© WotC

Dungeons and Dragons, the tabletop roleplaying game, was first published in 1974 and grew in popularity through the late 1970s and 1980s. It experienced a decline in the nineties and noughties, so much so that a BBC news article in 2004 begged the question “What happened to Dungeons and Dragons?” But today the game is experiencing a massive resurgence and has, arguably, enjoyed its most successful year ever.

Wizards of the Coast Principal Story Designer Chris Perkins tweets about the success of D&D in 2017

Here at London Gaymers we began running a campaign for a group of new players around a year ago, and we now have close to 50 people playing in multiple campaigns, run by four different GMs.

What is Dungeons and Dragons and why the sudden spike in popularity?

D&D combines shared story-telling with turn-based tactical combat. Players take on the role of characters, deciding how they will act and react in various situations and scenarios described by the game master, or ‘GM’. Some GMs write their own story, set in a self-created universe; others run their players through published adventures in established campaign settings.

What I love most about D&D is the near-boundless reality in which the game takes place. Unburdened by the limits of processor speed, drive space or graphical capability, your actions are limited only by the power of your collective imagination. For a first-time player, this can be daunting. As your party take their first tentative steps into the world of Faerun, or the Underdark, or Shadowfell, you realise there is no minimap helpfully pointing the way to your next objective. How you solve problems, overcome adversity and interact with the world around you is up to you; working within the laws of the campaign setting and governed broadly by the rules of whichever edition of D&D you are playing.

D&D has evolved a lot over the past 40 years. Major revisions to the rules come in the form of new editions, the most recent being Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, often abbreviated to D&D 5e. Released in 2014, this latest edition is widely regarded as being the most accessible for new players; refining many of the complex rules of previous editions. This is part of the reason for the current success that the game is enjoying — but far from the full story.

Popular culture and the media, in general, must take some credit. Harry Potter, first released over two decades ago, inspired a generation of readers who are now young adults; Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were both major film successes in the same period; and Game of Thrones has kept the fantasy alive. The Big Bang Theory and, more recently, the acclaimed Stranger Things have promoted the game itself and a number of high-profile players including Vin Diesel, Drew Barrymore and Rick & Morty co-creator Dan Harmon have normalised what was once considered the exclusive pursuit of neckbeared nerds.

New media is another way the game is expanding its reach. Podcasts such as Critical Hit and The Adventure Zone attract tens of thousands of listeners and a great number of games are live-streamed on Twitch every day, tapping into a young audience who have replaced traditional television with on-demand and livestreamed content.

© WotC — The weekly D&D podcast Dragon Talk is just one of many shows livestreamed on the official D&D Twitch channel.

It’s exciting, but perhaps not surprising to see more and more players within London Gaymers getting involved. In the geekiest of Venn diagrams, there is a large overlap between tabletop gamers and video gamers. In fact, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the principles of D&D formed the foundation upon which modern video game design is built. The use of a hit-point system to account for a character’s health is just one example of this.

Moreover, where once D&D inspired the video games industry, the tables have now turned and new technology is changing the way we play D&D. Printed character sheets can be replaced with digital versions on your smartphone or tablet; and you don’t even need to get together and play around a physical table any more. Many of the campaigns we run take place online using a piece of software called a ‘virtual tabletop’, with voice-chat between players over Discord.

For those who have never experienced D&D, but would like to find out more, I thoroughly recommend this YouTube video by a wonderful chap called Matt Colville. It’s a video I direct all new players to, because he really captures the enthusiasm, energy and passion that all D&D players share.

Matt Colville’s introduction for new players is a great starting point for anybody interested in finding out more about D&D.

When you’ve decided you want to give it a go, head over to the London Gaymers Discord group and look out for the D&D room — or get in touch via the London Gaymers Facebook Group. We have opportunities for new players to get involved and we love introducing new people.

In 2018, gathering your friends in a room (virtual or otherwise), setting your PC or console aside, and taking turns to contrive a story that exists soley in the expanses of your own minds, is a rather delightful way to pass some time — you should give it a go!