Happy 40th Anniversary, Dungeons & Dragons

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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If you are one of the millions of gamers who have played a round or two of Dungeons and Dragons, today is the day to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the invention of the game. If you are one of the original gamers back 40 years ago and still play the game, please stop and seek help. :D

Picture a group of social outcasts in denial sitting at a pizza-box laden table pretending to be various medieval/Tolkienesque creatures in story lines invented by the Dungeon Master, also known as the Chief Virgin, but where the player's fantasy characters have free will -- or at least think they do.
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You see a dark hallway ahead, you hear water dripping. You smell mold.

Being a DM was the best part....
 
anyone know what happened after the 4th edition failed so hard? the 3.5 source book for the forgotten realms was amazing. so much lore, so many npcs, tiny font to fit it all in one book. the 4th edition: some cataclysm happened, magic sucks and so does elminster, font size for first graders and the information density of a tabloid. and don't get me started on the new cosmology. what a load of poo.
 
Too much nostalgia to relate. A time when imagination was required. Sentence fragment.
 
Finally! The 40th anniversary is when the unwashed basement dwellers are required to bathe.
 
temujin987 said:
anyone know what happened after the 4th edition failed so hard?
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Failed in what way? I personally hated 4th edition, but I haven't seen any evidence that it didn't sell. Right after it came out WoTC said it was selling well, although I haven't read any of their news since, since I no longer had any interest in WoTC since I didn't like 4th edition.
 
BladeVenom said:
Failed in what way? I personally hated 4th edition, but I haven't seen any evidence that it didn't sell. Right after it came out WoTC said it was selling well, although I haven't read any of their news since, since I no longer had any interest in WoTC since I didn't like 4th edition.
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well, leaving out my personal opinion, i never heard anything good about it anywhere else. not sure how it sold, but my impression was that it was universally disliked. i think the 5th edition is due this year.
 
And RPG's have been the same ever since!

It's actually amazing how influential this game was on the genre.
 
We play Pathfinder now.
TSR took a game where at 1.0 you had cookie cutter characters with certain skills and abilities and progressed it to 3.0 (and you could argue 2.5, aka player's options) which was wonderful system where you could make a truly unique character with different skills and abilities that made each time you rolled up a new character exciting with unlimited potential.
WotC bought then and put it back to square 1 at 4.0 where each class got customization thrown to the wind and each class was no better than something out of an early MMO.
That's where we went Pathfinder (it picks up where 3.5 left off), to my little group Wizards killed the original game.
So here I am, TSR, rest in peace old friend, we truly miss you!
 
Best movies about RPG related stuff ever made by a group of totally awesome people in the Seattle area:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCgUsBxziHA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOUksDJCijw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DvlNV0riXw&list=PLkjtIrxgUOD6OpeK03SLD0EEesPWSQykB

There's a ton of other stuff they do in association with other groups at www.zombieorpheus.com and all of it's for freebies to watch. (shameless plug) Though sponsoring them is also a great thing too.

Also, Pathfinder is much more in line with D&D 3.5 if you're not a 4th edition fan.
 
Thank you for bringing the world the best pastime ever conceived, Mr Gygax, Mr Arneson, and the whole of TSR.
 
Hehehe. I used to own a set of the "chainmail" rules, which was the precursor to D&D. RPG's grew out of wargaming, and the chainmail rules allowed for the standard fantasy races, and magic for use in a wargaming environment. In other words, hero characters to lead the cannon fodder. From there it grew into the RPG's we know and love.

AD&D will always be "The" RPG to me, because (for all it's flaws) it was pretty damn awesome. Sure GURPS is better in so many ways, but it wasn't the first, and it came onto the scene after AD&D. Just like all MMORPG's must be compared to and measured against WoW, all RPG's must be compared and measured against AD&D.

I just wish i had a gaming group to play with.... :(
 
spugnor said:
I just wish i had a gaming group to play with.... :(
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Any local hobby stores near you? There are a few in my vicinity that still let people post bulletins for formulating gaming groups and use their tables+chairs for RPG sessions.
 
DejaWiz said:
Any local hobby stores near you? There are a few in my vicinity that still let people post bulletins for formulating gaming groups and use their tables+chairs for RPG sessions.
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It's just not the same. Even if you find a group, it's almost always younger kids that are more interested in throwing dice and saying "Look what I did!" than the fun of actual role playing.

I honestly thought it was older as well. Admittedly I gave up on D&D after 2nd edition. We moved on the Gurps and the plethora of Palladium games.

I still laugh when I hear someone say they are a "Hardcore gamer" and when I ask what they play, it's usually BF4 or something stupid like that. My brain still struggles to keep from pointing out they are not a "gamer." That has an entirely different meaning.
 
My group of friends played Rifts, and half the fun was fucking each other over before the GM could.
 
Not for 40 years, but for at least 30. I currently play in a group of all 30-somethings (or older,) all married, all but one with kids. The 'core' of this group (three of us) have been playing together for nearly 15 years - since before kids. One other I play with occasionally (the other three that had been the 'core' of the group have slowly moved out of town in the past 5 years,) I've been playing with since college.

D&D was the only socialization many now-adult geeks got in high school. And it remains good socialization, even for those of us that managed to come out of our shells. (Ironically, the ones that stayed in their shells seem to stop playing D&D soon after college from what I've seen.)
 
I started playing around 1982 before there were hardcover books. Played about 4 years.
 
Three weeks ago I got a message on Facebook from a friend of mine from High School. He invited me to a reunion D&D game to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the game. I have not played in over twenty years and did not reply at first. One by one the other members of my old group replied yes so I did as well. Two of my friends had to fly in to play, I had a 2 hour drive. When I told my wife what I was doing she thought I was joking.

We all decided to play by the basic box set rules. There were seven of us total including the DM. We created characters and began to play. I had forgotten most of the rules but it did not take long to get back into it. We played a nine hour session.

It was fantastic. I had forgotten how much fun it was to play and mixing that with seeing friends I had not seen in many years made it a great homage to D&D.

We have decided that we are going to try and get together once a year (or every other year) and do it again.
 
Didn't get into table top gaming until my nephew got hooked on it, thank you D&D for creating RPG's.
 
temujin987 said:
anyone know what happened after the 4th edition failed so hard? the 3.5 source book for the forgotten realms was amazing. so much lore, so many npcs, tiny font to fit it all in one book. the 4th edition: some cataclysm happened, magic sucks and so does elminster, font size for first graders and the information density of a tabloid. and don't get me started on the new cosmology. what a load of poo.
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The 4th edition is the best, most balanced tactical combat system DnD has yet released. Every class is usefull 1-20, instead of melee kicking ass 1-6 and mages destroying 1 city per round at lvl 20. It is a big magic nerf, but it was an undeniably needed one. And now melee has fun things to do with diverse abilities. A tank can actually tank and punish mobs who ignore him to attack his allies. I'm not a fan of the at-will, per encounter and per day system as ressource-managing is unfun imho (which is why I used to favor Sorcerers instead of wizards), but it was a huge stepup from "I attack 3 times" for melee characters and provided more tactical options and interractive combat. Trouble with 4th ed is that a nice battle system is pretty much all it was. I remember when monster manuels had a whole page of fluff for a single monster describing it's envirnoment, behavior, society, etc instead of just combat stats.
 
I played for a few years until about '88 or so. Then a buddy of mine got a copy of Pool of Radiance for his computer and we pretty much never played D&D again.

D&D was a great way for me and all my nerd friends to bond. I still miss sitting down for a good, long session with the fellas way back when.
 
haha I remember that game. I was still around 10 then and didn't understand English that well but I spent countless hours on it.
 
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