Dungeons & Dragons (1974)

Overview

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)
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First EditionAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of dungeon delving and her...High-FantasyComplexHeroic
, which was later followed by
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (1989)
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second EditionAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (AD&D 2E) is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of heroi...High-FantasyComplexHeroic
.

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.

Active games and players

DND1E
Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
Online
Campaign
Original Dungeons & Dragons
Players
4/10
GM
1/1
Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
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Original Dungeons & Dragons

Roleplay focused
Conversation, character and story take up most of the table time.
Newbie friendly
New players are welcome, and nobody expects you to know the rules beforehand.
Whatever the opposite of a railroaded adventure is, this open-world campaign is that. The rules are simple. The world is complicated. What happens to it is up to the players. You will hear rumors, discover locations, meet competing factions, and encounter problems, but the game will not tell you which direction you must take. Some things the players have chosen to do so far: Join the local mercenaries to learn the ways of the sword as a mage - Retrieve an old lady's purse - Become war chieftain of an orc village - Decapitate a wight with a cursed sword Also some new races that are crafted to play and feel very different: - Pixie - fly, perfect hiding, cast phantasmal forces at will, insults cause physical damage to you - Orc - infra-vision, can recruit monsters more easily Races and classes are kind of blended together. Multiple characters are encouraged. Each choice allows you to do something that appears to let you break the game, while saddling you with something else that seems debilitating. This is by design, and players have come up with a few ways of getting around and abusing these things to the betterment of the story and lore. - Fighting-Man - Doesn't have to actually be a guy, but is a human. Can use all weapons and armor. - Magic-User - Has one spell, one "shot". Can meet with magic learned peers to exchange knowledge. The most notorious spell in the game right now is Charm Person because it doesn't wear off like in later editions. - Cleric - The best of the two above, but must be Good, and by the Law. - Elf - Essentially a Magic-Use/Fighting-Man with extra perks and ties with elves and the ability to sense magic, enhanced senses, etc. but capped at a certain point - Hobbit - Capped early, but can hide flawlessly in urban areas and snipe REAL good with slings. No magic. - Dwarf -  Capped early, but high resistance, good with all axes and hammers, can sense what stone touches and its shape, and ties with and extensive knowledge of dwarven culture and holds. There are major events going on in the background but instead of shoving players in the middle of them, I showcase the developments of those events that come about, for good or ill. The players decide what to investigate, whom to trust, which dangers are worth confronting, and what their characters want to accomplish. How many hirelings do you need to bring with you? How much can you do successfully alone to maximize profit? Play alone, 1-on-1 with DM and player, or up to 10 others at once. The world continues to develop around the party. Factions pursue their own plans, NPCs remember your actions, enemies adapt, settlements can change, and neglected situations may grow better or worse. Player choices can permanently reshape the campaign world. Let me know if you are interested!

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AD&D1E
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1E)
DND1E
Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
...
Greeley
Brent Isherwood
Experienced player/DM looking to start a face-to-face group in Northern Colorado.  I would happily run 1e AD&D or OD&D.  Heck, I'd even run Shadowdark 😎 (Shadowdark has old school DNA) If you are interested in old school gaming then I'm your guy.  No experience needed.  Just a willingness to have fun and enjoy adventuring the old school way!
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en English
DND5E
Dungeons & Dragons 5E
DND5.5E
Dungeons & Dragons 5.5E (2024)
...
Overland Park
Alan
Longtime Player and DM/GM looking to start playing in person again. I'm not professional and it shows, but as long as everyone is having fun, it's a good game. I believe games should be free.
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Update log - August 2026 “Group manager”
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