Bonus Episode 2: A Brief History of D&D

Bonus Episode #2 - A Brief History of D&D

Intro 

Now in it’s 5th edition, Dungeons and Dragons is experiencing a resurgence into popular culture, in large part due to the internet, and live streaming shows such as Critical Role; Acquisitions Incorporated, and Force Grey, as well as thousands of other live play shows, streams, youtube channels and podcasts.

It has spawned countless other games, influenced most of the forms of entertainment we enjoy in some form or another and brought to the world the concept of “Levelling Up”. Without it, there’d be no World of Warcraft, or video games like The Witcher 3, and the entire field of gamification might never have arisen to help us enjoy our to-do lists. D&D has become a cornerstone of geek culture.

It wasn’t always so popular though. In fact during the 80’s, it was positively vilified … but we’ll get to that later. Join me now as I delve into the sprawling corridors of history to discover what D&D is, and how it came about.

The beginning

First, we need to travel back to 1971 before even your wizened and grey-bearded host was born - to a game called Chainmail, that was written by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren.

Gary was a long time miniature war-game veteran - the type still played by Military buffs around the globe today, as well as Warhammer and its variants. Essentially you have an army, represented by miniature figures. You enact or reenact battles by manoeuvring the army around the playing field using rulers and resolve battles by rolling dice, with the help of a referee.

Gary saw that there was potential in expanding the rules of wargaming, which he felt could be constricting. In addition, Gary wanted to get away from using only 6 sided dice, as there was an inherent bell curve when rolling 2 of them: 2’s and 12’s were rare rolls, whereas 6’s 7’s and 8’s are more common due to the increased combinations of numbers that can result. Gary initially used numbered poker chips 1-20, to ensure a 5% chance of getting any particular number. Later, he found a school supply catalogue that had dice shaped like all the Platonic solids, including the now-famous Icosahedron: A 20 sided die that will forever be known as the D20, thanks to D&D.

Chainmail

Between 1968 & 1971, Gary and his friend Jeff Perren worked on what would become 16 pages of rules for a new type of game. They called it Chainmail, it differed from traditional war-games in 2 major ways: First, some of the miniatures, instead of representing multiple units, were instead known as ‘Hero’ units, that could withstand much more punishment than ordinary units. Secondly, just for fun, rules were included for magical fantasy settings. Things like wizards, spells, elves and … dragons! Gary was a big fan of Robert E Howard’s Conan series, and hoped to bring some of the swashbuckling adventure to tabletop gaming.

In 1971, Chainmail was published by a games company started by a friend of Gary’s. It was the company’s biggest hit, making around $300 per month.

Dave Arneson

Dave Arneson, having already collaborated on a high seas naval combat game with Gary, modified Chainmail further to include improvisatory play, and moved the setting to a dungeon in order to make games easier to deal with. Dave also added an experience system, necessitated by his player groups wanting to play games that spanned multiple sessions. Characters now earned experience points, based on what they do in the game. Earn enough points and the character goes up a level. Dave also took a different approach to being the game’s referee too, instead of just acting as an arbitrator of the rules, he also performed as a kind of guide to the dungeon and the world itself, describing the scenery and encounters.

Gary and Dave agreed to collaborate again after talking about what Dave’s group were up to, with Gary trying to codify