Advanced Dungeons & and Dragons Players Handbook, 6th Edition 1980 Vintage D&D

Description

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook, 6th Edition 1980 Vintage D&D
This article is about the role-playing game. For other uses, see
Dungeons & Dragons (disambiguation)
.
"D&D" and "DnD" redirect here. For other uses, see
D&D (disambiguation)
and
DND (disambiguation)
.
Dungeons & Dragons
Logo used for the 5th edition
Designed by
Gary Gygax
Dave Arneson
Published by
TSR
(1974–1997),
Wizards of the Coast
(1997–present)
Publication date
1974 (
original
)
1977 (
Basic Set
1st ver.
)
[1]
1977 (
Advanced D&D
)
1981 (
Basic Set
2nd ver.
)
1983 (
Basic Set
3rd ver.
)
1989 (
AD&D
2nd Edition
)
1991 (
Rules Cyclopedia
)
2000 (
3rd edition
)
2003 (
v3.5
)
2008 (
4th edition
)
2014 (
5th edition
)
Years active
1974–present
Genres
Fantasy
Systems
Dungeons & Dragons
d20 System
(3rd Edition)
Playing time
Varies
Random chance
Dice
rolling
Skills required
Role-playing
,
improvisation
,
tactics
,
arithmetic
Website
dnd
.wizards
.com
Dungeons & Dragons
(commonly abbreviated as
D&D
or
DnD
)
[2]
is a
fantasy
tabletop role-playing game
(RPG) originally designed by
Gary Gygax
and
Dave Arneson
.
[3]
[4]
[5]
It was first published in 1974 by
Tactical Studies Rules, Inc.
(TSR).
[5]
It has been published by
Wizards of the Coast
(now a subsidiary of
Hasbro
) since 1997. The game was derived from
miniature wargames
, with a variation of the 1971 game
Chainmail
serving as the initial rule system.
[4]
[6]
D&D
's
publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry.
[5]
[7]
D&D
departs from traditional
wargaming
by allowing each player to create their own
character
to play instead of a
military formation
. These characters embark upon imaginary adventures within a fantasy setting. A
Dungeon Master
(DM) serves as the game's referee and storyteller, while maintaining the setting in which the adventures occur, and playing the role of the inhabitants of the game world. The characters form a
party
and they interact with the setting's inhabitants and each other. Together they solve dilemmas, engage in battles, explore, and gather treasure and knowledge. In the process, the characters earn
experience points
(XP) in order to rise in levels, and become increasingly powerful over a series of separate gaming sessions.
[3]
[7]
[8]
The early success of
D&D
led to a proliferation of similar game systems. Despite the competition,
D&D
has remained the market leader in the role-playing game industry.
[9]
[10]
In 1977, the game was split into two branches: the relatively rules-light game system of
basic
Dungeons & Dragons
, and the more structured, rules-heavy game system of
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
(abbreviated as
AD&D
).
[11]
[12]
[13]
AD&D
2nd Edition was published in 1989. In 2000, a new system was released as
D&D
3rd edition, continuing the edition numbering from
AD&D
; a revised version 3.5 was released in June 2003. These 3rd edition rules formed the basis of the
d20 System
, which is available under the
Open Game License
(OGL) for use by other publishers.
D&D
4th edition was released in June 2008.
[14]
The 5th edition of
D&D
, the most recent, was released during the second half of 2014.
[10]
In 2004,
D&D
remained the best-known,
[15]
and best-selling,
[16]
role-playing game in the US, with an estimated 20 million people having played the game, and more than US billion in book and equipment sales worldwide.
[3]
The year 2017 had "the most number of players in its history—12 million to 15 million in North America alone".
[17]
D&D 5th edition
sales "were up 41 percent in 2017 from the year before, and soared another 52 percent in 2018, the game's biggest sales year yet".
[10]
The game has been supplemented by many pre-made
adventures
, as well as commercial
campaign settings
suitable for use by regular gaming groups.
[18]
D&D
is known beyond the game itself for other
D&D
-branded products
,
references in popular culture
, and some of the
controversies
that have surrounded it, particularly a
moral panic
in the 1980s falsely linking it to
Satanism
and
suicide
.
[3]
[19]
[20]
The game has won multiple awards and has been translated into many languages.