The Secret History of RPGs Part I w/Christopher Knowles & Recluse (Patreon)

Here is the audio for the first installment in this exploration of RPGs I'm doing with the Secret Sun Institute's Christopher Knowles. The video presentation is highly recommended for the slide show. I cleaned things up a bit for the audio. 

Chris and I are offering up a crash course on the secret history of role-playing games (RPGs,) a topic far more mysterious and historically important than few realize. Emerging from an unholy combination of military and occult sources, RPGs became a pop culture sensation during the 1970s thanks to Dungeons and Dragons. By the 1980s, an entire subculture, one closely aligned with heavy rock, existed around them.

From almost the beginning, dark undercurrents were reported. Murders and suicides have long been linked to D & D and it's successors. These allegations were often chalked up to Satanic Panic and the delusions of the Christian right. But the more one looks at this subject, the harder it is to dismiss the accounts of violence and mental breakdown out of hand. And that's before taking a deep dive into the origins story...

That's where we come in. No dive is deeper on this topic: from the history of war games and the Ouija board; to the elite community D & D grew out of & interesting groups tied to early RPGs; the dark mythology later incorporated into them; and the violent cults that grew out of them. Despite some frustrating technical problems on my end, we managed to cover a lot of ground with this one. As always, I hope you guys enjoy.

Music by: Keith Allen Dennis

https://keithallendennis.bandcamp.com/