Patricia A. Pulling (June 30, 1948 – September 18, 1997) was an anti-occult campaigner from Richmond, Virginia. She founded Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD), an advocacy group that was dedicated to the regulation of role-playing games such as ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

''.

Biography

Pulling formed B.A.D.D. after her son Irving committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest on June 9, 1982. Irving was active in role-playing games, and she believed his suicide was directly related to the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game. The grieving mother first filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her son's high school principal, Robert A. Bracey III, holding him as responsible for what she claimed was a ''D&D'' curse placed upon her son's character shortly before his death. She also filed suit against TSR, Inc., ''D&D'''s publishers. She appeared on an episode of '' 60 Minutes'' which also featured

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...

, creator of ''Dungeons & Dragons'', and which aired in 1985.

B.A.D.D.

Pulling founded the public advocacy group "Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons" (B.A.D.D.) in 1983 after all of her lawsuits were dismissed and began publishing information circulating her belief that ''D&D'' encouraged devil worship and suicide. B.A.D.D. described ''D&D'' as "a fantasy role-playing game which uses

demonology Demonology is the study of demons within religious belief and myth. Depending on context, it can refer to studies within theology, religious doctrine, or pseudoscience. In many faiths, it concerns the study of a hierarchy of demons. Demons may ...

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

, voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, satanic type rituals, gambling, barbarism, cannibalism,

sadism Sadism may refer to: * Sadomasochism, the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation * Sadistic personality disorder, an obsolete term proposed for individuals who derive pleasure from the s ...

desecration Desecration is the act of depriving something of its sacred character, or the disrespectful, contemptuous, or destructive treatment of that which is held to be sacred or holy by a group or individual. Detail Many consider acts of desecration to ...

, demon summoning, necromantics, divination and other teachings." B.A.D.D. achieved some success in airing its views in the press, both through conservative Christian media properties as well as mainstream outlets. The organization distributed its materials in Australia through conservative advocacy groups affiliated with the Reverend Fred Nile, such as the Australian Federation for Decency. In addition, Pulling obtained a

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

's license, became a consultant to law enforcement, and was an expert witness in several gaming-related lawsuits, all of which lost in court. She became a director of the National Coalition on TV Violence in 1984. Pulling co-authored a book, ''The Devil's Web: Who Is Stalking Your Children For Satan?'' published in August 1989. The book makes no distinction between H. P. Lovecraft's fictional ''

Necronomicon The ', also referred to as the ''Book of the Dead'', or under a purported original Arabic title of ', is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in stories by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first men ...

'' and the '' Simon Necronomicon'', a realization of the book. One portion of the book urges police officers to open interrogations of suspected teenage occultists with the question "Have you read the ''Necronomicon'', or are you familiar with it?" As the popularity of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and other role-playing games increased, Pulling's views and statements were increasingly called into question. For example, she once told a newspaper reporter that eight percent of the people living in Richmond, Virginia were Satanists. She had arrived at that figure, she explained, by estimating that four percent of adults and four percent of teenagers were involved with Satanism, and added them to get eight percent. When the reporter informed her that mathematically that was four percent, not eight percent, she claimed that it did not matter because even eight percent was a "conservative" figure.

Response

In 1989, game player and designer Michael A. Stackpole wrote ''Game Hysteria and the Truth'', which went into all the flaws, misconceptions, inaccuracies, omission of relevant details, and questionable practices (including calling her editing of newspaper accounts illegal, since newspapers are copyrighted material and the owners were not contacted about the use of these articles) regarding Pulling's claims about RPGs in general and ''D&D'' in particular, concluding: "If the suicide statistics for the 14 years since ''D&D'''s introduction show anything at all, gamers kill themselves at a rate that is a fraction of that of their peers." A year later, the main points of ''Game Hysteria and the Truth'' regarding Pulling were reiterated by Stackpole in ''The Pulling Report'', a review highly critical of B.A.D.D.'s methods of data collection, analysis and reporting. Stackpole found that Pulling had given a misleading account regarding her qualifications, and after he published his report in 1990, Pulling quit B.A.D.D.

Aftermath

By 1991 the

American Association of Suicidology The American Association of Suicidology (AAS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which advocates for suicide prevention. It was established in 1968 by Edwin S. Shneidman, who has been called "a pioneer in suicide prevention." Its official jou ...

, the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

, and

Health and Welfare Canada The Department of National Health and Welfare (NHW), commonly known as Health and Welfare Canada, was a Canadian federal department established in 1944. Its advisory body on welfare was the National Council of Welfare. In June 1993, Prime Ministe ...

all concluded that there was no causal link between fantasy gaming and suicide. B.A.D.D. effectively ceased to exist when Pulling died of lung cancer in 1997.

Notes and references

External links