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

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 new rules from Dave’s notes and during long phone calls.

There were four races in the original edition; Human, Elves, Hobbits and Dwarves. 

Classes were constructed, originally consisting of just Fighting Man, Magic User and Cleric, each with lists of mathematical attributes that were used during play, like intelligence, constitution, strength and so on. The list of available weapons stretched too to include many new bladed, blunt and spiky things. The attributes in particular, enhanced the playing of a character - a low intelligence score might literally spell disaster for a wizard, but isn’t going to stop a warrior swinging a sword, and those the same attributes could also feed into playing the role - a player could easily act out their version of a character with low intelligence.

TSR

By 1973 Gary had shopped the game around publishers, but no one could ever seem to see the potential for a game that had no winner and didn’t really end, so he set up his own company, Tactical Studies Rules, with a childhood friend, Don Kaye, who had helped Gary playtest the game. Dave Arneson wasn’t asked to join the fledgling company, as he and Gary didn’t exactly see eye to eye on many things. He was just having fun playing the game.

The company managed to raise $2400 and got to work. In January of 1974, the first thousand copies of the three-booklet set were printed, ready for sale at $10. A set of dice costs $3.50 extra. As with so many brands that came out of the 60’s and 70’s, TSR at this point is run from Gary’s basement. There was no budget for marketing, but word of mouth proved to be D&D’s success, spreading through hobby shops, colleges and schools and in ten short months, TSR sold out of D&D booklets.

Shortly thereafter, the Advanced version booklet came out in 1977, adding many new features, including new classes Assassin, Bard, Druid, Illusionist, Monk, Paladin, Ranger and Thief. The first Monster manual was also released. The Players Handbook came along in 1978, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide in 1979. 

Pre packaged adventures followed, written by Gary, Dave Arneson and others, but the real beauty of D&D, the thing that still attracts players and DM’s to it now, is that D&D had scope for people to build their own adventures from scratch, even their own worlds and all of them can be explored, fought for and looted.

The Satanic Panic

In the late 70’s and into the early 80’s, America was gripped by the “Satanic Panic”, which vilified anything seen as satanic, including heavy metal music, video nasties and D&D. Around this time, the media was circulating rumours of Satanic cults performing ritual child abuse, centered at the time around alleged abuse of children by teachers and other adults in positions of authority. 

In 1979 a student named James Dallas Egbert the 3rd disappeared from his college in Michigan and rumours circulated that he had been killed as part of a real life D&D game in the steam tunnels under his college. James had been something of a prodigy, so no one could think of a reason why he would just disappear. William Dear, a private investigator from Dallas, worked on the case by trying to get into James’ mindset. He found a seemingly meaningful arrangement of thumbtacks on James’ cork board and studied the D&D manuals for clues. The only other clue left by James was a note stating that if his body was found, it was to be cremated. The handwriting on the note did not match James’.

William believed that the path to finding James, could be found through studying D&D, even paying to play games to better understand the game and by extension, the mindset of a player. Dear was interviewed multiple times during the course of the investigation, and was even quoted using the attributes from the game, saying that James, “Did not posses Strength and Charisma, but Intelligence and Dexterity, yes.” and the media ran with it.

Eventually James called Dear, who went to visit him in a dilapidated hotel in a bad part of the town he’d escaped to. On the condition that Dear told no-one where he had been since he’d disappeared, James told him his story.

In fact, James had left Michigan after a failed suicide attempt, due to depression stemming from a troubled home life and the fact that he hadn’t come out as gay to his parents - which would’ve been an even bigger deal back then. He’d also started using drugs and alcohol as a way to cope. He’d planned to commit suicide in the steam tunnels, which students had used for playing, partying and having sex in, but had been unable to go through with it. He’d written the note with his left hand to throw people off. He’d spent some time coach surfing, staying with friends and eventually hitched a ride south.

James was reunited with his parents. Dear kept his word and told no one about James’ story. Dear visited James at his parent’s house on occasion.

Sadly, about a year after being found and returning home to his parents, James finally did commit suicide.

Dear finally told James’ story in full five years after he died in a book that detailed not only his problematic home life, but also James’ issues with depression, drugs and alcohol - but far be it for the media to let the facts get in the way of a good story, they had another in a long line of scapegoats for society’s ills in D&D. The story that a kid had been killed while playing was already widespread. It was obvious D&D was evil to its accusers - it promoted witchcraft and demon worship, and the evidence was clear: the booklets contained spells and incantations, and there was talk of demons within its pages. 

A 1981 novel called “Mazes and Monsters”, presumably for copyright reasons, told a tale of a youth who became so enamoured with a fictional version of the game that he could no longer tell what was real any more. It was based loosely on the story of Eggbert’s disappearance. It was later developed into a film starring a young Tom Hanks.

Another parent formed a group called “B.A.D.D” - Bothered About Dungeons And Dragons, after she claimed her son shot himself in the chest after receiving a curse in the game.

It’s interesting to note that a similar thing happened more recently with the Harry Potter franchise, with certain sections of society branding it evil and dangerous for similar reasons and the media regurgitating the story to the public. No one ever seems to make mention of the fact that the heroes in these works are busy fighting the demons and evil forces, much like in most heroic works of fiction dating back to the Epic of Gilgamesh, the earliest known work of literature, and works like Homer’s The Odyssey and The Iliad.

TSR makes bank … for now

By 1982, TSR was boasting sales of between 16 and 22million dollars. (Sources vary)

If anything, the “Satanic Panic” helped profits with the free publicity, and TSR could barely keep up with demand, but trouble was on the horizon. In attempting to branch out with the franchise, Gary stepped back from games design to lead TSR’s entertainment division and moved to California. He had some success: In 1983 CBS aired the Dungeons and Dragons animated TV show, which helped with publicity, but by the mid eighties, the company was in trouble. 

Things go downhill

The Blume bothers, who were fellow board members, managed the company into the ground in Gary’s absence. The company had bought 70 plus company cars and spent around 1.5 million on office furniture. When Gary came back, TSR was 1.5 million in debt.

By 1984, TSR had made hundreds of lay offs, but profit projections still looked bleak, so they turned to Lorraine Williams, the mother of a writer Gary had met in Hollywood and who had management experience, to run the company. Williams proceeded to buy out the Blume brothers and in 1985, Gary was ousted from the board, no longer having a controlling share of the company. He sold his remaining stake the same year.

It was during this time that Dave Arneson sued TSR for an undisclosed sum after relations with Gary soured around sharing credit for the game. Going forward, Dave’s name would feature alongside Gary’s as co-creator.

And So It Goes

TSR continued for 12 years after Gygax left, but had fallen behind its competition by the mid 90’s. Eventually, TSR was acquired by Wizards of the coast in 1997, and the TSR name was dropped from D&D products by 2000. More editions followed, but were mostly sidelined by video games like WoW, which were not only based on D&D, but often made by people who were fans of D&D.

Up To Date

The 5th Edition was released in 2014, which soon hit Amazon’s best seller list, and the uphill crawl got taken up by streamers, leading to where we are today - an internet full of D&D shows, how-to videos, podcasts, as well as merch, fan art and more! 

Gary Gygax died in 2008 at 69 and Dave Arneson died in 2009, at 61, but their legacy lives on every time we roll an icosahedron.

Total runtime: 15:21

Further Reading

• Rise of the Dungeon Master - Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D By David Kushner, Illustrated by Koren Shadmi, 2017, Nation Books, NY.

Links

• Twitter thread by @PulpLibrarian, : https://twitter.com/PulpLibrarian/status/1217889379605237761

•“You’re Wrong About …” podcast, “The Satanic Panic” May 3rd, 2018, by Michael Hobbs and Sarah Marshall https://rottenindenmark.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/satanic-panic-v2.mp3

•The Epic of Gilgamesh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

•The Works of Homer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer.