I’m a Dungeons & Dragons fan, but I’m new the community all things considered. My first game was around 2020, and since then I’ve played through a full campaign and consumed plenty of D&D media. Yet there’s still much for me to unpack about the game, which is why I’ve chosen it as my research topic.
I hoped to find out more about its history, its relevance, and its future — below are the annotations of my research.
Exploring the Depths
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Player’s Handbook. 2nd ed., TSR, Inc., 1989.
“An Interview With Gary Gygax” YouTube, uploaded by thedungeondelver, 30 June 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4A1IsQY2D4.
Byers, Andrew. “The Satanic Panic and Dungeons & Dragons: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective” The Role-Playing Society: Essays on the Cultural Influence of RPGs edited by Andrew Byers and Francesco Crocco, McFarland Company Inc., 2016 pgs 22-45.
Byers looks back on the “Satanic Panic” that surrounded D&D in its early days, framing its basis around the nation’s control of teenage behavior and prevention of Satanism. Byers uses hindsight of journalists and scholars researching the era to emphasize the exaggeration of Satanism and to recognize the D&D players that did commit suicide or other acts of violence were dealing with mental illness, rather than the game pushing kids to those dark places. He also incorporates the designers’ perspectives at the time, utilizing publications to Dragon magazine to reflect their exhaustion with the criticisms. While he does get perspective from the designers, there could be more focus on what it meant to have been a player ostracized during the time period. It’s a perspective that with 25 years to reflect on would be worth incorporating or further researching.
Crandall, Rob and Charles Taliaferro. “To My Other Self: Reflection and Existentialism in Dungeons & Dragons” Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy: Read and Gain Advantage on All Wisdom Checks, William Irwin & Christopher Robichaud, Wiley Blackwell, 2014, pgs 72-81.
Crandall and Taliaferro dig into one of the core components of D&D, the role-playing. They reflect on the oddity of creating a character and yet also being asked to play said character, and what that means to embody someone yet making decisions evaluated by yourself. Some existentialist thinkers are incorporated to demonstrate the real dilemma of a character being defined only by their actions, not exactly all that is inspired in the mind of their creator. They confess that the game’s entertainment stems from a character undergoing change, and seeing that over the course of time as a means of understanding oneself. Much of this experience is up to personal preference, so perhaps the authors could have contrasted more of their own experience with that of others who participate in the game.
“Detect Magic” When We Were Wizards from Traction Media, 8 July 2022, https:// podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/when-we-were-wizards/id1631699827.
This episode of the podcast focuses on the generation of Dungeons & Dragons from an idea to a game to publish and sell. The podcast utilizes interviews with those that were there for the inception of D&D, such as David Megarry (creator of Dungeon!) and Mary Jo Powell (Gary Gygax’s first wife). As a documentary styled podcast, the narrative emphasizes Dave Arneson is framed as the one with the roleplaying/collaborative storytelling concept, yet since he based the game around Gygax’s previous Chainmail system, he reached out for assistance to clarify a different set of rules. After establishing Gygax and Arneson’s connection, the rest of the episode focuses on Gygax creating the game publishing company TSR so they could start selling their game. The hosts of the podcast reflect strong research, yet interestingly they stopped making episodes after their third, “System Shock,” leaving this oral history of D&D left incomplete.
Diamond, Amelia. “Who’s Playing Dungeons & Dragons These Days? The Usual Fans, and Then Some.” New York Times, 28 June 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/21/ style/dungeons-and-dragons.html.
Diamond focuses on D&D as a cultural phenomenon, arguing it has shifted from the sphere of social outcasts towards the mainstream, particularly in the decade from 2012 to 2022. They cite the internet, with its popular sites such as YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit, coupled with the rise of nerd culture with Marvel movies, Game of Thrones, and Stranger Things as D&D’s main fuel for the post 2000s era. Diamond then incorporates individual testimonies from players to demonstrate the ways in which the game itself has shifted into a new community. These players argue the queer and POC communities are the ones bringing new life into the game, that it offers a way to explore identity. Diamond’s piece offers an entryway into the topic of D&D by touching onto familiar ideas such as the “satanic panic” of the 1980s, the idea of moving from a mother’s basement to the kitchen table, and its many references on television, perhaps as a way to engage an audience that only has those frameworks to base their opinions of the game on. Since the piece takes a generalized approach, it does leave room to explore further the aforementioned topics more.
Dempsey, Mary et. al. Dungeons and Dragons: Witchcraft, Suicide, Violence, Internet Archive, 27 March 2014, https://archive.org/details/dungeons_and_dragons-witchcraft_suicide_violence/page/n9/mode/2up
A pamphlet from B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons) uploaded to Internet Archive. As a primary source, it shows the organization’s perspectives on D&D as a game that corrupts the young. It references specific excerpts from the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Player’s Handbook at the time, drawing connections from spell requirements and monster/deity descriptions as examples of the occult and witchcraft. The bulk of these excerpts ignore the fact these are only components of the game and are not all malicious in their creation. Their arguments are out of good faith, but there is a lack of connection between their evidence and actionable consequences that affected young people during the time period.
Dungeons & Dragons: Player’s Handbook. 5th ed., Wizards of the Coast LLC, 2014.
Ewalt, David Of Dice and Men : The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It. First Scribner hardcover edition., Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2013.
“Eye of the Beholder” When We Were Wizards from Traction Media, 3 July 2022, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/when-we-were-wizards/id1631699827.
Haberman, Clyde. “When Dungeons & Dragons Set Off a ‘Moral Panic’” New York Times, 17 April 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/18/us/when-dungeons-dragons-set-off-a-moral-panic.html.
Hand, Elizabeth. “Dungeons & Dragons: How the company behind the iconic game lost its way” Washington Post, 26 August 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/books /2022/08/26/dungeons-and-dragons-book/.
Hand analyzes Ben Riggs’ book Slaying the Dragon through summation and minor critiques sprinkled through. Her summation is effective at giving the chronological structure of Riggs’ piece, which serves as a quick recap of TSR’s rise and fall from the 1970s to 1990s. Hand mentions the importance of Lorraine Williams as the new CEO of TSR, paying back financial debts yet seen as an enemy by the Gygax fans. Hand posits this backlash as part of the larger cultural challenges women in business had to face under a male-dominated sphere, and perhaps looking more into the D&D player base could reveal the ways misogyny could have spread in the community before and after Gygax’s departure. Hand caps off her summary with the reminder Wizards of the Coast bought out TSR, and a jab at Riggs’ additions she thought unnecessary. In terms of a review of Riggs’ work, Hand only added a few comments, yet her synopsis speaks to the contents and serves as a strong chronology for TSR’s existence.
“Inside the 40 Year-Long Dungeons & Dragons Game | Obsessed | WIRED” YouTube, uploaded by WIRED, 28 April 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ-ehbVQYxI
WIRED interviews Robert Wardaugh, a dungeon master who has consistently been running one D&D game for 40 years. Robert explains his role as offering a service; it must be high quality if it will encourage people to come back, which is why he spends time perfecting his game system and creating new mini figurines and terrains for any scenario he’d need. He reflects on his journey playing D&D, managing through the “satanic panic” with its accusations of being a cult leader or communist for playing the game so often. In terms of his long-running game, at the time he had 50 players and around 500 characters existing within his world, which spans centuries of in-game time and includes lineages established decades ago in real-time. WIRED encouraged Robert’s openness rather than oversaturating the video with questions, allowing for more stream of consciousness than targeted question and answering.
“Is Dungeons and Dragons Evil? *60 Minutes 1985 special *SHOCKING*” YouTube, uploaded by BRMinistries, 21 May 2016, https://youtu.be/yShqF1YSfDs.
The video is an uploaded version of a 60 Minutes segment focused on Dungeons & Dragons and a connection between teen suicides and murders that were prevalent in the 1980s. They interviewed then TSR owner Gary Gygax (also the game’s co-creator), TSR Head of Public Relations Peter Stern, and founder of Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (B.A.D.D.) Pat Pulling. The interviewees represent the dominant arguments over the game during the 1980s; D&D was a game that pushed healthy, normal kids to kill themselves/others, or it was used as an excuse for failed parenting. Although it appears 60 Minutes took an objective stance on the issue, they did spend less time interviewing actual players of the game and relied mostly on the testimony of family members connected to these teen suicides instead, which could have been insightful to the game’s true effects. It may be important to analyze 60 Minutes’ target audience as well, and perhaps see if they had any follow up stories after this segment.
mattcolville, “We’ve come a long way, actually.” Reddit, 2017, https://www.reddit.com/r/ DnD/comments/599tq1/weve_come_a_long_way_actually/.
mattcolville, as a response to” reading some of the recent posts about gender in D&D and people are arguing about what kinds of societies you should build,” reflects on how these topics are missing perspective on how far the game has come in addressing those issues. He mentions two examples from the 1970s: how co-creator Gary Gygax limited female stats (the values used to influence the dice rolls) in the DMG, and how Dragon Magazine writer Len Lakofka claimed female characters should gain seduction abilities based on the charisma skill as key examples. Unfortunately mattcolville does not share links/citations to these examples, yet the lack of corrections from responders may demonstrate potential corroboration with research into his claims. Out of the 452 responses to their post, most are shared anecdotes that either mimic mattcolville’s sentiments or demonstrate further examples of sexism present in the game. These anecdotes could be valuable springboards for investigating specific gender-based issues in the game of D&D.
Lieberoth, Andreas & Trier-Knudsen, Jonas. “Psychological Effects of Fantasy Games on Their Players” The Role-Playing Society: Essays on the Cultural Influence of RPGs edited by Andrew Byers and Francesco Crocco, McFarland Company Inc., 2016 pgs 46-71
Mussett, Shannon. “Berserker in a Skirt: Sex and Gender in Dungeons & Dragons” Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy: Read and Gain Advantage on All Wisdom Checks, William Irwin & Christopher Robichaud, Wiley Blackwell, 2014, pgs 189-201.
Mussett discusses the flexibility of gender and sex within Dungeons & Dragons. She notes how sex should be as important of a choice for a player’s character as their race and class; it has no disadvantages either way, but could pose interesting exercises. She argues that since D&D encourages the exploration of identity and societal place in a fantastical world, players should use the medium to play against gender constructs and limitations. In her eyes, this method could be used to expand imagination and critical thought on how to counteract these constructs and limitations. Mussett pulls gender theorists, her personal play experience, and the message of drag as evidence to the performative nature of gender itself. She writes with a clear intention to use the methods of play to consider social changes, offering the reader rhetorical questions meant to create introspection on her discussion. Since many of her concepts were abstract, there was much of the reading that was focused on the theory which could have been supplemented more with examples of that theory put into practice.
“Represent (with Daniel Kwan) | Adventuring Academy Season 3 | Ep. 3” YouTube, uploaded by Dimension 20, 29 March 2021, https://youtu.be/aq7PluF6EUQ.
Brennan Lee Mulligan interviews Daniel Kwan about his personal experience with Dungeons & Dragons. Daniel discusses his involvement with Asians Represent Podcast and their D&D playshow, “Dungeons and Da Asians” as an example of the game’s attempts to address issues of equity and inclusion. As an example of adapting D&D to an Asian audience, Daniel mentioned how his team made changes to classic D&D classes that felt too eurocentric and restrictive to the story they wished to tell; they did not change the system of D&D, rather its setting and themes. Daniel and Brennan additionally give advice about being a dungeon master directed towards audience questions, part of the premise behind the Adventuring Academy series. Brennan and Daniel offer perspectives as not just players, but as dungeon masters and media creators for the D&D community. Although viewership is low on the video and there is not concrete evidence that they are expressing a majority opinion of the community, both choose to incorporate it into their versions of entertainment and reflect inclusivity as a focal point for the recent D&D player base.
“System Shock” When We Were Wizards from Traction Media, 30 July 2022, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/when-we-were-wizards/id1631699827.
Wizards of the Coast. “Diversity and Dungeons & Dragons” Dungeons & Dragons, 17 June 2020, https://dnd.wizards.com/news/diversity-and-dnd.
A post from the owners of D&D themselves on the game’s official website, Wizards of the Coast addresses the relevance of diversity within the game itself as a reflection of its goal for inclusion. They refer to the treatment of the orcs and drow, as the language surrounding them depicts them as monstrous and evil in a way too similar to how real ethnic groups had been described for the company’s own comfort. The company lays out its future plans from updating previous texts to hiring more diverse talent. It’s unclear based on this post alone what external pressures may have made Wizards of the Coast release this statement at the time, yet it must have had enough pressure or desire to do so for the company itself to be the authors. It also opens the question of what other previous mistakes the company might have made, or how far it has come from its past and why it did not go into more of the ways it has made improvements since then.
Reflections Above
I was surprised at how much I thought I knew about Dungeons & Dragons and how much more there still was to learn. Historically, I knew it was the first of its kind as a role-playing game and that it went through a tumultuous period in the 1980s; only later in the 2010s would it rise closer to the mainstream. I also knew D&D was going through a period of change in its steps towards inclusion and diversity through its own game system, so these naturally became branching points for me to explore. Yet in conducting research, I saw these discussions with deeper understanding.
I familiarized myself with the creation period and why the game became such a success; learning about the rise and fall of Gary Gygax, and the reverence people had of him brought an interesting perspective to how I now view the game. The podcasts, articles, and books about this time from the 1970s to 1990s revealed an ambitious figure whose controlling tendencies would generate so much drama surrounding this revolutionary game. With a history spanning fifty years, it’s awe inspiring how D&D had such immediate success in spite of the feuding, and it makes me curious to explore more of its modern history to see if there are any parallels to its first half of existence.
I also appreciated a deeper understanding of the “Satanic Panic” that surrounded the game during the 1980s. Coming across the 60 Minutes piece in particular made me consider the concept of a moral panic and almost cyclically Americans can hyperfixate on something that isn’t as threatening as they believe it to be. In my research I was able to see how people bought into the fear and the fortunate benefit of hindsight; the only thing I felt was missing were testimonies to what it meant living through that social ostracization and how this perspective on the game might have impacted it even further.
Lastly, approaching D&D not just as a game, but as an experience that holds real world consequences was an intriguing concept I already felt I understood, but was entirely different to see with cultural lenses. For instance, Shannon Mussett’s essay made me reflect on how D&D encourages its players to explore who they might normally not be – I’ve already found myself doing this by currently playing a character that I think is more outgoing and extroverted than myself, but she made me consider what other facets of my own identity could I touch on that I may feel unable to do in lived reality?
An additional lens I had become aware about but not fully thought through was how we incorporate representation and inclusion in the game system itself. I find it fascinating and unfortunate that because D&D is a theater of the mind exercise, some implicit biases or social norms may inform worldbuilding and play experience. More importantly, the game itself may limit diversity; the game system may not be problematic, but the background and canonized history of the game has had issues. In the AD&D 2nd Edition copy, I noticed how some classes like druid were only allowed to be specific races, which through a modern lens reflects clear problems. Although D&D can explore real world issues, it is ultimately a game; playing through a world that also has sexism or racism is not exactly what every player has in mind and the owners working towards a more inclusive version of the game is encouraging to me.
While I am deeply engaged with Gary Gygax’s story, I find that exploring it would be more of a historical endeavor that already has its own coverage. I want to know where Dungeons & Dragons is heading now that it has gone through its revival period. There’s so much that I find enjoyable about the game, I want to know what it means to other people and how it is being used as a tool for change in addition to its function as a game. I would imagine my audience to be my own or a younger generation, or those that aren’t incredibly familiar with the game outside of its stereotypical themes. More than likely a social media driven genre would best serve that target audience. I’m not sure if I’m a fan of writing out TikToks or Instagram posts, but maybe finding a way to have connective tissue between mini informational segments that build into a larger framework may be beneficial in achieving that.