One thing you have to be very, very careful about - a lot of D&D’s early history is as mythical as Greyhawk. When Gygax took over and centralized the game in his name, he created a narrative that downplayed others’ significant contributions to make himself look like the grand hero. That founding myth pushed by Gygax often dominates conversations - history does tend to go to the victors - and has left its biased mark on all manner of sources.
Here is a link to an article that will provide some balance to your inquiry - the article examines and presents the perspective from another one of the individuals present when D&D was first taking off.
If you’re doing this presentation for a school project, your instructor might frown upon Wikipedia. I know of two books to recommend for reading, depending on how much time you have. Both were published within the current decade, so they are pretty accurate from what I’ve heard.
There’s Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons by Jon Peterson, which focuses on the early days of the game and the rise and fall of Gygax and Arneson within TSR.
There’s also Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons by Ben Riggs, which covers the game’s history up to TSR’s bankruptcy and subsequent purchase by Wizards of the Coast.
I should disclaim that I haven’t yet read these books, they’re simply on my (massive) to-read list. I also don’t have on-hand reliable sources covering the more recent history of the game, i.e. the WotC era, though I’m pretty sure Jeremy Crawford and/or Chris Perkins gave a presentation at a convention on the game’s history for the 50th anniversary that may be on YouTube.
Wikipedia cites its sources and is a great place to find aggregated information and reference lists. That page alone has over 280 citations as well as a very comprehensive bibliography of D&D reference material and a further reading section.
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The first iteration of D&D was about twenty years ahead of my time, so I share learnt information not any first hand source information. This is a synopsis of the creation of D&D, not theatre or telling imaginative stories through the use of games.
Basically, D&D came about because of a niche gap in the market of wargaming. Wargaming often focusing on miniature skirmishes or most historical miniature re-enactments. The emphasis was for these wargames to focus on units or armies in a battle.
David Arneson, developed a game named (Secrets of) Blackmoor, and shared it with his friends, to play a game session, in 1971.
In 1973, Gygax and his Lake Geneva friend Don Kaye founded their own company Tactical Studies Rules, or TSR, to publish Dungeons & Dragons.
Dungeons & Dragons was a boxed set released in 1974, published by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). The Authors were Gary Gygax and David Arneson. Whom were already established in Wargaming as writers of Chainmail, a medieval miniature wargame. (Published by Guidon Games)
Dungeons & Dragons was a hybrid game crossed somewhere between the wargames being played at the time, and theatre. The main difference was how the game was designed for players to "control and roleplay" one character (rather than multiple units) and that a referee would have a much more active role in the game by setting up the encounters for the players.
Dungeons & Dragons drew from influences such as J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, and their (the authors) knowledge of monsters, many of which were adapted from mythology and various literary works.
In 1974, 1,000 copies of the first D&D box set would go on sale for $10 each. It was called Dungeons & Dragons: Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figurines.
It's pretty long and boring, but has lots of information on how the game transitioned from War Game Reenactments of ancient Battles, into the first edition of D&D.
In 1974, the full game (which was missing a lot of stuff) was sold for 10 bucks by mail.
The current cost would be right about $68 USD. It was missing a ton of stuff, and that ton oof stuff that was missing led to therelease of a lot of other stuff, in particular the Arduin rule set.
The Arduin ruleset was why the Basic and Advanced sets came about.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
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Hello guys,
I doing a presentation of the role playing game and I would like to know the history of the creation of DnD (the summary version please).
I need answers as quickly as possible.
Thank you !
KingEnigma49
I feel like wikipedia would be your best bet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons
One thing you have to be very, very careful about - a lot of D&D’s early history is as mythical as Greyhawk. When Gygax took over and centralized the game in his name, he created a narrative that downplayed others’ significant contributions to make himself look like the grand hero. That founding myth pushed by Gygax often dominates conversations - history does tend to go to the victors - and has left its biased mark on all manner of sources.
Here is a link to an article that will provide some balance to your inquiry - the article examines and presents the perspective from another one of the individuals present when D&D was first taking off.
If you’re doing this presentation for a school project, your instructor might frown upon Wikipedia. I know of two books to recommend for reading, depending on how much time you have.
Both were published within the current decade, so they are pretty accurate from what I’ve heard.
There’s Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons by Jon Peterson, which focuses on the early days of the game and the rise and fall of Gygax and Arneson within TSR.
There’s also Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons by Ben Riggs, which covers the game’s history up to TSR’s bankruptcy and subsequent purchase by Wizards of the Coast.
I should disclaim that I haven’t yet read these books, they’re simply on my (massive) to-read list. I also don’t have on-hand reliable sources covering the more recent history of the game, i.e. the WotC era, though I’m pretty sure Jeremy Crawford and/or Chris Perkins gave a presentation at a convention on the game’s history for the 50th anniversary that may be on YouTube.
Wikipedia cites its sources and is a great place to find aggregated information and reference lists. That page alone has over 280 citations as well as a very comprehensive bibliography of D&D reference material and a further reading section.
The first iteration of D&D was about twenty years ahead of my time, so I share learnt information not any first hand source information. This is a synopsis of the creation of D&D, not theatre or telling imaginative stories through the use of games.
Basically, D&D came about because of a niche gap in the market of wargaming. Wargaming often focusing on miniature skirmishes or most historical miniature re-enactments. The emphasis was for these wargames to focus on units or armies in a battle.
David Arneson, developed a game named (Secrets of) Blackmoor, and shared it with his friends, to play a game session, in 1971.
In 1973, Gygax and his Lake Geneva friend Don Kaye founded their own company Tactical Studies Rules, or TSR, to publish Dungeons & Dragons.
Dungeons & Dragons was a boxed set released in 1974, published by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). The Authors were Gary Gygax and David Arneson. Whom were already established in Wargaming as writers of Chainmail, a medieval miniature wargame. (Published by Guidon Games)
Dungeons & Dragons was a hybrid game crossed somewhere between the wargames being played at the time, and theatre. The main difference was how the game was designed for players to "control and roleplay" one character (rather than multiple units) and that a referee would have a much more active role in the game by setting up the encounters for the players.
Dungeons & Dragons drew from influences such as J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, and their (the authors) knowledge of monsters, many of which were adapted from mythology and various literary works.
In 1974, 1,000 copies of the first D&D box set would go on sale for $10 each. It was called Dungeons & Dragons: Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figurines.
Here is some additional information: Dungeons & Dragons (1974) - Wikipedia
Greetings KingEnigma49,
In addition to the info above, there is a documentary called Secrets of Blackmoor-The True History of Dungeons & Dragons.
It's pretty long and boring, but has lots of information on how the game transitioned from War Game Reenactments of ancient Battles, into the first edition of D&D.
Hope this helps :)
Cheers!
So, as a note...
In 1974, the full game (which was missing a lot of stuff) was sold for 10 bucks by mail.
The current cost would be right about $68 USD. It was missing a ton of stuff, and that ton oof stuff that was missing led to therelease of a lot of other stuff, in particular the Arduin rule set.
The Arduin ruleset was why the Basic and Advanced sets came about.
Of course, the official stuff is here: https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Making-Original-1970-1977/dp/0786969857
I also recommend https://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Shift-Role-Playing-Identity-Histories-ebook/dp/B0868125T5/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=nfpBD&content-id=amzn1.sym.bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&pf_rd_p=bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&pf_rd_r=141-7401471-1762565&pd_rd_wg=Yjc0f&pd_rd_r=17f5924e-24d2-42f9-8cb7-6bc64c615197&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk
https://www.amazon.com/Game-Wizards-Dungeons-Dragons-Histories-ebook/dp/B08SW1VWFL?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2KsyLRa64OozrJJZAhmhmzaFY_tjKm00tT4AwEHu-07TuTs0lUElbTHcj37ysuogCmXwDQh5MeDGBNz26_485aqGEdOob3aGLOpXHD2-1VfNWlm7CmlTbl5WpXfndSdTjMISbA8lWIWil7KKEiiSExKDTO0R-z6XwGgTiTjeNG8.YqlAfNdKG5aLqLC9klphjpWBUWf3mIxOlg_EgBKUuJw&dib_tag=AUTHOR
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds