Happy 40th birthday, Dungeons & Dragons | Hacker News Reader

Happy 40th birthday, Dungeons & Dragons

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140 pointsizietto50 comments

When I was young, I was a dedicated athlete. To the point that I missed weeks of school every year to travel and compete in the championships. I would spend all of my down-time (including between matches) with index cards and graph-paper, designing campaigns.

Unfortunately, the sports meant I never had an opportunity to find anyone to play the campaigns with. To this day - in my thirties - I've only played for a few weeks with other people and that was fifteen years ago.

It's probably the one thing I really regret. That I didn't find people that were also into it and, as an adult, find a way to regularly group together with them. It seems like it would be an incredible blast. Especially since being an adult means having all the money for the fancy custom maps and all the guides and everything.

Long live the memory of Gary Gygax.

> It's probably the one thing I really regret. That I didn't find people that were also into it and, as an adult, find a way to regularly group together with them.

Good news (everyone :)), contrary to other regrets, it's probably one of the easiest to fix. Basically, find the geekiest store/discussion board (related to boardgames, wargames, video games, etc) in your area and post an ad there, you'll quickly (though maybe give it a month or two, if you live in a small or inactive town) find other players. Have fun!

You could try attending a gaming convention. Assuming the US, Origins and GenCon are both a lot of fun and relatively inexpensive (outside of travel, hotels for < $200/day, cheap with a group, and the registration is usually ~$70 for the whole thing + $6/game you want to attend (usually 4-6 games)). Also, you might be surprised who among your friends and friends of friends is interested in this stuff. I've had a lot of luck getting to know people who were in local theater groups, and random colleagues.

The hardest part is just coordinating groups as people start having children and getting married. Just aim small, 1 Saturday every month or two, and you can probably get a steady group.

It's dangerous to go alone! Take this: http://www.reddit.com/r/lfg

http://dnd.meetup.com

D&D was an amazing game. My younger brother went form Dr. Seuss to the AD&D Players Handbook in his reading progression just so he could play with us. I'm pretty sure his speed math is a result of this era.

I got a copy of Gygax magazine recently and all the fun memories came flooding back. I made life-long friends and thought about things I never would have due to D&D and its decedents.

On the darker side of humanity, D&D also gives a bit of a current lesson to techies in the valley. It is very easy to demonize a group and make quite a bit of cash off it. If you didn't head the lessons of the Tea Party and Occupy, then maybe looking at D&D wouldn't hurt.

"So, what do you do?"

Hi, I'm the guy behind Gygax magazine. It really made my day to see your comment. Thanks.

Since I decided to visit the site based on your comment, I figure you might want to look at optimizing the image on the front page - it's a ~670k PNG that took 12 seconds to download...

Thanks for the tip. We just had that up quickly for an event, I've put a more optimized image on the front page now.

Well, amazing job of capturing the early experience in one magazine. It felt like an old Dragon or even a Byte magazine because I looked at every ad. It still amazes me how the ads in some magazines with amazing articles are welcome and the web still hasn't gotten it right.

You just named two of my favorite magazines growing up. I used to send in those "reply cards" that Byte magazine had, and I'd actually go through and circle all the numbers for ads on the card that I was interested in.

I think ads work in magazines like that because they're for audiences with specialized interests, and because a magazine ad isn't as intrusive, and hopefully doesn't get in the way of reading.

We do a PDF version of the magazine as well, but I'm trying to think about what else we can do to keep it relevant for people that don't read those formats.

In those days, the ads were an integral part of the experience and actually _added_ to the value of the magazines. I was also an avid reader of "Byte" and "Dragon". I have several years' worth of Dragons from the 1980s, and was lucky enough to score a copy of the CD compendium during the short window it was available... and of course old issue of "Byte" magazine can be found on archive.org.

And of course, both magazines featured wonderful cover art. "Dragon" had a huge variety of artists and featured some really unforgettable pieces and Byte often featured Robert Tinney who perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the computer revolution with his simple, clean, but imaginative artwork.

When I was a kid I played with a group of boys I didn't know that well at first. Some were kind of nerdy (me), some were jocks that were interested in playing, I guess to find something imaginative in an otherwise conformist experience. We all became friends, but we couldn't talk about playing D&D because it wasn't "cool" at high school.

At a high school reunion I saw many of that group and realized that was probably the most successful group of people I ever sat down at a table with. Three professors, a doctor, and a very successful business consultant. I feel really lucky to have had that experience.

Now my kids have the internet, and great video games. In those days we had to entertain ourselves by telling stories. It brought some interesting people together.

You know, we had video games back in the eighties/nineties when I was a kid. We even had BBS's as a precursor to the Internet. We still played D&D. So don't worry about that.

The community from Teamliquid.net had a long running D&D show on twitch.tv (It ran for almost a year about once a week until the characters had a full party wipe, characters got to level 8-9 and they fast forwarded 100 years in the future)

They recently started a new one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z3ACZ5XDA0

Wow! Thanks for showing me this. I just watched about 3 hours of it. Some random, and almost all week 33 (where one dies).

I thought I wouldn't enjoy it, but it was awesome! I haven't played D&D (or any RPG) since 12, 13 years old (i am 34 now). I really would like to come back to it.

Anyone who wants to learn more about OD&D ought to visit the Original D&D Discussion at http://odd74.proboards.com/

Michael Mornard, who was a regular player in Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's OD&D campaigns is a regular contributor. He posts under the handle "gronanofsimmerya."

Jon Peterson who wrote THE book on the history of D&D also posts there using the handle "increment." Also check out the blog he setup for his book, Playing At The World, at http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/

Used to game with John in the nineties. I don't think his contribution to documenting the history of the game can be overstated, and that will probably only ring more true in the future. Playing At The World is kind of an amazing book.

Completely agree. I've never played D&D and I bought the book after reading a review, but didn't realize that D&D would be the lens or focal point through which the history of wargaming and world-simulation would be focused. But it's a fabulous book, and a breath of fresh air to read a well-organized and researched non-fiction history like this one.

DnD is so much more satisfying than almost every computer game I've ever played. (Note, I've never got into MMORPGs, not sure why, so my main comparison here, possibly unfairly, is Skyrim et al.)

Fighting with/against humans is so much more fun than fighting with pre-programmed enemies; the challenge is much greater. Additionally, rules can be bent for beginners, and even for experienced players to make the story more interesting.

Also, the sheer geekery of it, the terrible puns, the amdram atmosphere... it speaks to something deep inside me. :)

If anyone knows/wants a London group, with or without homemade accessories/costumes, check out my post on LFG[1] (thanks to rndmize for introducing me to that subreddit!)

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/lfg/comments/1w9ubp/offline_any_dnd_...

I remember when I was a kid. The idea of dice, some rules and paper helping my mind escape the mundane realities around me and live epic adventures with my friends was fascinating to me.

Today we still meet up (after almost 20 years of roleplay) weekly and play. Its our pokernight :)

Currently working on a better character sheet for the pathfinder version of d&d : http://charsheets.herokuapp.com

Demo character (One I am going to be using next session) http://charsheets.herokuapp.com/publiclink/27

If you decide to use it, be warned. It is still a work in procress. Very alpha. Such dev.

Maybe someone knows the answer to this. I played D&D when there were three books. The Dungeon Master's Guide had a red demon/devil on it and according to wikipedia it is Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Master's_Guide#Advanced...

Where can I find a community that offers games with that rule set? Is referring to the rule set as AD&D the proper way?

AD&D is the proper term. If you want that specific ruleset it was republished by WotC one or two years back, used versions also available. If you're more flexible on the ruleset there's Old School Renaissance [1], set of games which try to recreate the rules/feel of AD&D. RGP Geek [2] might be a forum you're interested in. You can likely find a group in your area if you're in a bigger city or metro area at gaming shops. If you use Reddit [3] is a reasonably active place to find groups or players.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_retro-clon...

[2] http://rpggeek.com

[3] http://www.reddit.com/r/lfg/

> Where can I find a community that offers games with that rule set?

Dragonsfoot bills itself as "the home of 1st Edition AD&D" on the web. They have many resources for AD&D, including character sheets, adventure modules, an e-zine called Footprints, and a very active discussion forum. Their URL is http://www.dragonsfoot.org/

You can purchase PDFs of 1st edition AD&D materials at http://www.dndclassics.com/

OSRIC is a simulacrum (retro-clone) of the 1st edition AD&D rules. Get it free at http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/osric/

I think I'm going to buy the new game. I never played it when I was younger but wanted to and since I've been watching Big Bang Theory box-sets I've really wanted to!

I'd wait a little while. D&D is currently at 4th Edition (abbreviated as 4E). A lot of people _do not_ care for 4E, and I'm among them. They find that 4E lost everything that the happened during the polishing to 3.5. As a result, Wizards of the Coast is working on creating a 5th Edition, as I type this.

I would recommend you wait a while for 5E, or try PathFinder, which is a continuation where 3.5 left off, and seems to be gaining lost of ground against WotC D&D.

On the other hand, many people found that 4E removed a lot of the things that made d&d annoying or worse, including a lot of the 'system mastery' abuses.

The great thing about D&D is since the system is ultimately controlled using the GM's brain any abuse can be patched on the fly. Assuming you have a good GM of course.

That was the best part... and I created lots of modifications to the rules when I was very active in the 1980s... a detailed initiative system, an alternate magic system... etc.

Unfortunately, TSR got into this fascist "if it's not official, it's not allowed" kick for a while, but eventually that nonsense was left behind and WotC has done a fine job with the property (4e notwithstanding).

I hear you, it's always good to stir things up a bit. Personally on my campaigns I like to bring in the Iron Heroes reserve hp system. Basically heroes get a pool of double their max hp as "reserve" when they rest they can transfer hp from this pool to their hp. It eliminates the whole 5 minutes of battle 8 hours of resting problem for adventurers.

As for WOTC I'm really unsure how I feel about what they've done. I read that with 4th edition they also fast forwarded Forgotten Realms 100 years and switched it to the new magic system. I don't really read that much fantasy anymore but it still bothers me a little that the Realms I knew and loved are now gone. Kind of reminds me of that old Dragonlance 5th age thing. Oh well I guess I'm just getting old, I'm sure there's lots of people who enjoy having a fresh start. In other news I'm really excited that Shadowrun seems to be making a huge comeback! There's also seems to be some action on the Darksun front, it's really nice to see some of those old favorites that I felt never got a fair shake rise from the dead.

It's probably best to find a group and play whatever edition they're using, really.

I highly recommend Pathfinder(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinder_Roleplaying_Game), it's basically 3.5 with further polishing, 3.5 was released under the open game license and pathfinder has continued it's tradition. It's also got a great support website: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ and it's really fun. I'm running a Pathfinder game on a weekly basis after about a 5 year break and I'm really enjoying it.

Pathfinder is great. The 3.5e rules really did a great job of maintaining the spirit of the 1e rules, while addressing their many inadequacies. 4e was a real shark-jumping move, but Pathfinder carries the 3.5e goodness on.

It will be interesting to see what 5e is like. Will it be a New Coke/Classic Coke type move? Or Vista/Windows 7... where an obviously flawed product is replaced by something much better that it should have been in the first place?

Never played D&D or AD&D , unfortunatly. I got Stormbringer , Hawkmoon ,MERPG and CoC and a few weird french ones I dont remember the name.

Though I dont play tabletop RPGs anymore , i still buy rule books or campaigns when I find them in shops, just to read them.

One might say video games killed tabletop RPGs , maybe somebody will come with a new concept using technology while keeping the essence of RPG, cause having a computer as rolemaster is not very exciting.

>One might say video games killed tabletop RPGs

I'd disagree with that. RPGs were always pretty much a niche hobby. There's a rich fandom if you know where to look, and the industry is adapting to the pressures of technologies in some interesting ways (e.g. embracing print on demand). Check out the activity on forum.rpg.net to see the hobby alive and well.

Interestingly, a few years back with D&D 4th Edition, there were a lot of new players coming from the video game side of the house. And not just the stereotypical nerds. As a friend lamented once, "You know, I get that you play these games. But why are my frat brothers playing D&D?"

A lot of popular RPG video games are either based directly on a tabletop system or get a tabletop system made for them. In the latter case, it's often an easier game to get into (the Dragon Age RPG is a good example) than some of the more standard tabletop systems. And then there's Cortex and Cortex+ which exists pretty much just to turn movie/tv shows into RPGs.

> a few weird french ones I dont remember the name.

French guy here- I'm not sure why (well I have a few ideas, but they aren't very developed), but pen and paper role playing games were (relatively) super popular in France, and are still to this day. When I was a teenager in the early 2000s, there were several PNP RPG magazines distributed nationwide (Casus Belli, Backstab, Graal, etc.). I may be wrong, but it seems that only the US surpassed France on that point.

I was hooked from the age of 10 or so. I had been reading Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books for a few years, and one day I learned about Dungeons and Dragons. Sadly my local library didn't have a copy of the books, and I didn't have any allowance at the time, so I invented universes and rules on my own and played the games with my brothers. I later played some D&D, L5R, WoD in middle/high school, and read ton of custom rulesets/settings I found on the internet.

Good times :)

(and I did nostalgia quite a bit the other day by buying a bunch of used RPG books on Amazon that I had wanted as a kid but could never buy. They're going away for dirt cheap now!)

> One might say video games killed tabletop RPGs

No, I'm pretty sure it was MtG (i.e., Magic card game). I remember the year before MtG got popular, super crowded conventions. Year afterwards, the biggest crowd were playing MtG. A few months later, and I'd started entering the MtG tourneys.

> One might say video games killed tabletop RPGs...

Traditional pen and paper RPGs are a very long way from being dead. The industry has changes radically, but it's still very much alive and as vibrant as ever. What's happened is that it's diversified away from a few very successful companies such as TSR, Chaosium, SJG, Palladium, etc into hundreds of small independent publishers serving niche audiences.

The radical reduction in the costs and difficulty of publishing, particularly in the form of PDFs, over the last few decades have revolutionized the industry. Kickstarter is also acting as a fantastic catalyst that's matching up audiences with capital to authors and publishers in need of funding. This is enabling a whole host of projects that previously simply wouldn't have been viable.

There's also a mini-renaissance going on in children's RPGs with games like Mermaid Adventures, itself a very successful kickstarter project, being a favorite in Chez Hibbs. There's never been a better time to get into RPGs and never been a greater variety of innovative games in print and available to play.

Fantasy Grounds plus TeamSpeak.

After attending a reunion with a bunch of college friends, we started up a gaming group again. Of course, we are now scattered all over the country, but using Fantasy Grounds solved that problem. It's a decent piece of software for remote role-playing and has lots of support for different systems. We are using Pathfinder because it's the best spiritual successor of the original AD&D.

After a couple months we started using Skype, which made the game move a lot faster, and later migrated to TeamSpeak, which makes for a really good environment for getting a geographically-diverse group together weekly. 6 years on and it's still going strong.

Really enjoyed everything from painting the figures to creating maps and characters to staying up all night with friends geeking out.

Sadly I can't find anyone willing to give it a go to see if I would still be into it. Would really be a good use of something like Google Hangouts.

True. Some of my friends do a monthly game on IRC and we did an iPad with FaceTime for a friend living in another state.

My dream is to take an old G4 iMac and make the screen move remotely, it would be epic at the table.

Roll20.net. It uses Google Hangouts for its video/audio sharing

You should check out roll20.net, they have a webapp / Google Hangouts app with a bunch of tools to support remote tabletop gaming.

So despite what other people have said, Roll20 does not use Google Hangouts. It uses Tokbox. However, it tends to work better than Google Hangouts ever did for us in the past. Enough so that we were able to switch to using the Roll20 video/audio chat rather than our normal Skype session.

Anyways, Roll20 is great, and I'd give it a shot. Roll20 has allowed my 10+ year gaming group to keep gaming.

I don't believe this is accurate. I think the Google Hangout "app" is fairly new: http://help.roll20.net/misc-playing-in-google-plus/

dnd.meetup.com

You could also try a play-by-post game at the Original D&D Discussion forum http://odd74.proboards.com/

OMG. I want to play DnD again.

I won't forget a friend realising how you could abbreviate Find And Remove Traps. Never. Gets. Boring.

Strangely, DnD caused different types of teenager to unite around the same table; Geeks, tracksuits, metal-heads and pot smokers.

Them were the days...

Played quite a bit as a kid, not so much in college, then a bit more after college. I haven't played in years, but I still have all my gaming books in a box. Now and then I do go through them to reread an adventure or two.

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