# Dungeons and Dragons turns 40 this Sunday **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 24, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621 "2014-01-24T16:04:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/1 "2014-01-24T16:04:08Z")
[As per](http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2013/12/when-dungeons-dragons-turns-40.html). I will be commemorating the occasion with the selfsame victuals that gave us nourishment during our campaigns: Taco flavored Doritos (the only flavor back in the day) and a flagon of Pepsi, or, as we called that libation, Vorpal Blood. P.S. All hail Satan! ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/2 "2014-01-24T16:11:04Z")
Ah yes. From Middle-Earth to Middle Age. ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/3 "2014-01-24T16:13:23Z")
Wow. I started playing 6 years after it came out. I should dig out the old rule books for an anniversary adventure! Have a favorite adventure? For a quick one we used to do what we called the “Tower of Orks”. You find yourself at a tower that’s filled with orks. Kill your way to the top. End. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/4 "2014-01-24T16:16:25Z")
The Village of Homlet has a special place in my heart. Someone gave it to me and I read that thing Front to back to front again and again. Never got to play it. Just read it. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/5 "2014-01-24T16:18:16Z")
_gets out of rocking chair_ Hey you kids, get off my lawn or I’ll lob a Magic Missile at you! I feel old now. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/6 "2014-01-24T17:02:05Z")
I would have been first to reply to this thread, but I lost on the Roll For Initiative. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/7 "2014-01-24T17:13:15Z")
I remember sitting at the kitchen table, my family waiting patiently as I rolled up characters for each of them. And then they all hated it and we never played it again. Here’s the craziest thing you ever heard, at my elementary school the kids who stayed inside during recess and played D&D were the **cool kids**! That did not last into middle school. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/8 "2014-01-24T17:22:00Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > The Village of Homlet has a special place in my heart. Someone gave it to me and I read that thing Front to back to front again and again. Never got to play it. Just read it. In my heart too. 🙂 It was one of the first modules I ran for my adult group (N.B. we’re still playing 1st Edition after 35 years together 🆒), and I also ran it at regular intervals for my School groups (with new players every few years.) Hommlet is featured in the computer game ‘Temple of Elemental Evil’. (If you can find it and run it, it’s a good game.) ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/9 "2014-01-24T17:59:55Z")
> [@artemis](#): > > _gets out of rocking chair_ Hey you kids, get off my lawn or I’ll lob a Magic Missile at you! > > I feel old now. : rolls dice : 1 hp damage? Ha! : smites magic user with +2 longsword : : ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/10 "2014-01-24T18:18:23Z")
June 1977 is when I bought the initial white box set. Couldn’t figure out weapon damage for the life of us and went back a couple of weeks later for the first supplement. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/11 "2014-01-24T18:37:08Z")
I remember actually trying to follow the AD&D weapons vs armor types modifier tables once. I saw all of these exotic unknown weapons which had to be the coolest fantastic unimaginable cool epic things ever. Glaives, Guisarmes, Voulges, Fauchards (and Hook-Fauchards!). Ranseurs, Bec de Corbins, Bardiches, and the mysterious Lochaber Axe and Lucerne Hammer! Who were Lochaber and Lucerne? I didn’t know, but I bet they could kick Conan’s and Elric’s asses. I think it was Freud who said, “Sometimes a polearm is just a polearm” ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/12 "2014-01-24T19:12:00Z")
Yeah, we looked over the weapons modifiers and the ‘speed’ charts and went…_NAH!_ Like pretty much everyone else ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/13 "2014-01-24T20:16:39Z")
One of the members of my former D&D group has an 11yr old son who has a regular gaming group with 3 of his friends and who spent 1 week in an AD&D summer camp last year. It’s nice to see the next generation falling into line 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/14 "2014-01-24T20:17:37Z")
> [@dogbutler](#): > > : rolls dice : 1 hp damage? Ha! : smites magic user with +2 longsword : : [geek]A _magic missile_ does 2 - 5 damage - it’s incapable of doing only 1.[/geek] ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/15 "2014-01-24T21:03:02Z")
Moved MPSIMS --\> the Game Room. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/16 "2014-01-24T21:06:55Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Who were Lochaber and Lucerne? I didn’t know, but I bet they could kick Conan’s and Elric’s asses. I’m pretty sure they refer to place. But very _manly_ places. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/17 "2014-01-24T21:35:43Z")
Lucerne was the brand name of the milk I drank growing up. Consequently, I always imagined the Lucerne hammer as a milk carton with a pommel attached to it. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/18 "2014-01-24T22:00:48Z")
Been playing for 32 out of the 40 years of the game. I’ll have to do some sort of play on Sunday, just to commemorate the anniversary. Maybe I’ll break out “Keep on the Borderlands”, and run a couple of caves worth of kobolds. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/19 "2014-01-24T23:24:20Z")
BTW, Jon Peterson, the scholar linked to by the OP, has written an amazingly great book about the history of D&D. (If your definition of “amazingly great” encompasses “containing insane levels of detail”). His book, _Playing at the World_ is **720 pages long**! In it he exhaustively details the various strands that came together to produce Dungeons & Dragons, covering both the history of wargaming and the history of fantasy literature. What’s wonderful about it is that he just doesn’t say, “this happened, then this happened, then this happened”. He’s reconstructed a history of _influences_, using original sources (zines, letters, private notes) to show where different elements of D&D originated and how Gygax, Arneson and the rest came into contact with them. For example, the origin of the thief class can be traced to homebrew rules developed in spring of 1974 by a group playing at Aero Hobbies in Santa Monica. The idea was passed along in a phone call from the owner of Aero Hobbies to Gygax. Gygax wrote up initially released the thief rules in a small low-circulation zine before rolling them into _Greyhawk_, the first supplement. Peterson goes step by step through all the surviving documentation of this chain. It’s totally insane and really fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621/20 "2014-01-25T03:20:58Z")
Well, I happen to have a game of HackMaster coming up on Sunday. Looks like I’ll have to bring cupcakes, at least. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dungeons-and-dragons-turns-40-this-sunday/679621.md?page=2)