Category Archives: Role-playing game history

D&D’s Designers Can’t Decide Whether Characters Must Rest for Hit Points and Healing, but You Can Choose

Posted on July 17, 2018 by David Hartlage

In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, ordinary monster attacks inflicted just 1d6 damage. Yet characters still died, frequently. Clerics gained far fewer spells and much less healing than today, so most damage took a trip out of the dungeon … Continue reading →

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The Unintended Consequence That Ruined Fourth Edition D&D’s Chance of Success, But Proved Great for Gamers

Posted on July 3, 2018 by David Hartlage

Publicly, members of Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons team never discuss sales numbers. Privately, they dispute the notion that the Pathfinder role-playing game ever outsold fourth-edition D&D. But at Gen Con, late in the short life of fourth … Continue reading →

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Why Fourth Edition Never Saved Dungeons & Dragons

Posted on June 12, 2018 by David Hartlage

“Fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons is all about taking that things that work in D&D, keeping them in the game, and fixing everything else,” designer Mike Mearls wrote after the edition’s announcement in 2007. “That’s the goal, and I think … Continue reading →

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Why Fourth Edition Seemed Like the Savior Dungeons & Dragons Needed

Posted on June 5, 2018 by David Hartlage

In 2005, Dungeons & Dragons faced a possible future similar to the fate of another popular role-playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade. In this future, D&D only exists as a license for online games and t-shirts and another potential movie. The … Continue reading →

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The Threat that Nearly Killed Dungeons & Dragons—Twice

Posted on May 29, 2018 by David Hartlage

Despite the alarmists warning that things like ascending armor classes, women, or fourth edition would ruin Dungeons & Dragons, the game has only faced one serious threat. Ascending ACs are just easier, woman have been improving the game at least … Continue reading →

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Did Dave and Gary’s Gift for Finding Fun in Dungeons & Dragons Lead Them Wrong?

Posted on May 15, 2018 by David Hartlage

When Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax designed Dungeons & Dragons, they aimed for fun. In 1978 Gary wrote, “Enjoyment is the real reason for D&D being created, written, and published.” To Gary, when players fell in love with the game … Continue reading →

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Gary Gygax Versus the False Deity (of Realism)

Posted on May 8, 2018 by David Hartlage

Dungeons & Dragons started with a laser focus on dungeon expeditions. Specifically, the game assumed multi-level dungeons with wandering monsters and rooms stocked randomly from monster and treasure assortments. The only rules for non-player characters treated NPCs as monsters to … Continue reading →

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The Surprising Trait Fourth Edition Shared With Original Dungeons & Dragons

Posted on May 1, 2018 by David Hartlage

The first Arduin Grimoire starts by explaining how to play Dungeons & Dragons. Sure it claims to be an explanation of how to play “a fantasy game,” but in 1976, when Dave Hargrave penned the tutorial, the range of fantasy … Continue reading →

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The Stories (and 3 Mysteries) Behind D&D’s Iconic Monsters

Posted on April 3, 2018 by David Hartlage

Like every other kid who discovered Dungeons & Dragons in the late 70s, the Monster Manual suddenly became my favorite book. I studied the pages, and then turned to books of mythology to learn more about cyclopses, manticores, and harpies. … Continue reading →

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Fourth Edition Proved D&D Works Without Saving Throws, So Why Did They Come Back?

Posted on December 19, 2017 by David Hartlage

Fourth edition dropped saving throws in favor of to-hit rolls and showed that D&D works without saves. Mathematically, to-hit rolls and saving throws just flip the numbers so that a high roll benefits the person casting the die. Rather than … Continue reading →

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