gygax

This is revisionist history. Old school D&D explicitly had balanced encounters, and called them dungeon levels. Each level lower you had progressively more difficult encounters. Challenge ratings were introduced in 3rd Edition along with the 'Back to the Dungeon' motto, and just tied it to party...

I came across this video of a 60 Minutes 'report' on D&D in 1985 and thought I'd share it. It shows just how mainstream the Satanic Panic ideas were in the 80s (I recall hysterical reports about Satanic covens on Oprah!). Patricia Pulling may seem a unpleasant woman but I read about the suicide...