Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a fantasy role-playing game first published in 1974. As the popularity of the game grew throughout the late-1970s and 1980s, it became referenced in popular culture more frequently. The complement of games, films and cultural references based on Dungeons & Dragons or similar fantasies, characters, and adventures became ubiquitous after the end of the 1970s.
In online culture, the term dungeon has since come to mean a virtual location where people can meet and collaborate. Hence, multi-user dungeons emerged throughout the 1970s and 1980s as a form of social networks or a social virtual reality.[3] By creating a means for players to assemble and explore an imaginary world, the Dungeons & Dragons rules provided a transition from fantasy literary settings, such as those of author J. R. R. Tolkien, to fully virtual worlds.[4]
Independent fiction derived from the Dungeons & Dragons game appeared with the Endless Quest series of books, published by TSR, Inc between 1982 and 1987. The Endless Quest books provided a form of interactive fiction in the style of the Choose Your Own Adventure series.[10] The continuing success of Dungeons & Dragons then sparked an even more extensive series of novels, also published by TSR, Inc. The first of these were based upon the Dragonlance campaign setting, and were released in 1984.[11] There proved to be a lucrative market for these works, and by the 2000s a significant portion of all fantasy paperbacks were being published by Wizards of the Coast, the American game company that acquired TSR, Inc in 1997.[12]
The impact of Dungeons & Dragons on players and culture has inspired reflective non-fiction works:
Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It, by journalist David M. Ewalt; a best-selling history of the game's development and cultural impact.[13]
Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, by journalist and gamer Ethan Gilsdorf; a travel memoir about Dungeons & Dragons, role-playing games, and other fantasy and gaming subcultures.[14]
The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange, by novelist Mark Barrowcliffe; a memoir of playing Dungeons & Dragons and other role playing games in the 1970s.[15]
Author Shelly Mazzanoble wrote a humorous self-help guide called Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Dungeons & Dragons: One Woman's Quest to Trade Self-help for Elf-help.[16] This followed her guide book, Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the Dungeons & Dragons Game.[17]
American Nerd: The Story of My People is Time magazine writer Benjamin Nugent's study of the history and culture of people labeled nerds. It includes insights into why people play and enjoy Dungeons & Dragons.[18]
Several characters created for playing Dungeons & Dragons, or games derived from Dungeons & Dragons, have later spawned popular fantasy series.[19] Other novels make off-hand references to the game:
Comics
Begun in 1986, the comic books The Adventurers and Redfox were inspired by Dungeons & Dragons.[20] Several commercial comic strips are based entirely upon the game or make reference to the game in specific panels.
Knights of the Dinner Table is a comic-sized magazine featuring comic strips with a variety of characters who play "HackMaster," a parody of Dungeons & Dragons. (HackMaster would later go on to become an actual role-playing game.) Early strips appeared in the official Dungeons & Dragons magazine Dragon.
The Order of the Stick is a satirical webcomic that features a cast of characters in a world that loosely operates by the rules of Dungeons & Dragons.[21]
Penny Arcade, a longstanding webcomic, created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, references and even depicts humorous instances of bizarre campaigns, and other Dungeons & Dragons subject matter; implementing dice-rolling humor and other game dynamics.
In scene 2 of Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the character Elliott, his older brother, and his friends are shown playing Dungeons & Dragons.[26][27] Prior to the production of the film, Spielberg ran a Dungeons & Dragons session with the young cast members.[28]
The Futurama film Bender's Game includes Dungeons & Dragons as a crucial plot device, in which the main characters end up in a fantasy realm after the game is played. The film was already in production upon Gygax's death and debuted later that year, so it was dedicated in his honor. The film included parodies of Dungeons & Dragons-influenced films.[29]
The 2020 animated film Onward by Pixar used Dungeons & Dragons monsters, particularly the Gelatinous Cube and the Beholder.[32]
Television
The CBS network ran a Saturday morning cartoon series called Dungeons & Dragons, in which a group of teenagers visiting a Dungeons and Dragons-themed theme parkdark ride are magically transported into the fantasy world of Dungeons and Dragons. The show included the voice talents of Willie Aames of Eight is Enough, and ran from 1983 to 1985.[33]
Dungeons & Dragons is also referenced in a variety of television programs:
Community – A second-season episode titled "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" (AD&D) centers around the study group playing a game of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to cheer up their near-suicidal classmate, "Fat Neil". Pierce's exclusion leads him to barge into the game, and torment everyone.[34][35] A later episode called "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" included a game of D&D which is played in order to reunite Buzz Hickey with his son.
Freaks and Geeks – The final episode of the series, titled "Discos and Dragons", Daniel (James Franco) is forced to join the Audio/Visual Club and the geeks invite him to a game of Dungeons & Dragons. He ends up enjoying it.[36]
In the Radio Daze episode of That '70s Show, Donna is asked if she and Eric would like to stay to play Dungeons & Dragons at the radio station where she works. At the end of the episode, two staff members are shown playing a session, with a cameo appearance by Alice Cooper who is also shown playing.[38]
The Simpsons – Homer tells how he bonded with some new geek friends by playing Dungeons & Dragons "for three hours ... then I was slain by an elf."[39]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – In the episode "Chosen", Andrew, Xander, Giles, and one of the potential Slayers, Amanda, play Dungeons & Dragons while Anya sleeps at the table.
NewsRadio – In the episode "The Real Deal", Dave demonstrates to Jimmy that he manages the station as if it were a D&D game.
The IT Crowd – In the fourth series episode titled "Jen The Fredo", Moss has been making his own Dungeons & Dragons game and eventually gets John, John, Roy, and Phil to play, entertaining his business connections and helping Roy relieve his depression.
Corner Gas – In the episode "Happy Campers", Brent is seen playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons with a group of teenage boys in the city.[40]
Gravity Falls – The thirteenth episode of the second season, "Dungeons, Dungeons & More Dungeons", is centered around a game of a similar name based on mathematics, chance and imagination.[42]
Stranger Things – The main characters are seen playing Dungeons & Dragons, and the game both sets the tone and functions as a storytelling tool within the series.[43][44] Monsters from the alternate reality known as the Upside Down are nicknamed after creatures from the game, like the Demogorgon, the Mind Flayer, and Vecna. Season 4 also depicts aspects of the moral panic surrounding D&D of the mid-1980s.[45]
The Magicians – The eleventh episode of the first season, "Remedial Battle Magic", has the protagonists discover a Japanese spell called マジック ミサイル (majikku misairu) which causes Quentin to exclaim "Magic missile? That's like straight up Dungeons and Dragons."[46]
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – In the sixth season episode "Dungeons & Discords", Discord, Spike and Big McIntosh play a fantasy role-playing game titled Ogres & Oubliettes. In reference to this franchise crossover, Wizards of the Coast sponsored a D&D-themed charity fundraising campaign featuring the My Little Pony main characters, dubbed with the title Friendship & Magic,[48] and a set of cards compatible with Magic: The Gathering.[49]
Critical Role – An actual-playDungeons & Dragons web series initially produced by Geek & Sundry and now produced by Critical Role Productions; it premiered on March 13, 2015. Voice actorMatthew Mercer leads a group of several other fellow voice actors through D&D.[50][51][52] The web series consists of multiple D&D campaigns.[53][54] The group then started a Kickstarter in March 2019, raising over US$11 million in order to fund turning the first campaign into an animated series.[55] This broke the previous record for the most-funded TV or film project on the crowdfunding website.[56] The animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina, was later picked up by Prime Video who ordered 14 additional episodes (two additional episodes for season 1 and a second season of 12 episodes).[57] It premiered on February 4, 2022.[58]
Dimension 20 – An actual-play Dungeons & Dragons series produced by CollegeHumor. It features Brennan Lee Mulligan as its primary Dungeon Master, and its seasons each feature distinct arcs based on different settings.[59][60]
Audio media
Music
Dungeons & Dragons is referenced in popular music:
Flashlight Brown's song "Ready to Roll" is a veiled reference to a group playing Dungeons & Dragons.[61]
A special episode of the McElroy Brothers' flagship podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me called "The Adventure Zone" was released on August 18, 2014. It featured the brothers playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons with their father, Clint.[69] "The Adventure Zone" was later developed into its own podcast on the Maximum Fun network.[70]
In Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, there is a part where the player can choose the option for the main character Chloe to join in on a D&D campaign.[77]
Players
Stephen Colbert developed an intense interest in the game during his youth, which he later credited for his talent at character creation.[78] Ethan Gilsdorf credited the game for bestowing upon him "gifts of creativity and self-actualization".[79] Actor Vin Diesel, in his introduction to the book Thirty Years of Adventure, wrote that he was "attracted to the artistic outlet the game provided" and that the game was "a training ground for our imagination and an opportunity to explore our own identities".[80] Vin Diesel, Mike Myers, and Robin Williams also participated in the 2006 Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day, demonstrating that the game was then still a lively and active hobby.[81]
Director Chris Weitz pointed out that there "are a lot of people who played and are horribly embarrassed about it and won't admit it, because it's part of their lives they put behind". He developed a fervent interest in the game, even greater than in making movies, and said the experience "had such an influence on his life".[82] Director Jon Favreau was drawn into the game by the fantasy elements and the sense of story, saying "it gave me a really strong background in imagination, storytelling, understanding how to create tone and a sense of balance".[83]
Political reporter John J. Miller said that Dungeons & Dragons was a big part of his life during his school years, and argued that, "there's a lot to admire about D&D and what it can do for kids by encouraging them to read, do math, and think creatively".[84] Fantasy author China Miéville said that playing Dungeons & Dragons as a youth was one of the most enduring influences on his writing. The two things that particularly influenced him were "the mania for cataloging the fantastic" and "the weird fetish for systematization", in that everything is reduced to "game stats".[85] In contrast, author Mark Barrowcliffe considers his years playing Dungeons & Dragons to be a wasted youth and all of the players to be nerds. He has tried to put the experience behind him.[86]
List of notable D&D players
The following public figures have stated that they play, or have played, Dungeons & Dragons, indicating the game's broad appeal to a diverse range of talented individuals.[2]
^Steels, Luc (2004), "Virtual Venues", in Mario Tokoro (ed.), A Learning Zone of One's Own: Sharing Representations and Flow in Collaborative Learning Environments, Washington, DC: IOS Press, ISBN1-58603-410-3, retrieved June 6, 2011.
^ abCommunications, Emmis (April 1986), "Robert MacNaughton", Orange Coast, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 80, 85, archived from the original on April 11, 2021, retrieved June 11, 2010.
^Stephen Lynch (April 17, 2011), Stephen Lynch - D&D(Adobe Flash Video), Television production, YouTube, event occurs at 2:50, archived from the original on June 24, 2016, retrieved November 29, 2016.
^ abBoucher, Geoff (May 5, 2008), "'Iron Man' action figure", Los Angeles Times, p. 3, archived from the original on January 27, 2013, retrieved March 26, 2010.
^Hodgman, John (February 13, 2005), "Crossover: The Musical", The New York Times, p. 3, archived from the original on March 4, 2016, retrieved October 17, 2011.
^Reyes-Chow, Bruce (June 8, 2012), "Bruce's Friday Five v6.8", SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle, archived from the original on June 20, 2012, retrieved June 29, 2012.
^Smith, Zak (March 17, 2010), "Episode One: Meet the Party", I Hit It With My Axe, The Escapist, archived from the original on July 22, 2010, retrieved August 1, 2010.
^ abWallace, Lewis. "Wired". Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2017. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
