Dungeons & Dragons and The Satanic Panic

Abstract

This thesis explores how the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons became a central target of the Satanic Panic in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. It focuses on two influential pieces of evangelical Christian propaganda: Jack T. Chick’s Dark Dungeons and Leithart and Grant’s A Christian Response to Dungeons & Dragons. Through detailed analysis, the paper examines how these texts misrepresented the game’s mechanics, roleplaying elements, and community, portraying them as threats to Christian values. Both works reflect broader cultural anxieties about youth, imagination, and the perceived rise of occultism. The thesis argues that these criticisms reveal deeper religious insecurities and functioned as tools of moral control during a time of social change.