by John W. Paulus

Created on: March 17, 2008

There is, for many people, a stigma about Dungeons and Dragons. However, the stigma might not be what most D&D players think it is. In fact, it is possible that those who play Dungeons and Dragons have more hangups about their own hobby than those on the outside.

Dungeons and Dragons players over the age of 30 will remember well the days of Pat Pulling and her group B.A.D.D. - Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons. Ms. Pulling blamed D&D for her son's suicide, and set out to raise awareness of what she believed to be a dangerous game. This all occurred at the height of the Satanism scare in the mid-1980s, when Hard Rock music was said to be Satan's music, and Christian comedian Mike Warnke toured the United States telling people of his years as a Satanic high priest. Jack Chick's "Dark Dungeons" tract could be found in every bathroom stall. There were even protests outside of GenCon.

This is, however, all in the past. Michael A. Stackpole debunked Ms. Pullings claims more than a decade ago in a piece entitled, "The Pulling Report," which is readily available on the Internet. Cornerstone magazine outed Mike Warnke as a fraud, proving that he never really was a Satanic high priest. The Satanism scare has gone, and we realize now that Hard Rock musicians were more interested in girls and drugs than Satanism. Jack Chick's anti-Catholic rhetoric demonstrated his lack of commitment to truth and diligent research, as so most folks ignore his propaganda. Society at large has forgotten the accusations against D&D.

Dungeons and Dragons players, however, have not forgotten. In fact, many D&D players thrive on the opportunity to defend themselves against the straw man argument that D&D is Satanic. This is understandable, as the Dungeons and Dragons stigma was quite intense during those early days. Some D&D players feel rather self-conscious about their hobby. They might even, for example, leave D&D off their list of interests on a dating website profile, fearing that it would scare away a prospective date.

These fears are unfounded. Today, if there is a stigma about Dungeons and Dragons, it has more to do with the geek factor. Some folks may perceive Dungeons and Dragons players as thirty-something year-old men who live in their parents' basements and whose fingers have turned orange from eating too many Cheesey Poofs. Still, this stigma is no greater than the stigma that some people have about computer gamers, IT professionals, or mathematicians. The Dungeons and Dragons stigma, if it exists at all today, is merely a spillover of general geek stigma.

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