In a recent post on Grognardia, James Maliszewski pondered on what would have happened if the Satanic Panic about D&D never happened. Did it drive sales or did it drive some people away? (Probably both). Did parents discourage or encourage people to play?
I posted a brief response in the comments on his blog, but here's an expanded version.
I was fortunate that, despite growing up in a practicing Roman Catholic household where mass every Sunday was non-negotiable, my parents had open minds. They encouraged me to read widely, with library membership from a young age, and my father passed on his love of SF and fantasy novels (although he never read 'The Lord of the Rings' until after I did. I started to explore wargames, and then found out about roleplaying games from a magazine article and a library book that I talked about previously. My mother picked up a copy of Holmes Basic D&D from a local gift store for a Christmas Gift from my Aunt for me, and I bought myself the Games Workshop box set of Call of Cthulhu 2nd Edition, having failed to find a copy of either the little black books or Starter Set for Traveller.
There was no pushback or resistance to me getting or playing these, and I started with a few games with friends locally before I started secondary school. I felt encouraged to do this. I only ever ran once for my family - a one-to-one Cthulhu session with the starter haunted house scenario with my father, who approached it very brutally (he blew the house up). What I didn't realise was that he had - in the past - got quite disturbed when he was reading books by Dennis Wheatley, which was the reason there was no horror in his otherwise fantastic library of genre paperbacks. He later told me the game brought back unhappy memories of that experience. However, it didn't stop him encouraging me.
Living in the UK, I started secondary school the same year that the Stranger Things kids started High School, and the Satanic Panic was something heard of and commented on but really something in the USA for us. My school was a faith one, a Catholic Comprehensive, so you'd have thought that if there was going to be any resistance, you'd see it there. But I didn't. The school actually supported me setting up a club - aged 12 - to play RPGs every lunchtime. We kicked off with Basic D&D and Call of Cthulhu but rapidly were into Traveller and more. Very soon we had a group of kids and several games masters. The school was always positive and supportive (and we ran several charity fundraising drives related to gaming).
My Religious Education teacher, a rock and metal fan, was particularly supportive, having previously been involved in gaming via a sibling and university. Thank you, Miss Smith/Mrs Birch for supporting me in something that's stayed with me my whole life!
Overall, when people raised the question of the Satanic Panic it was quietly dealt with, and we never saw a blocker. We were just the geeks who were playing games at lunch like the Chess Club did, except back then no-one used the term 'geeks'.
The encouragement to explore roleplaying and the freedom to take responsibility for setting up and running a club helped build confidence, belief and engagement for me. I can only thank my parents and teachers for their support in doing this as it shaped my life and gave me something I continue to enjoy.
Where you supported or did you have barriers for your gaming life? Did you start more recently? What brought you into this space?
20th December 2025
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