Dungeons & Dragons was very different from any other boardgame, the game didn't even require a board. Most of the game action took place in the imaginations of the players. Dungeons & Dragons was invented before the age of video and computer games, however, the game play is very similar.
How To Play Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons was definitely a communal game, one player was assigned as the Dungeon Master, who held the secret maps and controlled all the characters not chosen by the other players. The rest of the players would pick one character and the attributes of that character created by dice rolls.The Dungeon Master would led the players thru the quests that were outlined in the modules provided the game-makers. The players encountered battles and challenges that were outlined in the extensive rule and handbooks, or dictated by the roll of the dice, that accompanied the game.
Players got to act out or role-play thru their characters the situations that occurred during the game play.
History of Dungeons & Dragons
In 1971, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson collaborated and created "The Fantasy Game" the first version of Dungeons & Dragons. A year later, Gary Gygax and business partner Don Kaye (and later financier Brian Blume) formed a company called the Tactical Studies Rules.Two years later in 1974, the company re-published The Fantasy Game under the new name of Dungeons & Dragons. The game was published as a limited run set, whose 1000 copies quickly sold out. The hand-assembled set contained three hefty brown pamphlets packaged in a brown box with white labels.
In 1975, Tactical Studies Rules dissolved and reformed as the new company TSR Hobbies, Inc. That same year, TSR Hobbies published two Dungeons & Dragons supplements, Greyhawk and Blackmoor; and published the first boardgame version of Dungeons & Dragons.
In 1976, the first official competitive tournament of Dungeons & Dragons players was held. TSR Hobbies published even more D&D supplements, and new playing aids for the game.
In 1978, the improved Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game and the Player's Handbook were released. A year later, the Dungeon Master Guide was published and the game was advertised on the radio for the first time. The ads featured the voice of the Dungeon character, Morley the Wizard.
By the early 1980s, the game was being published in over 22 countries and had been translated into several languages.
In 1997, a TSR was purchased by Wizards of the Coast inventors of Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering trading card games.
Controversy
During the 1980s, Dungeons & Dragons came under considerable scrutiny and even lawsuits from the religious right and irate parents, who accused the game of causing players to turn to witchcraft and satan worship, and influencing youth to commit suicide and other crimes. In the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, TSR decided to remove all references to demons, devils, and supernatural monsters. However, the references were restored with a vengeance in 2000, in the third Edition.There were lawsuits between the inventors, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson over royalties for the game. Gary Gygax went to court in a struggle to retain ownership of TSR, which eventually led Gygax to sell his rights to the company in 1985.
Another TSR role-playing game that came under controversy was the 1980 Top Secret. The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided TSR offices after a note written on TSR stationery surfaced describing an assassination plot. It turned out that the plot was fictitious, written as part of the testing of the espionage game.
