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Dungeons & Dragons

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For other uses, see Dungeons & Dragons (disambiguation).
The original Dungeons & Dragons set

Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) published by Wizards of the Coast. The current rules are referred to as the Third Edition Revised or simply v3.5, but the name of the game can also refer to earlier versions, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' (or AD&D). Outside of the gaming community it has become a genericized trademark used to refer to similar games. In some circles D&D has achieved notoriety due to claims of association with devil worship, witchcraft, suicides and murders.

The original Dungeons & Dragons, designed by Gary Gygax and David Arneson, was first published in January 1974 by Gygax's company, Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). Originally derived from tabletop wargames, this publication is generally regarded as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the RPG industry. Players embarked upon imaginary adventures in which they battled many kinds of fictional monsters and gathered treasure and experience points as the game progressed. The game departed from traditional wargaming by giving each player the part of a specific character to play. It also developed the concept of a Dungeon Master (or Gamemaster), a referee responsible for creating the fictional setting of the game, playing antagonists and supporting characters, and moderating the actions of the players' characters.

In 1977 the game was split into two slightly different versions: The simpler Dungeons & Dragons and the more complex Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. In 2000, the simpler version of the game was discontinued and the Third Edition of Dungeons & Dragons was released as a continuation of the AD&D game line. The v3.5 revision of the game was released in July 2003.

Dungeons & Dragons remains the best-known and best-selling RPG, with an estimated 20 million players worldwide and over US$1 billion in book and equipment sales (as of 2004 according to a BBC news report). Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of the RPG products sold in 2002.

Play overview

File:Charsheet.jpg
A 3.5 Edition character sheet
Note: the description below is based on the latest edition of the D&D ruleset (version 3.5)

Dungeons & Dragons is an open-ended "make-believe" game in which players choose which actions their characters will take and the results of those actions are determined using the rules of the game, which govern everything from combat to social interaction. The rules of the game are described in the three core rulebooks, although additional rulebooks contain optional rules which can also be used. Abbreviated versions of the rules are available to help beginners learn the game.

Items required for play:

Optional items:

  • Adventures
  • Campaign Settings
  • Miniature Figures

Before the game begins each player creates his or her character. Players typically use the same character repeatedly. The player rolls dice to determine his character's ability scores (strength, dexterity, constitution, wisdom, intelligence, and charisma). The player will then chooses a race and a class. Races include elves, dwarves, gnomes, half-elfs, humans, halflings, and half-orcs, among others. Some of the many classes include paladins, clerics, druids, rogues, barbarians, bards, rangers, fighters, monks, wizards and sorcerers. Depending on the class chosen for the character, players will also decide which skills and feats the character knows. They will also select an alignment to describe the character's moral and ethical outlook. These choices determine what the character can do, how well they can perform different actions, and how the character will evolve with experience.

The game is presented by a Dungeon Master (DM) to a group of players. The DM does not have a single character, like the other players, but acts as a narrator, choosing and describing the other characters, settings, and situations the players' characters encounter. The DM also arbitrates the actions of the characters in the game by using and interpreting the rules of the game.

For example, the DM may describe a crisis that requires the attention of the heroes ("An evil wizard is raising an undead army!"), and suggest some possible goals ("Find the wizard's lair and slay him!"). Because the players can freely choose their own course of action ("Let's ally with the wizard and take over the kingdom instead!"), there is no true criteria for "winning", aside from what the players set for themselves. A single "adventure" typically spans multiple sessions, and characters may be reused in further adventures, if the players so choose.

When a player chooses to have his character attempt an action (such as punching an opponent or picking a lock), the outcome will be determined by a character's abilities, a random die roll, or by a combination of the two. Different characters will be skilled at accomplishing different things, and the system encourages a well-balanced team of specialised characters.

When a character defeats an enemy or accomplishes a difficult task, an appropriate number of experience points (xp) are awarded to him by the DM. When a character accumulates enough experience points they advance a "level", allowing their player to improve their existing abilities or choose new abilities for them.

Adventures

S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was one of the few adventures released by TSR to include science-fiction elements, such as ray guns and robots.

A typical D&D game consists of an "adventure", which is roughly equivalent to a single story. After completing one adventure, players will usually start a new adventure while continuing to play the same characters.

Adventures are usually designed by the DM, but throughout the history of Dungeons & Dragons, numerous pre-made "adventures" or "modules" have been published. These modules allow a DM to run a game without the effort of creating their own adventures, and typically include a backstory, maps, and one or more objectives for players' characters to achieve. Other modules include illustrations or hand-outs to supplement the basic gaming experience.

During the early history of D&D, TSR's modules were usually denoted with a code consisting of a letter and a number. Modules within a letter set were usually somehow related. For example, the modules G1, G2, and G3 all had the adventurers fighting a similar enemy (giants). Though related, most modules were stand-alone and could be played without playing any of the other related modules.

Adventure modules typically have a suggested character level, which is usually indicated on the cover. For example, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (module S3) was designed for levels 8 - 12, while Keep on the Borderlands (module B2) was for beginning characters of level 1 - 3. Typically as the number of the module increased so did the difficulty level.

See List of Dungeons & Dragons modules

Campaign settings

A series adventures played through by a common group of characters is commonly referred to as a "campaign". As a result, the fantasy settings in which D&D games take place are often known as "campaign settings".

Dungeon Masters are free to create their own fantasy settings. But, in a fashion similar to adventure modules, there are many official fantasy realm campaign settings which can be purchased, many with an expansive series of supplement rulebooks. These worlds range from magic-rich to magic-poor, from old-fashioned sword and sorcery to the wildly exotic, some incorporating psychic ('psionic') powers or taking on certain flavours, including Oriental and swashbuckling themes.

As of 2005, only Forgotten Realms and Eberron are being supported by new products from Wizards of the Coast. Some campaign settings previously published by TSR or Wizards of the Coast, such as Dragonlance and Ravenloft, have now been licenced to third party publishers.

Dave Arneson's Blackmoor was the first campaign setting for D&D, while Gary Gygax's Greyhawk was the first to be published. Both settings have been republished in many different forms over the years.

Forgotten Realms was created by Ed Greenwood as his own personal campaign. This setting became most popular with D&D gamers in the 1990s and is the setting of a large number of D&D novels and computer games.

Eberron is the newest official D&D setting. Eberron, created largely by Keith Baker, was the winner of a contest to design a new campaign. The setting introduces new races and classes. It describes a world whose inhabitants can make use of magic as technology.

Living Campaigns are campaigns that involve thousands of role-players from around the world, sharing a single campaign setting. Dungeon Masters can obtain adventures in a vibrant, active campaign setting. Players can build characters, advance them in experience and forge relationships with fellow gamers from around the world. The largest of the Living Campaigns is Living Greyhawk.

See Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings

Miniature figures

The wargames from which Dungeons & Dragons evolved used miniature figures to represent combatants. D&D continued the use of miniatures in a fashion similar to its direct precursor, Chainmail, with each figure representing a specific character or monster. While the original rules of D&D required the use of miniatures to resolve combat situations, the rules quickly evolved to a point where combat could be resolved verbally and miniatures were no longer required for gameplay.

Although no longer essential, miniatures remained popular with players and continued to serve as a useful visual reference. In the early days of D&D, they were often placed on acetate-covered graph paper with walls and other references drawn with grease pencils. As the adventurers moved from one area to another, the grease pencil markings could be wiped off and a new area drawn.

In the 1980s numerous companies began to sell miniature figures specifically for D&D and similar games. TSR partnered with Grenadier Miniatures, who released their figures under the D&D brand, while other miniature manufacturers (such as Ral Partha and Citadel Miniatures) simply release generic, fantasy-themed figures.

Professional products were also released to serve as grid-references for miniature play. Some players would build entire floor tiles and walls sets from wood or cardboard and would invest in large inventories of trees and other location objects to create more realistic environments for their miniatures. Professionally-built sets were later released, as well.

Periodically, Dungeons & Dragons returned to its wargaming roots with supplementary rules systems for miniatures-based wargaming. Supplements such as Battlesystem (1985 & 1989) and a new edition of Chainmail (2001) provided rules systems to depict battles between armies. The Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Game (2003) comes in the form of sets plastic, randomly assorted, prepainted miniatures that can be used with Dungeons & Dragons or as its own stand-alone collectable minatures game.

Game History

File:Chainmail 3rd edition.jpg
The cover to the game Chainmail, a Dungeons & Dragons predecessor.

Influences

The fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons, designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, evolved in the early 1970s from the Chainmail system of wargaming rules by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. The game was influenced by mythology, pulp fiction, and contemporary fantasy authors of the 1960s and 1970s.

The presence of halflings, elves, dwarves, half-elves, orcs, dragons and the like often draw comparisons to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, although Gygax claims he was influenced very little by The Lord of the Rings, stating that he included these elements as a marketing move to draw on the then-popularity of the work. Other influences, according to the 1977 edition of the Dungeon Master's Guide, include the works of Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, L. Sprague de Camp, Michael Moorcock, and Poul Anderson.

Edition history

Main article: Differences between editions of Dungeons & Dragons.

D&D has gone through several revisions. Parallel versions and inconsistent naming practices can make it difficult to distinguish between the different editions.

The original Dungeons and Dragons (1974) was published as a boxed set and featured just a few character classes and monsters, and only three alignments. Four supplements (Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, and Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes) were published over the next two years, expanding the character classes, monsters, and spells. Official rule supplements were also published in the magazines Strategic Review and its successor, Dragon Magazine.

The cover of the D&D Basic Set, 2nd printing, showcases some of the rather primitive artwork the game featured in its early years.

In 1977, TSR released two new versions of the game: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeons & Dragons.

Dungeons & Dragons was a simpler, sometimes "introductory", version of the game. In 1977 the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, also referred to as the Second Edition, was published as a boxed set. This edition was revised in 1981, which also coincided with the release of an Expert Set to accompany the Basic Set. Between 1983 and 1985 the Third Edition was released in a series of five boxed sets, including the Basic Rules, Expert Rules, Companion Rules, Master Rules, and Immortal Rules.

The Dungeons & Dragons game was revised again in 1991. Typically referred to as the Fourth Edition, this edition included the Dungeons & Dragons Game (an introductory boxed set) and the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (a hardback manual which included the material from the Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master sets). In 1994 the introductory boxed set was renamed the Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game. In 1999 the introductory box set was revised and released as the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (or AD&D) was a more complicated version of the game, designed to collect, revise, and expand on the rules from the original version and its supplements. Between 1977 and 1979, three hardcover rulebooks were released: The Player's Handbook (PHB), the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG), and the Monster Manual (MM). These are commonly referred to as the "core rulebooks".

In 1989, AD&D was revised for a Second Edition (sometimes referred to as AD&D2). The game was once again published as three core rulebooks, incorporating the expansions and revisions which had been published in various supplements over the previous decade. The Monster Manual was replaced by the Monstrous Compendium, a loose leaf-binder which was later replaced by the hardcover Monstrous Manual in 1993.

The release of AD&D2 also corresponded with a change in editorial policy at TSR. An effort was made to remove aspects of the game which some considered objectionable and which had attracted negative publicity. Character classes such as the murderous assassin were eliminated, heroic roleplaying and player teamwork were stressed, and demons and devils were removed from the game.

In 1995, the core rulebooks were slightly revised and a series of Player's Option manuals were released as "optional core rulebooks". Although still referred to by TSR as the Second Edition, this revision is seen by some fans as a distinct edition of the game and is sometimes referred to as AD&D 2.5.

File:DandDBasicSetBoxCover.jpg
The D&D Basic Set features cover artwork by Erol Otus, showcasing his distinctive style. The painting features many elements of the fantasy game, including a magic-user, a fighter, a dragon-like monster and a dungeon underground expanding into the gloom.

In 1997, a near-bankrupt TSR was bought by Wizards of the Coast. The new company almost immediately began designing a new version of the game, which would be released in 2000 as Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition (also referred to as Third Edition, D&D3, or 3E). Third Edition, although the largest revision of the D&D rules to date, was designed to follow the Second Edition of AD&D, while the previously independent line of Dungeon & Dragons games were eliminated. Third Edition also served as the basis for a broader role-playing system designed around 20-sided dice, called the d20 system.

The D&D3 rules were more internally consistent and significantly less restrictive than previous editions of the game, allowing players much more flexibility in creating the characters they wanted to play. Skills and the new system of "feats" were introduced into the core rules to encourage players to further customize their characters. The new rules also standardized the mechanics of action resolution and combat. Third Edition also introduced the concepts of "Prestige Classes", high-level classes which characters can only enter upon meeting certain character-design prerequisites or fulfilling certain in-game goals, and expanded the idea of high-level campaigns with the "Epic Level" campaign options included in the core rules set.

In 2003, the Third Edition rules were revised as Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 (also known as Revised Third Edition). This release incorporated numerous minor rule changes and expanded the Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual.

A wide variety of optional supplements have been published for every edition of D&D. These supplements commonly include new rules, items, spells, and creatures. Other supplements include new adventures or detail entire fantasy worlds.

The various editions of Dungeons & Dragons have won many Origins Awards, including All Time Best Roleplaying Rules of 1977, Best Roleplaying Rules of 1989 and Best Roleplaying Game of 2000 for the three flagship editions of the game.

Legacy

Dungeons & Dragons was the first modern role-playing game, establishing many of the conventions which have dominated the genre. Particularly notable are the use of dice as a resolution mechanic, character record sheets, progressive character development, and game-master-centered group dynamics.

The elements which made up D&D can be seen in many hobbies of the time. Character-based roleplaying, for example, can be seen in historical reenactment and improvisational theatre. Game world simulations had been well-developed in wargaming. Fantasy milieus specifically designed for gaming could be seen in Glorantha's board games and M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel, among others. Ultimately, however, D&D represented a unique blending of these elements, creating its own niche and leading to the development of a multitude of role-playing games. Science fiction, horror, superheroes, cartoons, westerns, spies and espionage, and many other fictional settings were adapted to role-playing games.

Other game developers expanded on and improved aspects of the Dungeons & Dragons game. Through the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, new RPG writers and publishers released new role-playing games. The first arrivals to achieve lasting influence were the Gloranthan RuneQuest, released by Chaosium in 1976, and the science fiction role-playing game Traveller, released by Game Designers Workshop in 1978. Some of the later systems include Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, Champions by Hero Games, GURPS by Steve Jackson Games and Vampire: The Masquerade by White Wolf Game Studio. These games also fed back into the genre's origin, miniatures wargames, with combat strategy games like Battletech and Warhammer 40,000. On some level, collectible card games (CCGs) like Magic: The Gathering owe a respectful nod to the original D&D.

With the launch of D&D's Third Edition, Wizards made available the d20 System under the Open Gaming License (OGL). Under this license, authors are free to use the d20 System when writing their own games and game supplements. A strong fanbase loyal to the d20 System has encouraged the growth and rejuvenation of the pencil and paper role-playing game industry. The OGL is also responsible for creating new versions of games like Call of Cthulhu using the new system.

Films and TV

A popular Dungeons & Dragons animated series was produced in 1983.

A Dungeons & Dragons movie was released in 2000.

In 2003, a computer animated motion picture entitled Scourge of Worlds was produced for DVD, featuring iconic characters created for the Third Edition. This is an interactive movie that asks viewers to decide what actions the heroes should take at crucial points in the story, allowing hundreds of different story-telling combinations.

Computer and video games

Fifty-three computer games and sixteen video games (ten for consoles, four for handheld devices, and two arcade games) had been released and sold under the D&D license as of October 2004. Almost half of these games were developed by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). Most, but not all, are computer role-playing games that use rules derived from some version of the D&D rules. Notable titles include

  • Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Cartridge, designed for the Intellivision, was the first computer console game based on the D&D license.
  • Pool of Radiance (1988) was the first D&D computer game. Designed by SSI, the same game engine would be used to develop ten more D&D games.
  • Baldur's Gate (1998) was the first D&D computer game developed by BioWare. It met with critical success and was followed by several more D&D games, including a sequel (Baldur's Gate 2), Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment.
  • Neverwinter Nights (2002), also developed by BioWare, was the first faithful implementation of the Third Edition rules in a CRPG. The game included sophisticated design tools which allowed Dungeon Masters to design unique scenarios, much as they would for the tabletop game itself.
  • Dungeons & Dragons Online is an MMORPG based on the Eberron campaign setting. It is currently being developed by Turbine.

For a full list of licensed D&D computer and video games, see List of Dungeons & Dragons computer and video games. Many other CRPGs, such as the numerous Roguelike games, are directly or indirectly based on the D&D game.

Board games

Seven board games have been sold under the D&D license.

The Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game (1980) was the first computer/board game hybrid and the first D&D licensed game that contained digital electronics.

DragonStrike (1993) used a simplified form of D&D and included an instructional video tape in which costumed actors, combined with computer-generated imagery, played the characters and monsters from the board game.

Magazines

Many magazines have been partially or fully devoted to supporting Dungeons & Dragons. The two official publications are Dungeon Magazine and Dragon Magazine.

Novels

Several hundred novels have been published based upon Dungeons & Dragons.

In the film ET, a scene near the beginning shows boys playing D&D in the kitchen. The game is not mentioned by name, because TSR refused to allow mention of the trademark when the movie was made.

The characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer play a game of D&D in the series finale.

Parody

Dungeons & Dragons has been parodied often. Parodies of the game exist in nearly all media, including film [1], television [2], [3], and cartoons, among others. Much of the potential for parody in Dungeons & Dragons may exist because, with its heroic millieu and imagination-based gameplay, it exaggerates the visibility of the gap between the actuality of the players' self-image and the personas they adopt when interacting with others [4].

Criticism and controversies

The game's commercial success led to lawsuits between Arneson and Gygax starting in 1979, over issues of royalties, particularly for AD&D for which Arneson was not given credit by TSR. Those suits were settled out of court by 1981.

Beyond lawsuits, greater controversies have surrounded D&D due to allegations of its connections to devil worship, witchcraft and suicides. Many of these critisms, though mentioning "Dungeons & Dragons" were actually aimed at RPG's or the fantasy genre in general and are covered in the Role-playing game article.

The controversy involving occult influences led TSR to remove lengthy references to demons, devils, and other supernatural monsters commonly associated with "sorcery" in the 2nd Edition AD&D. Many of these aspects were returned to the game with the release of the Third Edition. A few products have gone into even further detail on the activities of demons and demon worshippers than those of previous editions, the more extreme like the Book of Vile Darkness bear a "For Mature Audiences Only" label.

See also

References

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