While originally conceived in 1974 and wildly popular before the 1980’s, Dungeons & Dragons (also known by the abbreviated “D&D”) certainly hit its heyday during the 1980’s. Available in two rules-sets, both “basic” and “advanced” (AD&D), the game focused on storytelling and action. For those only passing familiar with tabletop RPGs, they aren’t normally “competitive” in nature; the goal is to entertain through a mutual kind of story telling, where one participant (the Dungeon Master, or DM) creates the fantasy world around the players, whose characters (player characters, or PCs) interact with that fantasy world and ultimately play a large role in its progression.

 “This booklet, and the box it came in, is near and dear to many a nerd’s heart.”

During the late 70s and most of the 80s, the game came under fire by fearful fundamentalist groups and other organizations for some of its elements. Not only were there demons and devils in the game’s handbooks, but early editions were none too shy about their illustrations, often depicting bare breasts, etc. This had “decency” advocates in an uproar – after all, this was a game for kids, wasn’t it?

 “Ooh la la! Too bad you’re evil though!”

D&D was also often cited in court cases, blamed for inspiring murderous and Satanic mindsets among its devotees. The story of James Dallas Egbert is one widely publicized example of D&D being blamed for someone’s mental unraveling; other cases abound wherein the defendant has been known as an avid RPG player. The game was widely condemned for its treatment of demons, occultism, and violence; however, the accusers often blew things out of proportion. A good example of this propaganda is the Jack Chick tract “Dark Dungeons,” in which a girl falls into evil witchcraft via D&D and is saved by her pastor from eternal damnation. To draw upon personal experience, I have played D&D in one form or another for more than 20 years now, and I have never once witnessed any of my players (I usually am the Dungeon Master) behaving this way. One detail the critics fail to note is that for the most part, demons and their servants are depicted as the VILLAINS in D&D, not the heroes. TSR capitulated somewhat, however, by renaming their in-game demons and devils “Tanar’ri” and “Baatezu,” respectively, and distancing the game’s cosmology from real-life Western religion just enough to leave things ambiguous.

 “Excerpt from the Chick tract.”

Outside of the controversy, D&D remained wildly popular, spawning a cartoon series, coloring books, action figures, and various other tie-ins. There was even a DC Comics series titled “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons,” though it wasn’t very good.

In 1989, the “basic” edition took a backseat, and AD&D released its 2nd edition revised rules… the ones I grew up on. Now, if you’re wondering what was so “advanced” about it, AD&D was, to be frank, a bit more complex. Charts and lists abounded, and it wasn’t uncommon to pause gameplay to look up a rule or reference one of the ubiquitous charts and graphs.

“Charts, charts, charts…”

Despite this, the game remained popular, and early editions are still used and played by a diehard set of purists. Attempts have been made by third parties to reproduce the same “feel” of the old editions with new (but old-school) rules sets, with mixed results. Two of my personal favorites are OSRIC and ACKS, but many exist, some free, some you have to pay for.

The game, regardless of its edition or rules set, is a mix of acting, dice-rolling (to resolve actions in combat and sometimes elsewhere), and if your DM is good at what they’re doing, problem-solving. I’ve seen games based around courtly intrigue, hack-and-slash monster battles, and even murder-mystery-themed campaigns. Players are offered a wide range of options for building and advancing their characters; you can play an elf, a wizard, a servant of a deity, a mighty warrior, and plenty of archetypes in between.

In the 1980s, D&D was considered largely the purview of “nerds” and “geeks,” and while that stigma has softened nowadays, it is still (sometimes facetiously) trumpeted far and wide. That’s just fine with most of us; we have a great time playing it. However, I recommend it to any group of people who have a “game night” and want to try something a little more exciting than Boggle or Monopoly. Not that there’s anything wrong with those games! If the idea of complex rules and millions of charts puts you off, I recommend the most recent edition, 5th. It is fairly simple to pick up, and there is a “starter set” available.

I’d like to thank NRW for indulging me, and letting me write a bit about my passion – I mean, my hobby… yeah, my hobby… on their website.

All right, folks. This is a good one. Dragon’s Lair, a 1983 cinematic arcade RPG, was (and still is) considered iconic for several reasons. One of its most (at the time) impressive aspects was that it was a fully cinematic experience, more than just shooting blips on a screen. The player takes the role of Dirk, a “brave” knight, who must rescue Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe, who has locked her up in a wizard’s castle. The movie-like experience of gameplay was achieved by using a LaserDisc (big technology in ’83, though it has since been rendered mostly obsolete) to store all the data and graphics. This allowed the game to achieve a depth and sense of involvement not unlike a feature film; adding to the appeal was the work throughout by famous Disney cartoon master Don Bluth. The game features not only cinema-style animation, but classic voice-acting as well. The game was produced much like a film would be, and had a fairly modest budget of US $1,000,000.

Gameplay is mostly choices, not unlike a text-adventure or other early electronic RPG; some timing is involved in certain scenes, but for the most part, the player must guide Dirk on the correct path to win the game. You’re never directly controlling Dirk’s actions, but you sometimes have to press a button or make a choice at the right time to avoid swift death. The death scenes are varied and hilarious, and I recommend you view them for that reason if nothing else.

While the game is considered a classic and was in fact fairly successful, using a LaserDisc player as the basis for the game had its drawbacks. Typically, LaserDiscs were used to play movies, reading the data off the disc in a linear fashion. The non-linear nature of accessing data for a video game placed new and untested strains on the device, and many failed or broke (and subsequently needed replacement). This was solved over time by improving the overall quality of the components: the gas lasers used to read the disc and the rotor used to spin it.

FUN FACTS ABOUT THIS GAME:

• Don Bluth’s production studio couldn’t afford models on their budget, so they used photos from adult magazines like Playboy as inspiration for Princess Daphne’s character design.
• The base model of the LaserDisc player shipped with the game was a Pioneer LD-V1000 or PR-7820.
• The game’s developer, Rick Dyer, cites Secret of NIMH and the text game Adventure as the main inspirations for Dragon’s Lair.
• Dragon’s Lair is cited by most sources to be the first arcade game to have cost 50 cents instead of 25.
• Neither Dirk’s nor Daphne’s voice was done by a professional voice actor; instead they were done by editor Dan Molina and animation clean-up member Vera Lanpher, respectively. Only the narrator’s voice was done by a professional (Michael Rye).
• The game, in some form or fashion, has been ported to home systems over 60 times. It is even available for the iPhone.

While it may not seem like a big deal today, Dragon’s Lair was groundbreaking and nearly unbelievable in 1983. It combined elements of video game and movie, something that would be touched upon again and again throughout the next 20-30 years with little real success until the dawn of “modern” gaming. It is an item of interest for true VG enthusiasts, fantasy nerds, and lovers of cartoon art.