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A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 31: 2004

While Wizards of the Coast was branching out with several new CCGs in 2004 (G.I. Joe, Neopets, and MLB Showdown), the D&D front was relatively quiet, with the exception of…

Eberron.  The winner of the 2002 setting search contest, Keith Baker, teamed with Wizards of the Coast to produce a setting inspired by pulp novels and film noir.  Living constructs called Warforged rubbed elbows with more traditional adventurers while the Dragonmarked Houses plotted and schemed. 

2004 also saw the release of two major rules expansion.  The Expanded Psionics Handbook heavily revised 3^rd Edition’s psionic system, while Unearthed Arcana, inspired by the 1^st Edition book of the same name, introduced a huge variety of optional

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This is going to be a rambling opinion on the current state of D&D with a comparison on older versions and hopes for the future. Its off the top of my head, and I admit I'm not a die-hard player (what with being a grown adult with a job etc), but here goes.

I started playing with basic D&D and rapidly went up to AD&D, but I was a mere schoolboy whipper then and the details are hazy. I remember 3rd edition more, when I mainly DM-ed. When 4th edition came about I eagerly moved on to that, pretty much exclusively consigned now to the role of DM (though I don't actually mind that).

I think 4th edition made some great improvements from my DM point of view. I had to spend far less time preparing materials, and could pretty much jump straight in. It had useful mechanics that meant less tedious book-keeping...

A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 30: 2003

Two major product changes hit D&D in 2003.  The year before, the Chainmail game had resurfaced, using a modified d20 system and unpainted metal minis.  Set in a previously unexplored section of the Greyhawk world, the game offered detailed factions and skirmish level warfare.  The line was retired after only a year, however, as Wizards of the Coast had something new in mind to compete with the new Mage Knight line of prepainted plastic minis from WizKids.  The D&D Miniatures game featured prepainted plastic minis in booster boxes containing a random set of minis that could be used for either tabletop roleplaying or to build warbands for the minis game itself.  Wizards already had plenty of experience with randomized

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A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 29: 2002

In 2002 Wizards of the Coast put out a call to the fanbase, inviting them to submit a one-page summary of a campaign setting for the Great Setting Search, a contest to find the next D&D setting.  Over 11,000 entries were submitted; from those, 11 were chosen to send in a longer introduction; from those, 3 were chosen to send in full setting bibles.  And ultimately, a final winner was chosen, a setting that combined film noir with fantasy steampunk elements submitted by Keith Baker.  Eberron.  However, D&D fans wouldn’t get to see the finished product for two years as it was being developed as the signature setting for a revision of the 3^rd edition rules.

The d20 market continued to boom, with Wizards of the Coast

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A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 28: 2001

In 2001, 3^rd Edition was getting into full swing with a number of sourcebooks and supplements with familiar names: Oriental Adventures, Manual of the Planes, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Ravenloft Campaign Setting and Kingdoms of Kalamar.

Three of those products, however, were either created or supported by other companies.

Thanks to the d20 system license and the acquisition of Five Rings Publishing by Wizards of the Coast, the 3^rd edition version of Oriental Adventures replaced Kara-Tur with the Legend of the Five Rings setting of Rokugan.  Support products were produced for the setting and the Oriental Adventures rules by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG).

Ravenloft, the setting of fantasy gothic horror, was licensed out to

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A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 27: 2000

In the year 2000, Wizards of the Coast wrapped up AD&D 2^nd Edition with a couple of end-of-the-world adventures, The Apocalypse Stone and Die Vecna, Die!

Wizards also acquired a brief-lived license to make tabletop RPGs based on popular computer games by Blizzard, Diablo and Starcraft.  Diablo products appeared as D&D was moving from one edition to the next, resulting in the Diablo licensed products having two different rule systems.

D&D 3^rd Edition debuted with the Player’s Handbook at Gen Con of 2000.  A variety of other products debuted at Gen Con as well.  Products from other companies like Green Ronin and Necromancer Games that were written for use with D&D 3^rd Edition.  This was possible thanks to the Open

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A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 26: 1999

In 1999, Wizards of the Coast celebrated 25 years of Dungeons & Dragons by releasing a series of “Silver Anniversary” products geared toward nostalgia, including revisiting classic adventures like Keep on the Borderlands, Against the Giants, and the original Dragonlance adventures.  At Gen Con that year, 3^rd Edition was officially announced.  Of particular note, thanks to a settlement with Dave Arneson, Wizards was able to drop the “Advanced” from the name of the game.  3^rd Edition would be “Dungeons & Dragons.”

Behind the scenes, Wizards of the Coast’s phenomenal success with Magic: The Gathering and the Pokemon TCG caused toy giant Hasbro to take notice.  In September of 1999,

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A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 25: 1998

As 1998 began, Wizards of the Coast was still realigning and restructuring after the purchase of TSR.  There were still a lot of products on TSR’s old schedule so that’s what they stuck with for most of the year.  They even kept the TSR logo on these products.  The first two marks Wizards of the Coast would make on the D&D brand would be attempts at mending bridges.  The first was a reintroduction of the Greyhawk setting.  The second were a series of dual-statted adventures for the Dragonlance line that could be used with either the SAGA rules or AD&D 2^nd Edition.

Wizards of the Coast had also filed a patent for the collectible card game model the previous year.  This gave them a bit of leverage when

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A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 24: 1997

Dragon and Dungeon magazine subscribers found no magazines in their mailboxes.  Game stores found no D&D products in their shipments from distributors.  Visitors to the D&D website were told the company was having “printer problems.”

1997 was the year TSR would have gone bankrupt if not for Ryan Dancey and Wizards of the Coast.  Dancey met with Lorraine Williams, who agreed to sell the company.  Dancey, in turn, went to Wizards of the Coast and Peter Adkison for the money to save D&D.

A number of factors contributed to TSR’s demise.  Overprinting of products, poor reception of Dragon Dice, losing money on boxed sets containing audio CDs, lack of customer communication, and primarily, from a financial

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