The Truth About Dungeons & Dragons is what I like to call an “opposition text.” First published in 1991, well after the fever pitch of anti-D&D hysteria had died down, Joan Hacke Robie’s book is exactly the kind of stubborn, ill-informed hold out you think it is.

It is absolutely worth a couple bucks if you see it at a used bookstore. What we have is a brief history of the game, followed by an explanation of how it is played (which is full of errors and mischaracterizations). Then Robie lays out the case for how the game is anti-Christian because it encourages witchcraft and presents good and evil as being on even footing. Then we get a gloss of fear-mongering controversies like the Egbert case and Pat Pulling’s BADD (I’ll cover those eventually).

The best parts are when Robie presents her “evidence.” She describes Elric throwing devil horns in a Deities & Demigods illustration (it is more of an ‘I love you’ sign), erroneously describes the types of dragons (there’s only four for her – red, black, white and brass, with brass being the worst) and claims there are 11 types of prostitutes available in the game (honestly, she got that one right). The final chapter, in which Robie argues back and forth with a teenage dungeon master, is preposterous and worth the entire price of the book.

I honestly bought this on the merits of the cover, but even that is baloney: it’s a lift or trace of Rancor concept art from the Return of the Jedi Sketchbook.