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# 2025-04-18 - Dungeons & Dragons & Rogues, Oh My! | |
Today i am writing about Dungeons & Dragons. D&D is open-ended | |
enough to be different things for different people. It can be a | |
tactical dungeon crawl where the objective is to kill monsters and | |
take their stuff. It can be story telling and improv theater where | |
you get to make-believe and escape from a mundane day-to-day world. | |
In any case it is intended to be a creative, social experience, | |
giving the participants a chance to exercise their imaginations, | |
try out new ways of being, and have fun with their friends. In my | |
not so humble opinion, those are important. | |
The first computer game i played was Dungeon (AKA Zork), and it was | |
influenced by D&D. This game was a solitaire exercise in exploration | |
and puzzle solving. | |
Dungeon, Zork, etc. (1978-1981) | |
Later, when a "mini mall" opened in my neighborhood, one of the | |
stalls was rented by people who handed out Chick tracts, including | |
Dark Dungeons. Cheap entertainment for a broke kid. | |
Dark Dungeons (1984) | |
One of the local pawn shops sold shareware on 5-1/4" floppy disks. | |
They charged $1 per disk. It was often a gamble. You read the title | |
and a short descriptive sentence on the disk label and crossed your | |
fingers that it would be worthwhile. I bought a floppy labeled | |
Ring Wielder, which turned out to be a print-your-own RPG ruleset. I | |
printed it on tractor-feed paper and tried to play it with my brother | |
and sister. We didn't really grok it. | |
Ring Wielder (1989) | |
In high school, i discovered Rogue and played it a lot. After that | |
came Hack, both from sneakernet. Then a group of us pitched in $1 | |
each to order a copy of Moria from a mail-order catalog, and we | |
shared it with each other. I spent hours playing Moria. Finally, | |
a friend and i downloaded Larn & NetHack over a modem. Moria grew up | |
to become Angband. I think of Angband and NetHack as emacs and vi: | |
different yet the same, both having important contributions. Also, | |
they can both be considered solitaire versions of D&D. | |
In high school i had friends who played 2nd Edition AD&D. I even | |
tried to join in during a group sleepover. They wanted to watch TV | |
and didn't even begin creating characters until about 10 PM. I am | |
an early bird, and suffice it to say, i fell asleep during the first | |
hour of gameplay. They stayed up all night. I had a few more false | |
starts creating characters but never really playing the game. | |
All of my high school D&D friends were soundly in the "nerd" camp. | |
Most of them liked books, programming, and Trek. None of them were | |
into art, sports, or theater. | |
Speaking of books and storytelling, i checked out every D&D themed | |
book i could get my hands on in the school library, which includes | |
many Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels. I remember Drizzt, | |
Elminster, Raistlin, etc. | |
TSR D&D Bibliography | |
List of Dragonlance Novels | |
List of Forgotten Realms Novels | |
It wasn't until 2011 that i finally played a real game of D&D, this | |
time using 5th Edition. It was my good fortune to play in a campaign | |
led by an experienced GM and most of the other players were also | |
experienced. I had a great time! | |
During this time, D&D retro clones had become popular. This movement | |
became known as OSR (Old-School Renaissance). I created a campaign | |
and played Labyrinth Lord with my sister and a few friends. My | |
setting was named Aldea. It featured classic Tolkien races in a | |
basically steampunk setting. It was set on a world just coming out | |
of a global ice age in an era of optimism and growth. | |
D&D Retro Clones | |
Old School Renaissance | |
Labyrinth Lord (2007) | |
These days if i am feeling nostalgic, i'll fire up my DOS PC and play | |
a classic roguelike. | |
Angband | |
NetHack | |
Angband (32-bit) | |
NetHack (32-bit) | |
tags: article,bencollver,fantasy | |
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article | |
bencollver | |
fantasy |