Frances Donahue
Imagine you are a parent of a teenager in the 1980s. On your way to throw in some laundry, you walk in on your son and five other oddly dressed kids sitting around a table in your basement. They each have various kinds of dice, and there are books before them filled with drawings of horned devils and multi-toothed abominations. They speak of witchcraft and murder and gods nobody’s heard of. You draw the only conclusion you can with the evidence you have: your son has become a Satanist!
…or perhaps just a player of Dungeons & Dragons.Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is an adventuring role-playing game where each player creates a character and interacts with others to complete quests—their fates determined by the roll of a die. But during the Satanic Panic of the ’80s, the distinction between D&D and Satanism wasn’t so clear to parents. Over the years of its existence, D&D has gone through several phases: from a “nerds-only” tabletop game to a subject of hysteria to the diverse and flourishing community that it is today.
Invented in 1974 by American game designers Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson, D&D was the first tabletop role-playing game of its kind. It quickly gained popularity among young adults and those familiar with wargaming, surging in the 1980s. It even gained an animated TV show, Dungeons & Dragons, in 1983—just as fears of Satanic cults began to spread rapidly across the nation. The New York Times called the rumors “baseless conspiracy theories,” born from the discredited memoir Michelle Remembers and the mismanagement of the McMartin Preschool abuse allegations.
The memoir Michelle Remembers was one of the main triggers of the ’80s Satan hysteria. Written by Michelle Smith and her doctor-turned-husband, Lawrence Pazder, Michelle Remembers tells the story of alleged abuse Smith suffered as a child at the hands of her mother and a secret Satanic cult. Smith gave this testimony during repressed memory therapy sessions with Pazder. However, her claims were riddled with contradictions, and investigations failed to find any evidence to support the memoir’s authenticity.
The McMartin Preschool abuse allegations were similarly lacking in proof. The investigation began in 1983, when mother Judy Johnson accused McMartin preschool teacher Ray Buckey of molesting her son. From there, the case spiraled. The investigation was mishandled by police, and what followed was the McMartin family facing hundreds of accusations—not just of sexual abuse, but of flying, levitation, secret underground tunnels, and ritualistic animal sacrifice. These fantastical claims further fueled the growing satanic hysteria.
As the decade wore on, paranoia heightened, and Americans began to see Satan in everything—including D&D, which was believed to teach murder, barbarism, demon-summoning, and sexual perversion to vulnerable young minds. These accusations forced D&D underground, cloaking it in negative stereotypes and social stigma.
Yet D&D had the same purpose then as it does today. It is not an agent of the devil, but rather a fun, imaginative game of magic and storytelling designed to immerse players in rich, creative worlds. Since its invention, its popularity has steadily grown. Today, it’s embraced by the cultural mainstream in the form of movies, shows, games, and even live performances—especially with the rise of live stadium shows and streamed or recorded D&D adventures. Despite decades of scrutiny, stigma, and stereotype, D&D has proven that it’s here to stay—and it’s reaching a more diverse audience than ever before.
There are several D&D groups in Cold Spring, and despite not having an official club, Haldane students are adventuring too. I’m part of two campaigns created and run by Haldane students outside of school. The experience has taught me a lot about problem-solving, storytelling, and teamwork. But D&D isn’t just for teenagers; millions of adults play too—including community member and Haldane parent Mike Arcigal, who has experienced D&D in both the 20th and 21st centuries, having first played in the 1990s. He says he was too young to remember the Satanic Panic—and that he was introduced to D&D not by “the typical nerdy type of kids,” as he puts it, but by high school football players. When he began playing, Arcigal said D&D was just beginning to reach a broader audience. “I feel like shows like The Big Bang Theory—which was really popular for a little while in the 2000s—really brought D&D, and just geek culture, to the mainstream. Whereas before, when I was a teenager in the ’90s, it wasn’t quite as mainstream. It was just getting there; it was starting to become popular.”
Arcigal believes D&D is now going through another surge. “I think pop culture has done a lot to really bring D&D to the mainstream—like the [new] D&D movie, obviously, which came out really recently. Stuff like that has just really brought D&D to the forefront.” He also credited Stranger Things with expanding D&D’s popularity to new audiences. It’s a development he’s personally happy to see. “I’ve always thought it would be cool if everyone else did this too. Just because it was something that started with very few people doesn’t mean it’s not something that everyone can enjoy.” He says he’s “thrilled” that his daughter has begun playing. “It’s so cool to me that she’s playing with her friends the game that I caught onto when I was about her age, and it’s still around.”
While some people feel a piece of media loses value when it becomes popular or socially acceptable, Arcigal doesn’t see that as the case with D&D. “In my opinion, it’s pretty cool that kids nowadays are still playing it, and that they find it fun, and that there are still people out there who are discovering it.” As different kinds of people engage with the game, the hope is that they’ll find the same magic many seasoned players already do: a creative outlet and a safe space. “It’s just a great way for people to express themselves creatively,” Arcigal said. “It’s not just a game; it’s something people use to put themselves out there when they may not feel comfortable doing it in other situations.”
So as this world becomes more uncertain, as the stormy political environment rages on, try dipping a toe into a new world of your own creation—you might gain far more from it than you expect.