D&D turns 30

[cheerful_deviant]

Dungeons & Dragons marks 30th anniversary
Fantasy game has influenced video games, books, movies

The Associated Press
Updated: 6:56 p.m. ET Oct. 16, 2004


ATLANTA - Dungeons & Dragons players gathered in game stores around the country Saturday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the grandfather of fantasy role-playing games — a pop culture phenomenon that has influenced myriad video games, books and movies.

An estimated 25,000 fans in 1,200 stores celebrated the anniversary Saturday, said Charles Ryan, brand manager for role-playing games at Wizards of the Coast, a Renton, Wash., company that owns Dungeons & Dragons.

Shaunnon Drake was at Batty’s Best Comics & Games, where gamers ranging in age from their early teens to mid-30s munched pizza and played D&D through the afternoon. Some said they spend three nights a week or more playing.

“The game allows you to live through your character your favorite fantasy books,” said Drake, sporting an airbrushed T-shirt of himself as a “Game Master” surrounded by flying dragons and other beasts.

In 1974, 1,000 brown-and-white boxes filled with pamphlets for “Fantastic Medieval Wargames” were distributed by a couple of guys who liked war role-playing and decided to set a game in the Middle Ages but with monsters and fantastic heroes.

Dungeons & Dragons went on to become one of the best-selling games of all time, inspiring fan devotion so great that some travel thousands of miles to play in tournaments.

There have been Dungeons & Dragons books, movies, puzzles, even a Saturday-morning cartoon show.

The game peaked in the 1980s, but there are plenty of fans left. Some 4 million people play D&D regularly. Many of them laugh at a common suggestion that fantasy gamers are geeks: Of course they are, they say.

“I think a lot of people who get drawn to this game are loners, but here’s a real opportunity to come out of that shell and feel safe about it,” said fan Mitch Hamburger, 32.

The game’s influence on later computer game designers is impossible to miss, said Dave Arneson, who created Dungeons & Dragons with Gary Gygax and now teaches computer game design.

“It influences all the video game designers,” Arneson said. “They were geeks just like we were geeks.”

The popularity of the Harry Potter books and the “Lord of the Rings” movies is bringing young new fans to the game, said Ryan. Dungeons & Dragons makers released a new starter set game this summer as a result.

Game designers had worried that the intense devotion of longtime D&D fans — and the accompanying lingo and even costumes — would turn off new players who felt the game was too confusing to learn.

But the young fans, and the continuing popularity of fantasy books and movies, will keep Dungeons & Dragons alive, Drake said.

“It’s definitely a family game now, where you have people teaching their kids the game and keeping it going,” he said. “It’s just going to get bigger and bigger. It’s basically the new cowboys-and-Indians game. With wolves.”

 

[DirtyJJ]

My only experience with D&D was the video game version on Intellivision in the 80s.... I am sure it was nothing like the real game, but it sure was fun.
*geek*

 

[Belegon]

I've played at various times , the last when I was in college...I got out of the habit, largely because of always being pushed to DM, a task I found myself unable to take on without much, much, too much preparation. I always took it as a compliment to my abilities that I was wanted as a DM, but I would have liked to be a player more...

 

[RavenSpirit2k4]

I started with 1st edition Advanced D&D in 1986. My first character was a half-elf ranger. My friend, whom I later married, played it and I was curious about it. He had me read the Dragonlance trilogy first. IDragonlance is not really comarable to LOTR, but it's still damn good.

I've been hooked ever since. And I mean hooked. I may go a whole year without playing D&D but I always come back to it.

 

[tolyk]

I started playing D&D when I was 7. 'The Hobbit' was the first fantasy book I read, but after that I was addicted to fantasy, and my brother showed me where the TSR books were in the library.. in less than a year I had read more than 100 Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books (combined)..

I still play D&D every now and then, when I can find a group. But I tend to stick to a few other games, like Rifts by Palladium books. I have also been working on a game of my own since 96, and the fantasy novel I'm writing is based on the world in that game. I'm one of the geekier geeks in D&D

 

[SummerMorning]

Hehe... after a nearly 2 year hiatus I'm DMing again tomorrow.

Honestly? D&D is very silly. More honestly? I'm too lazy to really care... it's just so much fun hacking away at horrible monsters!

 

[SummerMorning]

And there is no worse monster than PCs... ugh!

geek|)

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Now I really feel old...lol

 

[Sabledrake]

I feel old, too ... I started playing D&D in 1981. I still game, though it's all GURPS these days, but it still boils down to the fact that when I run a game at a con, I can be pretty sure that at least half my players probably won't even have been born when I got my first set of polyhedrals

Sabledrake

 

[rgraham666]

I have one of those original box sets. Über-geek here.

I haven't played any RPGs (with people) in years, unfortunately. I fell away from that world during my long illness. Sigh.

But I still have lots of RPG books kicking around.

Ten Rifts books. I regard the system as nearly unplayable but the books are fun to read.

D&D Birthright. A very interesting offshoot of D&D.

Vampire: The Masquerade. Haven't actually played this one, but the idea is very cool. Your character is a vampire. The publishers put together history, legends and politics of the undead. If I was one of these vampires I would be a Brujah. The philosophers and warriors of the night.

Oh dear. I'll turn off my geekiness now.

 

[Honey123]

I still have the game...

 

[Belegon]

I still have a bunch of the stuff around somewhere...probably down in storage...rule books etc. I know I ran across my dice bag not long ago because my 6 yr old was fascinated by the different shaped dice...

 

[minsue]

I still have a bunch of the stuff around somewhere...probably down in storage...rule books etc. I know I ran across my dice bag not long ago because my 6 yr old was fascinated by the different shaped dice...

Heehee

I never could understand the game, but I loved the dice. Twas not appreciated when I would come in & start playing with the dice while my brother & his friends were playing.

 

[Lord Naraku]

D&D is still very much alive. Neverwinter nights is a PC game that uses AD&D rules 3.5. The most interesting thing about the game is it comes with a full toolset that allows players to make entire worlds and even change the existing rules of the game to suit them. Over the internet there are now hundreds of differant game worlds players simply d/l the required the module and play and can even DM. The most interesting thing is one time I was messing around on the various server listing tabs. Under the game type social I found several servers with adult only and bondage in the server title. Never investaged any of these adult role playing servers.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

D&D is still very much alive. Neverwinter nights is a PC game that uses AD&D rules 3.5. The most interesting thing about the game is it comes with a full toolset that allows players to make entire worlds and even change the existing rules of the game to suit them. Over the internet there are now hundreds of differant game worlds players simply d/l the required the module and play and can even DM. The most interesting thing is one time I was messing around on the various server listing tabs. Under the game type social I found several servers with adult only and bondage in the server title. Never investaged any of these adult role playing servers.

I love Neverwinter. It's not the same as real D&D but it's the closes that a computer game has ever come.

I think the real appeal of Neverwinter is how expandable it is. I have countless files in my the Hack and Override folders, customizing my game. In addition to the dozens of player created modules I downloaded from the fan sites.

 

[Remec]

Ahh...yes...unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate in the Worldwide Gameday they observed this past Saturday. We got as far as making characters for my 12 yo stepson and an older girl who was at the daycare for the weekend, but that's it.

However, this coming weekend, I'll be playing and judging at a convention in Williamsburg, so that works out. I guess. <g>

I began playing in '79 after discovering a Player's Handbook and a module tossed in a dumpster on base in California. (Me and some friends had been on an after-inspection run to gather aluminum cans and other stuff that the sailors and Marines toss out when an inspection rolls around.) It totally fascinated me, and my dad must've glanced through it because later in the week he brought home a copy of "The Keep on the Borderlands" and a set of polyhedral dice for me and my brother to begin learning to play.

 

[sweetnpetite]

I have one of those original box sets. Über-geek here.

I haven't played any RPGs (with people) in years, unfortunately. I fell away from that world during my long illness. Sigh.

But I still have lots of RPG books kicking around.

Ten Rifts books. I regard the system as nearly unplayable but the books are fun to read.

D&D Birthright. A very interesting offshoot of D&D.

Vampire: The Masquerade. Haven't actually played this one, but the idea is very cool. Your character is a vampire. The publishers put together history, legends and politics of the undead. If I was one of these vampires I would be a Brujah. The philosophers and warriors of the night.

Oh dear. I'll turn off my geekiness now.

Love your geekyness. Please keep it on.

In HS I got a chance to *see* one of those original booklets- I never knew there were only 1,000. I also played with an older fellow who knew and played with Gary Gygax back in the day. (He was my classmates dad) One time I saw some art in a book that looked *remarkably* like the guy I knew. I wish I would have bought it.

D&D was better when it was TSR, and I still mourn it's sale to Wizards of the Coast. I don't think they have GenCon anymore either. (I never got to go )

It was fun, we played with 2 guys who where 'original generation' gamers- and here we were just out of HS. I was the only girl. When I first started (11th grade I think-) I used to roll my eyes at the guys who always wanted to bust down every door (without ever even checking to see if it was locked) and say, "why dont' you just knock?" I was being cheeky, but I was half right. They were far to gung-ho! Some of them were really into 'hack and slash' and I wanted the full experience of roll play and everything. I could never get a handle on those damn dice!

I always wanted to DM, but I didn't have the confidance to be able to coordinate everything, and as I said, the dice were too confusing. I also used to wish I could get a girl game group going.

We had a bad habit of leaving games unfinished though But it was fun. And we had pizza and snack runs it was very social.

.....OUtgeek me, people, just try!

 

[sweetnpetite]

Neverwinter nights is a PC game that uses AD&D rules 3.5. The most interesting thing about the game is it comes with a full toolset that allows players to make entire worlds and even change the existing rules of the game to suit them.

Add that to the top of my christmas list.

Thanks.

 

[sweetnpetite]

Ahh...yes...unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate in the Worldwide Gameday they observed this past Saturday. We got as far as making characters for my 12 yo stepson and an older girl who was at the daycare for the weekend, but that's it.

I remember that we used to sometimes spend more time making characters than anything else, lol

 

[Belegon]

S n' P, I have Neverwinter Nights and I enjoy it too,although I have not played any computer games much recently. It is well worth a look/list.

I was involved in several gaming groups that seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Which is a way of getting to the fact that they were not male dominated. More guys than girls overall, but not the testosterone fest that seems to be the norm.

As a matter of fact, the names of the characters in one of my posted stories are from one such group. Bryan, Joanne, Andrew and Karen were all part of a group of gamers that played AD&D with my girlfriend Terri and I in 1985-86.

 

[Lord Naraku]

I have one of those original box sets. Über-geek here.

I haven't played any RPGs (with people) in years, unfortunately. I fell away from that world during my long illness. Sigh.

But I still have lots of RPG books kicking around.

Ten Rifts books. I regard the system as nearly unplayable but the books are fun to read.

D&D Birthright. A very interesting offshoot of D&D.

Vampire: The Masquerade. Haven't actually played this one, but the idea is very cool. Your character is a vampire. The publishers put together history, legends and politics of the undead. If I was one of these vampires I would be a Brujah. The philosophers and warriors of the night.

Oh dear. I'll turn off my geekiness now.

OMG I totally missed the mention of Rifts. My geekiness far outnumbers yours I have 7 differant pen and paper RPG systems. I have 25 Rifts books

 

[maggot420]

I played my first game around '81 I think. I still keep in touch with the guys from the old neighbourhood although i haven't played in ages.
And I agree that Rifts is almost unplayable but the books are great to read. Our DM was awesome and he used to 'adjust' the rules to make it a little more comprehensible.
The influence D&D has had is incredible. Even the Star Wars video game for the Xbox uses D&D rules almost exclusively (you dont get to roll your own dice but the mechanics of the game are the same.)
Ok, I think I better stop before my geekiness becomes overwhelming.

 

[LLs Man]

Another gamer checking in here. LL & I actually met through a mutual interest in D&D (among other things); I put a message on the college BB (back in 1995) asking for anyone interested in SF, fantasy & RPGs, & she was the first to answer (along with her twin sister, known in here as Bardmistress). We play in the Forgotten Realms - my character is an Enchantress, LL's is a cleric of Tymora, & BM's is a bard. In our college group 3 of the 5 were male, but only one of the characters was (he was an elf ranger, the other one was an elf thief). We're currently in the middle of converting to 3.5 (so we're late developers!)

I have Neverwinter Nights, but haven't played it for ages, same goes for Baldur's Gate II & Icewind Dale I & II


As far as I k now GenCon is still going, I'm sure I saw something about it when I was at Dragon*Con last month (and there's a lot of gaming goes on at D*C too)