Review: Dungeons and Dragons at 50

Last week, I went to a talk hosted by the British Library to round off their excellent Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition. Sadly, the exhibition is finished, but it was a fantastic look at the history and breadth of fantasy in fiction, folklore, and popular culture; with many of its talks still on the British Library's Living Knowledge Network.

This talk, about the history and early days of Dungeons and Dragons 50 years ago, was mediated by Matthew Clayton with two speakers:

• Sir Ian Livingstone; co-creator of Games Workshop, Chairman of Eidos Interactive, and author of many of the Fighting Fantasy book series.

• Mark Hulmes; GM for High Rollers & Nights of Evenstar, and regular GM for Wizards of the Coast, DnD in a Castle, and many others.

Each speaker was given some time to give a short talk, then there was a short discussion between the panellists, and finally there were questions from the audience. 

Sir Ian’s talk was focused on the intersection between his company, Games Workshop, and TSR - Games Workshop was the UK distributor for D&D for its first few years, all on the back of pure serendipity. At the time, Games Workshop had an extremely small-run zine; 100 copies or fewer, called Owl and Weasel, where they talked about different new and upcoming games and advertised their products - not unlike zines today!

Somehow, one copy of the zine landed on Gary Gygax’s desk some 4000 miles away - and in response, he, like any business owner seeing an opportunity, sent over some merch - a White Box edition of Dungeons and Dragons. In response, Games Workshop dedicated their sixth issue of Owl and Weasel to Dungeons and Dragons - this new, imaginative, totally different sort of game to anything they’d played before. Wanting to capitalise on this sensation, they decided to place a commercial order to TSR at the limits of their budget, and picked up six (6) copies. And TSR, seeing this, gave them a three year distribution agreement for all of Europe. So, if you, as an indie designer, are ever concerned about low sales figures - six sales is all it took TSR to expand into a whole new continent!

In the early days of Games Workshop, Dungeons and Dragons provided the impetus for growth; and really shaped Games Workshop from making Ludo boards into the powerhouse it is today. In order to compete with TSR’s Dragon Magazine, GW renamed Owl and Weasel into White Dwarf. With its war-game heritage, it was expected that Dungeons and Dragons was played with miniatures, so GW set up their own miniature designer; Citadel Miniatures. And, when in 1978, Games Workshop were dropped as sole distributors in Europe, GW set up their own RPG system - Warhammer Fantasy, and later, Warhammer 40000; Rogue Trader, which later evolved into the powerhouse wargames that make up their bread and butter today.

Sir Ian talked about some of his own experiences playing D&D in the early days - from watching what must have been one of the first British games at City Games Club in central London, to showing off his first ever dungeon, and his first ever character; the roguish, selfish, chaotic barbarian, Angvar.

The Inner Temple of the Golden Skeleton - Ian Livingstone, 1975

One thing that struck me about how Games Workshop was run was that they understood peripherals; they set up their own store because other stores only wanted to carry the books - but they understood that people want the maps, the dice, the miniatures, the adventures - there’s a whole ecosystem surrounding the books - and that’s just as true today; and it’s important for budding designers to know that those are options!

Sir Ian was a fantastic speaker - a lot of what he was talking about was taken from his new book Dice Men, about the history of Games Workshop up until he sold it in the early 90s - but it was engaging enough that it didn’t feel like show-and-tell.

Next, Mark Hulmes gave an overview of the modern landscape of D&D 5e - admittedly, a bit more of an impromptu talk, but Mark had only been given a few hours notice that he needed to give one! Looking at it through that lens, it was a great overview; similar to Sir Ian, Mark is a great speaker and has a lot of stage presence - fitting, as he GM’s the country’s biggest AP; High Rollers, and has for the last eight years. 

He started off by talking about what D&D is today, and stressed something that caught me as someone who isn’t interested in the AP side of the hobby - that his game is unedited, live, and reflective of a home game - implying, I guess, that the average AP somehow very different to a home game; which does fascinate me as an outsider.

In dispelling some assumptions about D&D - that it’s not played in costume in the woods, that it’s not a ritual to summon demons and that D&D isn't only played by geeky white men; Mark mentions a fantastic (read: extremely bad) movie that I would recommend you all watch - Mazes and Monsters, starring a young Tom Hanks, all about how, after playing the eponymous RPG Mazes and Monsters, Tom Hanks’ character begins to believe that he is his character, and chaos ensues. It’s a relic of the satanic panic, and definitely shows its age and the short, term, reactionary origins that we see today in demonisation of videogames, mobile phones, and some of the more egregious criticisms of social media.

Mark talks a bit about the undeniable popularity surge of D&D into its 5th edition; highlighting mainstream fantasy shows like Games of Thrones (which has its own proprietary RPG system), and shows that displayed D&D in play - like, Stranger Things, and Community. He, of course, mentioned the powerhouse AP group Critical Role (who are currently working on their own D&D heartbreaker, Daggerheart), and some youtubers; Ginny Di, and Matt Colville (who is also working on his own D&D heartbreaker, MCDM RPG) - and highlighted how these new avenues, as well as digital tools like DNDBeyond, make the hobby more accessible and easier to break into, something I definitely agree with.

After a short discussion, mostly focussed on a bit of show-and-tell from Sir Ian’s book, Dice Men, there were nearly an hour of questions. These ran the gamut from the mundane to the profound, but there were a couple that jumped out to me as speaking to some ideas about game philosophy that I’d like to highlight:

“With your experience of ludology and pedagogy, what do you think is unique about fantasy [read: fantastical; imaginative, rather than fantasy as a specific genre of fiction], and specifically games, as storytelling media and its role in the future of education and technology?”

It’s a great question. Ian’s response, is, to my mind, spot on: “I’ve always been a big believer in the power of play”. He talks about videogames here specifically, but he’s given similar thoughts on his Fighting Fantasy books, as mentioned above. He relates play to problem solving, intuitive learning, and especially importantly for kids, learning in a safe environment, where failure doesn’t result in undue consequence - unlike something like an exam, where it does. “Society”, Ian says, “has always judged games in a negative sense [...] but I think games are a great force for good.”

I would even go further - I think all of those things are extremely important for adults as well - and on top of that, adults often lose part of that joy of being silly - we take ourselves too seriously, and playing a silly little guy for a few hours a week can, I think, help us remember to take things with a bit more whimsy in our daily lives. After being asked, by Mark, whether players used to do character voices back in the early days of D&D, Sir Ian responded in Angvar’s deep, roaring voice, and that was great! Totally unexpected from a respected (and knighted!) man in his 70s, and it definitely surprised both Mark and the audience - and I definitely couldn’t imagine many other people in Sir Ian’s league doing the same - that’s a great bit of whimsy, and it’s clearly served Sir Ian well.

Another question that provoked an interesting discussion was from a kid just getting into the hobby, who asked:

“Do you prefer being a dungeon master or a player? I’m just getting into it a bit, and I’m not sure whether I want to take on the responsibility of being a dungeon master.”

If you’ve ever been on any D&D forum for a period of time, you’ve seen this question, or at least this sentiment, reflected numerous times - GM’ing is onerous, it’s a responsibility; I couldn’t do it. And the truth is that everyone can; no-one starts off good, but it’s a lot easier than it looks! I started off GM’ing solely because I was the one who bought the books, and that’s generally the metric I’ve stuck to - whoever was passionate enough to buy the system, runs it, and I’ve played a lot of systems over the years that I otherwise wouldn’t have even heard of as a result.

Sir Ian gives a view of GMing that’s rooted in early D&D philosophy: “My bit of dungeon mastering, which I really enjoyed, was luring people to their death. Making sure that people make the wrong choice; promising them everything, and of course spikes with dragons awaited them”. Dragons? In MY pit trap? It’s more likely than you’d think! He continues, “It’s fun being both, I like the creative aspect of being a dungeon master, but I love the joy of playing too”.

Mark, however, gives a view that is much more indicative of the modern game’s philosophy. “I’m a very different dungeon master, Sir Ian - I don’t want my players to die! I’m too nice, quite often”. GMing has, in 5e, at least, moved away from GM vs Player, even if the memes would have you believe otherwise, and this difference of experience, from Sir Ian’s time playing 1e to Mark’s time playing 5e, is really made clear here by their two very different responses. “Being a dungeon master”, Mark continues, “is a really creatively rewarding thing. If you want to give it a go, and you’ve got a cool idea for a story or a campaign, absolutely try being a dungeon master - and there’s a lot less of us! We need more DMs in the world”. Ain’t that the truth!

All in all, this was a fascinating look at both the games industry in the early days of TTRPGs and how D&D and Games Workshop’s history was so interlinked. Both Sir Ian and Mark were really great speakers, and I look forward to whatever the British Library puts on next in this fantasy and game writing space!

You can watch a recording of the talk here, watch Mark’s personal streams here, and High Rollers here, and get Sir Ian’s book here.

What was your first introduction to D&D? I remember, I’d heard, vaguely, of the concept, picked up the Pathfinder starter set, and hated it. After that, my friends and I made up our own systems for several years, before branching back into 5th edition to play some of the modules - I remember Tomb of Annihilation being a particularly great scenario that really sucked me in and properly bit me with the TTRPG bug.