What is Dungeons and Dragons?
Dungeons and Dragons or D&D is a role-playing game that was first played and created in 1974 right here in Wisconsin by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The creation of D&D was the creation of an immersive (but fictional) world, full of adventures and creatures like owlbears and kobolds. This world can be brought to life at your dining room table with pencil and paper, and some acting skills.
In the interview below Luke Gygax explains a little bit about what it was like growing up as the son of Gary Gygax. He discussed playtesting games often with his father. He also described playing without props, maps, and minis. Instead of props the focus was on critical thinking, and users would have advantages in the game when they used imaginative strategies. Gary also included big “college” words that would require users to learn new vocabulary, they called Gary’s writing style “Gygaxian Writing.” To this day players still celebrate Gary Gygax in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with an annual convention called GaryCon.
What does it all mean?
D&D is a way of life for some. A campaign can last years, you can become so involved in the happenings of characters and the fictional world that you might find yourself yelling, crying, and flipping tables over.
Here is a terrific Ted Talk with Ethan Gilsdorf where he talks about the life skills he’s developed from playing Dungeons and Dragons. Through the game he has learned the power of diversity, collaboration, empathy, tolerance, imagination, and problem solving. He gives fantastic examples of how these situations can be applied in real life.
Examples of D&D in current pop culture
Today we’re hearing about D&D a lot more, but the difference is, it’s not taboo. It’s everywhere in pop culture these days thanks to the fact that geek is the new black and nostalgia has become its own new fad.
Stranger Things is the perfect example of this. It’s a science fiction show that starts out with children playing a round of D&D in a basement. Well actually the pilot starts out with a scientist being consumed by what we can assume is a scary monster, but then the scene switches to innocent kids in a basement in 1983 playing a game of D&D. You can watch the first 8 minutes of the pilot below.
WARNING: There is some swearing and a bit of a jumpscare in the beginning.
When you watch Stranger Things you quickly realize that the entire story plot is this group of kids having to play a real life game of D&D to try to destroy the monster and find their friend.
Of course Stranger Things is far from the only modern reference to Dungeons and Dragons.
Popular series The Big Bang Theory has a comical take (full of innuendos) on bringing D&D to those that might not be as interested.
Community a comedy centered around Community College had 2 episodes on the subject, here’s a short clip below.
One of my favorite shows The IT Crowd featured Dungeons and Dragons in an episode as well.
When D&D first came out it was lumped with other nerdy things. If you liked D&D it was assumed that you also loved Lord of the Rings and comic books. Nerd culture was a smaller niche back then. You’ll notice that while D&D is becoming more widely accepted, it’s still used as a comedic mechanic in most of these shows.
The controversy of D&D
Dungeons and Dragons has always been so much more than a board game, it uses your imagination. It was also incredibly controversial when it came out. The controversy could be compared to that of video games in the 21st century. Parents are still worried that video games can incite violence, just like they were worried that D& D could incite violence based on the violent campaigns.
This news clip from The New York Times does a wonderful job of explaining the controversy, and it goes full circle to say that ironically D&D is now used as a substitute for controversial activities of our time (bullying, too much screen time, etc.)
What do I have an interest in D&D?
I’m obsessed with nerd culture, I love everything from Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter to Adventure Time. I often play board games and video games, sometimes even trading card games (although it’s more like hoarding card games for me than trading.) A lot of that nerd culture crosses over with D&D, and although I’ve only played a handful of times my husband and I are itching to find a playgroup so we can delve into our imaginations and help create a beautiful fictional world of our own.
Below is photographic evidence that I’ve played role playing games, and that I had the tiniest apartment ever back in the day.
Those 6 sided dice are giant spiders trying to kill us. The actual spider figure was my husband’s pet spider.
Games are really really fun, and smartphone cameras were not what they are today.