Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game (RPG) created in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. With an emphasis on story-telling and fantasy, players devise detailed and customizable characters and complete quests that another player narrates and directs in the role of Dungeon Master. Adventures can be self-written or derived from published adventures, and the roll of different dice determines some of the action. A typical session can last a few hours, and ongoing stories that constitute a “campaign” can last months and even years. According to its rulebook, the game is “infinitely flexible” (D&D Basic Rules, 2018, Page 3) and relies on improvisation, imagination, and open-endedness.

Dungeons and Dragons has developed from its table-top origins to expand into a multimedia phenomenon that includes virtual games, film, television and streaming programs, pop cultural references, and merchandise. Once regarded as an activity reserved for  “nerdy” social outcasts, its resurgence in popularity has been attributed to changing cultural attitudes about “nerd culture” since the late 1990s. Some contributing influences include the successes of Bill Gates (named the richest man in the world in 1995), the growth of computer and video gaming industries, and the mainstreaming of comic book culture (Marvel and DC Comics films) and high fantasy (Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy).