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Escapist reader Gabe found this great video that might be the origin of the myth that D&D miniatures scream when thrown into a fire. It’s a segment from a 1984 video entitled “Deception of a Generation,” with Phil Phillips (author of “Turmoil in the Toybox”) and host Gary Greenwald discussing the dangers of all sorts of entertainment aimed at children, from Scooby Doo to Barbie to the biggest turmoil in anyone’s toybox, Dungeons & Dragons:

“Now, there are sixes involved in the pieces of the game, but they take the pieces of the game, they would throw them in the incinerator or the fireplace and screams would come out, because there seem to be some kind of spiritual forces inhabiting those pieces…”

Due to the way that the video has been cropped into segments, the above comment occurs at 6:06! (Oh, the delicious irony…):



Considering that this video was released at a time when the majority of roleplaying miniatures were made from lead and covered in many layers of paint, I would be willing to suggest that anyone who threw a handful of Ral Parthas into their fireplace and then heard screaming should probably have avoided breathing in the resulting fumes.

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