&D just before the War on D&D got started. Interestingly enough, the first time I ever played it was a church sponsored youth group sleepover. I got my parents to buy the Basic D&D set for me not long after, but within a year our church youth minister went on the warpath against D&D. Fortunately, my parents did not buy into the hysteria, and continued support my role playing by buying me the various manuals, and allowing my friends and I to play at the kitchen table.

I am still an avid gamer today, though we no longer play D&D. My group ditched D&D when edition 4 came out, and they tried to make the game more like an MMORPG played with pencils and paper. We currently split our time between Pathfinder (which was developed by some of the 3rd edition D&D designers) and Shadowrun, which is a cyberpunk RPG that has been around nearly as long as D&D.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Well, I'm no historian, so YMMV, but I found the various resources provided for that aspect of the game to be rich, detailed and as accurate as you can be for a fantasy game, at least.

I agree. In a lot of cases, they had to make a choice betwen various depictions and traditions of things like goblins, but whichever way they went tended to be coherent.
Some of the things invented for the game were less successful. They were largely a gimmick with numbers for hit points and armor class. So it slotted into play but didn't always make for a sense of story.

 

[braces_for_impact]

I started playing D&D just before the War on D&D got started. Interestingly enough, the first time I ever played it was a church sponsored youth group sleepover. I got my parents to buy the Basic D&D set for me not long after, but within a year our church youth minister went on the warpath against D&D. Fortunately, my parents did not buy into the hysteria, and continued support my role playing by buying me the various manuals, and allowing my friends and I to play at the kitchen table.

I am still an avid gamer today, though we no longer play D&D. My group ditched D&D when edition 4 came out, and they tried to make the game more like an MMORPG played with pencils and paper. We currently split our time between Pathfinder (which was developed by some of the 3rd edition D&D designers) and Shadowrun, which is a cyberpunk RPG that has been around nearly as long as D&D.

That was my other favorite RPG, Shadowrun. Many, many years that game provided me with good times. Loved GM'ing for it.

 

[Underseer]

It's no wonder they hate D&D. Once someone realizes that some other stories include talking eagles, then talking snakes and burning bushes don't sound so magical.

 

[Perspicuo]

I started playing D&D just before the War on D&D got started. Interestingly enough, the first time I ever played it was a church sponsored youth group sleepover. I got my parents to buy the Basic D&D set for me not long after, but within a year our church youth minister went on the warpath against D&D. Fortunately, my parents did not buy into the hysteria, and continued support my role playing by buying me the various manuals, and allowing my friends and I to play at the kitchen table.

Whatever keeps an adolescent glued to the kitchen table interacting with others can't be bad.

 

[Potoooooooo]

I agree. In a lot of cases, they had to make a choice betwen various depictions and traditions of things like goblins, but whichever way they went tended to be coherent.
Some of the things invented for the game were less successful. They were largely a gimmick with numbers for hit points and armor class. So it slotted into play but didn't always make for a sense of story.

and some even came from Sci-Fi