30 Years Of Dungeons And Dragons

vasqzr writes "CNN has a story about Dungeons and Dragons celebrating its 30th birthday. '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, Washington, company that owns Dungeons & Dragons.'"

Comments

Am I the only one that noticed...

[slappyjack]

...that it looks like the A.P. has poorly educated High School Students writing their articles now?

I mean, this thing looks like its target at about a 4th grade reading level.

Happy B-Day to D&D anyway.

Dupe

[Junior J. Junior III]

This story hit a few months ago, and was covered on Slashdot.

Here and
Here.

Re:Nice, Sort Of

[Moby Cock]

I have to agree. I used to play AD&D years ago until a friend of mine wanted to switch over to play the Star Wars RPG. It was fun change for a short while until the characters became all powerful (read: super stong Jedis). That game, like your comment, really focused on getting better skills and then killing more stormtroopers. Its fun for a little bit but gets old.

I remeber playing AD&D and the reward at the end of a weekend of adventuring was a sword. And it took another weekend to find the magician that told me it did. Good times.

Explanation

[Anonymous Coward]

For those who haven't seen it...
part 1
Check your local P2P network for part2. Search for Dead Ale Wives Dungeons Dragons

Re:Nice, Sort Of

[BeerCat]

Ah, the days when the DM concentrated on storylines, all the while trying to avoid the IUDC syndrome.

Re:Nice, Sort Of

[Allen Varney]

sadly TSR has gone downhill since being eaten by the [WotC] group [...] TSR jumped the shark with Ravenloft, not to mention Spell Jamming.

As others have pointed out, TSR published the Ravenloft and Spelljammer campaign settings long before Wizards of the Coast bought TSR. More to the point, many fans regard the Ravenloft setting as one of the high points of the TSR years, because of its sharp sense of the Gothic horror genre. Wizards sold the line to White Wolf Game Studio, which continues to publish it under its Arthaus imprint.

As for Spelljammer, that was my own favorite AD&D campaign setting (along with Al-Qadim, the Arabian Nights setting). I had great fun writing the first Spelljammer module, WILDSPACE. Unfortunate much of the support line failed to live up to the premise's potential.

speedy sword-draw getting in the way of intimacy?

[ReagansUndeadBrain]

Don't be ashamed! Numerous adventurers suffer from the same problem and have found a solution. Talk to your healer to see if our solution is right for you!

The World of Eamon

[AtomicSnarl]

Ahhh... back in the Apple ][ days of yore... a fellow named Donald Brown created the world of Eamon, an RPG game with a fun twist -- it was also a game shell. You could get game modules from your BBS (at 300 baud on your Hayes Micromodem) or write your own modules. Your (mainly) text based game could have whatever number of rooms, treasures, monsters and allies (charisma roll please...) with whatever properties you wanted.

Tearing apart the Applesoft Basic and hacking my own weapons were a joy indeed!

And best of all, they're still out there!

Gary Gygax

[serutan]

Sadly, the article only makes a passing reference to the patriarch of D&D. I guess ownership is everything nowadays. GameBanshee.com has a nice interview with Gygax accompanied by lots of D&D artwork.

Re:Gary Gygax

[Lord_Dweomer]

I agree. I used to drive an hour every weekend up to Lake Geneva, WI to play with the Gygax family at the Game Guild. Sadly I think the store went under, and I know the Gygax's haven't exactly made it rich off D&D.

There really is something to be said for sitting at a table discussing Bigby's line of spells and finding out the guy sitting next to you played the original Bigby, and the guy across the table played the original Mordenkainen.

That was hands down the best group of gamers I've ever gamed with in my life. I'd like to give the Gygax family a big warm thank you for filling my highschool years with creativity and a place where I fit in.

Re:Nice, Sort Of

[greulich]

If you are really low on cash you can just use the SRD. All of the rules available for free on the web. What a concept...

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/s rd35

Re:Although correlation != causation

[Believe]

For those like me who are not as well versed in D&D lore, Tarrasques are described here.

Re:celibate D&D geeks

[ReagansUndeadBrain]

No offense to celibate D&D geeks intended. I am a recovering D&D geek ... no comment on the celibacy status.

Loviatar, a goddess from Finnish myth, was in the AD&D Deities & Demigods manual - in fact, in her picture in the first edition she bared her breasts! This is something of an "in" joke for ex-D&D dufi like yours truly. Back in the early-80's, Loviatar's picture no doubt gave many an adolescent 'gameboy' his first glimpse of ... a woman. So what if she was a cheezy drawing ... she was hot!

The fact that she was the goddess of pain made it all the more titillating. I would try and scrounge an image, but I lost my manual years ago ...

Re:Although correlation != causation

[fucksl4shd0t]

Didn't it ever occur to you to just grab a few d10s and use those for your hit points? That way you're only erasing and rewriting your hit points once a game, at the end when it's time to go.

Or, for those of us who suffered Frequent Death Syndrome, I could just use a d12 to track my hit points.