My friend got the D&D Basic Set (the red box with the green dragon on the front) for Christmas when she was seven. She was so excited she read the whole rulebook in one night till she came to an Example of Play near the end.
There were three PCs in the example party and one was a girl. Her name was Morgan Ironwolf (cool name). She was a fighter who wore armor and fought her enemies with a sword. She was also the party leader. She led the party through a dungeon and killed a bunch of monsters who attacked them and even saved her dwarf friend from being killed by an orc.
AND she did it all with long hair! (My friend really liked her hair and didn’t wanna have to cut it in order to be successful when she grew up.) In a time when the Equal Rights Amendment had just been shot down a couple years earlier, D&D was setting a positive non-preachy example of gender equality for girls like my friend.
I really want to sit down and count, but I'm pretty sure that in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, slightly over half the couples mentioned are same-sex/same-gender. So that's fun.
But clearly there's a lot more cis women in the world than LGBTQ+ people. I consistently find that at least during 5th edition, DND and Wizards of the Coast do an excellent job of sexual diversity.
I really want to sit down and count, but I'm pretty sure that in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, slightly over half the couples mentioned are same-sex/same-gender. So that's fun.
But clearly there's a lot more cis women in the world than LGBTQ+ people. I consistently find that at least during 5th edition, DND and Wizards of the Coast do an excellent job of sexual diversity.
"My name is Aleena. I’m a cleric, an adventurer like yourself. I live in the town nearby, and came here seeking monsters and treasure. Do you know about clerics?"
"My name is Aleena. I’m a cleric, an adventurer like yourself. I live in the town nearby, and came here seeking monsters and treasure. Do you know about clerics?"
That is really poor art, but I am not sure what it is supposed to represent other than adventurers dividing up loot.
It was just interesting in 2nd edition you really had to search the PHB to find female adventurers depicted in art.
Of course with 5e its quite inclusive nowadays.
Can't really disagree with the art of the PHB, but this image from page 43 has always been a favorite of mine.
Oh thats 2nd edition. I was looking through 1st edition for my picture.
One of my favorite paragraphs from 1e DMG was
Example of Melee
Party A (player characters) is composed of Aggro the Axe, a 4th level fighter; Abner, a 5th level magic-user; Arkayn, a 4th level cleric; and Arlanni, a 2nd level thief. They are hastening down a dungeon corridor in order to avoid an encounter with a large group of goblins, whose territory they are now leaving. It is a ten-foot wide corridor and they are moving with the cleric, fighter, and thief in a line in front, followed closely by the magic-user. Suddenly they round a bend and confront party 8, who are earnestly engaged in squabbling over some treasure. Party B is composed of Gutboy Barrelhouse, a 6th level dwarf fighter; Balto, a 1st level monk; Blastum, a 4th level magic-user; and Barjin, a 4th/5th level half-elf fighter/magic-user.
I think Arlanni was a female thief, or at least I imagined so.
That is really poor art, but I am not sure what it is supposed to represent other than adventurers dividing up loot.
It was just interesting in 2nd edition you really had to search the PHB to find female adventurers depicted in art.
Of course with 5e its quite inclusive nowadays.
Can't really disagree with the art of the PHB, but this image from page 43 has always been a favorite of mine.
Oh thats 2nd edition. I was looking through 1st edition for my picture.
One of my favorite paragraphs from 1e DMG was
Example of Melee
Party A (player characters) is composed of Aggro the Axe, a 4th level fighter; Abner, a 5th level magic-user; Arkayn, a 4th level cleric; and Arlanni, a 2nd level thief. They are hastening down a dungeon corridor in order to avoid an encounter with a large group of goblins, whose territory they are now leaving. It is a ten-foot wide corridor and they are moving with the cleric, fighter, and thief in a line in front, followed closely by the magic-user. Suddenly they round a bend and confront party 8, who are earnestly engaged in squabbling over some treasure. Party B is composed of Gutboy Barrelhouse, a 6th level dwarf fighter; Balto, a 1st level monk; Blastum, a 4th level magic-user; and Barjin, a 4th/5th level half-elf fighter/magic-user.
I think Arlanni was a female thief, or at least I imagined so.
Okay, one girl out of eight isn’t great. Still, Arlanni’s a cool name for a rogue.
They had a lot on convoluted rules back then. I'm guessing they tried to make it more realistic but ended up just making it more complicated in the end. 5e is much better.
"My name is Aleena. I’m a cleric, an adventurer like yourself. I live in the town nearby, and came here seeking monsters and treasure. Do you know about clerics?"
I learned D&D from my mom's old Red Box set, and to this day Aleena is just the coolest character. I can't believe other people still remember her!
Of course, min/max scores didn't matter if you didn't roll stats high enough for it to matter, which was pretty likely for fairly rolled characters.
The image of the sleeping woman was in 1e -- it's from the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and she's a vampire (and a 13th level fighter and likely to beat the stuffing out of the PCs).
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My friend got the D&D Basic Set (the red box with the green dragon on the front) for Christmas when she was seven. She was so excited she read the whole rulebook in one night till she came to an Example of Play near the end.
There were three PCs in the example party and one was a girl. Her name was Morgan Ironwolf (cool name). She was a fighter who wore armor and fought her enemies with a sword. She was also the party leader. She led the party through a dungeon and killed a bunch of monsters who attacked them and even saved her dwarf friend from being killed by an orc.
AND she did it all with long hair! (My friend really liked her hair and didn’t wanna have to cut it in order to be successful when she grew up.) In a time when the Equal Rights Amendment had just been shot down a couple years earlier, D&D was setting a positive non-preachy example of gender equality for girls like my friend.
2nd edition didn't do great
Why is inserting an image so difficult
https://ibb.co/wgx01qj
Oh okay. Idk that.
That is really poor art, but I am not sure what it is supposed to represent other than adventurers dividing up loot.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
I really want to sit down and count, but I'm pretty sure that in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, slightly over half the couples mentioned are same-sex/same-gender. So that's fun.
But clearly there's a lot more cis women in the world than LGBTQ+ people. I consistently find that at least during 5th edition, DND and Wizards of the Coast do an excellent job of sexual diversity.
I agree.
It was just interesting in 2nd edition you really had to search the PHB to find female adventurers depicted in art.
Of course with 5e its quite inclusive nowadays.
Can't really disagree with the art of the PHB, but this image from page 43 has always been a favorite of mine.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
I'll bet you didn't know that the Paladin in Hell was a woman?
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I did not know. The only thing I know about it is that the original art is about 20 years older than the adventure itself.
Is there a story behind the art that you would care to share?
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
I didn’t know that!
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"My name is Aleena. I’m a cleric, an adventurer like yourself. I live in the town nearby, and came here seeking monsters and treasure. Do you know about clerics?"
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Oh thats 2nd edition. I was looking through 1st edition for my picture.
One of my favorite paragraphs from 1e DMG was
Example of Melee
Party A (player characters) is composed of Aggro the Axe, a 4th level fighter; Abner, a 5th level magic-user; Arkayn, a 4th level cleric; and Arlanni, a 2nd level thief. They are hastening down a dungeon corridor in order to avoid an encounter with a large group of goblins, whose territory they are now leaving. It is a ten-foot wide corridor and they are moving with the cleric, fighter, and thief in a line in front, followed closely by the magic-user. Suddenly they round a bend and confront party 8, who are earnestly engaged in squabbling over some treasure. Party B is composed of Gutboy Barrelhouse, a 6th level dwarf fighter; Balto, a 1st level monk; Blastum, a 4th level magic-user; and Barjin, a 4th/5th level half-elf fighter/magic-user.
I think Arlanni was a female thief, or at least I imagined so.
Okay, one girl out of eight isn’t great. Still, Arlanni’s a cool name for a rogue.
1st edition was actually REALLY bad for gender equality. They had min/max for stats bases on gender as well as race.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
They had a lot on convoluted rules back then. I'm guessing they tried to make it more realistic but ended up just making it more complicated in the end. 5e is much better.
As I recall, they tried to justify/claim that the strength penalty was balanced by saying that women had the ability to bear children.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I learned D&D from my mom's old Red Box set, and to this day Aleena is just the coolest character. I can't believe other people still remember her!
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
Of course, min/max scores didn't matter if you didn't roll stats high enough for it to matter, which was pretty likely for fairly rolled characters.
The image of the sleeping woman was in 1e -- it's from the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and she's a vampire (and a 13th level fighter and likely to beat the stuffing out of the PCs).