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A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 40: 2013 & Beyond

And so we arrive at the present year, 2013.  The D&D Next playtest continues, with new material added in every packet.  In January, dndclassics.com, powered by drivethrurpg, debuted, selling classic D&D PDFs.  New products continue to be added to the site every week.  Premium reprints of classic products continue as well, with the AD&D 2^nd Edition core rulebooks coming next month.

On the video game front, the Neverwinter MMO is currently in beta testing  and the classic Capcom arcade games Shadow Over Mystara and Tower of Doom are making a comeback, repackaged as Chronicles of Mystara and soon to be available on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and PC.  Meanwhile, the recent board games like Castle Ravenloft are

A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 39: 2012

On January 9^th, 2012, the next iteration of Dungeons & Dragons, dubbed D&D Next, was officially announced in Legends & Lore as well as on more mainstream news websites such as the New York Times.  A massive public playtest began in May, with the first of several downloadable playtest packets.  As feedback poured in, each new iteration of the playtest saw updates, revisions, new classes, and new (and converted old) adventures. 

A full line-up of weekly articles joined Legends & Lore and the DM Experience (an ongoing column by Chris Perkins containing DM advice and anecdotes from his Iomandra campaign) on the D&D website including – Dragon’s Eye View: A look at the art and product design of D&D in general, with glimpses

A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 38: 2011

A new weekly feature debuted in February on the D&D website, Legends & Lore.  Initially written by Mike Mearls, L&L took a look back at the history of the game as well as offering some peaks behind the design curtain.  L&L was also where a surprising announcement was made in September – Monte Cook had returned to D&D.  Cook took over the L&L column through the end of the year.  Cook’s return to the D&D family created a firestorm of rumors and speculation about a potential 5^th Edition of the game.

Adding fuel to the rumor mill, several products were delayed or cancelled, including a Class Compendium product that would have updated the Player’s Handbook classes to the new Essentials format.  These

A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 37: 2010

The setting of the year for 2010 was Dark Sun, though the format changed slightly, with a Campaign Setting book that included character building options and a Creature Catalog of Dark Sun specific monsters.

The Dungeons & Dragons Insider Character Builder switched to an online-only cloud-based format about a month after the release of the 4^th Edition Dark Sun books.  A beta test of the Virtual Table was launched for DDI as well.

As every edition before it had done, 4^th Edition received a revision and repacking of the core rules, presented as the Essentials line.  Essentials comprised ten products released in the last part of the year; two digest sized player books, a digest sized Rules Compendium, two DM focused boxed sets (Dungeon

A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 36: 2009

The previous year, the Forgotten Realms debuted with just three products.  This was part of a new plan for campaign settings – A Campaign Guide, a Player’s Guide, and an adventure.  2009 would be Eberron’s turn, though it would also benefit from a Free RPG Day adventure.  Miniatures would also get a revamp, with the miniatures game itself being dropped in favor of minis tailored to the RPG line, with player character minis sold separately from monster minis.

2009 also saw the winding down of the venerable Dragonlance line as trilogies were concluded and no new series started.  One final novel would see release in January of 2010, but 2009 was, for the most part, the final Year of the Lance.

On the video

A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 35: 2008

As the weeks and months of 2008 progressed toward the debut of 4^th Edition in June, one thing every third party publisher was waiting for was word on whether the OGL would apply to 4^th Edition.  Some of them finally chose to stop waiting and move on to other projects.  Among them was Paizo, which chose to pursue development of an update to the 3.5 system using their in-house setting.  Paizo began a then unprecedented open public playtest of what would become the Pathfinder RPG in the summer of 2008.

When 4^th Edition arrived, it came not with an OGL but a GSL, Game System License, which was more limited in scope than the original OGL.  Only a few third party publishers signed on, though a few pursued other means of supporting

A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 34: 2007

In April of 2007 something a little…unusual, popped up in the Wizards forums.  A new section called Gleemax.  Gleemax was part of an overall Digital Initiative that had several goals.  Gleemax was meant to become a sort of social networking site for gamers, with a variety of online games and support for Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons.  On the D&D side, the Digital Initiative was headed toward something called D&D Insider, an ambitious project designed to provide a variety of online tools for the D&D game.

Feeding the speculation about 4^th Edition, Wizards of the Coast pulled in their various licenses, ending their partnerships with Paizo (publishers of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines) and Margaret Weis

A History of Dungeons & Dragons

Part 33: 2006

Whisper and rumors of a potential 4^th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons began to circulate around the internet in 2006, though nothing concrete emerged to back up those rumors.  However, work was indeed progressing on a 4^th Edition of the game and some early “previews” began to surface in the form of new mechanics introduced in books like Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords.

On a more humorous note, Wizards of the Coast unleashed an epic April Fool’s Prank on the D&D website on April 1^st, 2006, creating a product promotional page and press release for a My Little Pony roleplaying game, utilizing the d20 system, along with My Little Pony miniatures compatible with the D&D Miniatures line.

Neverwinter Nights would receive

Many aspects of worldbuilding have an instant payoff. The very first descriptive words of the Hook can establish the tone, nations and cities quickly establish the backdrop, racial or class limitations drive character creation, and large chunks of the plot can be driven by factions and pre-established conflict.

And then there’s history.

History is important for establishing the “why”, it drives the reasons for much of the current conflicts and stories. But most of it is entirely in the background. While players interacting with a campaign setting might ask “why”, for the most part history is deep in the background, the unseen foundation propping up the rest of the structure.

For settings planned for publication, history is a necessity. DMs and