THIS YEAR MARKS the 50th anniversary of the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the granddaddy of tabletop role-playing games and one of the urtexts of nerd culture.
The golden anniversary could hardly have come at a better time; over the past decade, the game has undergone an unexpected renaissance, reaching levels of cultural saturation and sales that exceed even its 1980s heyday. Critical Role, a live-play D&D podcast, sold out London’s 12,000-seat Wembley Arena last October. Even a passingly good Dungeons & Dragons movie helped mark the game’s half-centennial.
If it seems strange that something as anachronistic and exquisitely is popular again, consider that those qualities may be exactly why people are drawn to it. recently that Americans are suffering a “kind of ritual recession, with fewer community-based routines” and face-to-face meetups. It’s perhaps not surprising that has become a redoubt for old-fashioned, goofy fun in our digital age.
