Witwer, Michael; Newman, Kyle; Witwer, Sam (2018). Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 9780399580949. Dungeons & Dragons is a structured yet open-ended role-playing game. It is normally played indoors with the participants seated around a tabletop. Typically, one player takes on the role of Dungeon Master (DM) while the others each control a single character, representing an individual in a fictional setting. [24] When working together as a group, the player characters (PCs) are often described as a " party" of adventurers, with each member often having their own area of specialty that contributes to the success of the group as a whole. [25] [26] During the course of play, each player directs the actions of their character and their interactions with other characters in the game. [7] This activity is performed through the verbal impersonation of the characters by the players, while employing a variety of social and other useful cognitive skills, such as logic, basic mathematics and imagination. [27] A game often continues over a series of meetings to complete a single adventure, and longer into a series of related gaming adventures, called a " campaign". [7] [28] [29] Tweet, Jonathan (2004). Dungeons & Dragons Basic Game. Renton, WA.: Wizards of the Coast. p.32. ISBN 0-7869-3409-3. OCLC 63137737. D&D grew in popularity through the late 1970s and 1980s. Numerous games, films, and cultural references based on D&D or D&D-like fantasies, characters or adventures have been ubiquitous since the end of the 1970s. D&D players are (sometimes pejoratively) portrayed as the epitome of geekdom, [259] and have become the basis of much geek and gamer humor and satire. [260] [261] Since the release of 5th edition, the popularity of actual play web series and podcasts such as Critical Role, Dimension 20, and The Adventure Zone, among many others, have experienced a growth in viewership and popularity. [262] According to Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, viewers on Twitch and YouTube spent over 150 million hours watching D&D gameplay in 2020. [263] So we’ve talked about the DM’s role in describing the environment around the players’ adventurers. But where are these environments located? The short answer: anywhere and everywhere.

At various times in its history, Dungeons & Dragons has received negative publicity, in particular from some Christian groups, for alleged promotion of such practices as devil worship, witchcraft, suicide, and murder, and for the presence of naked breasts in drawings of female humanoids in the original AD&D manuals (mainly monsters such as harpies, succubi, etc.). [22] [209] These controversies led TSR to remove many potentially controversial references and artwork when releasing the 2nd Edition of AD&D. [94] Many of these references, including the use of the names " devils" and " demons", were reintroduced in the 3rd edition. [210] The moral panic over the game led to problems for fans of D&D who faced social ostracism, unfair treatment, and false association with the occult and Satanism, regardless of an individual fan's actual religious affiliation and beliefs. [8] [211] However, the controversy was also beneficial in evoking the Streisand Effect by giving the game widespread notoriety that significantly increased sales in the early 1980s in defiance of the moral panic. [212]Hall, Charlie (January 27, 2023). "D&D won't change the OGL, handing fans and third-party publishers a massive victory". Polygon . Retrieved January 27, 2023. Rios, Joshua (July 31, 2019). "How Dungeons & Dragons Is Finding New Life on Twitch and Beyond". Adweek . Retrieved November 2, 2020. Dungeons & Dragons (commonly abbreviated as D&D or DnD) [2] is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. [3] [4] [5] The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). [5] It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, now a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. [4] [6] D&D 's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, [5] [7] and also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre. [8] [9] [10] Glasheen, Henry (February 26, 2015). "D&D Fifth Edition: Dungeon Master's Guide Review". SLUG Magazine . Retrieved April 26, 2020. Kroll, Justin (February 8, 2021). "Michelle Rodriguez And Justice Smith Join Chris Pine in Hasbro And Paramount's 'Dungeons & Dragons' Movie". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021 . Retrieved February 8, 2021.

Dungeons & Dragons". IDW Publishing. Archived from the original on January 26, 2011 . Retrieved January 22, 2011.Early editions did not allow or had severe penalties for changing alignment (Gygax; Dungeon Masters Guide, p. 24) but more recent versions are more allowing of change. (Cook, Williams, Tweet; Dungeon Master's Guide v3.5., p. 134) After... the idea of acquiring TSR began to swim in my mind it took me maybe thirty seconds to decide, We've got to do a third edition of Dungeons & Dragons." ( Adkison, Peter in Johnson, et al.; 30 Years of Adventure, p. 250). Main article: Miniature figure (gaming) Dungeons & Dragons miniature figures. The grid mat underneath uses one-inch squares, with the side length of each square usually representing either 5 or 10 feet (1.5 or 3.0m). Shaffer, R.L. (August 28, 2009). "Dungeons and Dragons: The Animated Series - Beginnings DVD Review". IGN. Archived from the original on December 3, 2017 . Retrieved February 25, 2020.