"how Dungeons & Dragons conquered the world" Topic

A role-playing game born half a century ago in a Wisconsin basement has spawned an empire spanning film, TV and YouTube. How did it leave its mark on Stranger Things, ET and everyone from Stephen King to Elon Musk?

The Guardian: link

I bought one of the 1st copies of D&D rules available from the Dallas shop that sold Minifigs & Hinchcliffe figures & thus was one of the first Dungeon Masters in the DFW metroplex. Some of the gamers of historical miniature rules, such as WRG, saw D&D as diverting players & resources from "Real" figure gaming such as ACW, Napoleonics, & Ancients. My groups however were willing to play both genres. I drew up a map of a city & the surrounding area for my original D&D campaign but later I relied on "The City State of the Invincible Overlord" publications. I've run D&D campaigns in DFW, Galveston, San Antonio & back again to DFW. I think that I qualify as at least a level 10 DM. I'm grateful for all of these years of entertainment & friendship. My thanks to Mr. Gygax & his gaming group for this marvelous ceation.

I was one of the very early adopters (at a very young age) playing in what may well be one of the first campaigns on the east coast (at MIT). As well as a subscriber to the Strategic review from #1! And then managing a game store in the early 80's. I recently started reading some histories of TSR, to recall those glory days.

Game wizards by Jon Peterson deals with the early days when Gygax ruled TSR, and boy did it bring back memories and names of people and companies I had not thought of in years. While no one really comes off as 'the good one' it reinforced my feelings that Arneson really deserved more credit for the game than he ever got. If only he had patented the idea of experience making a game piece stronger…

Then I read – Slaying the Dragon by Ben Riggs. Which roughly covers those early years, ut mainly focuses on the period when Gygax went to LA, and lost the company. It ends with the WotC buying the company. And from a business standpoint it does point out that TSR seemed to do a lot of stupid things.

Both are OK. Clearly Riggs is not as good, or detailed on the very early years. But he did a good job filling me in on what went down int he hobby after I stopped paying close attention. Both are worth reading.

@jgwne:

Who was the GM at MIT when you played? Kevin Slimak and I brought the first copy of D&D back to MIT in late 1974 from the late, lamented MFCA Gaming convention in Chester, PA.

Steve Simmons (I think)? He used to run the game (on the outdoor survival map) in one of the MITSGS rooms. At that time no one really knew how to play the game, and used D^s to simulate other types, (high low), and an electronic random number generator for 1-100, which I finally realized was just advancing 11 numbers at a time (when all the big brain MIT boys missed that!).

I was a high school kid, skinny, red hair and glasses. One of the few under aged kids to hand out every Saturday at Walker.

"It has always been a safe haven for folks who might not feel at home elsewhere,"

Does he mean us….

Maybe The Editor(may he live forever) should adopt that as the motto for TMP

I still have the early blue covered rulebook and the dice. Bought in Games Workshop a few months after they opened their first store (in Hammersmith) whilst on the way to visit family. The book is decidely dog eared and the dice have faded and lost their sharp corners, but something stops me ditching them. I haven't played for many years, but good times were had when I did.

I have played D&D, but I remain unconquered. Pass the message along to GW, which suffers from a similar delusion.