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\title{All Our Evil Ways}
\author{A Refutation of the Satanic Connection\\
Original Compilation by Loren Miller}
\date{millerl@wharton.upenn.edu}
\maketitle

{\it \noindent
{\Large F}or years there have been those who
claim that role-playing games are satanic. While some of us
prefer to lay down and hide our heads in the sand (T\$R), others
speak out against what they view as hypocrisy. In this article,
the latter sort of folks examine all our evil ways.\\}

\begin{center}
{\Large \bf A Case in Point}
\end{center}
       A young boy with {\em strong} roots in christianity became disenchanted
       with religion in general as he grew up. He fell into very
       anti-social behavior (thieving, pyromania). While in high school,
       he ran across a kid who knew a {\em lot} about magic and played D\&D.
       Our disturbed hero fell in with this crowd, and soon was playing
       D\&D regularly. He always played evil characters.

       Now this poor soul never really read for pleasure. In fact, {\em all}
       that he had read for the past three years was \underline{First Blood} and
       \underline{Rambo}. One of the players recommended the Dragonlance series to
       him. He loved it, empathizing with Raistlin 100\%. He read the
       first book in one night, bought the next two, read {\em both} in one
       night, and begged his DM to give him more. His pleas were
       granted: Thomas Covenant; Dune; David Eddings; Tolkien. Soon this
       maladjusted youth began writing himself, specializing in poetry.
       He expanded his reading range, including such great works as Les
       Miserables, all of Joyce, and\ldots oh yeah\ldots the Bible. Indeed, our
       wayward youth regained his faith, and now this year published a
       book of poetry, dedicated to me: The DM. True story.

       Oh, yeah. For what it's worth, he wants to become a priest.


\begin{tabbing}
\ \ \ --- \=Timothy Toner (a.k.a. Deus Imperator)\\
\>{\em tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu}\\
\end{tabbing}


\begin{center}
{\Large \bf Prince Valiant the Satanist?}
\end{center}
       Have your religious friends read \underline{Le Morte D'Artur} by Malory
       (or Steinbeck's version). If not, have them watch the Family
       Channel's animated version of the Prince Valiant comic. It's on
       Mondays at 8pm.

       Yes, you read right. Pat Robertson's Family Channel is running a
       new show based on the Prince Valiant comic. It's a little cheesy,
       but it would be a good way to show a religious person that the
       Arthurian Legends are not satanic literature, because it is from
       these stories that most FRPGs formed. Dragons, knights, damsels
       in distress\ldots all of these came from the Arthurian Legends. So
       if one set of armored warriors, pious priests, and knowledgeable
       wizards are okay to read, then why isn't another group?

       I made a list of crucial elements that were in the first several
       episodes of Prince Valiant. All of these are also the backbone of
       most RPGs:

\begin{enumerate}
          \item Evil baron defeats good guys and exiles them from their home.
\begin{itemize}
           \item What!? A religious channel is saying that the bad guys win?!
           \item In FRPs this is the plot hook that sets the good guys into
             doing something to regain the home.
\end{itemize}

          \item Prophetic dreams.
\begin{itemize}
           \item Sounds like Robertson's channel is delving into mysticism.
           \item Used in FRPs to nudge the adventurers into going the right way.
\end{itemize}

          \item Spell casting --- by swamp witch and Merlin.
\begin{itemize}
           \item It seems it's okay to pretend that spells exist in stories\ldots
           \item One of the spell casters is a good guy, so this throws out the
             idea that all magic is evil or satanic\ldots only some of it is.
             And the good guys do {\em not} use the evil magic.
\end{itemize}

          \item Authority figures can be evil and corrupt.
\begin{itemize}
           \item Another baron suppresses his people and forces the blacksmith's
             daughter to marry his wimpy brother.
           \item In FRPs this sets up a lot of adventures. The good guys have
             to overthrow the abusive leader.
\end{itemize}

          \item Monsters are real and too dangerous to let live.
\begin{itemize}
          \item The very first episode had a giant lizard, probably meant as a
            dinosaur or dragon.
          \item In FRPs monsters as opponents are a staple in an adventurer's
            diet. They have to be killed or defeated for the greater good.
\end{itemize}
\end{enumerate}

       This show is
       broadcast nationally on a religiously affiliated network.
       Robertson himself has spoken out against Fantasy Roleplaying
       Games, but he broadcasts a TV show that is very similar to most
       FRP campaigns.

\begin{tabbing}
\ \ \ --- \=Dan Kopes\\
\>DDK2@psuvm.psu.edu\\
\end{tabbing}


\begin{center}
{\Large \bf Better Torch them Books, Pat}
\end{center}
    Many people seem to think that Fantasy Roleplaying is inspired by
       black magic and Necronomicon-like grimoires. In fact, J.R.R.
       Tolkien's \underline{Lord of the Rings},
       \underline{The Hobbit}, and the world of
       Middle Earth, which are key influences on almost all fantasy
       roleplaying games, were primarily inspired by Christian
       (Catholic, to be precise) ideas.

       J.R.R. Tolkien was a devout Christian, and a close friend of C.S.
       Lewis, one of the great Christian thinkers of our time
       and the writer of the fantasy and science fiction classics
       (respectively) \underline{The Chronicles of Narnia} and the trilogy
       comprising \underline{Out of the Silent Planet},
\underline{Perelandra}, and \underline{That Hideous Strength}. Some of
Lewis's work in \underline{That Hideous Strength}
is acknowledged inspiration from Tolkien's writing (not
to mention a large dose of Christian theology).

       Yes, Christianity and fantasy can co-exist.

       Another FRP-like Christian fantasy is \underline{The Faerie Queen} by
       Edmund Spenser, with the Red-Cross Knight and other allegorical
       characters engaging in typical FRP exploring and monster-bashing.

       Roleplaying gamers should also emphasize that their games exist
       in a moral world (that is, of course, if their players do not
       regularly play evil or psychopathic characters) and that
       wrongdoing and skullduggery usually rebound on the bad guys.
       Despite the fact that TSR strongly discourages evil player
       characters --- providing scenarios that are aimed almost
       exclusively at good and neutral alignments --- most critics think
       that players are all thrilling in immoral deeds.  They don't
       realize most of us play the good guys in the white hats who
       ride off into the sunset after the last scene.




\begin{center}
{\Large \bf Facts or Fiction?}
\end{center}

\begin{center}
{\large \bf James Dallas Egbert III}
\end{center}
       The original claim of a teen committing suicide due to D\&D was a
       hoax. In 1979 James Dallas Egbert III disappeared from Michigan
       State University, as described in a book by the detective on the
       case, William Dear (\underline{The Dungeon Master}, 1984, Ballantine,
       biographies). Dear rambles a lot and he may be dramatizing too
       much, but he made headway not from talk about D\&D played in
       underground ``steam tunnels'' on the campus, but only after he
       contacted a man who was keeping boys as young as 11 in his
       apartment who claimed to know where Dallas was. It turns out the
       boy was 16 years old and in his sophomore year, a genius but also
       lonely, on drugs, and gay. He ``ran away from it all'', got stoned
       down in those tunnels, and staggered over to the home of a gay
       friend. This person got nervous when later the police search
       started, and Dallas was shuttled from gay to gay until he ended
       up in Louisiana with ``friends''. It could have been a prostitution
       ring involving juveniles.

          Dear's only concern was to bring the boy back, so he kept the
       facts hidden for 5 years until he wrote the book. For that
       reason, D\&D continued to be blamed, especially nine months later when
       Dallas committed suicide (probably out of embarrassment). I
       don't know how far to trust Dear's account, particularly in view
       of his choice of title which was made to ``market the book better.''

\begin{center}
{\large \bf John Torrell: Great Christian or Loony Toon?}
\end{center}
       The very first published anti-D\&D writings were from the Reverend
       John Torrell in 1980 (Christian Life Ministries, now called
       European-American Evangelistic Crusades, in Sacramento, CA).
       Torrell claimed that ``these players go nuts with it! They start
       confusing fantasy with reality.'' That's an ironic claim in view
       of his own published ``political'' views in his newsletter, \underline{The
       Dove}. He claimed that Ronald Reagan
       secretly surrendered the U.S. to the Soviet Union at the Iceland
       Summit in 1986, with a five-year transition period before the
       Russians assumed complete control. Well, guess who surrendered to
       whom?! He also claimed that George Bush's membership in the
       Order of Skull And Bones fraternity at Yale means that he has
       devoted his life to Satan! Torrell also claimed that the logo for
       the Seoul Olympics was a cyclic ``666'' symbol, and many other
       inanities. A perfect conspiracy theorist. Torrell's radio show
       got kicked off one station for making anti-Catholic
       remarks, but he soon wound up on another.


\begin{center}
{\large \bf The Racist Foundation}
\end{center}
       The famous woman who claims her son killed himself due to D\&D,
       Patricia Pulling of Richmond, Virginia, is in league with some
       pretty questionable people. It seems she's a sort of guest
       director of the National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV)
       run by Dr. Thomas Radecki from near Chicago. This man has put out
       loony claims that people are severely influenced by violent acts
       seen on TV and counts the number of violent acts per hour.
       According to his criteria, The Smurfs average 13 per hour! He also
       says tickling, snowball fights, Donald Duck cartoons, and the
       Christian Broadcasting Network are all bad for the mind
       and that anger should be suppressed because ``only God has the
       right to be angry'' in flagrant opposition to the catharsis
       theories of his psychiatric discipline.

       Now, every issue of \underline{The NCTV News} has a margin column where a
       ``partial list of endorsers'' is listed. Notice that its
       ``partial'', so they want to bring out what they feel are the most
       notable names who ``support'' them. One of these names is Prof. J.
       Phillippe Rushton of the University of Western Ontario, in
       London, Ontario, Canada. This professor published his theories of
       a ``race hierarchy'' where Blacks were rated inferior to Whites,
       and both ranked below Orientals. He got some of his funding from
       an American group called the Pioneer Fund, which is said to be
       racist.

          And yet he is listed as a notable endorser of Pat Pulling and
       Thomas Radecki from 1985 to at least 1989! This raises the
       possibility that various little ``causes'' such as D\&D-bashing are
       merely used to raise funds for what {\em really} interests these
       groups\ldots hatred and racism.

\begin{center}
{\large \bf Backlash}
\end{center}
       The only Catholic tract against the game of D\&D had to be pulled
       out of religious bookstores --- because of its sources of
       information. This was called ``Games Unsuspecting People
       Play --- Dungeons and Dragons'' by The Daughters of St. Paul Press in
       Boston (light green cover, sub-digest size, 24 pages or so) and
       authored by Louise Shanahan.

          Originally this was from a Canadian Catholic magazine called
\underline{Our Family} in Battleford, Saskatchewan, re-made into a tract.
       However, two of their ``sources'' of information on the game were
       the Rev. John Torrell and also Albert James Dager (who calls
       Catholicism the ``Babylon Mystery Religion'', claiming it's a mix
       of true Christianity and Babylonian rituals such as communion and
       the confessional). Since both of these were anti-Catholic, the
       tract was discontinued, and the DSP will no longer accept any
       manuscripts from Louise Shanahan! She obviously didn't research
       these sources sufficiently.

          I did and gleefully pointed it out to the publisher, which
       withdrew the tract.


\begin{center}
{\large \bf Sean Sellers Recants}
\end{center}
       If videos of Sean Sellers (a teen on death-row in Oklahoma) are
       presented on \underline{The 700 Club} as testimony of the link between
       violence and D\&D, it is only because videos are all they can come
       up with. They can't link up with him live --- because he no longer
       claims that D\&D caused his crime!

          In a letter dated February 5, 1990 from Sean Sellers to game designer
       Michael Stackpole, Sellers concluded with, ``Personally, for
       reasons I publish myself, I don't think kids need to be playing
       D\&D, but using my past as a common example of the effects of the
       game is either irrational or fanatical.''

          Remember, people on death row are opportunists. They will claim
       that UFOs tampered with their brains and this caused them to
       kill. They will claim most anything to get parole, and who can
       blame them? Of course, as more judges and wardens are
       D\&D-players, such a claim will not be possible within ten years.
       In this case, concerning D\&D, familiarity will kill the contempt
       against the game rather than ``breeding contempt''. Only distance
       and ignorance breed contempt against the game. The more it is
       understood, the less people make charges against it!


\begin{center}
{\large \bf CAR-PGa}
\end{center}
       TSR Inc. does a little to debunk anti-D\&D claims, and an
       organization of game manufacturers called the Game Manufacturers'
       Association (GAMA, c/o Greg Stafford, Chaosium Inc., 950A 56th
       St., Oakland, CA 94608) has done a lot to research these claims.
       However, there is now a fan-based organization I helped to found
       in 1988 called the Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing
       Games (CAR-PGa). The principal people are as follows:

\begin{itemize}
\item       William Flatt

       8032 Locust Ave.

       Miller, IN 46403

tel. (219) 938-3382

Very dedicated to the issue because
       his father assaulted him for playing D\&D with a vacuum cleaner
       pipe.

\item       the Rev. Paul Cardwell, Jr.

       c/o Hippogriff Books

       111 E. 5th St.

       Bonham, TX 75418

Aa gamer who prefers Chaosium-style rules, author of the
       \underline{MythWorld} game, and an ordained United Methodist minister
       (teaching, not preaching) aged 58!

\item       Mr. Pierre Savoie

       22-B Harris Ave.

       Toronto, ON M4C 1P4

CANADA

tel. (416) 690-6985

Age 30, analytical chemist by
       trade. I initially kicked off CAR-PGa with some diligent research
       on the exact groups which criticize D\&D. Sometimes jokingly
       called ``Head of Research'' in the organization because I have a
       five foot stack of files and correspondence on the subject.
\end{itemize}

\begin{center}
{\large \bf Concluding Ideas}
\end{center}
       The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation did a radio show on their
       AM network in the ``Ideas'' series, Canada's most intellectual
       radio program, entitled ``Dungeons and Dragons'' (aired May 29,
       1991). It concluded as follows:

\begin{center}
\parbox{2.5in}{``The National Coalition on Television Violence and BADD say
          they have 125 cases of D\&D-linked
          deaths. Only 40 of these cases have been published, and half
          of those are anonymous.

             The ones they do cite details for have no causal link with
          games. In every trial where Mrs. Pulling and Dr. Radecki have
          appeared, always as expert witnesses on the defense side, the
          defendants were convicted anyway, and in no case adjudicated
          by the courts has gaming ever been implicated in any crime.''}
\end{center}

             This is not some schlock show, and transcripts are offered
          for most of their programs, including this one, for 5 Canadian
          dollars per airdate. To order, indicate the title and airdate
          of the show and send CDN\$5 or equivalent to: CBC IDEAS
          Transcripts, P.O. Box 500, Station ``A'', Toronto, ON, M5W 1E6,
          CANADA.

          I assisted a little in the research for the show, and you may
       find it a refreshingly positive broadcasting of the facts about
       game-playing.


\begin{center}
{\large \bf Further Reading}
\end{center}
       There are at least two books in print so far which debunk
       anti-D\&D theories in the context of ``Satanism''. These are:

\begin{itemize}
\item \underline{Satanism in America:}
      \underline{How the Devil Got Much More Than His Due}
          by Shawn Carlson and Gerald Larue (1989, Gaia Press. P.O.
          Box 466, El Cerrito, CA 94530-0466, tel. (415) 527-9414). It
          is spiral-bound, 280 pages, and the price is \$12.95
          (Californians add \$.94 tax) + \$1.50 postage.
             50 of these pages is a special appendix by game designer
          Michael Stackpole of Chaosium, Inc. directly dealing with the
          anti-D\&D claims.

\item \underline{In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult} by Robert Hicks
          (1991, Prometheus Books. 700 East Amherst St., Buffalo, NY
          14215, tel. (716) 837-2475). Hardcover, 420 pages, US\$23.95
          plus maybe \$3 postage. 25 pages devoted to D\&D by this
          criminal analyst plus additional chilling references. For
          example, in Chicago there is a wing of the Hartgrove Hospital
          called {\em The Center for the Treatment of Ritualistic
          Deviance}. It's influenced by silly Satanism seminars, and one
          of the criteria for being a potential patient is ``heavy
          involvement in fantasy and role play [sic] games''. Therefore,
          a young teen can be ``hospitalized'' here with the consent of
          his parents for being a D\&D-player --- all legal and proper!

             This book was given a favorable review in an editorial in the
          July 1991 \underline{Dragon}, by Michael Stackpole, who curiously did not
          mention his own involvement with the first book.
\end{itemize}

\begin{tabbing}
\ \ \ --- \=Pierre Savoie\\
\>Micol Labs BBS\\
\>Toronto\\
\end{tabbing}


\begin{quote}
``You can have peace, or you can have freedom, but don't ever
count on having both at once."

\begin{tabbing}
\ \ \ --- \=Rob Crawford\\
\>{\it betel@buhub.bradley.edu}\\
\>Bradley University\\
\end{tabbing}
\end{quote}


\end{document}


