Dungeons and Dragons, or more commonly known as D&D, is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game that was originally dreamed up by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax in 1974. It is a cooperative, storytelling game where you and fellow players assume roles of different characters within a story. As the story progresses, your character will make allies and enemies, battle monsters, earn loot, develop skills, and complete quests. While there are rules and numbers involved, the ultimate goal of D&D is to become immersed in a collaborative story. Since its creation, it has become the world’s most popular tabletop roleplaying game and has become profoundly influential on video games, role-playing games, and fantasy storytelling as a whole. The star-studded movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Stranger Things, and the launch of much-anticipated Baldur’s Gate 3 has reignited interest in this incredible franchise. Let’s learn more about Dungeons & Dragons!
5 Dungeons & Dragons Facts
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- There are 18 official campaign settings in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. (source) Each one has unique environments, creatures, and lore. Many Dungeon Masters (the player responsible for telling the story, controlling the monsters, describing the settings, etc.) choose to “homebrew” their own campaign worlds by picking and choosing from various worlds, or creating their own elements. The most popular and longest-running Dungeons & Dragons setting is Forgotten Realms. The Baldur’s Gate franchise takes place in Forgotten Realms.
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- Gary Gygax’s children were among the game’s first test audiences. (source) The game played by Gygax’s children is believed to be the first Dungeons & Dragons game of all time. According to Gygax’s son, the initial game “took place after school on a weekday, and it was two boys and one girl exploring a scorpion nest” and battling reptilian humanoids called kobolds.
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- Unable to find a publisher, Gygax partnered with Don Kaye to form TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) in October 1973. (source) The initial publishing run of 1,000 copies was put together by hand in Gygax’s basement. The first printing took about a year to sell out, but sales quickly gained momentum. The third publishing in 1975 sold out in a few months and it grew exponentially from there.
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- In the 1980s, D&D sparked immense panic among fundamentalist religious groups. (source) Critics argued that the game was corrupting the youth of America by promoting devil worship, violence, and withcraft. In 1985, Jon Quigley of the Lakeview Gull Gospel Fellowship stated: “The game is an occult tool that opens up young people to influence or possession by demons.” The game continues to be debated in the U.S. In 2010, there was a ban on D&D by the Waupun Correctional Institution with the justification that D&D can “foster an inmate’s obsession with escaping from the real life, correctional environment, fostering hostility, violence and escape behaviour”.
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- The initial publication of D&D had a budget of $2000. (source) Now, it is by far the best-selling tabletop role-playing game of all time and has inspired countless forms of entertainment!
