45th Anniversary - International Original Dungeons & Dragons Day (January 25th)

Hard to imagine that today is 45 years since Dungeons & Dragons was originally published. Sadly, I was not to discover D&D in the early months of 1974, I was a late comer in the fall of '75. I grew up playing all kinds of games, but this one was different - it did not have fixed boundaries saying this far and no farther. This was more like our childhood games of make believe - you know the ones - they are all banned now, but bitd we had a ton of fun playing them. 
 
I played in that first D&D game, died several times and ran through several characters that first night, all of them fighting-men and all of them committed to standing in the gap/fighting the rearguard action. I knew then that if I turned and ran and left the other characters to their own devices,I would have a good chance of surviving, but that (for me) would be no fun, that would have been (for me) the cowards way out. The game (for me) was about team play and sacrificing yourself for each other. It was about (for me) one for all and all for one. It did not bother me that most people never played that way, that was how I played. Now when I refereed my own game, I awarded extra experience for selfless team play. If the character died, well the player still got rewarded in other ways with a future character if that especially if that type of play continued.
 
Many is the character that lost their Lawful alignment for cowardice, since at best I considered that to be Neutral behavior. Now that was not for a single action, but for a pattern of action. Additionally, the players were not surprised by this, as they had ample warning of the impending change and opportunity to salvage things.
 
As a referee, the creation of the world, new monsters, new magic items, new spells and the like were huge fun and being able to keep the players guessing and not allowing them to take anything for granted was part of what kept me in the refs chair year after year.
 
How about you? Do you have memories of the early days, but when it was all fresh and new?

Gygax News - On the 45th Anniversary during International Original Dungeons & Dragons Month

In celebrating International Original Dungeons & Dragons Month - 45th Anniversary I have not been able to write as much so far this month as I intended, but when I got a chance to get back online last night I ran across this over at grodog's blog (From Kuroth's Quill - grodog's AD&D blog).

This was four days ago, but here is the link:

Paul Stormberg reddit "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) on Gygax Manuscripts Archive

This afternoon today, Paul Stormberg of The Collector's Trove held a Q&A session over on reddit about the contents of Gary Gygax's unpublished manuscripts:

Adventurers wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success!

This is an AMA, wherein I allow adventurers to ask me anything about the trove of treasures left behind by Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, and what traps and guardians await them.

Gail Gygax's agent, Gina Ramirez, also participated in the AMA, covering questions around licensing as well as future publishing plans for computer games, RPGs, etc.

Go read the rest of grodog's post and then follow the link to the reddit for the full thing, you'll be glad you did.

International Original Dungeons & Dragons Month - 45th Anniversary

This year 2019 marks 45 years since the Original Dungeons and Dragons was published in January of 1974. A number of us will be posting a few times this month to celebrate 45 years of the world's first published open-ended fantasy adventure game. Anyone who wants to join in and post for this event, please feel free to do so. If you do please note that the post is for the International Original Dungeons & Dragons Month - 45th Anniversary.

1974 was the year I graduated high school and the year that I started college. It was not until the following year (fall 1975) that I was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons. It was unlike any other game I had ever played and all other games IMO paled to insignificance by comparison.

Created by Dave Arneson and co-written with Gary Gygax, this is a game that need never end except by mutual agreement and in theory at least a campaign could run forever. There are campaigns which have gone on for over 40 years, so far for me my longest one was 9 years.

I plan to post several times this month and talk about different aspects of the Original Dungeons & Dragons, but for this early morning in the new year, I wish simply to introduce the topic and let you know what is coming down the way.

I hope that you will join me and many others in celebrating the 45th Anniversary of the Original Dungeons & Dragons.