Introduction The valiant party of adventurers, led by their navigator from the near town of Lanmarsh, finally arrive at the destination they traveled miles to reach, the Emerald Forrest of Darthmorrow. They decide to make camp near the entryway of the forest trail and unwind a bit before morning. Before Remonier, the party’s powerful wizard, even has time to start the camp fire, ranger Ceres shushes the party to become silent. The adventurers hear tree branches breaking in the distant night of the dark forest brush. “Watch out!” screams the ranger, as a giant tree falls directly between him and the rest of the party. Standing before him is a terrifying red dragon, ready to defend what is rightfully to him, his territory. The giant beast swings his claws at Ceres. Ceres stumbles backwards, avoiding the attack, and draws his bow to engage in combat. “Okay, now roll your dice and hope you get a good roll in damage. This beast isn’t going to be a walk in the park for any of you since you were all caught off guard,” the dungeon master chuckles maniacally at the group of players sitting around the table in his living room. A craving for adventure, the proper dice set, and a few good friends is all one really needs to have a great time playing the famous roleplaying game, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). The dungeon master (DM) guides the rest of the players on their adventure through the imaginary world, while the players themselves face various challenges and quests along the way to achieving their character’s main goals by becoming more skilled, equipped, and powerful. Sound interesting so far? Looks like you’ve picked up the right book.
Introduction The valiant party of adventurers, led by their navigator from the near town of Lanmarsh, finally arrive at the destination they traveled miles to reach, the Emerald Forrest of Darthmorrow. They decide to make camp near the entryway of the forest trail and unwind a bit before morning. Before Remonier, the party’s powerful wizard, even has time to start the camp fire, ranger Ceres shushes the party to become silent. The adventurers hear tree branches breaking in the distant night of the dark forest brush. “Watch out!” screams the ranger, as a giant tree falls directly between him and the rest of the party. Standing before him is a terrifying red dragon, ready to defend what is rightfully to him, his territory. The giant beast swings his claws at Ceres. Ceres stumbles backwards, avoiding the attack, and draws his bow to engage in combat. “Okay, now roll your dice and hope you get a good roll in damage. This beast isn’t going to be a walk in the park for any of you since you were all caught off guard,” the dungeon master chuckles maniacally at the group of players sitting around the table in his living room. A craving for adventure, the proper dice set, and a few good friends is all one really needs to have a great time playing the famous roleplaying game, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). The dungeon master (DM) guides the rest of the players on their adventure through the imaginary world, while the players themselves face various challenges and quests along the way to achieving their character’s main goals by becoming more skilled, equipped, and powerful. Sound interesting so far? Looks like you’ve picked up the right book.
In the Beginning There Were Dragons
Witchcraft & Dragons
Pages 3 - 10
Pages 11 - 18
Digital & Dragons
Pages 19 - 28
A Dragon in the Park
Pages 29 - 32
Dragons in the Cloud
Pages 33 - 41
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How Dungeons & Dragons Began Dungeons and Dragons has stood through the test of time, being one of the most played and known roleplaying games in the world, especially in the United States where it was created by Gary Gygax, with the help of Dave Arneson. Before D&D took its roots in history, Gygax had already created an organization of wargaming clubs, and founded Gen Con Gaming Convention. Expanding on this, in the year 1971, he helped develop Chainmail, a miniatures tabletop wargame based on medieval warfare. This miniature game, along with others similar to it at the time, took inspiration from tabletop wargames that historically go all the way back to the medieval era itself. After Gygax helped with the creation of Chainmail, Dave
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Arneson adopted the rules of the game for his own fantasy “Blackmoor” campaign. After collaborating with Arneson and watching him play through his campaign, Gygax saw the potential role-playing games like this had to offer the world. Shortly after this, Gygax tested the game on his children in a setting called “Greyhawk”, and eventually, more people joined in and a decent sized gaming circle was created around his campaign. Meanwhile, Arneson continued his “Blackmoor” campaign, and continued to trade notes and talk to Gygax about the potential of the game. Sadly though, their collaboration ended as both men realized that their visions for “The Fantasy Game” were diverging into different paths.
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Rulebook to Original D&D Set by TSR
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Original TSR D&D Collector’s Box
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By mid-1973, Gygax produced a 150-page revision of the rulebook, adding in inspirations from famous authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, Bram Stoker, and many others. Ge pitched the new rulebook to Avalon Hill, the largest wargaming company at the time, to publish it, but the company did not understand the new role-playing concepts Gygax presented and turned him down. By 1974, the “Greyhawk” campaign had grown to over 20 players, seeing the growing potential of the game, and in the same year, Arneson and Gygax joined forces again to officially create Dungeons and Dragons, which expanded on Chainmail and included elements of fantasy
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stories Gygax loved while growing up. Finally after various financial battles to bring to game to the public, Dungeons and Dragons box set was published in January of 1974 under TSR Inc. The first run of the product was assembled and made from Gygax’s home, and all print runs of 1,000 copies sold out in less than a year. The years that followed only brought more success for Gygax; new versions of the game started to be released, like Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and new content was always being added, from monster manuals, to dungeon guides. Despite all the criticism D&D received as it aged, it still holds the title of one of the most notorious, favored role-playing games of all time by millions of people.
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Dice used to play D&D
Public Opinion of Dungeons & Dragons
Although Dungeons & Dragons is very popular in the American culture today, it used to not always be that way. According to Greg Davis in an interview about his experience with Dungeons and Dragons in the 1980s, he recalls that the game had a huge negative stigma surrounding it back then—the players being viewed as part of a “devil worshiping� society, simply because many people did not understand the game. Davis also mentions that this public backlash of D&D even went as far as to be on the national news channels, and that Tipper Gore in the late 80s started a nation-wide protest against rock music, D&D, and other related things that were supposedly leading the youth down the wrong path.
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“We would watch the nightly news, and you would see e her and others on there talking about how D&D was warping our minds,” Davis continues, “The description she had of it was nothing like it actually was. She even went in front of Congress and had hearings on it. As a child, you were really worried they were going to do something that would stop our fun we were having with h D&D. There was also a movie that came out because e of all of this called Mazes and Monsters, that showed wed how D&D led you down the wrong path. It was a dire direct rect parody of D&D and people would say, “You see how iit warps your mind?” People that really played the he game ga thought it was comical, because we didn’t do any y of the stuff that was in the movie.”
In another in terview with Emily Edmis her early 20 ton, who is in s, talked abou t D&D grow early 2000s: in g up in the “I think it us ed to have a mom’s basem ne gative, ‘nerd ent’ stigma. in Lately though talking abou , I’ ve seen peop t it more open le ly. Granted I’ industry, an m in the soft d we’re nerd w ar e s, but I definite more than I ly hear abou used to” Edm t it iston says. Although D& D suffered th rough this m in the era if ajor backlash its creation, it not only surv thrived. It’s ived, but also interesting to see this sudd public stigm en change in a surroundin g D&D. Could its mas s integration into pop cult games and m ure like vide ovies be one o of the causes popularity on of this growing ce more?
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“I definetly h ear about it (D&D) more th an I used to.” — Emily Edmis ton
ightly watch the n “We would er would see h u o y d n a s, ere new others on th d n a ) re o G (Tipper as how D&D w t u o b a g in talk r minds” warping ou avis — Gregory D
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Digital D &
ra g
ons
ERA BEGINNING OF AN
ea geons & Dragons have becom In the more recent years, Dun in pop an influence in the media and norm to society; even being ing sive part of gaming culture—be culture. D&D grew into a mas es, gam o vide ne for thousands of inspiration and stepping sto ter, le: Lord of the Rings, Harry Pot movies, and books, for examp s, File n sde e of Thrones, The Dre The Chronicles of Narnia, Gam , Dark cher, Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age and videogames like: The Wit ld Wars, and much more. Souls, World of Warcraft, Gui n had an mmorpg Dungeons and Dragons eve , -roleplaying-game) adaptation (massively-multiplayer-online sion ver 3.5 ed loosely on the D&D being called D&D Online bas l-time ir own characters and use rea rules. Players can create the made tabletop turn-based system combat, rather than using the e sam the at a time. Everything is not for parties of many players nster many features, including a mo of course, but the game has tem, stats, and a party/guild sys manual, quests, D&D related . ling of a true D&D adventure which gives the player the fee
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D&D set the benchmark for many future RPG games -- either the table-top or computer variety. Beyond simple game mechanics, the game allows players to understand how to tell a story or craft an adventure that kept people engaged and entertained. From tabletop games like Warhammer 40,000 to video games like Warcraft, the list is endless. The influence of “Dungeons & Dragons” on video games has been clear from the beginning. D&D is about creativity -- both in terms of the player experience and the Dungeon Master experience. In 1988, the first officially-licensed video game based on D&D was released by Strategic Simulations, Inc. “Pool of Radiance” was an adaptation of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rule set, and was generally well received by fans and critics.
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“As far as it being an influence on videogames, that’s not even a conversation.” More successful video games would follow including the “Baldur’s Gate” series and the “Neverwinter Nights” PC game collection. A lot of D&D lovers played many of the games and felt the games leveraged the vast settings of the D&D’s campaigns without tying themselves to its specific rules -- thereby leaning more on storytelling rather than combat As far as it being an influence on videogames, that’s not even a conversation. In the Western CRPG (computer role-playing games) tradition, the lineage is so direct as to be a straight line. And many who play games like “Elder Scrolls Online,” “Guild Wars 2,” and “World of Warcraft,” often connect to teammates and their opponents through headsets and chat channels. This is essentially like getting together for the social experience that is an old-fashioned “D&D” session, just on a different platform.
Dragon Age: Videogame inspired by D&D
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A
Dragon IN THE
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DUNGEONS & DRAGONS INSPIRED LARPING “I’ve always liked rapier combat, because being able to hit someone with a metal sword and fight for fun is satisfying.” — Casey England LARPing (live action roleplaying) has grown more and more popular in recent years, especially for people that love tabletop roleplaying games like D&D. “I am an active LARPer, the people in my organization doesn’t like to refer to it as that, but a recreation of historical events. I’ve always like rapier combat, because being able to hit someone with a metal sword and fight for fun is satisfying. My persona was born in 1602, and he’s an active member of the French musketeers of the guard to protect King Louis 16th of France and his family. My name is the SCA is Jacques De La Rose” Casey England states in his interview. He’s also an active DM (Dungeon Master) in his close friend group, and says it made him realize his true friend circle.
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Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA)
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CULTURE & FAnBASE OF DUnGEOnS & DRAGOnS D&D is gaining popularity someplace new — online, through online interactive streaming services like Twitch. There’s also D&D Beyond, which will let players store information about their characters in a cloud, replacing character sheets with a subscription service. Throwing in content from the game’s famously-detailed rule books entices many people, with in-service purchases of book content a way to wean players off the printed page and encourage them to commit to digitised content. So how did D&D gain such a large presence over the past few years, and what has this online presence brought to the D&D community?
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Blizzcon Popular Cosplays 2018
Cosplay is a shortened form of two words – costume and play. The early 90s saw the rising of cosplay into popular culture. It is the practice of portraying a fictional character and at times completely identifying as that character while in costume. Many people participate in cosplays all over the world because of how much the social media community has grown to connect cosplayers and invite them to cons and meet-and-greets with other cosplayers.
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Cosplay is not merely costuming, but a very unique and creative form of performance art. It is most widely associated with comic books, anime, video games, and most things that are geeky in nature. It has become such a massive subculture within the geek world at this point that is is essentially synonymous with the idea of a convention or a gathering of individuals who subscribe to more “geeky� interests.
Blizzcon Group Photo 2017
Cosplay is about two things: first it’s about expressing the things you love. People that play D&D and wear wizard hats while they play their character should understand, and are often a part of the community as well. Many people that play D&D often find themselves in the cosplaying culture, simply because D&D was such a big influence and reason cosplaying began to exist. This fanbase is growing bigger and bigger daily thanks to the internet.
It’s one thing to run around talking about how you love World of Warcraft, and it’s another entirely to be like “whoo I’m a druid!” Let’s face it, a lot of people wish they could live in video games/tv shows/movies/comic books/animes, because it’s so interesting. It’s nice to devote a part of yourself to something so fun and creative. Making cosplays takes a lot of time, but that’s only part of the fun for many people that cosplay.
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“You can buy dice, books, and ebooks from online stores!” — Haley Jackson
In an interview with cosplayer/LARPer Haley Jackson, she discusses how D&D has impacted her life in a postive way through the use of online platforms. “I can now play games with friends who are across the country and you can use random dice roller apps that automatically add up damage and such for you. You can buy dice, books, and ebooks from online stores!” Jackson says.
Not only can Jackson play games online, but she also uses social media to keep in touch with her LARPing friends. “Our group has an online Facebook page that we all can post on to communicate with one another. Events, practices, and other things are generally posted there. The page is my go-to for whenever I need to find out any information regarding the group.” Jackson mentions.
Haley Jackson and her SCA LARPING friends
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Interested? Visit this website to learn more about playing Dungeons & Dragons! dnd.wizards.com
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