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Originally posted by KnightErrantJR

Yeah, in the United States, there were two big "infamous" events that fed into the anti-D&D craze, the first one being the disappearance of Dallas Egbert III, around which there was a lot of misinformation that got into the press, not the least of which being that the guy may not even have done much D&D playing outside of going to one of the early conventions. The theory on this one was that D&D made him "detached from reality," and so he wandered off from his college. He was eventually found, and he himself didn't seem to ever reference D&D in his reason for disappearing (these events were, rather horribly, fictionalized in the Made for TV movie Mazes and Monsters, but at least it gave Tom Hanks his (unintentional) comedic debut).

The second big event in D&D hysteria had to do with Irving Pulling II, who committed suicide, ostensibly because he play D&D (although, as with most cases, there was a lot more going on in his life besides D&D). This even occurred in 1983, and his mother's lawsuit against the school he went to was in the courts in 1984.

The point being, 1985 was probably the beginning of the lessening of the hysteria against the game. By 1989, when 2nd edition came out and the Avatar Trilogy was written, most of the same people that were claiming that D&D was the bane of humanity had moved on to blaming heavy metal music for all of societies ills.

Sometimes I wonder if every generation has to have its Frederick Wertham.

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Originally posted by Jorkens

And now its computer games, earlier it was movies. Let us not forget the comic-code. Before that it was literature. I would say that the string of suicides following Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther was a clearer case than Judas Priest and D&D, but it has gone out of fashion to blame books, so little is said of this any more. Something must be blamed for kids not turning out as planned and each generation needs its scapegoat.

Anyway, as for the logics of the moves done by the post-Gygax management of TSR, the stories of these are many.

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Originally posted by Kuje

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Originally posted by Jorkens

And now its computer games, earlier it was movies. Let us not forget the comic-code. Before that it was literature. I would say that the string of suicides following Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther was a clearer case than Judas Priest and D&D, but it has gone out of fashion to blame books, so little is said of this any more. Something must be blamed for kids not turning out as planned and each generation needs its scapegoat.

Anyway, as for the logics of the moves done by the post-Gygax management of TSR, the stories of these are many.

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Well, it's still literature, at least in the States. There are a lot of people who have taken many books to court over "witchcraft" claims. Especially the Harry Potter books. There's a mother down in the south who has lost FIVE court cases and she still insists that those books need to be removed from schools. The sad thing about the court cases is that she publically admits, every time she loses, that she's never read the books, so she doesn't even know what is in the books.

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Originally posted by Kalevala

I don't know what to make of the revelation at the very end, indicating that even Ao has a master. Is "the overgod of overgods" thing ever revisited elsewhere?

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Originally posted by Kuje

Aye, Faiths and Avatars says it's a "Supreme Being." Mostly TSR said that that was the DM, or that's whats been said throughout the years.

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Originally posted by The Sage

I think it's important to note, also, that Ao was not something Ed created. TSR come up with the concept of Ao and he was brought into the setting during the Time of Troubles -- through the 1e to 2e change over. As it stands, Ed has no idea on where TSR came up with the concept of Ao.

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