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Tabletop Roleplaying Games

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Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
1 groups 2 players
Tabletop Roleplaying Games · Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons (1974)

High-Fantasy
English
Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is the original fantasy tabletop roleplaying game, designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and published by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) in 1974 as a small boxed set of three booklets. It grew out of Arneson's Blackmoor game, a medieval variation on Dave Wesely's Braunstein wargames played with individual characters instead of armies, which he showed to Gygax. The two developed it as "The Fantasy Game", and Gygax did the final writing. The set was produced on a budget of $2,000, with $100 for artwork, and it was amateurish in production, assuming that players already knew wargaming. About 1,000 copies sold in its first year and about 3,000 in 1975. The set stayed in print until 1979, and it is often called Original D&D (OD&D). The system directly evolved from Chainmail, the miniatures wargame whose rules it used for combat. In 1977 TSR split the line into the lighter Basic set and the more structured Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition (1977), which was later followed by Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (1989). Description Players each take on a single adventurer, a fighting-man, magic-user or cleric, and explore dungeons and wilderness. One player takes the role of the Dungeon Master (DM), the referee and storyteller who runs the setting and non-player characters and decides outcomes using the rules and their own interpretation. The three booklets are Men & Magic (36 pages), Monsters & Treasure (40 pages) and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (36 pages). The game asks a table to fill in a lot of gaps. It assumes that players know miniatures wargaming, and its wargaming roots show in the attitude that players are not very attached to their characters. Character creation is fast, death is common and replacements join the party, so it suits groups who enjoy improvising rulings more than reading rules.

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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition
1 groups 15 players
Tabletop Roleplaying Games · Dungeons & Dragons

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition

High-Fantasy
English
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of dungeon delving and heroic adventure, designed by Gary Gygax and published by TSR. TSR released a Basic Set in early 1977 to bring the game to a wider public, then published the first part of AD&D later that year as a tighter, more structured game for hobbyist players. The three core hardcovers followed between 1977 and 1979: the Monster Manual (1977), the Player's Handbook (1978) and the Dungeon Master's Guide (1979). Unearthed Arcana (1985) added many new rules. The two lines, Basic and Advanced, were developed separately and often contradicted each other. The system directly evolved from the original Dungeons & Dragons (1974). A second edition, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition, was designed mainly by David "Zeb" Cook and released by TSR in 1989. After Wizards of the Coast bought TSR in 1997, its Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition (2000) merged the Basic and Advanced lines and dropped "Advanced" from the title. Description Players take on adventurers, usually fighters, clerics, magic-users and thieves, who explore dungeons, wilderness and ruins for treasure and glory. The referee is called the Dungeon Master (DM), and the rules are split into player and referee books so that the DM is needed to run a game. The Dungeon Master's Guide covers running campaigns, combat and magic items, with tables for treasure and random encounters. The game asks a table to accept a lot of tables and a high level of lethality. It is a 1970s rule set, written for referees who adjudicate and improvise, and it is not an easy introduction. Many tables run it today because they want exactly that.

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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition
5 groups 17 players
Tabletop Roleplaying Games · Dungeons & Dragons

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition

High-Fantasy
English
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (AD&D 2E) is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of heroic adventure, published by TSR in 1989 and designed mainly by David "Zeb" Cook. Work began in 1987 with a small TSR team led by Cook, and Steve Winter and Cook redeveloped the edition after Gary Gygax, who wrote the first edition, left TSR in 1985. The Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide sold over 400,000 copies in their first year, though lifetime sales fell short of the first edition, and the Dungeon Master's Guide won Origins and Gamer's Choice awards. TSR re-released the core books in 1995 with new covers, art and layouts, and the line was succeeded by Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition in 2000, which was revised into Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. The system directly evolved from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition (1977). It was designed to work with first edition rules, but its information was streamlined and clarified. Description Players take on adventurers drawn from a set of races and classes, and the Dungeon Master (DM) runs dungeons, wilderness and, in later years, whole settings. The edition shifted the game's feel from 1960s and 1970s sword and sorcery to medieval history and mythology, and it stressed heroic roleplaying and teamwork. Demons and devils were removed by name and renamed tanar'ri and baatezu. The second edition grew far beyond a single fantasy world. TSR added settings such as Ravenloft (horror), Spelljammer (science fiction) and Dark Sun (apocalyptic), each with its own rules supplements. The game asks a table to keep a few tables and a fair amount of arithmetic, and the many optional rules mean the DM should decide what is in play at the start of a campaign.

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Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition
Tabletop Roleplaying Games · Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition

High-Fantasy
English
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition (D&D 3E) is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of dungeon delving and heroic adventure, published by Wizards of the Coast in 2000. It was the first edition the company released entirely itself, and the Player's Handbook went on sale on August 10, 2000, with its debut at Gen Con that month. Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet and Skip Williams all contributed to the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual, and each then wrote one of the three books, with Tweet credited with the design of the Player's Handbook. The designers set out to simplify and declutter the whole system. "Advanced" was dropped from the title because the Basic game had been discontinued and the simpler name was more marketable, but it was still called the third edition. The system directly replaced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (1989). It was revised in 2003 as Dungeons & Dragons v.3.5, a deliberately small update. Description Players take on adventurers built from a race and a class, and the Dungeon Master (DM) runs dungeons, monsters and campaigns. The edition removed many of the old limits: restrictions on class and race combinations, and on level advancement for non-human characters, are gone. Combat expanded to include a grid system that supports tactical play and miniatures. The game asks a table to be comfortable with character building. Skills and feats give players more ways to customize a character than the older edition did, and the options keep growing with each rulebook. Reviewers at the time praised its art and tightly packed rules, and one called it the best combat-oriented roleplaying game available.

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