The world's greatest Roleplaying game
The history of Dungeons and Dragons, or "D&D", began several decades ago. In 1972, at Lake Geneva, in the United States of America, Gary Gygax and Jeff Perrin, after having created a medieval game together called Chainmail, decide to work on a module that will add fantasy to the mix. Gygax shows his work to a friend, Dave Arneson who works on adapting it to the universe of J.R.R. Tolkien. Arneson, in the fall of 1972, presents Gygax with his adaptation, who likes it so much that he begs his friend to send him the rules. Arneson sent him 18 handwritten pages of rules that he had imagined. Gygax reworked them and made them into a 50 pages brochure of complete rules that he began testing with his children.
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Two years later, Arneson and Gygax finished compiling and reworking the rules of their new game. They call it: Dungeons and Dragons. Without knowing it at the time, their project revealed itself to be a revolution in the world of games.
Generations of players
In the nearly 50 years of D&D's creation, many generations of players have discovered the riches of roleplaying games through its existence. As time passed, the game grew: several new rule books where published, as well as adventure modules and worlds to discover, there were even different versions and editions of the rules.
During that time, Dungeons and Dragons was the victim of many controversies and accusations that lead the public to believe that role playing games lead to satanism, witchcraft and even murder. On top of this, the arrival of video games and consoles pushed role playing games to decline. TSR, the company who owned the game at the time, ended up being bought by Wizard's of the Coast who were in possession of the famous card game: Magic: The Gathering. Players who still stuck with Dungeons and Dragons then had to face stereotypes such as "geeks" or "nerds".
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Wizard's managed to create new versions of D&D, always more refined and complete, that made role playing more attractive to new players wanting to find alternatives to electronics. Little by little, the game was being refueled by its ashes and creating new fans all over the world. The 3.5 version, followed by Pathfinder from a competitor, pleased a large number of players, millions turned to role playing games as a source of creativity and to spend time with their friends.
Dungeons and dragons today
Role playing games have begun to sore since the release of the latest version of D&D, the 5th edition. Its success, coupled with the appearance of the game of social media, movies and series such as E.T., Stranger Things and The Big Bang Theory , have helped people learn about the game's existence.
In these past years, several web-series of people playing Dungeons and Dragons live in front of cameras have had a huge success. An example of this would be the famous adventures of Critical Role which recently raised over 11 million dollars through Kickstarter for the creation of an animated series based on their adventures. Many celebrities openly declare their love for role playing games. People want to spend time together and live extraordinary adventures that can exercise imagination and pass time. This is exactly what D&D has to offer.
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Today, over 13 million people play all over the world. Role playing games are utilized as therapeutic tools, team building activities, and even simply as the favorite activity among friends. The benefits of role playing are no longer questionable and it is becoming a pillar for games all around the world.