Dateline: 12/22/97
Dungeons & Dragons was started as a wargame by Tactical Studies Rules in 1973. In 1975, the company incorporated as TSR, Inc., and D&D took its place as the grandfather of all role-playing games (for information on role-playing games in general, see my fellow guide Lori L. Bloomer's page). Although TSR, Inc. experimented with a number of other game genres, its first creation, D&D, remained the mainstay of TSR, Inc.'s corporate strength. D&D pioneered—among other things—the use of roleplaying as a practice separate from psychoanalysis and theater; the "job" of the gamemaster (the Dungeonmaster or simply DM), who acts as a combination of theatrical director, narrator, and psychopomp; the development of a class of games that do not rely on a zero-sum result (that is, in which players do not compete against each other, but rather cooperate to achieve victory); and, of course, the use of polyhedron dice that double as caltrops for the unsuspecting gamer who accidentally steps on a four-sided die in his or her stocking feet.
Dungeons & Dragons also quickly earned infamy for being "Satanic." D&D has been the explicit or implicit subject of a number of novels, movies, or television shows that have characterized D&D players as neurotic, evil, psychopathic, or otherwise unfit for regular society. A variety of religious groups have condemned the game, releasing anti-D&D pamphlets in print and on the web. Part of the criticism leveled at D&D was a result of the first hardcover books' cover illustrations, which typically featured demonic-looking beings (the efreet on the front of the Dungeonmaster's Guide) or idols (the statue on the Player's Handbook); the extensive writeups of demons and devils in the Monster Manual (did any male player not ogle the succubus picture?); and the polytheism explained at length (although without much historical accuracy) in Deities & Demigods. Although several spinoff games were and are more explicit in their discussion of evil deities and powers, D&D enjoys the dubious honor of being the best-known "Satanic" RPG.
Dungeons & Dragons has gone through several incarnations since its debut. In 1979, TSR, Inc. released the first book for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, a game that used more sophisticated divisions between races and classes and established complex rules for character development and game mechanics. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons swiftly surpassed the simpler Dungeons and Dragons in popularity and is now the preeminent of the two games, although it is still possible to find players who prefer "basic" D&D. AD&D itself has not remained unchanged, however. The first edition of AD&D was significantly altered with the publication of Unearthed Arcana in 1985, a book that introduced new character classes (the barbarian, cavalier, and thief-acrobat), a new characteristic called "comeliness," and a variety of new spells, skills, and weapons. Perhaps the most useful item in Unearthed Arcana—certainly the only one my players use the book for nowdays—was the definitive explanation of polearms inserted as an appendix in the back of the book (a Bohemian earspoon is a what?!)
In 1989, a second edition of AD&D was released that took the first baby steps toward shifting the game's focus to a point-based system, such as those existing in competitive RPGs such as Hero System and Rolemaster. The most noticeable change in second-edition AD&D was the development of "proficiencies," skills a character could spend points on to learn and improve. In the first-edition game, characters were presumed to be equally (in)competent in all skills. Now characters became more diverse. Second edition also became infamous for deleting the character class of assassin, a class that had been the focus of much parental and religious ire, and for ignoring the new classes and new comeliness characteristic that had been introduced in Unearthed Arcana. At this time TSR, Inc. also began to release a number of class-specific Handbooks of varying quality that offered new concepts such as "kits," and new spells, skills, and roleplaying ideas. Perhaps the least successful second-edition publication was the notebook-format Monstrous Compendium, which, with the later Monstrous Manual, tried to shift criticism from AD&D by changing the names of demons and devils to tanar'ri and baatezu, respectively. This name change, elegantly elaborated in the recent Planescape campaign setting (itself a major expansion of 1987's Manual of the Planes, which was in turn an expansion of brief writeups in the first PH and DDG), has been taken in stride by most D&D players, although many feel the change was unnecessary.
Virtually all subsequent modules and reference books written for AD&D used second-edition rules, and second-edition AD&D is still the implicit core of Dungeons & Dragons publishing. However, in 1995, TSR, Inc. took the controversial step of publishing the first of a set of Player's Option rulesbooks that continued to move Dungeons & Dragons closer to a point-based system. The PO rulesbooks make it possible to customize a character and ignore many of the old restrictions that had been arbitrarily placed on classes (such as the prohibition against wizards wearing armor). Reviled by some and embraced by others, the one thing that can be said with certainty about the PO rules is that the books were poorly edited and suffer from a dearth of corporate support. One or two modules using PO rules have been released, but either by design (writing up NPCs according to PO rules is a time-consuming process) or by happenstance (TSR's publishing schedule suffered during the financial problems that led to its final takeover by WOTC), there are few materials available for those players who chose to move to the new rules system.
When the PO books were published, many players assumed they were the "third edition" of AD&D. TSR, Inc. vehemently denied this. As of this writing, TSR/WOTC's website currently acknowledges that a third edition is being considered by D&D's new owners, but nothing concrete has been determined (or, at least, released to the public).
They say old adventurers never die—they just go to Hades to regroup. Despite losing some hit points along the way, Dungeons and Dragons isn't dead yet, and although it's suffered a few setbacks, like all battle-scarred veterans, it's still around and still a force to be reckoned with.