Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) published by Wizards of the Coast. A original Dungeons & Dragons, designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneseon, was first published in January 1974 by Gygax's company, Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). Originally from either tabletop wargames, this publication is generally take to be a beginning of modern role-swimming games &, by extension, a role-swimming stake industry. A game achieved ill fame, particularly in the 1980s, due to its alleged promotion of devil worship, witchcraft, suicide, and murder.

Players of Five hundred&D embark upon imaginary adventures in which they battle many kinds of fictional monsters, gather treasure, and earn experience points as the game progresses. the game departed from either traditional wargaming by generating every streaming video player a a portion of a specific character to play. It as well developed the conception of a Dungeon Master (DM) or Gamemaster (GM), a storyteller & referee responsible creating a fictitious setting of the game, moderating the actions of the players' characters, & swimming a supporting cast of non-streaming video player characters. Within 1977 A game was split into two slightly different versions: The simpler Dungeons & Dragons and the more complex Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as AD&D). Within 2000, a simpler version of the game was discontinued & the Third Edition of Dungeons & Dragons was released as a major revision of the AD&D game. A todays version of the game, freed within July 2003 is Dungeons & Dragons v.3.5 (also known as the Revised 3rd Edition or D&D3.5).

Dungeons & Dragons remains the best-known and best-selling RPG, with an estimated 20 million players worldwide and over US$1 billion in book and equipment sales (as of 2004 according to a BBC news report). Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of the RPG products sold in 2002. Outside of the gambling community, Five hundred&D has become a metonym used to refer to RPGs in general.

Play overview

Dungeons & Dragons is an open-ended "make-believe" game in which players choose which actions their characters will take. A final result of people actions come determined using the back's system, which govern nigh all about from either combat to social interaction. Notwithstanding, a Dungeon Master is responsible interpreting a system & virtually all elementary actions may be resolved from either elementary logic forgoing on to the system. A system of A game come described around 3 core rulebooks: The ''Streaming video player's Enchiridion, a Dungeon Master's Option, & a Monster Manual. Extra rulebooks, like a Arms & Devices Choice'', contain optional system which can besides become utilized. Abbreviated versions of a system come available to help beginners study the game.

A exclusively things needed to play a game come a rulebooks and polyhedral dice. But, there are numerous optional things which may be utilized to supplement or even enhance a play personal experience. Pre-designed escapade & fantasy settings come available. Favorite gameboards or even fabric come every now & again wont to visually depict the situations in the game, and miniature numbers may be utilized to provide a 3-cubic representation of the characters. Programme come besides available for supporting a game.

Prior even to a game begins both streaming video player creates his or her character. Players often utilize a equivalent character repeatedly. A streaming video player rolls die to determine his character's ability scores (strength, dexterity, constitution, wisdom, intelligence, and charisma). the streaming video player so chooses a race and a class. Races include elves, dwarves, humans, and halflings. A select few of the several classes include clerics, rogues, fighters, and wizards. Based on a class chosen for the character, players might decide which skills & effort the character knows. It may as well choose an alignment to describe the character's lesson & honourable outlook. These options determine what a character could wash, how else swell it could perform different actions, you bet a character may develop by using own experience.

the game is presented by a Dungeon Master (DM) to a class action of players. A DM doesn't have a only character, rather a more players, however acts as a storyteller, finding & describing a more characters, settings, & situations a players' characters encounter. A DM too arbitrates a actions of a characters in the game by applying & interpreting the system of the game.

E.g., a DM could describe a crisis that takes the attention of the heroes ("An evil wizard is raising an undead army!"), & indicate a few conceivable goals ("Find the wizard's lair and slay him!"). Because a players potty freely pick out their have course ("Let's ally with the wizard and take over the kingdom instead!"), no admittedly criteria for "winning" aside from either what a players placed for themselves. One "adventure" generally spans multiple sessions, & characters can be reused around farther escapade, in case a players and then select.

While the streaming video player chooses to keep close at hand his character attempt an action (like punching an opponent or even picking the lock), the effect is determined by a character's abilities, the random die roll, or even by occasionally combination of the ii. Different characters is skilled at accomplishing different items, & the rules encourages a easily-balanced team of specialized characters.

Once characters kill an enemy or even accomplishes the hard project, it is awarded an appropriate total of experience points (xp) by the DM. Once the character accumulates plenty own experience points it advance the "level", letting their streaming video player to improve their existent abilities or even pick out recently abilities for the babies. Adventures

The average 500&D game consists of an "adventure", which is roughly equivalent to a single story. Fallowing completing a single dangerous undertaking, players may unremarkably begin a fresh dangerous undertaking when continuing to play the equivalent characters.

Escapade come ordinarily designed per DM, however throughout a history of Dungeons & Dragons, numerous pre-made "adventures" or "modules" have been published. These modules allow DMs to redo the game while forgoing looking for even to produce their have escapade, & often include the backstory, maps, & of these or additional objectives for players' characters to achieve. A select few modules include illustrations or even hand-outs to supplement a basic gambling personal experience.

When you took a early history of Five hundred&D, TSR's modules were usually denoted with a code consisting of a letter and a number. Modules inside the letter placed were normally related in some manner. E.g., the modules A1 across A4 comprised the mini-campaign sustaining a coupled story arc, starting by having A1, Slaves Pits of the Undercity. More letter sets indicated a thematic similarity (for instance, the 'S' series of modules were unrelated except for even their comparatively deadly nature and severity) or apply sustaining a particular placed of rulebooks (like the 'B' & 'X' series, which were designed for apply by owning a Basic & Skillful system, severally).

Risky venture modules generally have a recommended character level, which is typically indicated on the handle. E.g., Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (module S3) was designed for levels 8-12, while Keep on the Borderlands (module B2) was for beginning characters of level 1-Three. It should become noted that a letter/number codes themselves experienced there is no relation to a character levels the module was designed for. S1, A Grave of Horrors, e.g., is an risky venture for characters of tremendously higher levels (10-14) than B3, A Palace of the Silver Princess (One-Three).

Campaign settings
The series of escapade played across by the most common class action of characters is usually known as the "campaign". Following, a fantasy settings where 500&D games take place are often known as "campaign settings".

Dungeon Masters come loose to produce their have fantasy settings. However, inside the fashion similar to risky venture modules, there are several official fantasy realm campaign settings which can be purchased, numbers of by having an expansive series of supplemental rulebooks. These worlds range from either either either magic-rich to magic-unfortunate, from traditional american settings to exotic oriental fantasies, from blade & necromancy to swaggering escapade.

As of 2005, only Forgotten Realms & Eberron come existence supported by newly products from either Wizards of the Coast. A bit of campaign settings antecedently published by TSR or even Wizards of the Coast, like Dragonlance and Ravenloft, have at present been licenced to third party publishers.

Dave Arneson's Blackmoor was the 1st campaign setting for 500&D, while Gary Gygax's Greyhawk was the first to be published. Each settings keep close at h& been republished around several different forms all over a years, and Greyhawk is presently utilized when a "default setting" for the game. (Inside more words, whilst the core rulebooks require to utilise a specific character, god, location, or even more piece of setting detail, the information is drawn from either Greyhawk.)

A Forgotten Realms setting was created by Ed Greenwood as his own family campaign. This setting became virtually all popular by having Five hundred&D gamers in the 1990s and is the setting of a large number of D&D novels and computer games.

Eberron is the newest official D&D setting, notable because magic is used like technology. Originally created by Keith Baker, the world was the winner of a contest sponsored by Wizards of the Coast.

Living Campaigns are campaigns that involve hundreds to thousands of role-players from either as much as the world, sharing one campaign setting. Dungeon Masters potty obtaaround dangerous undertaking in the vibrant, active campaign setting. Players may build characters, advance the children in case & forge relationships by owning fellow gamers from either around the world. A largest of the [http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=rpga/play/campaigns Living Campaigns] is [http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/welcome Living Greyhawk].

Miniature figures
A wargames from either which Dungeons & Dragons evolved used miniature figures to represent combatants. Five hundred&D continued the use of miniatures in a fashion similar to its direct precursor, Chainmail, with each figure representing a specific character or monster. When a original system of Five hundred&D required the use of miniatures to resolve combat situations, the rules quickly evolved to a point where combat could be resolved verbally and miniatures were no longer required for gameplay.

Although there are no hanker requisite, miniatures remained popular by having players & continued to serve as a utile ocular information. In the early times of Five hundred&D, they were often placed on acetate-covered graph paper with walls and other references drawn with grease pencils. When the adventurers moved from either a single locality to an additional, a grease pencil markings can be wiped off & a recently vicinity drawn.

In the 1980s numerous companies began to sell miniature figures specifically for Five hundred&D and similar games. TSR partnered by having Grenadier Miniatures, who freed their numbers under a 500&D brand, while other miniature manufacturers (such as Ral Partha and Citadel Miniatures) simply release generic, fantasy-themed figures.

Agency products were likewise freed to serve when grid-information for miniature play. A select few players would build entire floor even-&-wall sets from either wood or composition board & would invest inside heavy inventories of trees & additional exemplary objects to produce more naturalistic environments for their miniatures. Professionally-built sets were in the future freed, too.

Sporadically, Dungeons & Dragons returned to its wargaming roots with supplementary rules systems for miniatures-based wargaming. Supplements like Battlesystem (1985 & 1989) and a new edition of Chainmail (2001) provided rule systems to depict battles between armies. A Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Game (2003) is sold as sets of plastic, randomly assorted, prepainted miniatures that can be used as either part of a standard D&D game or as a stand-alone collectable miniatures game.

Game History
Influences
A fantasy bet on Dungeons & Dragons, designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, evolved in the early 1970s from the Chainmail system of wargaming rules by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. A game was influenced by mythology, pulp fiction, & contemporary fantasy authors of the Sixties and Seventies.

A presence of halflings, elves, dwarves, half-elves, orcs, dragons and the rather typically draw comparisons to the function of J.R.R. Tolkien, although Gygax claims he was influenced very little by The Lord of the Rings, stating that he included these elements as a marketing move to draw on the then-popularity of the work. More influences, based on data from a 1977 edition of the ''Dungeon Master's Solution, include a works of Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, L. Sprague de Camp, Michael Moorcock, and Poul Anderson.

Edition history
Five hundred&D has gone through several revisions. Parallel versions & inconsistent appellative practices potty produce it hard to distinguish between a different editions.

A original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) was published as a boxed placed & featured upright two or iii character classes & monsters, & single three alignments. 4 supplements (Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, & Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes) were published on top a next 2 years, expanding a character classes, monsters, & spells. Official rule supplements were besides published in the magazines Strategic Review and its successor, Dragon Magazine.

Around 1977, TSR released deuce recently versions of the game: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeons & Dragons.

Dungeons & Dragons was a simpler, sometimes "introductory", version of the game. Around 1977 a Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, also referred to as the Second Edition, was published as a boxed set. This edition was revised around 1981, which also coincided by having a release of an ExpertPlaced to accompany a Basic Placed. Between 1983 and 1985 a Third Edition was released within the series of 5 boxed sets, including the Basic System, Practiced System, Companion System, Master System, & Immortal System.

A Dungeons & Dragons game was revised again in 1991. Generally known as a For Edition, this edition involved a Dungeons & Dragons Game (an introductory boxed set) and the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (a hardback manual which included the material from the Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master sets). Inside 1994 a introductory boxed set was renamed the Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game. Within 1999 a introductory box placed wwhen revised & freed as the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (or AD&D) was a more complicated version of the game, designed to collect, revise, and expand on the rules from the original version and its supplements. Between 1977 & 1979, three hardback rulebooks, normally known as a "core rulebooks", were freed: A Streaming video player's Handbook (PHB), a Dungeon Master's Remedy (DMG), & a Monster Manual (MM).

Within 1989, AD&D was revised for a 2nd Edition (sometimes referred to as AD&D2). A game wwhen againside published as tierce core rulebooks, incorporating a expansions & revisions which got been published in various supplements above a last decade. A Monster Manual was replaced per Monstrous Compendium, a free leaf-binder which was late replaced per hardback Monstrous Manual in 1993.

A release of AD&D2 also corresponded with a change in editorial policy at TSR. An effort was mass produced to dislodge aspects of the game which a few considered objectionable & which got attracted veto publicity. Character classes like a assassin & monk were eliminated, heroic roleplaying & streaming video player teamwork were stressed, demons & devils were flushed from either a game, & a product graphics became less racy. A target age of the game was as well lowered, by owning virtually all 2d editon products existence aimed additional at teen than adults.

Around 1995, the core rulebooks were slightly revised & the series of Streaming video player's Guide manuals were freed when "optional core rulebooks". Although however referred to by TSR when a 2d Edition, this revision is seen by a few fans as a distinct edition of the game & is another time known as AD&D 2.5.

Around 1997, a touching-bankrupt TSR was bought by Wizards of the Coast. the freshly company near immediately began designing a fresh version of the game, which would become freed inside 2000 as Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition (also referred to as D&D3 or 3E). Tertiary Edition, although a big revision of the Five hundred&D rules to date, was designed to follow the 2nd Edition of AD&D, while the previously independent line of Dungeon & Dragons games were eliminated. Third Edition likewise served when a basis for a wide role-swimming formulas designed in the area of 20-sided die, known as the d20 system.

A Five hundred&D3 rules were more internally consistent and significantly less restrictive than previous editions of the game, allowing players much more flexibility in creating the characters they wanted to play. Skills & effort were introduced into a core system to encourage players to farther customize their characters. A recently system likewise standardized a mechanics of action guide & combat. Tertiary Edition as well introduced a construct of "Prestige Classes" (high-level classes which characters potty exclusively luck into meeting certaaround character-project requirement or even fulfilling certain in-game goals) & expanded a idea of high-level campaigns using a Epic Level Handbook (the more core rulebook).

Inside 2003, the Third Edition system were revised when Dungeons & Dragons v.3.5 (also known as Revised 3rd Edition or D&D3.5). This release incorporated many minor rule changes & expanded a core rulebooks.

The wide kind of optional supplements keep close at hand been published for each edition of Five hundred&D. These supplements ordinarily include recently system, things, spells, & animals. More supplements include recently risky venture or even detail entire phantasy world.

A various editions of Dungeons & Dragons have won many Origins Awards, including All Time Best Roleplaying Rules of 1977, Best Roleplaying Rules of 1989 and Best Roleplaying Game of 2000 for the three flagship editions of the game.

Legacy
Dungeons & Dragons was the first modern role-playing game, establishing many of the conventions which have dominated the genre. Particularly luminary come a utilize of die as a guide mechanic, character record sheets, progressive character development, & game-master-centered class action moral force.

A elements which manufactured higher Five hundred&D'' can be seen in many hobbies of the time. Character-depending roleplaying, for instance, may be seen within historical reenactment and improvisational theatre. Stake globe simulations experienced been easily-developed within wargaming. Fantasy surroundings specifically designed for play can be seen around Glorantha's board games and M.The.R. Barker's Tekumel, among others. At last, nevertheless, 500&D represented a unique blending of these elements, creating its own niche and leading to the development of a multitude of role-playing games. Science fiction, horror, superheroes, cartoons, westerns, spies and espionage, and several more invented settings were adapted to role-swimming games.

On top a years, numerous gamers own criticized various aspects of the Five hundred&D rules. Around former editions, clunky & inconsistent mechanics were typically seen when ineffective & confusing. A rapid growth of levels per characters, sustaining its incidental accumulation of power, is considered unreal & unrealistic by numerous. Looking for solutions to these problems led to more game developers expanded in & improved aspects of the game. In simply months of 500&D's release, new RPG writers and publishers began releasing their own role-playing games. A number one arrivals to achieve lasting influence were a Gloranthan RuneQuest, released by Chaosium in 1976, and a science fiction role-swimming gage Traveller, released by Game Designers Workshop in 1978. A few of the in the future systems include Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, Champions by Hero Games, GURPS by Steve Jackson Games and Vampire: The Masquerade by White Wolf Game Studio. These games too fed back into a genre's origin, miniatures wargames, using combat strategy games such as Battletech and Warhammer 40,000. Collectable card games, like Magic: The Gathering, were also heavy influenced by 500&D and its legacy.

By using a launch of 500&D's 3rd Edition, Wizards made available the d20 System under the Open Gaming License (OGL) and d20 Trademark License. Under these licenses, authors come loose to have a d20 Body whilst writing their have games & punt supplements. A OGL & d20 Trademark License come besides responsible making conceivable recently versions of older games, like Call for of Cthulhu, using the recently technique.

Related products
Magazines
Inside 1975, TSR began publishing The Strategic Review. At a instance, roleplaying games were however seen as a sub-genre of a wargaming industry, & the magazine was designed non single to trend lines 500&D and TSR's other games, but also to cover wargaming in general.

Concisely a correct sequence, nonetheless, the popularity & incubation of Five hundred&D made it clear that the game had not only separated itself from its wargaming origins, but had launched an entirely new industry unto itself. Fallowing exclusively septet issues, TSR cancelled A Strategic View & replaced it sustaining The Dragon (later Dragon Magazine) in 1976.

Although Dragon Magazine was originally designed to trend lines the roleplaying industry generally, it has universally been primarily a home organ for TSR's games by having the particular center on 500&D. Virtually all of the magazine's articles provide more poop for the game, including newly races, classes, spells, traps, monsters, skills, & system. More articles might provide tips & suggestions for players & DMs. a magazine has likewise published a total of easily-known, gamer-oriented comic strips across the years, including Wormy, SnarfQuest, Yamara, Knights of the Dinner Table, Nodwick, and Dork Tower.

Around 1986, TSR launched the newly magazine to complement Dragon. Dungeon Adventures, promulgated bimonthly, published nothing however dangerous undertaking modules for DMs.

Although several more magazines keep around part or even fully devoted themselves to supporting Dungeons & Dragons, Dragon and Dungeon remain the only two official publications for the game. Within 2002, Wizards of the Coast licensed them magazines to Paizo Publishing.

Films and TV
The popular Dungeons & Dragons animated series was produced in 1983.

The Dungeons & Dragons movie was released in 2000. Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God, a made-for-TV sequel, was first aired on the Sci-Fi Channel on October 8th, 2005. (This sequel is besides known per surrogate title Dungeons & Dragons 2: The Elemental Might.)

Within 2003, the computer alive motion picture entitled Scourge of Worlds was produced for DVD, featuring iconic characters created for the 3rd Edition. This is an interactional motion picture that asks viewers to decide what actions a heroes should choose at important points in the story, letting hundreds of different story-telling combinations.

Computer and video games
Fifty-3 cd game & 16 video games (decade for consoles, quatern for handheld equipment, & deuce arcade games) got been freed & sold under a 500&D license as of October 2004. Well-nigh half one games were developed by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). Virtually totally, but not all, come computer role-playing games that use system from either a bit of version of the Five hundred&D rules. Notable titles include

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Cartridge, designed for the Intellivision, was the first computer console game based on the D&D license. Pool of Radiance (1988) was the 1st 500&D computer game. Intentional by SSI, a equivalent back engine would become utilized to acquire x further 500&D games. Eye of the Beholder (1990) was the foremost around the trilogy of popular games designed by Westwood Studios and published by SSI in the early 1990s. ''Baldur's Gate (1998) was the first D&D computer game developed by Black Isle Studios with the assistance of BioWare. It met using critical profits & was followed by many additional Five hundred&D games, including a sequel (Baldur's Gate 2), Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale II and Planescape: Torment. Neverwinter Nights (2002), also developed by BioWare, was the 1st close implementation of the Third Edition rule out a CRPG. A game involved sophisticated project information which allowed Dungeon Masters to project unique scenarios, very much like it would for the tabletop game itself. Dungeons & Dragons Online is an MMORPG based on the Eberron campaign setting. These are presently existence developed by Turbine. For the fully names of licenced 500&D computer and video games, see List of Dungeons & Dragons computer and video games. many more CRPGs, like a numerous Roguelike games, are directly or even indirectly according to a 500&D game.

Novels
Many c novels have been published depending upon Dungeons & Dragons''.

Fantasy Grand Master Andre Norton's novel Quag Keep, published inside 1978, was placed in Greyhawk, getting it the title number 1 novel to utilize the Five hundred&D campaign setting. Throughout a early Eighties, TSR printed many series of "Choose Your Own Adventure"-style novels under the Endless Quest, Super Endless Quest, Heart Quest Books, and 1 on 1 Adventure Gamebooks trademarks. Virtually all one books were according to 500&D, although some were based on other TSR role-playing games. A Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, published in 1984, were a number 1 major novels published by TSR. 500&D creator Gary Gygax's series of Gord the Rogue novels, published from 1985 to 1988, was set in his Greyhawk campaign setting. Author R. A. Salvatore wrote a number of books based in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, including 17 that feature his famed character Drizzt Do'Urden. From either 2002 to 2004, a series of novels depending upon the iconic characters of Third Edition were published.

Comics
When you took a 1990s, DC Comics published several licenced 500&D comics, including: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Forgotten Realms, and Spelljammer.

When a release of the Tertiary Edition, KenzerCo, better known for the popular Knights of the Dinner Table, secured the licensing rights to make official D&D comics. Using the license, it produced the total of different mini-series.

Around 2005, a license passed to Devil's Due Productions. Starting within June of that month, Devil's Due began releasing official adaptations of D&D tie-in novels, starting with Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy.

Board games
Many board games have been sold either under the Dungeons & Dragons trademark or in association with it:

A Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game (1980) was the first computer/board game hybrid and the first D&D licensed game that contained digital electronics. DragonStrike (1993) used the simplified form of Five hundred&D and included an instructional video tape in which costumed actors, combined with computer-generated imagery, played the characters and monsters from the board game. Dungeon, a board game published by TSR, featured similar gameplay & genre figure of speech to 500&D and was frequently advertised in D&D products.