I and some friends have a project of trying to watch all movies, tv episodes and other stuff with moving pictures related to roleplaying games ever made. We’re pretty far along on this goal. I’ll write here about old and new things we’ve found and watched.
One of the curiosities of roleplaying is that many countries seem to have had their own, local moral panics over the idea that roleplaying and Satanism are connected. In Finland, the panic hit the media in the Nineties.
Here’s an episode of a show called Lauantaivekkari, originally broadcast 25.10.1997. A journalist called Susanne Päivärinta interviews two people, the editor-in-chief of the Larppaaja magazine (a magazine about larping) ELF Vesala and a woman called Anna Lintunen, one of the loudest voices drumming up the Satanism panic. Päivärinta seems to be on Lintunen’s side, although close to the end she becomes suspicious of the mysterious documents Lintunen starts to quote. When Päivärinta asks where they’re from, Lintunen replies: “From my home!”
One of the most interesting parts of the discussion now is to see Päivärinta quote stuff from the Larppaaja magazine, fairly and unfairly. It turns out that some of the scene humor in a small magazine does seem weird when subjected to the glare of the uncomprehending national media.
In a surprise twist, Lintunen also accused larp of promoting Neo-Nazis.
As an extra, if you watch the video, pay attention to the bizarre studio decor. It complements the general seriousness of the program in a wonderful way.