Kids, no. I wasn't a kid when I started playing though, and I couldn't help but notice that TSR had some management issues... some things just couldn't be hidden.... the mass layoffs at different times, the failure of some business ventures (acquiring SPI's stuff, for ex.), etc.
The Satanic Panic was still wriggling some tentacles at least into the early 90s. The McMartin Preschool trials didn't conclude until 1990, and some charlatans and preachers were still pushing the myths of satanic ritual abuse and recovered memories for at least another year or two.
Baptist pastor G. Richard Fisher wrote a letter to his followers in 1986 warning them of the evils of Cabbage Patch Dolls, which were very popular then. The dolls, which are “adopted” by their buyers in a written contract, caused strange, destructive behavior, according to the letter.
Lol, nice surprise torpedo. I always appreciate your humor.
1982-86, I was a Catholic kid at a private Catholic HS in Texas. I founded a D&D club there that operated on school grounds. The Monks didn’t have a problem with it- only the born-again art instructor (whom- I should note- I consider a dearly beloved mentor) did. He even gave away all of the new wave cassettes he played during class to some (undoubtedly) undeserving upperclassman.
When I worked at a museum in a historical building, we would sometimes allow ghost hunters to use the facilities at night. They paid us a nice fee, they were always respecful of the building and the artifacts, and while I thought they were kooky they were harmless. One year, they had a guest speaker who started answering a question by saying, "When we had all those occult related crimes in the 1980s...." and I just wanted to shout, "No, that didn't #%%#ing happen!" But people believed it then and a lot of people believe it now.
Any time I hear someone pontificate on how stupid Europeans were for the whole witch-craze in early modern Europe, I point to us today and arch an eyebrow.
The more I've learned about TSR over the years, the more amazed I've been that they were successful. It just goes to show you that sometimes you can catch lightning in a bottle and be successful despite your best efforts.
I would tend to agree. The stellar success of D&D was a faddish, and at some point the ethusiasm died down. I guess around 1984? I've spent a lot of time playing D&D in some form or another, but it's only in recent years that I wasn't embarrassed to say that out lound. In 1989, I sure as hell didn't tell any of the girls I wanted to hand with that I played the game. (Although now I'm old and maybe I just don't care what others think.)
Holy cow, those kids are smoking! Forget Satan, that's the real scandal.
