http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons

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"Roll for initiative."

The Tabletop RPG. Or at least, the original modern one. While Dungeons & Dragons may not have created tabletop roleplaying games, it certainly codified many of the mechanics and tropes associated with them.

Dungeons & Dragons was first published in 1974 by TSR (Tactical Studies Rules). TSR founder Gary Gygax based the system of the game on TSR's miniatures combat system, Chainmail. The game revolves around the now-classic set-up of a Game Master (known in official D&D terms as the Dungeon Master), who controls all the non-player characters; and the players, who each control a Player Character and deal with the challenges provided by the Dungeon Master.

The history of D&D is more than a little complicated. It started as a companion book to a miniature-based tabletop wargame called Chainmail. note The miniatures gaming influence can still be seen today, in the Armor Class system. Instead of armor reducing the damage from a successful hit, the armor class in D&D reduces the odds of an injuring blow landing in the first place, as it takes into account the ability to dodge a hit, and assumes armor absorbs weak and glancing hits (but if the blow does land fully, it does full damage). This is a little odd from a reality-modeling standpoint but works beautifully in a mass-combat system where a unit is either alive or dead with no hit points to track. Due to Creative Differences between the creators, the original game became split into Basic Dungeons & Dragons aimed at beginning players, and the more complex (and ultimately more popular) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in 1977.

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In the mid-1980s a corporate power struggle inside TSR caused Gary Gygax to be ousted from the company. In 1989, the group left behind codified the official rules tweaks and unofficial suggestions that had accumulated in the meantime into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. It continued in popularity for a time, but by the late 90s, mismanagement of the company led TSR into bankruptcy.

After TSR was bought by Wizards of the Coast (makers of Magic: The Gathering, and now a subsidiary of Hasbro), they published Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition in 2000 using the d20 System. A major overhaul of the entire rules set, 3rd edition cleared off the crust that had accumulated around 2nd and unified a scattered assortment of rules and procedures into something more coherent. It was a huge hit and revitalized the game, leading to new players aplenty. Then came an incremental edition known as "v3.5", which was largely concerned with fixing a few very obvious Game Breakers and Quirky Bards in 3rd Edition.

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In 2008, Fourth Edition was released. It created quite a big amount of discussion, with haters, lovers, people who don't care and everything in between. The changes from 3.5 were many; overall, its rules had a much greater emphasis on mechanical balance and action than any previous edition. Common criticisms of the edition are that it plays too much like a MMORPG, and/or a tabletop miniatures war game. Indeed, the assumption that players use miniatures on a map is even expressed throughout the core rules, such as movement being described in squares, not feet. Though it sold well at first, fan discontentment with the changes led to many people abandoning the edition, with many switching to Pathfinder (itself a D&D derivative based on the v3.5 rules) leading to a decline of the D&D brand.

The fifth edition of D&D was released in 2014, as Wizards of the Coast sought to revitalize the brand. In an effort to try and heal the divisions in the player community, they actively solicited players for ideas about the new edition, with an open playtest (which began in 2012 under the production alias of "D&D Next" and ran through the end of 2013). It combines elements from all previous editions  extremely simplified classes and combat rules (making "theater of the mind" gameplay feasible once again) close to 1st and 2nd edition; the magic rules combine a lower-powered version of 3rd's slot system with 4th's ritual casting system; and while skills and feats are still present, they are much less prominent than before to the point of being technically optional. note Skills are simply areas of focus under the main six abilities that give a level-based bonus, but it's the ability scores that are used in the main. Feats are optional character advancement packages where a player may get certain improvements that are thematically linked instead of a flat ability score bonus, so either the character advances in everything related to ability or the character advances in a group of things related to a particular field. The other major advancement is automatic "class features", which any character of that class gets at that level. They more resemble the 4th edition powers system

The core rulebooks contain no "official" background setting material. Dungeon Masters are invited to either make up their own setting or use one of a number of published campaign settings. Of course, stuff from some settings leaked in any way  after all, one cannot roleplay in a vacuum. BECMI era D&D was wholesale set in The Known World/Mystara. Advanced D&D has elements of Gygax's own Greyhawk as the implied setting (the wizards whose names attached to spells of the core list are classical Greyhawk characters), 3rd Edition even included the top of Greyhawk's pantheon and 4th Edition books' assumptions unofficially form a vaguely defined setting called the "Nentir Vale". Fifth Edition mostly uses the Forgotten Realms as the main source of fluff material this time around, but also supplements it with elements from other settings like Eberron, Greyhawk, and Dragonlance.

Dungeons & Dragons is one of the Trope Codifiers of the modern era, having single-handedly mashed swords and sorcery and epic high fantasy into the fantasy genre as we know it today, and having been the source of more than a few of the Roleplaying Game Terms and RPG Elements that the influential computer RPG genre was founded on. Many, many excellent computer games (especially RPGs) have also been made directly off the D&D license. It is also commonly seen as the most popular Nerd game due to all the strategic elements involved.

Though a number of D&D-based MUDs and other online games existed prior, most notably the original Neverwinter Nights, in 2006, Wizards of the Coast and Atari released the MMORPG Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, set on the fictional continent of Xen'drik in the campaign world of Eberron. The game has since been renamed Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, and uses a free-to-play model with optional microtransactions. It later added a Forgotten Realms expansion. Temple of Elemental Evil received a computer game adaptation via the late Troika Games, and is notable for being the only "proper" use of the 3.5 rules (fully turn-based, all special options, bar grapple, and counterspell, intact), Knights Of The Chalice is an unofficial indie successor to this adaptation built by using the OGL license, with a sequel coming eventually.

Two companion magazines — Dragon and Dungeon — have been published since 1976 and 1986 respectively, offering additional content, articles, and resources for D&D. Since 2007, the magazines have ceased paper publication and can now be found in digital format on the Wizards Of The Coast website. AD&D has its "Core Rules" toolset sold on CD. With the release of 4E, a set of virtual tabletop software called D&D Insider was set to be released that would have given gamers an official way to play D&D over the Internet, but now the idea seems dead, as Fifth Edition is in publication. In 2015, Dragon magazine made a reappearance as Dragon+, a free app released for iOS and Android, with new issues of the e-magazine being released every two months.

Whole libraries of novels have been published with D&D tie-ins, most of them linked to specific game settings such as the Forgotten Realms. While writing quality is inconsistent at best, sheer quantity testifies to these novel lines' profitability. The best-known novels are R.A. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt series. In addition, IDW Publishing, famous for their Transformers and G.I. Joe comics, have obtained the license to an ongoing series based on D&D - which have been well-received , mainly due to being written by the writer for DC Comics' Blue Beetle.

For the animated series based on the game, see Dungeons & Dragons. For the Bally pinball game, see Dungeons & Dragons. There are also three movies. The first (Dungeons & Dragons) is In Name Only. The second (Wrath of the Dragon God) is a lot better, despite being made on a low budget. The third, Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness, was a made-for-cable-TV affair that premiered on Syfy in November 2012. A reboot of the Dungeons and Dragons film franchise is currently planned by Warner Brothers.

Now has a Referenced by page.

Please note that, since this is a very open-ended game, with millions of people playing it in one form or another, you can and will find any trope if you look hard enough.

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Individual Campaign Settings

Official Editions and Derivative Works

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Disclaimer: Wizards of the Coast is not responsible for the consequences of splitting up the party, sticking appendages in the mouth of a leering green devil face, accepting a dinner invitation from bugbears, storming the feast hall of a hill giant steading, angering a dragon of any variety, or saying yes when the DM asks, "Are you really sure?"