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Read more about the article Celebrating D&D

Celebrating D&D

Back in 1980, a reporter who asked if D&D was only a passing fad learned that “Gygax and Blume think not. D&D, they say, will last fifty years or more.” As unlikely as it was in the 1970s that this esoteric offshoot of the wargaming hobby might become a pop-culture phenomenon, it is just as unlikely that in 2021 the game would be more popular than ever. As a new generation grows up playing the game, it may be that the true impact of Dungeons & Dragons has yet to be felt.

—Jon Peterson, Game Wizards

This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. In 1974, it was a new kind of game, created at the intersection of wargames and fantasy and science-fiction literature. It came to be called a role-playing game, enjoyed by millions over these five decades.

So this year, we celebrate the game and the millions of fellow players with whom we share the common experience: fantastic adventure in make-believe worlds. We celebrate friends found and friendships made firmer. We celebrate a simple connection to a diverse array of people from all around the world. A stranger is not so strange when we both know what it’s like to explore a dank dungeon, torch in hand, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and fighting monsters.

We also celebrate D&D’s several editions over the years as well as the hundreds—thousands—of other role-playing games that followed it. One of its strong points is that D&D is a toolbox. With it, we can have an adventure, make a string of adventures into a campaign, and create an imaginary world full of adventures. We are given license to change the rules as desired, and in so doing, perhaps, make a new game altogether. It is so malleable.

We celebrate the game’s cultural impact. From a niche 1970s game that broke out of its intended wargamer audience by the end of the first print run to a game played by thousands who hardly understood the rules and condemned by thousands more as devil worship in the ’80s, D&D in the 21st century has grown into a pop-culture phenomenon. As a teenager, when I said I played D&D, I had to follow with “It’s a game of imagination, without a board. Players take the roles of…” Today I just say I play D&D and know that most folks are familiar with it, even if some may still misunderstand the game. The curious ask, a conversation starts.

We also celebrate the use, in recent years, of D&D and other RPGs in education, psychotherapy, spiritual growth, and team-building and leadership development. Just playing an RPG for fun is good for us in countless ways. More than that though, the game’s innate means of personal growth applied, with intent, to overcome individual and collective challenges increases the game’s impact manifold.

It’s there, in applied RPGs, that in the next 50 years we may see an important impact of D&D in the world. Maybe its most important—its true impact.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, Lake Geneva, WI: Tactical Studies Rules, 1974. Box cover image from the Acaeum: Dungeons & Dragons Knowledge Compendium, Original D&D Set.

Raised on DnD

Interviewed for the Raised on DnD podcast, I talk with Nick Cardarelli about old-school editions of D&D, a little about how they differ from newer editions, but mostly about how I love all the editions and how D&D is good for us.

Raised on DnD S8E10 on Spotify
Click the image to listen on Spotify.

Raised on DnD podcast helps enrich your family’s gaming experience by bringing you interviews with parents, educators, game designers, and influencers. Join us as we delve into the many ways tabletop role-playing games inspire creativity, develop communication skills, and create lasting bonds among players.

Read more about the article 50th Anniversary of the “Forward” to D&D
The “Forward” to DUNGEONS & DRAGONS by E. Gary Gygax, dated November 1, 1973 (Men & Magic, 1974).

50th Anniversary of the “Forward” to D&D

In the FOREWORD FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITION, I read a mysterious fairy tale. It began with “ONCE UPON A TIME, long, long ago . . .” and turned quickly esoteric. There were castles, crusades, and societies. There was a character named Dave Arneson and a map of a “Great Kingdom” and its “environs.” There was a bog and, in it, a “weird enclave” called “Blackmoor” in “a spot between the ‘Giant Kingdom’ and the fearsome ‘Egg of Coot.’” There were medieval fantasy “campaigns,” which were more than just a game. Blackmoor was one, another was Greyhawk.

The place names were unfamiliar, as were many of the words. They all came together in my mind like pieces of an insolvable jigsaw puzzle. . . .

—Excerpt from Blue Flame, Tiny Stars

The last Sunday in January. That’s when D&D historian Jon Peterson marks the anniversary of the game’s release: January, from a 1975 fanzine article by Gary Gygax; late in the month, from the co-creator’s recollection in the 1999 Silver Anniversary edition, and Sunday, because that’s the day “Gary invited the world to drop by his house, at 1:30 PM, to have a first experience of Dungeons & Dragons.” According to Peterson’s reckoning, on January 28, 2024, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of D&D.

Another date must have been an important milestone to Gary Gygax. The foreword is often written last. When it’s done, the author’s work is complete. The manuscript now goes to typesetting, layout, proofreading, and, finally, to the printer. As he punched out “1 November 1973” on typewriter keys, Gygax must have felt, at the same time, great satisfaction in having completed the game and hopeful trepidation about its reception by the wargaming community. These emotions may have clouded his vision such that he didn’t catch an error in the title.

The milestone is also important to many fans, who, like myself, found so much wonder in that single half-size page. In the opening citation, I describe my fascination when I first encountered the text in the 1977 Holmes Basic edition. By now I’ve read it countless times. It is with the same fascination, the same wonder, that I read it again today—and maybe once more.

If the last Sunday in January is the anniversary of its birth, November 1 marks the advent of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.

In the years since, I learned all the place names from the mysterious fairy tale and all the words, too. I learned about the Castle & Crusade Society and their Chainmail fantasy wargame rules. I learned that Dave Arneson and the FOREWORD’s author, Gary Gygax, invented the game, of which the “original edition” was published in the previous decade. I have adventured in Greyhawk and Blackmoor and set scenarios for my own medieval fantasy campaigns in those worlds. And although now I know its origin and character, in my mind, the Egg of Coot remains fearsome.

—Blue Flame, Tiny Stars

Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables Now on DriveThruRPG

Random Determination of Room Contents for Dungeons from the Late 1970s. Like Moldvay’s dungeon room contents tables for earlier editions. Available at DriveThruRPG in PDF for print and phone.

Roll on one of three d% tables to determine a room’s general contents: monster, treasure, trap, interesting variation, or empty. The tables are derived from guidelines given in three late-1970s’ publications of the world’s most superlative role-playing game.

For a one-third chance of monsters throughout the underworld, use the BLUEBOOK table. To differentiate between built dungeon areas and natural caves and caverns, switch between the DUNGEONS and CAVES tables.

You get 2 PDFs:

  1. Print PDF (6 pp., 5½" x 8½") displays well on tablets and e-readers.
  2. Phone PDF (8 pp., 2¼" x 4") fits on the smallest screens.

Both contain the tables and brief instruction. A footer contains links to each table for quick navigation on screen. Or print the tables on a single double-sided letter-size or A4 sheet; fold in half short-wise to expose the desired table.

Monsters and Treasures Not Included: After determining general contents, you’ll need to decide on specific monsters, treasures, and interesting variations according to your dungeon plan and preferred rule system.

Get yours on DriveThruRPG.

Read more about the article Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables Coming Soon

Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables Coming Soon

Release is set for early in the week. Previously called “Flying Dungeon Stocking Tables,” we used these a couple years ago to help stock a certain twisted and nightmarish dungeon. Lately, they serve in Deep Dungeon Doom when inspiration is short for the daily #Dungeon23.

I put the trio of tables, with instructions for use, behind a nice cover and made one PDF for printing and viewing on mid- to large-size screens and another for use on your smartphone.

Random Determination of Room Contents for Dungeons from the Late 1970s. By Stephen Wendell

Like Moldvay’s dungeon room contents tables for earlier editions.

Roll on one of three d% tables to determine a room’s general contents: monster, treasure, trap, interesting variation, or empty. The tables are derived from guidelines given in three late-1970s’ publications of the world’s most superlative role-playing game.

For a one-third chance of monsters throughout the underworld, use the BLUEBOOK table. To differentiate between built dungeon areas and natural caves and caverns, switch between the DUNGEONS and CAVES tables.

For details on how the tables are derived, see “Flying Dungeon Stocking Table by the Bluebook” and “Flying Table by Dungeon Geomorphs Sets.”

“Flying” Dungeon Stocking Tables Become Old-School ’77

While preparing to stock Dyson Logos’s Deep Halls1 of Amon-Gorloth a couple years ago, we needed a simple way to determine general room contents: monsters, treasures, tricks, and traps. My adoration for Moldvay’s CONTENTS and TREASURE tables (B52) ends at the point I’m wanting to use earlier sources. This is the case for Amon-Gorloth, who speaks to me in Holmes.

So, using guidelines given in Holmes Basic D&D (TSR Hobbies, 1977) and the two supplements that came in early boxed sets: Treasure Assortment and Monster & Treasure Assortment, both Set One (1976, 1977), I devised a single d% table that serves the same function as the Moldvay tables.

The Dungeon Stocking Tables Formerly Known as “Flying” in PDF for Print and Phone

During development, we discovered a distinction between natural and built underworld areas. Dungeon Geomorphs Sets One and Three give a 25% chance to encounter monsters in dungeons, while Set Two: Caves & Caverns gives a 50% chance.2 Prompted by this revelation about OD&D’s implied setting, I made two more tables, adjusted from the first, to reflect this difference between caves and dungeons.

For details on how the tables are derived, see “Flying Dungeon Stocking Table by the Bluebook” and “Flying Table by Dungeon Geomorphs Sets.”

In the solo campaign Dreaming Amon-Gorloth, I use the tables, accompanied by the Monster and Treasure Assortments, to stock the Deep Halls as the adventuring party explores it. We used to call that “winging it” and “DMing on the fly,” hence the title “Flying Dungeon Stocking Tables.”

Since the beginning of this year, the tables serve now and again to fill in where I lack an idea for what’s in the daily room of my #Dungeon23. I’m running Deep Dungeon Doom for a group, though, and rolling for room contents while a pair of 12-year-olds waits to fight something and take its treasure is ill advised.

As they serve so well and might enjoy a wider audience, I am preparing the tables for distribution. “Flying” is a less apt description. I have therefore renamed the document.

Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables are soon available in PDF for print and phone on DriveThruRPG.

1 The map god is spreading a rumor on social media that he is working on the Deep Halls II. I don’t find it yet on the Dodecahedron.

2 This difference is lost in the composite product Dungeon Geomorphs Sets One to Three (1980), which uses yet another distribution—a variation on 50% monsters.

Blue Flame, Tiny Stars on DriveThruRPG

Cover of Blue Flame, Tiny Stars

“Stephen’s delightful memoir makes you want to travel upstream to your own formative D&D headwaters, dig out your old graph-paper maps and worn dice, and rediscover the gateway to what the author calls ‘the fantastic path.’”
—Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms

“A celebration of dice, maps, friendship, and, above all, imagination—the very stuff from which the hobby of role-playing is made.”
—James Maliszewski, author of Grognardia: Musings and Memories from a Lifetime of Roleplaying

Warning: Reading this book will make you want to play D&D!

Now Available on DriveThruRPG in Paperback, EPUB, and PDF

Blue Flame, Tiny Stars Bonus Material

I mention in the preface to Blue Flame, Tiny Stars that several articles or parts of articles from Anecdotes and Old Games are omitted from the text, as they are impertinent to the memoir. Because they may be of interest to old-school role-players and fans of Holmes Basic D&D, I include an index to the orphaned articles on the book’s web page under the heading Bonus Material.

The Story Continues…

After my initiation to the game with the Holmes edition, I happened upon Moldvay, Cook, and Marsh’s D&D Basic and Expert Sets: “A Craft Store Discovery.”

More to come in Anecdotes and Old Games.

Book cover, Blue Flame, Tiny Stars

Warning: Reading this book will make you want to play D&D!

Now Available on DriveThruRPG in Paperback, EPUB, and PDF