187 Fun Facts About Dungeons & Dragons

In which year was the original Dungeons & Dragons box set first published?

The three-booklet set had a production budget of only $2,000, with just $100 set aside for artwork.

Which two designers are credited with creating Dungeons & Dragons?

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson are the credited co-creators. The pair later fell out; Arneson sued TSR over royalties in 1979, settling in 1981.

Which 1971 miniature wargame supplied the original combat rules for D&D?

Chainmail, Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren's 1971 medieval miniatures rules, supplied D&D's first combat system; its fantasy supplement already covered heroes, wizards, elves, orcs and dragons.

What is the referee who narrates a D&D game and plays all its non-player characters called?

The Dungeon Master (DM) runs the game and voices every non-player character; other systems say 'Game Master', and the 1983 cartoon turned Dungeon Master into a small, mysterious guide.

Which die decides whether an attack hits in D&D combat?

Attack rolls use the twenty-sided die (d20); the other polyhedrals mostly roll damage, and two ten-siders together make percentile dice.

How many ability scores does a D&D character have?

A character has six ability scores: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, each usually rolled on 3d6 in early editions.

In which year did Wizards of the Coast buy the near-bankrupt TSR and take over D&D?

Wizards of the Coast bought the debt-laden TSR in 1997, flush with card-game profits; Hasbro then bought Wizards itself in 1999.

For roughly how much did Hasbro buy Wizards of the Coast in September 1999?

The company had been founded by Peter Adkison in 1990 and named after a guild of wizards in his own D&D campaign.

Where is Wizards of the Coast headquartered?

Wizards of the Coast is based in Renton, Washington, a Seattle suburb; its parent since 1999, Hasbro, is headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Which of these was one of the three character classes in the original 1974 D&D?

Cleric was one of the three original classes, alongside fighting-man and magic-user; clerics could not use edged weapons and got no spells until second level.

In 1977 D&D split into two branches: a basic game and which more rules-heavy line?

The split lasted until 2000, when the 3rd edition dropped the 'Advanced' prefix.

Which was the first hardcover D&D book, published in 1977?

The Player's Handbook followed in June 1978 and the Dungeon Masters Guide in August 1979.

What colour was the box of the 1983 Basic Set revised by Frank Mentzer, with Larry Elmore cover art?

The 1983 Mentzer Basic Set came in a red box, its Larry Elmore cover showing a warrior facing a red dragon; the 1977 Basic Set had been the blue box.

Who led the small TSR team that designed AD&D 2nd Edition, released in 1989?

Cook later designed the Planescape setting in 1994.

In which year did the 3rd edition reunite the game's two branches and launch the d20 System?

A revised 3.5 followed in July 2003, and the rules were released under the Open Game License.

What working name did Wizards of the Coast use for D&D 5th edition during its 2012 playtest?

D&D Next was the public playtest name used from 2012; the finished 5th edition shipped in 2014, timed to the game's 40th anniversary.

On what date was the 5th edition Player's Handbook released?

The 5th edition Player's Handbook arrived on August 19, 2014, followed by the Monster Manual that September and the Dungeon Master's Guide in December 2014.

The 4th edition (2008) cut the alignment grid down to how many alignments?

They were lawful good, good, evil, chaotic evil and unaligned; 5th edition brought back the classic nine.

Gygax credited the law-versus-chaos alignment idea to which two fantasy authors?

Gygax credited law versus chaos to Michael Moorcock's Elric stories and Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, which also gave the game its regenerating troll and paladin.

D&D's 'memorize a spell, cast it, forget it' magic came from which author's Dying Earth stories?

Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories gave D&D its 'Vancian' prepare-and-forget spellcasting; the name of the villain Vecna is an anagram of Vance.

The vorpal sword, which lops off heads on a lucky roll, takes its name from which poem?

The vorpal sword comes from Lewis Carroll's 1871 poem 'Jabberwocky', where the 'vorpal blade went snicker-snack'; in AD&D it beheads a foe on a high attack roll.

The owlbear and the rust monster were both inspired by what?

Gygax modelled the owlbear and rust monster on figures from a bag of cheap plastic Hong Kong toys, reportedly labelled 'prehistoric animals'; the bulette came from the same bag.

What does a rust monster want from adventurers?

Gygax liked the idea of a non-lethal creature that eats hard-won possessions rather than the characters.

Roughly how big is a gelatinous cube?

It has been in the game since the 1974 'white box', sliding down corridors digesting whatever it engulfs.

Which many-eyestalked floating monster does Wizards of the Coast keep as 'Product Identity'?

The beholder, a floating orb with a central eye and ten eyestalks, is Product Identity, excluded from the Open Game License along with the mind flayer, displacer beast and umber hulk.

Which tentacle-mouthed, psionic monster is also known as an illithid?

Mind flayers, or illithids, debuted in a 1975 TSR newsletter; the tentacled brain-eaters are the central villains of Baldur's Gate 3 (2023).

The displacer beast was borrowed from a creature in whose 1939 story 'Black Destroyer'?

A. E. van Vogt's 1939 story 'Black Destroyer' introduced the coeurl, a tentacled black cat-beast that became the displacer beast; it reappeared in his 1950 novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle.

D&D's near-unstoppable tarrasque is loosely based on a legend from which country?

The Provençal tarasque was a dragon-like beast said to have been tamed by Saint Martha.

Tiamat, queen of the evil chromatic dragons, is usually depicted with how many heads?

One per chromatic colour: red, blue, green, black and white; her name comes from a Babylonian goddess.

Which lich-turned-god is missing his left hand and left eye, both now legendary artifacts?

Vecna's severed Hand and Eye are among the game's oldest artifacts, first described in 1976; his holy symbol is an eye in a left palm, and Stranger Things borrowed the name.

Which demilich lurks at the heart of Gygax's notoriously deadly module Tomb of Horrors?

Acererak, the demilich, waits at the heart of Tomb of Horrors; Gygax wrote the module for tournament play at the first Origins convention in 1975, and it became a byword for killer dungeons.

Which D&D magic item opens into an extradimensional space far larger than its outside?

The bag of holding's interior is an extradimensional space; it dates to the original 1974 D&D set, and stuffing one into a portable hole tears a rift to the Astral Plane.

Which D&D wizard began as Gary Gygax's own player character in the Greyhawk campaign?

Mordenkainen was Gygax's own player character in the Greyhawk campaign; his name survives on spells like Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound and on 2018's Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

What is the name of the planet on which the World of Greyhawk is set?

Greyhawk's planet is Oerth, which Gygax pronounced 'Oith' with a Brooklyn twist; his original campaign map was drawn over North America, with Greyhawk city near Chicago's spot.

Ed Greenwood created which campaign setting as a child in the 1960s before selling it to TSR in 1986?

Ed Greenwood dreamed up the Forgotten Realms as a boy in 1967 and sold it to TSR in 1986; he had written about it in Dragon since 1979, and the first boxed set came in 1987.

Which vast subterranean realm lies beneath the surface of Toril, the world of Ed Greenwood's setting?

The Underdark is the cavern world beneath Toril, home to the drow city of Menzoberranzan where Drizzt Do'Urden was born.

Which author created the renegade dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden?

R. A. Salvatore invented Drizzt on the spot during a phone call with his editor, who needed a new sidekick for The Crystal Shard (1988).

What kind of animal is Guenhwyvar, the magical companion Drizzt summons from a statuette?

Guenhwyvar is a black panther summoned from an onyx figurine; she debuted with Drizzt in The Crystal Shard (1988), first book of the Icewind Dale Trilogy.

Which husband-and-wife team conceived Dragonlance while driving to a job interview at TSR?

Tracy Hickman then teamed with Margaret Weis; the first novel, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, appeared in 1984.

What is the name of the Dragonlance world?

Its residents include kender such as Tasslehoff Burrfoot, and its evil goddess is Takhisis.

Which vampire, first met in a 1983 module, is both ruler and prisoner of the domain of Barovia?

Strahd von Zarovich debuted in the 1983 module Ravenloft (I6), written by Tracy and Laura Hickman after a session in which a vampire had turned up as a mere random dungeon encounter.

Keith Baker's Eberron beat roughly how many other entries to win Wizards' Fantasy Setting Search in 2002?

Eberron was picked from more than 11,000 one-page proposals in the 2002 Fantasy Setting Search; Keith Baker's world mixes pulp, noir and magical technology, with warforged and the lightning rail.

What does the old AD&D combat statistic THAC0 stand for?

Third edition scrapped descending armor class in favour of rolling high against a target number.

Who founded the anti-D&D pressure group Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (BADD)?

Patricia Pulling founded BADD after her son Irving's 1982 suicide, blaming the game; Michael Stackpole's 1990 'Pulling Report' later dismantled her statistics.

Which future star headlined the 1982 TV movie Mazes and Monsters?

Tom Hanks, in his first leading role, starred in Mazes and Monsters, loosely based on the 1979 James Dallas Egbert III disappearance; investigator William Dear's 1984 book The Dungeon Master rejected any link to the game.

Which anchor's 1985 60 Minutes segment questioned whether D&D was dangerous for children?

Ed Bradley fronted the 1985 60 Minutes report, interviewing Gary Gygax and the game's critics about alleged links between D&D and teenage suicides.

How do the six kids in the 1983 D&D animated series get transported into the realm?

The six friends board the Dungeons & Dragons roller coaster at an amusement park and are whisked into the realm; the CBS show ran three seasons, and its unproduced finale 'Requiem' would have revealed the villain as Dungeon Master's son.

What is the name of Bobby's pet baby unicorn in the 1983 cartoon?

Frank Welker provided the vocal effects; the group's main foe was the wizard Venger.

Which Oscar winner played the villain Profion in the much-derided 2000 Dungeons & Dragons film?

Jeremy Irons, Best Actor winner for Reversal of Fortune, chewed scenery as Profion; shot in Prague on a $45 million budget, the film grossed about $34 million worldwide.

In Honor Among Thieves (2023), Chris Pine plays Edgin Darvis, a member of which character class?

Chris Pine's Edgin Darvis is a lute-playing bard and former Harper; Hugh Grant's Forge Fitzwilliam is the con-artist villain, and filming ran in Iceland and Belfast.

What was the worldwide gross of Honor Among Thieves (2023), made for about $150 million?

Honor Among Thieves grossed $208.2 million worldwide; it opened first in the US with $37.2 million but was called a disappointment against its $150 million budget.

Which studio made Baldur's Gate 3, first to win Game of the Year at all five major shows?

Larian Studios, the Belgian studio founded by Swen Vincke in 1996, spent six years on Baldur's Gate 3; it swept Game of the Year at The Game Awards, BAFTA, DICE, GDC and the Golden Joysticks.

Who was the Dungeon Master for the first three campaigns of Critical Role, set in the world of Exandria?

Matthew Mercer, a voice actor also known as Overwatch's Cole Cassidy, ran the table for campaigns one to three; the cast began streaming from Geek & Sundry in March 2015.

What is the Upside Down creature in Stranger Things season one, named for a D&D demon prince?

The show also spawned an official 5th edition starter set in 2019.

In which small Midwestern town did Gary Gygax found TSR and the Gen Con convention?

Gygax founded Gen Con in 1968 and TSR in 1973 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; the first Gen Con filled the town's Horticultural Hall, rented for $50.

What was Gary Gygax's day job until he lost it in October 1970?

Gygax was an insurance underwriter at Fireman's Fund until he was laid off in October 1970; he then repaired shoes in his basement while designing games full time.

Which animated series featured Gary Gygax voicing himself alongside Al Gore and Stephen Hawking in 2000?

Futurama's 'Anthology of Interest I' (2000) put Gygax in Al Gore's Vice Presidential Action Rangers alongside Stephen Hawking, Nichelle Nichols and the chess computer Deep Blue.

Dave Arneson's proto-D&D fantasy campaign, run in the Twin Cities in 1971, was set in what barony?

Arneson's Blackmoor campaign, begun in 1971 in the Twin Cities, explored dungeons beneath Castle Blackmoor, represented on the table by a Kibri model kit of Branzoll Castle.

Who engineered Gygax's ouster from TSR in October 1985 after buying out the Blume brothers?

Lorraine Williams, brought in by Gygax himself to manage TSR, bought the Blume brothers' shares and took control in October 1985; her family's Dille trust held the Buck Rogers licence, which TSR then milked.

Which language received the first non-English edition of D&D, in 1982?

By 1992 the game was available in 14 languages and had sold over 2 million copies in 44 countries.

Roughly how many copies of the original D&D set sold in its first year?

The hand-assembled first printing of 1,000 copies took most of 1974 to sell; sales then climbed steeply as college and high-school students discovered the game.

Which three books are the core rulebooks of the 2024 D&D revision?

The 2024 revision released new Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, with the Monster Manual following in February 2025.

After the 2023 OGL backlash, under which licence did Wizards release the 5.1 System Reference Document?

In January 2023, after fans revolted over a leaked OGL 1.1 draft, Wizards put the 5.1 System Reference Document under Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0), an irrevocable licence it cannot withdraw.

What did the first Gen Con in 1967 look like, before it took its name?

The event is now remembered as 'Gen Con 0'; the convention has since grown into one of North America's largest.

Which Christian tract publisher put out 'Dark Dungeons', portraying D&D as an occult recruitment tool?

Chick Publications, Jack Chick's tract house, released 'Dark Dungeons' in 1984; it also ran a 1989 piece by William Schnoebelen, a self-described former Satanic priest, attacking the game.

Which US state's Waupun prison banned D&D in 2004 for 'promoting gang-related activity'?

Waupun Correctional Institution is in Wisconsin; its 2004 ban was upheld in 2010 by the Seventh Circuit in Singer v. Raemisch, which accepted the gang-activity rationale.

In which year did D&D co-creator Gary Gygax die?

Gary Gygax died on March 4, 2008, aged 69, after suffering two strokes in 2004; Dave Arneson followed him a year later.

Where did Arneson teach game design from the 1990s until shortly before his death?

He died in 2009, a year after Gygax.

With whom did Gary Gygax found TSR in October 1973?

Don Kaye, Gygax's childhood friend, put up $1,000 to co-found Tactical Studies Rules in October 1973; Brian Blume joined as a third partner weeks later, and Kaye died of a heart attack in January 1975.

Who founded Wizards of the Coast in 1990?

Peter Adkison founded Wizards of the Coast in 1990 in his Seattle-area basement; he sold the company to Hasbro in 1999 and later bought the Gen Con convention.

Which collectible card game did Wizards of the Coast debut in July 1993?

It premiered at the Origins Game Fair in Dallas.

Who edited the original 1977 D&D Basic Set?

J. Eric Holmes, a neurology professor, edited the 1977 Basic Set into a beginner's rulebook covering levels 1–3; Tom Moldvay revised it in 1981 and Frank Mentzer in 1983.

Dragon magazine, launched in 1976, replaced which earlier TSR publication?

The Strategic Review ran for only seven issues.

In which year did TSR first publish Dungeon magazine?

Dungeon magazine debuted in September 1986 as a bimonthly companion to Dragon, devoted entirely to ready-to-run adventures.

Which fictional pantheon was in the 1980 Deities & Demigods but cut from later printings?

The Cthulhu Mythos, along with Moorcock's Melnibonéan mythos, vanished from Deities & Demigods after Chaosium, which had licensed Cthulhu from Arkham House, objected.

Most of the first Fiend Folio's monsters came from which British magazine?

Most Fiend Folio (1981) monsters were reader submissions to the 'Fiend Factory' column in Games Workshop's White Dwarf magazine, home of the githyanki and the flumph.

Which good-aligned dragon appeared alongside five evil dragons in the 1974 white box?

The gold dragon was the lone good dragon in the 1974 white box beside white, black, green, blue and red; copper, brass, bronze and silver arrived in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement.

A mind flayer's head resembles which sea creature?

A mind flayer's octopus-like head has four facial tentacles; Gygax said the look came from the cover of Brian Lumley's Lovecraftian novel The Burrowers Beneath.

What object stores a lich's soul in D&D lore?

A lich hides its soul in a phylactery, which must be destroyed to kill the lich for good; the real-world word means a tefillin box holding Jewish scripture.

The drow are traditionally connected to which spider goddess?

Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders, rules most drow societies; she first appeared in Gygax's 1978 module Vault of the Drow.

What hair colour do D&D's drow traditionally have?

Drow traditionally have white hair against obsidian-dark skin; they are a subrace of elves living in the Underdark.

Which two features did 4th edition designers make most prominent on tieflings?

Fourth edition gave every tiefling prominent horns and a long tail, making the newly core race look more devilish and intimidating.

In which edition did dragonborn first become a core race in the Player's Handbook?

Dragonborn joined the core races in 4th edition's 2008 Player's Handbook, alongside tieflings and eladrin; 3.5 had first introduced them in Races of the Dragon (2006).

D&D kobolds are small reptilian humanoids distantly related to which creatures?

Since 3rd edition, kobolds have been cast as small scaly cousins of dragons, worshipping them and claiming a trace of draconic blood; early editions had drawn them as dog-like.

Gnolls are hybrids of humans and which animal?

Hyenas supply the other half of the gnoll, a staple humanoid monster of the game.

A mimic most commonly disguises itself as what object?

It was an original creation for the game's underground environments.

D&D's halflings are a renamed version of which Tolkien race?

Middle-earth Enterprises trademarked the original term.

Which colour of chromatic dragon breathes lightning in D&D?

Blue dragons breathe lightning and lair in deserts; black dragons spit acid, green ones exhale poison gas and red ones fire.

Elminster is known as the Sage of which Forgotten Realms locale?

Elminster is the Sage of Shadowdale, the Dalelands village where he keeps his tower; Ed Greenwood gave him his own novel series beginning with Elminster: The Making of a Mage (1994).

What is Elminster almost always seen smoking?

It spouts vile-smelling blue or green smoke.

Raistlin Majere's cursed pupils take which shape?

Raistlin's pupils became hourglasses after the Test of High Sorcery; the curse shows him the effects of time, so he sees everything around him aging and decaying.

What is the name of Raistlin Majere's twin brother?

Caramon Majere, the burly warrior twin, protects the frail mage Raistlin; their half-sister is the dragon highlord Kitiara uth Matar.

The Xanathar, a Waterdeep crime lord, is what type of monster?

The Xanathar is a beholder running Waterdeep's Thieves' Guild from the sewers; the title passes between beholders, and the 5e rulebook Xanathar's Guide to Everything bears the name.

Dark Sun is set on which post-apocalyptic desert world?

Dark Sun's world is Athas, a sun-scorched desert ruled by sorcerer-kings; it has no gods, and psionics are commonplace.

In which year did the original Dark Sun boxed set appear?

The Dark Sun boxed set came out in 1991, designed by Troy Denning and Timothy Brown, with Brom's distinctive cover art.

What is the pocket dimension of the Ravenloft setting called?

Ravenloft's pocket dimension is the Demiplane of Dread, a patchwork of domains stitched together by the mysterious Dark Powers; Barovia was the first.

What is the ruler of each Ravenloft domain called?

Each is forever trapped within the magical mists surrounding their domain.

Which campaign setting puts D&D adventures aboard ships in outer space?

Spelljammer's ships, powered by spelljamming helms, tend to look like galleons or animals rather than sci-fi craft, in a fantastic rather than scientific space.

Eberron is set primarily on which continent?

Eberron's action centres on the continent of Khorvaire, whose Five Nations spent a century fighting the Last War; its pulp flavour includes lightning rails and airships.

Who created Eberron's warforged in magical creation forges?

House Cannith built the warforged in its creation forges as soldiers for the Last War; the Treaty of Thronehold that ended the war granted them freedom and ordered the forges destroyed.

Which setting was the default world for the 'Basic' D&D line through the 1980s and 1990s?

Mystara was the home world of the Basic/Expert line, its central continent the Known World; the Grand Duchy of Karameikos was its starter nation.

Which 1995 D&D campaign setting casts players as divinely empowered rulers on the continent of Cerilia, with an emphasis on political play?

Birthright revolves around bloodlines, with divine power passed to descendants, and plays out at the level of rulership on the world of Aebrynis.

What deck of cards does the Dungeon Master use to randomise Curse of Strahd?

The Tarokka deck, Barovia's fortune-telling cards, is read by Madam Eva to place the allies, the magic items and Strahd's hiding spot in Curse of Strahd.

In which year was the 5th edition adventure Curse of Strahd released?

Curse of Strahd came out in March 2016, written with Tracy and Laura Hickman, expanding their 1983 Ravenloft module into a full campaign.

Tomb of Annihilation is set in which jungle region of the Forgotten Realms?

Tomb of Annihilation (September 2017) sends players into Chult, a dinosaur-haunted jungle peninsula, to find the Soulmonger beneath Acererak's tomb.

Which studio developed the original 1998 Baldur's Gate video game?

BioWare built the game and Interplay Entertainment published it; it was the first title to run on the Infinity Engine.

The offspring of which dead god drive the plot of the Baldur's Gate games?

Bhaal, the Lord of Murder, sired the Bhaalspawn before dying in the Time of Troubles; Alaundo's prophecy says the last survivor will become the new Lord of Murder.

What was the name of the module-building toolset shipped with Neverwinter Nights?

Neverwinter Nights (2002) shipped with the Aurora toolset, letting players build and host their own modules; the 2006 sequel replaced it with the Electron toolset.

Which duo directed Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves?

Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the pair behind Game Night, directed Honor Among Thieves and co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio.

Who plays the barbarian Holga Kilgore in Honor Among Thieves?

Michelle Rodriguez's Holga breaks out of the frozen prison Revel's End alongside Edgin, the bard played by Chris Pine.

Who directed the 2000 Dungeons & Dragons film in his feature debut?

Courtney Solomon, who had secured the film rights as a 20-year-old in 1990, directed the 2000 film as his feature debut; he went on to direct An American Haunting (2005).

Which Japanese studio animated the 1983 Dungeons & Dragons cartoon?

Toei Animation, the studio later behind Dragon Ball, animated the show, a co-production of Marvel Productions and TSR.

How many episodes of the 1983-85 D&D animated series were made?

The D&D cartoon made 27 episodes across three seasons (1983–85) on CBS before cancellation left its finale 'Requiem' unproduced.

Who is the primary villain of the 1983 D&D animated series?

The kids receive magic items from the Dungeon Master to fight him.

Community's 'Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' episode is played to cheer up which student?

The 2011 episode stages a game to lift the spirits of Fat Neil, who the group fears is suicidal; it was pulled from Netflix and Hulu in 2020 over Chang's blackface-style drow makeup.

James Dallas Egbert III, whose 1979 disappearance sparked D&D panic, attended which university?

Egbert, a 16-year-old computer science prodigy at Michigan State University, vanished into the campus steam tunnels in August 1979; investigator William Dear found him in Louisiana weeks later.

Which company published the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game in 2009?

Paizo had produced Dragon and Dungeon magazines under contract from 2002 until 2007.

Which comic strip by artist Larry Elmore ran in Dragon magazine?

Elmore's concept art also sold Dragonlance to TSR management.

Which two Dragonlance products did TSR publish in 1984?

Dragons of Despair (module DL1) and the novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight both appeared in 1984, launching the Dragonlance line and the Chronicles trilogy.

What was the first Forgotten Realms novel, published in 1987?

Darkwalker on Moonshae (1987) by Douglas Niles was the first Realms novel; he had written it for a Celtic setting before TSR folded the Moonshae Isles into Greenwood's world.

The original 1974 D&D offered how many alignments?

The 1974 rules had three alignments: lawful, neutral and chaotic; the separate good-evil axis arrived with AD&D.

How many alignments does D&D's classic two-axis grid produce?

Two axes with three positions each give nine alignments, from lawful good to chaotic evil, with true neutral at the centre.

Which class did the 1975 Greyhawk supplement add as D&D's fourth main class?

Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975) introduced the thief, with skills like picking locks and moving silently; it also added the paladin as a fighting-man subclass.

Which 3.5 edition book introduced the warlock class in 2004?

Complete Arcane (November 2004) introduced the warlock, whose eldritch blast and at-will invocations come from a fell pact rather than study; Tome of Magic (2006) added the binder instead.

Which 1976 supplement introduced the druid as a player-character class?

Druids can shift into animal forms and lose their powers in metal armour in 3.5.

Which book series did Gygax credit as inspiration for the monk class?

Gygax said the monk came from the Destroyer novels about Remo Williams and his Sinanju master Chiun; the class debuted in Supplement II: Blackmoor (1975).

In AD&D 1st edition, original bards had to progress through which class sequence?

AD&D 1st edition bards began as fighters, switched to thief, then trained under druids to become bards, a progression laid out in the Player's Handbook appendix.

Who coined the term 'hit points'?

Dave Arneson introduced hit points in his Blackmoor campaign, adapting the damage tracking of the naval wargames Don't Give Up the Ship and Ironclads.

Which module, packed with the Basic Set from 1979 to 1982, features the Caves of Chaos?

Keep on the Borderlands (B2), written by Gary Gygax and first printed in December 1979, sends beginners into the Caves of Chaos; it replaced In Search of the Unknown in the Basic Set.

G1, the first Against the Giants module, targets which kind of giant?

G1 is Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (1978); G2 turns to frost giants and G3 to fire giants, and the series leads down into the drow modules.

Who wrote module Q1, Queen of the Demonweb Pits?

David Sutherland, better known as TSR's house artist, wrote Queen of the Demonweb Pits (1980) with Gygax credited as co-author; it takes characters onto the Demonweb, Lolth's own plane.

The Temple of Elemental Evil (1985) expands which earlier Gygax module?

The Village of Hommlet (T1, 1979) introduced the moathouse near the Temple; the 1985 supermodule T1-4, finished by Frank Mentzer, finally delivered the temple itself.

Bahamut, King of the Good Dragons, is known by what title?

In his first appearance he was simply called the Dragon King, with no personal name.

D&D's devils originate from which plane?

The Nine Hells of Baator are home to the devils, ruled by archdevils known as the Lords of the Nine.

D&D's demons, such as Orcus and Juiblex, are native to which plane?

The Abyss and its population are said to be theoretically infinite.

Which science-fiction author created the githyanki?

They were officially adopted in the 1981 Fiend Folio and featured on its cover.

The yuan-ti are a species of evil what?

Yuan-ti are snake people, ranging from human-looking purebloods to serpentine abominations; lore says they descend from human cultists who mixed their bloodlines with serpents.

Which studio developed the MMORPG Dungeons & Dragons Online?

Turbine, the Massachusetts studio behind Asheron's Call, launched Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach in 2006, setting it on Eberron's continent of Xen'drik.

In which month and year did Baldur's Gate 3 fully release on Windows?

Baldur's Gate 3 left early access on August 3, 2023 on Windows, three years after the early-access launch of October 2020; the PlayStation 5 version followed that September.

After which game did Wizards of the Coast reject Larian's first Baldur's Gate 3 pitch?

Divinity: Original Sin (2014) was not enough to win Wizards over; prerelease material for Original Sin 2 earned Larian a second hearing and the Baldur's Gate 3 licence.

Who created Dimension 20, the actual-play show that debuted on Dropout in 2018?

Brennan Lee Mulligan created Dimension 20 and ran its first season, Fantasy High, in 2018; the show is produced and streamed by Dropout.

How many episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina's first season were Kickstarter-funded?

Kickstarter backers funded ten episodes; Amazon then ordered two more, so the first season ran to twelve episodes on Prime Video in 2022.

Acquisitions Incorporated began in 2008 as a podcast by the creators of which webcomic?

Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik started the Acquisitions Incorporated podcast with Wizards in 2008, joined by PvP's Scott Kurtz; the group moved to live games at PAX from 2010.

Which 1982 Spielberg film opens with kids playing D&D?

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial opens with Elliott's brother Michael and his friends playing D&D around the kitchen table, a scene Spielberg used to root the film in 1982 suburbia.

What was the title of the Freaks and Geeks finale in which the geeks play D&D?

'Discos and Dragons' (2000) ends the series with James Franco's Daniel, sent to the Audio/Visual Club, rolling up Carlos the Dwarf for the geeks' game.

In which year was Tasha's Cauldron of Everything published?

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything arrived in November 2020, adding customisable origins and optional class features; its cover art is by Magali Villeneuve.

Why did Gygax reportedly produce Unearthed Arcana in 1985?

Much of its content was not reused in 2nd edition after his departure.

Al-Qadim, released in 1992, is set in which land themed on One Thousand and One Nights?

Al-Qadim is set in Zakhara, the Land of Fate, on Toril's southern reaches, with genies and the wish-brokering sha'ir wizard class.

Kara-Tur, D&D's East Asian-inspired region, was first described in which 1985 book?

Oriental Adventures (1985), begun by Gygax and finished by Zeb Cook, introduced Kara-Tur along with the samurai, ninja and kensai classes; the region was later moved to Toril.

What is the immortal protagonist of Planescape: Torment called?

The Nameless One, Planescape: Torment's scarred immortal, wakes in the Mortuary of Sigil with no memory; each death can strip away more of his past.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn is set mainly in and around which city?

Shadows of Amn (September 2000) unfolds in and around Athkatla, the merchant capital of Amn, from its Promenade to the Copper Coronet tavern.

What nationality is Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood?

Ed Greenwood is Canadian, born in Toronto in 1959, and worked for years as a librarian in Ontario while building the Realms.

Tracy Hickman said he sold TSR his modules Rahasia and Pharaoh so he could buy what?

Hickman has said he sold Rahasia and Pharaoh to TSR in 1982 to buy shoes for his children; he and Laura had first published them themselves as DayStar West Media.

What does the 'I' in the BECMI series of D&D boxed sets stand for?

The I is Immortals, the 1986 fifth box of Frank Mentzer's Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortals series, which took characters all the way to godhood.

Which Tom Moldvay module was distributed inside the D&D Expert Set?

Isle of Dread (X1), by David Cook and Tom Moldvay, came packaged in the 1981 Expert Set, making it one of the most widely played modules of its time.

Who was TSR's first employee, hired by Gygax in 1975?

Tim Kask became TSR's first full-time employee in 1975, editing the Blackmoor supplement and then The Dragon magazine from its first issue in 1976.

In which year did Gen Con move to Indianapolis?

Gen Con moved to the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis in 2003, after 18 years in Milwaukee's convention centre from 1985.

What keeps the Neverwinter river warm despite the city's northern location?

Fire elementals living under Mount Hotenow heat the Neverwinter River, keeping the harbour ice-free; the city is nicknamed the Jewel of the North.

Which character did R. A. Salvatore originally intend as the protagonist of The Crystal Shard?

Wulfgar, the barbarian of Icewind Dale, was Salvatore's intended hero; Drizzt was created on a whim as his mentor and became the breakout star.

What is the halfling member of Drizzt's Companions of the Hall called?

Regis, the halfling with a hypnotic ruby pendant, rounds out the Companions of the Hall, named after Bruenor's reclaimed dwarven stronghold of Mithral Hall.

Arneson's Blackmoor grew out of which series of games by David Wesely?

David Wesely's Braunstein games of 1969 let players take individual roles in a Napoleonic town; Arneson played in them and carried the idea into Blackmoor.

The Hand and Eye of Vecna were inspired by items in which author's Corum novels?

Michael Moorcock's Corum novels feature the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn, the models for Vecna's artifacts; ioun stones, by contrast, come from Vance's Dying Earth.

How many meteors does the spell Meteor Swarm hurl?

Meteor Swarm hurls four meteors, each bursting like a fireball in a 40-foot radius for 20d6 fire and 20d6 bludgeoning damage in 5th edition.

Besides the cube, how many faces do the other four Platonic-solid dice have?

The five Platonic solids give the d4, d6, d8, d12 and d20; the d10 is not Platonic, since its kite-shaped faces are not regular polygons.

The wizard Tenser's name is an anagram of what?

Tenser is an anagram of Ernest: Gygax's son Ernie created the wizard in the early Greyhawk campaign, which he and his sister Elise were the first to play.

What was the first treasure ever found in a D&D game, by Gygax's children Ernie and Elise?

The first treasure was a chest of 3,000 copper coins, too heavy for Ernie and Elise to carry out of Castle Greyhawk in that 1972 session, to their disappointment.

Slaadi are extraplanar creatures that resemble giant humanoid versions of what?

Slaadi look like huge humanoid toads; these chaotic natives of Limbo were created by Charles Stross for the 1981 Fiend Folio.

Mordenkainen leads which cabal of powerful Greyhawk wizards?

Gygax formed the group from Mordenkainen and seven of his other characters.

Which class was dropped from the AD&D 2nd edition Player's Handbook?

AD&D 2nd edition's Player's Handbook dropped the assassin and the monk, along with the half-orc race, as TSR softened the game's image; the bard became a full class.

How many pages was the first AD&D Players Handbook of June 1978?

The 1978 Players Handbook ran 128 pages, edited by Mike Carr, who also wrote its foreword; its cover was Dave Trampier's scene of thieves prying gems from an idol.

Whom did Gygax ask to become co-Dungeon Master of his Greyhawk campaign?

It let Gygax experience the game as a player for once.

Where is Menzoberranzan, the drow city of the Drizzt novels, located?

Menzoberranzan sits in the Upper Northdark, about two miles beneath the Surbrin Vale and not far from Mithral Hall.

Which Baldur's Gate II villain is a powerful, sinister mage?

The story continues that of Gorion's Ward.

By 1981, roughly how many people worldwide were playing Dungeons & Dragons?

By 1984 the rulebooks were selling about 750,000 copies a year, and by 1992 the game was in 14 languages across 44 countries.

In the 2019 player survey, what share of D&D players identified as female?

Wizards' 2019 demographic figures put women at 39% of D&D players, with the game's audience then in its sixth straight year of growth.

By how much did virtual D&D play rise in 2020, according to Wizards' head of publishing?

Revenue climbed 35% in the pandemic year, aided by online platforms like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds.

From which company did Hasbro acquire the D&D Beyond digital toolset in 2022?

Hasbro paid $146.3 million to Fandom for D&D Beyond in 2022; Fandom had itself acquired the toolset from Twitch subsidiary Curse in 2018.

Which former Microsoft executive was appointed the first Senior Vice President for the D&D brand in 2022?

Dan Rawson, previously at Microsoft, became the first Senior Vice President for D&D in 2022, part of a digital push after the D&D Beyond purchase; executives soon called the brand 'under monetized'.

In September 2022, Wizards apologised for racist material in which 5th edition setting book?

Spelljammer: Adventures in Space drew the apology over its hadozee, a monkey-like race whose backstory echoed slavery tropes; Wizards then announced an inclusion review with outside cultural consultants.

Which two TV shows got official 5th edition starter box sets from Wizards of the Coast?

Stranger Things (2019) and Rick and Morty (2019) each got a 5th edition starter set; Wizards also tied the game to Magic's Ravnica and Theros worlds with sourcebooks.

Under which name did Wizards announce the next phase of major D&D changes in August 2022?

One D&D was the August 2022 banner for the public playtest that became the 2024 revised core rulebooks, published for the game's 50th anniversary.

Which two senior D&D designers left Wizards after the 2024 core rulebooks shipped?

Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford both left Wizards in April 2025; Crawford had been lead rules designer since 5th edition and Perkins the story lead for the adventure line.

On what date did D&D Beyond launch after a beta that began that March?

D&D Beyond went live on August 15, 2017, after a beta that opened in March; Adam Bradford led the project at Curse in partnership with Wizards, succeeding 4th edition's D&D Insider.

Which actress approached Critical Role's cast about streaming their home game for Geek & Sundry?

Felicia Day, Geek & Sundry's founder, invited the cast to stream their home game in 2015; the network first proposed resolving combat in a video game, which Mercer rejected in favour of the tabletop.

How many episodes did Critical Role's first campaign, Vox Machina, run before it ended in October 2017?

115 episodes made up campaign one; campaign two then ran 141 episodes from January 2018 to June 2021.

How much did the 2019 Kickstarter for The Legend of Vox Machina animated special raise?

A planned 22-minute special became a ten-episode series and one of the fastest-funded Kickstarters ever.

Who was chief executive officer of Critical Role Productions, per 2019 reporting?

Travis Willingham, the voice of Thor in Marvel's cartoons, was Critical Role Productions' CEO in 2019, with Mercer as chief creative officer and Marisha Ray as creative director; the cast own the show's IP.