After my last post, I stumbled on some YouTube videos about the dangers of playing Dungeons & Dragons. Like this 1985, 60 Minutes story below. You also get to see Gary Gygax being interviewed.
Tag: Gary Gygax
Dungeons & Dragons: A Brief History
In my continuing quest to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons, I have also been learning a lot about the games history. The game D&D stems from European war fair. A system was developed in the eighteenth century to simulate battle field scenarios. Figures represented troop movements and dice represented random elements in the battle. This was called War Game.
About one hundred years later, writer H.G. Wells published a simplified version of War Game for use of toy solders which he called “Little Wars“. Clubs for “Little Wars” started all around the world. Eventually Gary Gygax was part of one of these clubs, and he along with Dave Arneson took the game Idea and created what we know today to be Dungeons & Dragons.
My Quest To Learn How To Play Dungeons & Dragons
I am not sure how it happened but recently I have become bitten by a bug to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons. I have always been intimidated by the game and all the books associated with it. But on the flip side, so many people play this game that it can’t be all that hard to learn. Right?
Now, I am not a total newbie when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons. My old roommate and I, along with a few friends from work used to play D&D on weekends. It was a lot of fun to me even if I didn’t understand the whole mechanics of the game. But after 5 weeks or so we had to quit playing due to conflicting schedules. Ever since then I have felt like no game (computer, table top board, or other) I have played from that time on has pulled me in so tightly and captured my imagination so strongly. I know that’s a pretty bold statement to make. But the game was really that fun to me. I mean to be in a room with some of your good friends and playing a game of high adventure with boundless and endless possibilities. It’s just epic. It’s unmatched by any computer game. But it’s not just the adventuring, it’s the socializing with friends which is just as an addictive eliminate to the game as playing the game it’s self.
Vin Diesel explains why he fell in love with the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and what kept him playing even as he worked as a bouncer in New York City.
So with those good memories in hand, along with some local friends who would like to get a game of Dungeons & Dragons going I set off on my journey to learn how to play the game.
Like any good internet citizen I started off my quest by searching online for as much information on Dungeons & Dragons I could find. What I have learned was this:
- Dungeons & Dragons was designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, in 1974
- To play a game of Dungeons & Dragons you need some people to play as Adventures or Player Characters (PC) and one person to play as the Dungeon Master (DM).
- The game’s rules are detailed in three core rulebooks: The Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Monster Manual.
- The only items required to play the game are the rulebooks, a character sheet for each player and a number of polyhedral dice.
Now, for someone who is Dyslexic like me, reading through three players handbooks is a very intimidating task to under take. But with a little bit of spare time I should be able to read them in a few weeks. In the days to come I will be checking out local Books stores and online retailers like Amazon for the D&D rulebooks.