Like you, I have noticed that as fantasy became mainstream, oh, about the time that the Lord of the Rings movies came out and even normies got into it, that steampunk (and I would add faggotry) became more common in the subculture.
I guess I'm saying that gaming, (by that I mean tabletop) has always been counter-culture, but until the mid 2000s it was dominated by nerdy types, even the Vampire the Masquerade LARPers. But it was never explicitly satanic, merely accepting of pagan ideas and symbolism. I'd put the dividing line with the end of TSR and Hasbro's purchase of them. They changed the marketing with the introduction of 3rd edition D&D for "diversity" and here we are.
But that armor, with that design, was a deliberate choice, just as is the occasional dude who shows up as a crusader with the red cross at a ren faire. It wasn't random fantasy knight guy is what I'm saying.
Like you, I have noticed that as fantasy became mainstream, oh, about the time that the Lord of the Rings movies came out and even normies got into it, that steampunk (and I would add faggotry) became more common in the subculture.
I guess I'm saying that gaming, (by that I mean tabletop) has always been counter-culture, but until the mid 2000s it was dominated by nerdy types, even the Vampire the Masquerade LARPers. But it was never explicitly satanic, merely accepting of pagan ideas and symbolism. I'd put the dividing line with the end of TSR and Hasbro's purchase of them. They changed the marketing with the introduction of 3rd edition D&D for "diversity" and here we are.
But that armor, with that design, was a deliberate choice, just as is the occasional dude who shows up as a crusader with the red cross at a ren faire. It wasn't random fantasy knight guy is what I'm saying.