In the late 70′s there were many colleges that had groups of students playing D&D ‘for real’ in the steam tunnels below most universities. In particular, at Michigan State University is where James went in many times to enact a live version of D&D…At times with others but mostly by himself. It was also the main target of the investigation into his disappearance by Detective Dear.

The Mazes & Monsters book came out after Egbert was found and is a fictional novel based loosely upon that story. There are other stories and books that ‘blamed’ D&D for many anti-social behaviours, some of the worst damage being done by Patricia Pullings group BADD (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons). The late Pat Pulling pretty much was involved in a self serving crusade to warn people about the dangers and possible ‘demonic’ possession, but this was all hype and in the end it was a bit of a sad joke that she kept trying to get media attention with her hysterics over D&D. I really suggest reading the book The Dungeon Master if you are interested, its an insightful, yet tragic, story of one of our fellow gamers that, in the end, couldnt seem to work things out in his short life.

Years ago, when my mom heard about “some kid in the town just down the way started casting ‘spells’ and ‘curses’ on his mother, eventually going mad and killing his whole family…” because he played D&D, she took away and hid the set (d&d basic starter kit, with the dice you had to color with white crayon INCLUDED) she gave me herself only weeks earlier.

btw, i took it back when i found it, sorry mom.

Dragonlance was _made_ for d&d campaigns, every dm I’ve played with had a favorite character or story to base his campaigns on. (My fave was ‘Raistlin Majere’) Wikipedia has an awesome list of all of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_Dragonlance_characters

…and I still remember the story that got me wanting to dm to play it out in d&d:
http://www.amazon.com/Dragonwing-Death-Gate-Cycle-1/dp/B001OLRMUA/ref=pd_sim_kinc_4
It’s not Dragonlance, technically, but is written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (you _have_ to read the whole deathgate cycle to get the full story though, so kinda long)