He was once a good man, another pupil of the Dungeon Master, corrupted by his pursuit of knowledge. Unlike the generic villains of the day, however, Venger’s story is a tragedy. His motivation is simple-Venger’s a powerful wizard who desires the kids’ weapons, believing their power will enable him to rule the realm. Voiced by Peter Cullen, Venger is easily one of the era’s greatest villains. The lead villain, Venger, is one of the tamer designs, and even he likely gave a few kids some disturbing dreams. Children reared on Ruby Spears and Hanna Barbara likely had no idea what to make of Tiamat, the five-headed dragon, or a literal Shadow Demon. Taking advantage of the more detailed models, Dungeons & Dragons presents monsters and goblins that are appropriately scary. So, doing a kid-friendly adaptation for Saturday Morning? Makes sense. According to the advocates, it was outright deadly. Dungeons & Dragons wasn’t only something that could give kids nightmares. Simultaneously, another mother convinced the game led to suicide founded the advocacy group Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (BADD).
A year later, it became a made-for-TV movie starring, of all people, Tom Hanks. In 1981, novelist Rona Jaffe published Mazes and Monsters, a cautionary tale of young people and fantasy role-playing games, inspired by the Egbert case. Egbert’s suicide the next year (later shown to be unrelated to his interest in the game) only fanned the flames. News media reported as fact a private investigator’s claims Egbert had gotten lost in the utility tunnels beneath the campus of Michigan State University during a live-action role playing session. In 1979, the month-long disappearance of teenage Dungeons & Dragons fan James Dallas Egbert III became a national story.