"Once upon a time, long, long ago, in realm called the Midwestern United States—specifically the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin—a group of friends gathered together to forever alter the history of gaming."
----Preface to Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition Player’s Handbook
On Sunday night at 9 o’clock, my DM, Ben, starts a Google Hangouts call to his friend Kevin. We sit in an apartment living room, our computers on our laps, ready to start the campaign. While Ben, Kevin, and I have done played Dungeons and Dragons before, our other three teammates are first timers. We log into roll20.com, an online tabletop role playing game site where we can share documents, roll dice programs, and save our character sheets.
Every weekend, around the globe, there are groups like ours that come together to play Dungeons and Dragons, and the number of fans is growing rapidly.
The very first Dungeons and Dragons handbook was published in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, two friends and fans of the wargame genre who were interested in creating a new type of tabletop game. Shortly afterwards, the handbook expanded to include new classes, rules, adventure ideas, and designed maps. By 1982, D&D had been established in popular culture and was shown in films like Steven Spielberg's E.T. More editions of the player’s handbook were released and now were printed in over 10 different languages. Dungeons and Dragons became a worldwide phenomenon.
Then, in ‘89, Nintendo’s Game Boy and SEGA’s Sega Genesis console was released. Tabletop role playing games were replaced with video games and D&D lost its popularity with younger generations. Pop culture was becoming digital and geek culture followed suit.
But in the last two years, I’ve been seeing a resurgence in Dungeons and Dragons not only in the more underground nerd communities, but in popular culture again.
When I sat down to watch Netflix’s Stranger Things, I was delighted and surprised to be greeted by the familiar sight of four friends playing D&D. Soon afterward, mobile news outlet NowThis interviewed Stranger Things actor Joe Keery while they played a game of D&D.
I stumbled upon a D&D podcast called The Adventure Zone by the McElroy family, who are soon releasing a tv series guest starring Lin Manuel Miranda and Weird Al Yankovic and a graphic novel series based on the adventures from the podcast.
Geek and Sundry’s show Critical Role stars popular voice actors from video games and cartoons, including Matt Mercer from Overwatch and Final Fantasy XV as the DM (Dungeon Master who designs the campaign and all its story components).
HarmonQuest is a tabletop RPG show by Dan Harmon, creator and producer of both NBC’s Community and Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, and it blends live action segments filmed in front of a studio audience with animated sequences that bring the player’s characters to life. Most impressively, HarmonQuest features some famous guests, including Parks and Recreation actress Aubrey Plaza, Firefly’s Nathan Fillion, and Silicon Valley actor Kumail Nanjiani.
Before being reintroduced to D&D through The Adventure Zone podcast, Hollins University senior Taylor wasn’t interested in playing. But since listening to the podcast, her perspective has changed. “The game was reframed to being this really amazing and really imaginative way of hanging out with friends,” says Taylor. “[D&D] is still for super nerdy people. It’s just that now I identify as one of those super nerdy people.”
Dungeons and Dragons is going through a Renaissance of sorts, becoming a part of geek communities but also popular culture once more. The same globalization, technology, and digital age that doomed D&D has now brought it back from its grave by connecting players. Sessions can be done through Skype, Google Hangouts, and, like my group is doing, roll20.com. Online dice rollers and random number generators help players perform their actions without having to go out and purchase their own dice sets. DMs can do research for story inspiration and world building. Artists have begun sharing their character drawings online with fellow players. And, most importantly for the survival of the game, non-players can feel included by watching RPG shows like HarmonQuest or listening to The Adventure Zone. What used to be an underground, secret nerd game is now a popular, media rich, and highly shared nerd game.
What I can appreciate most about Dungeons and Dragons is that it does something profoundly important: it makes games about the players again. I love video games. I want to invest my life in working on them and building them. But it is crucial that we-- as a community-- put down the screens and controllers once in awhile and just be in the moment with our friends. D&D lets people solve complex problems, work out solutions, learn prioritization and improvisation. And now, with a global online and popular community, I hope that it can let people be a part of bigger story. Welcome to the 21st century, Dungeons and Dragons!
