Original TTRPG Game Turns 50 in 2024

January 8, 2024

The year 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons®. With a very limited budget of just $2,000, the original D&D (OD&D) was published in January 1974 as a small box set of three booklets. D&D is the original tabletop role-playing game, and today is still the most popular game in the world with more than 50 million players according to GameRant.

The original Dungeons & Dragons set, subtitled Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures, was written by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and was published by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) in 1974 as a digest-sized boxed set in a brown wood-grain box. The set included three digest-sized books: the 36-page "Volume 1: Men & Magic", the 40-page "Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure", and the 36-page "Volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.” The set also included six reference sheets of tables and charts.

Lake Geneva Wisconsin is considered the mecca of table-top gaming as Gary Gygax co-wrote the original D&D from the basement of his humble home on 330 Center Street. The game went on sale via mail order in 1974. Though this first printing took the better part of a year to sell out, sales quickly gained momentum. The third printing, published in 1975, sold out in just a few months.

Gary Gygax once famously said, "The beauty of role-playing games is that you can be anyone, do anything, and go anywhere." This statement captures the essence of what makes TTRPGs such a captivating and immersive experience. Happy 50th anniversary, D&D. May the magic keep rolling on.

The Nurl app was launched in 2023 to make playing tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons © and Pathfinder © easy by combining machine learning, extensions, and all the necessary tools into one easy to understand dashboard so you can level up your enjoyment of the game while powering down the chaos.

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