From a humble box set in 1974 to a global phenomenon, tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is now a household name. Starting as a series of rules for “fantastic medieval wargames,” D&D would evolve over five decades, becoming an open-ended platform for improvisational storytelling and thrilling turn-based battles.
However, despite D&D’s emphasis on pen and paper, the creators of the TTRPG, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, would craft a seminal system of rules and storytelling that would go on to have a massive impact on the world of video games, giving developers the tools for realistic simulation that they’d need to craft the first role-playing games (RPGs) - tools which still see heavy use today.
