A closer look
Christian fundamentalists and concerned parents in the 1980s genuinely believed that playing Dungeons & Dragons was a direct gateway to Satan worship, witchcraft, and actual murder. This era, known as the Satanic Panic, saw the game blamed for youth suicides and criminal behavior, leading to widespread media hysteria, bizarre warning pamphlets, and even a ridiculous made-for-TV movie starring a young Tom Hanks. The irony is that D&D is essentially just an exercise in applied mathematics, cooperative storytelling, and reading extremely dry rulebooks. Instead of summoning literal demons from the underworld, the most sinister thing these groups of nerds were doing was arguing over the specific tactical rules of a grappling check and trying to schedule a time when four adults could actually meet up on a Saturday afternoon
