Dungeons & Dragons (1974)

Overview

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is the original fantasy tabletop roleplaying game, designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and published by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) in 1974 as a small boxed set of three booklets. It grew out of Arneson's Blackmoor game, a medieval variation on Dave Wesely's Braunstein wargames played with individual characters instead of armies, which he showed to Gygax. The two developed it as "The Fantasy Game", and Gygax did the final writing. The set was produced on a budget of $2,000, with $100 for artwork, and it was amateurish in production, assuming that players already knew wargaming. About 1,000 copies sold in its first year and about 3,000 in 1975. The set stayed in print until 1979, and it is often called Original D&D (OD&D). The system directly evolved from Chainmail, the miniatures wargame whose rules it used for combat. In 1977 TSR split the line into the lighter Basic set and the more structured
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition (1977)
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First EditionAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of dungeon delving and her...High-FantasyComplexHeroic
, which was later followed by
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (1989)
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second EditionAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (AD&D 2E) is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of heroi...High-FantasyComplexHeroic
.

Description

Players each take on a single adventurer, a fighting-man, magic-user or cleric, and explore dungeons and wilderness. One player takes the role of the Dungeon Master (DM), the referee and storyteller who runs the setting and non-player characters and decides outcomes using the rules and their own interpretation. The three booklets are Men & Magic (36 pages), Monsters & Treasure (40 pages) and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (36 pages). The game asks a table to fill in a lot of gaps. It assumes that players know miniatures wargaming, and its wargaming roots show in the attitude that players are not very attached to their characters. Character creation is fast, death is common and replacements join the party, so it suits groups who enjoy improvising rulings more than reading rules.

Active games and players

DND1E
Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
Online
Campaign
Original Dungeons & Dragons
Players
4/10
GM
1/1
Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
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Original Dungeons & Dragons

Roleplay focused
Conversation, character and story take up most of the table time.
Newbie friendly
New players are welcome, and nobody expects you to know the rules beforehand.
Whatever the opposite of a railroaded adventure is, this open-world campaign is that. The rules are simple. The world is complicated. What happens to it is up to the players. You will hear rumors, discover locations, meet competing factions, and encounter problems, but the game will not tell you which direction you must take. Some things the players have chosen to do so far: Join the local mercenaries to learn the ways of the sword as a mage - Retrieve an old lady's purse - Become war chieftain of an orc village - Decapitate a wight with a cursed sword Also some new races that are crafted to play and feel very different: - Pixie - fly, perfect hiding, cast phantasmal forces at will, insults cause physical damage to you - Orc - infra-vision, can recruit monsters more easily Races and classes are kind of blended together. Multiple characters are encouraged. Each choice allows you to do something that appears to let you break the game, while saddling you with something else that seems debilitating. This is by design, and players have come up with a few ways of getting around and abusing these things to the betterment of the story and lore. - Fighting-Man - Doesn't have to actually be a guy, but is a human. Can use all weapons and armor. - Magic-User - Has one spell, one "shot". Can meet with magic learned peers to exchange knowledge. The most notorious spell in the game right now is Charm Person because it doesn't wear off like in later editions. - Cleric - The best of the two above, but must be Good, and by the Law. - Elf - Essentially a Magic-Use/Fighting-Man with extra perks and ties with elves and the ability to sense magic, enhanced senses, etc. but capped at a certain point - Hobbit - Capped early, but can hide flawlessly in urban areas and snipe REAL good with slings. No magic. - Dwarf -  Capped early, but high resistance, good with all axes and hammers, can sense what stone touches and its shape, and ties with and extensive knowledge of dwarven culture and holds. There are major events going on in the background but instead of shoving players in the middle of them, I showcase the developments of those events that come about, for good or ill. The players decide what to investigate, whom to trust, which dangers are worth confronting, and what their characters want to accomplish. How many hirelings do you need to bring with you? How much can you do successfully alone to maximize profit? Play alone, 1-on-1 with DM and player, or up to 10 others at once. The world continues to develop around the party. Factions pursue their own plans, NPCs remember your actions, enemies adapt, settlements can change, and neglected situations may grow better or worse. Player choices can permanently reshape the campaign world. Let me know if you are interested!

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AD&D1E
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1E)
DND1E
Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
...
Greeley
Brent Isherwood
Experienced player/DM looking to start a face-to-face group in Northern Colorado.  I would happily run 1e AD&D or OD&D.  Heck, I'd even run Shadowdark 😎 (Shadowdark has old school DNA) If you are interested in old school gaming then I'm your guy.  No experience needed.  Just a willingness to have fun and enjoy adventuring the old school way!
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en English
DND5E
Dungeons & Dragons 5E
DND5.5E
Dungeons & Dragons 5.5E (2024)
...
Overland Park
Alan
Longtime Player and DM/GM looking to start playing in person again. I'm not professional and it shows, but as long as everyone is having fun, it's a good game. I believe games should be free.
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ROLIFY sound effect soundboard
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ROLIFY sound effect soundboard

English
Audio & Music
Paid
Transform every tabletop game into an unforgettable experience with Rolify, the ambient sound and music mixer built specifically for Dungeon Masters, Game Masters, and RPG players who want their sessions to feel alive. Whether you're running a classic Dungeons & Dragons campaign, a Pathfinder adventure, a horror one-shot, or any tabletop RPG, Rolify gives you full control over the atmosphere. Layer multiple looping sounds simultaneously, from crackling fireplaces to distant thunder, murmuring tavern crowds to eerie dungeon echoes, and watch your players get pulled straight into the world you've built. WHY DUNGEON MASTERS LOVE ROLIFY Great storytelling isn't just about words, it's about immersion. A well-placed sound effect can turn a simple description into a heart-pounding moment. With Rolify's layered soundboard, you can mix ambient background noise, sound effects, and your own music tracks in real time, without ever breaking the flow of your session. Combine sounds your way: a crackling hearth, murmuring voices, a bard strumming in the corner, and your players will feel like they've truly stepped into a fantasy tavern. Add rain and thunder for a stormy night ambush, or a low ominous drone for a boss encounter. The only limit is your imagination. PERFECT FOR EVERY TABLETOP RPG Rolify works great for Dungeons and Dragons (D&D 5e), Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, Vampire the Masquerade, Warhammer, and any homebrew or fantasy tabletop RPG. It's designed for Game Masters and Dungeon Masters who want professional-quality ambient sound without complicated software or a subscription fee. MORE THAN A DND SOUNDBOARD Beyond the gaming table, Rolify doubles as an ambient sound mixer for relaxation, focus, and sleep. Combine rain, fireplace crackle, wind, and white noise to build a calming soundscape for studying, meditating, or drifting off at night. If you love ambient noise apps, nature sound mixers, or sleep sound machines, Rolify's flexible layering gives you that same power, tailored to fantasy and RPG settings too. HOW IT WORKS Browse the built-in sound library or upload your own tracks Tap to start playing any sound in a continuous loop Layer as many sounds as you want, adjusting the volume for each one Save your favorite combinations as playlists Recall any atmosphere instantly during your next session

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Lodestar
Tools & Platforms

Lodestar

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English
Free
A local-first battlemap display tool for game masters. Cast a map with fog of war to a second "player" screen while you control everything from a private GM panel. Lodestar runs entirely in the browser with no build step and no dependencies. It runs entirely in your browser. No install, no account, nothing to download if you don't want to. You open it, load a map, click "Open player display," and drag that window over to your second screen. You control everything from your own DM panel, and your players only see what you choose to reveal. /images/general-media/1780915788_spLeMCfy.pngLodestar is completely free and open source, so you can use it, fork it, or tear it apart however you like. Maps — load high-resolution map images from local disk; pan and zoom freely. Player display — open a second window, drag it to another screen, and cast the map to your players. The player window can go fullscreen. Fog of war - Trace polygon areas and click them in reveal mode to show/hide on the player display. - Name polygon areas with a GM-only label. - Paint or erase fog with a round or square brush of adjustable size. - GM sees fog as an adjustable tint/opacity; players see solid black. Multi-floor — build multi-level locations; each floor has its own map, fog, tokens, and stairs. Navigate with the on-screen floor widget. Stairs — place GM-only staircase markers that link floors; they scale with the grid and zoom and are invisible to players. Tokens — drop, drag, label, color, and size them in grid cells; they snap to the grid and appear on both displays. Grid — toggle and adjust size, offset, color, opacity, and token snapping. Ping — Alt+click draws an animated marker on both displays. Measure — reports distance in grid cells and feet. Splash / blackout — show a splash image or a plain black screen on the player display instead of the map. Library — save full setups (image, grid, fog, tokens, floors, views) to a local IndexedDB library; export/import the whole library as JSON for backups or moving machines. When you save a map, it's stored locally in your own browser, not on a server somewhere. Nothing gets uploaded, so your maps stay on your machine. The catch is that the saved library is tied to the browser and device you saved it on, so it won't follow you to another computer or survive clearing your browser data. If you make maps you want to keep, use the Export button to save your whole library to a file. That file is your real backup, and you can import it on any device. Links uncleplants.github.io - Lodestar web app(no download) github.com - Source code

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Dungeon Dad

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