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Additional rulebooks, such as the Complete Warrior, contain optional rules which can also be used. The rules of the most recent version of the game are described in three core rulebooks: The Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual. Outside of the gaming community, Dungeons & Dragons has become a metonym used to refer to role-playing games in general.ĭungeons & Dragons is an open-ended "make-believe" game in which players direct the actions of their characters, the results of which are determined by the Dungeon Master, using the game's rules, which govern almost everything from combat to social interaction, and common sense. Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of the RPG products sold in 2002 Template:Citeneeded. The current version of the game, released in July 2003 is Dungeons & Dragons v.3.5 (also known as the Revised 3rd Edition or D&D3.5).Īs of 2004, Dungeons & Dragons remains the best-known and best-selling role-playing game. In 2000, the simplified version of the game was discontinued and the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons was released as a major revision of the AD&D game. In 1977, a second edition of the game, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as AD&D) was introduced. It also developed the concept of a Dungeon Master (DM) or Gamemaster (GM), the storyteller and referee responsible for creating the fictional setting of the game, moderating the actions of the players' characters, and playing the supporting cast of non-player characters. The game departed from traditional wargaming by assigning each player a specific character to play, as opposed to legions and armies. Players of D&D invent fictitious characters who embark upon imaginary adventures in which they battle many kinds of fictional monsters, gather treasure, and earn experience points as the game progresses. AD&D, however, dominated the RPG genre of that period, enjoying an impenetrable market position. Not long after its inception, Dungeons and Dragons saw its marketshare challenged by the proliferation of many other gaming companies, including Judges Guild, Tunnels and Trolls, and the multiple Arduin works of author David A. The game also achieved minor notoriety, particularly in the 1980s, when some of its imagery was used by many fundamentalists for the purpose of scaring parents of players they alleged that the game promoted, among other things, devil worship, witchcraft, suicide, and murder. Originally derived from tabletop wargames, this publication is generally regarded as the beginning of modern role-playing games and, by extension, the role-playing game industry.
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The original Dungeons & Dragons, designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, was first published in January 1974 by Gygax's company, Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D, DnD, or AD&D for the advanced edition) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) published by Wizards of the Coast.