Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 329 - Dungeons and Dragons: Satanic Tool or Harmless Game?

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

Today we dig into the history of Dungeons and Dragons and look at what influences Gary Gygax and others drew from to create such an immersive and addictive RPG experience. We'll examine the long history of wargaming and fantasy literature to understand where games like D&D come from. And I'll lay out exactly how D&D came to be associated with Satanic influences. Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! That'll make sense when you listen. Happy 2023 and Hail Nimrod!Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camps coming up quick!  Tickets go on sale the week of JANUARY 16TH. Whooooo!!!Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: We're giving to The Museum of Tolerance - the only museum of its kind in the world. The MOT is dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts and confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in our world today. For more information, you can visit www.museumoftolerance.com.Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/unHXHwm9UfIMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

You've been walking now for several hours on the rough mountain path. Your war, your father is riding ahead, fully armored and keeping a lookout. Your mother is driving the wagon, which is tethered to two oxen. The wagon holds all of your worldly possessions, except for the sword gifted by your father, which you always carry on your person. You come up over a ridge, reveal a vast valley before you, anchored by a massive black lake. A tattered wooden sign reads appropriately, Shadow Lake. There's a settlement on the opposite bank far off in the distance. Smoke emanates

from the chimneys of the Thatch-Roofed Woodstone and plaster dwellings. This must be the village of Shadow Lake, which your parents have spoken of. Surrounding the lake is dense forest, which your eyes cannot penetrate more than a few feet. Amense mountains rise high in all directions. This is your new home. What do you do first? If this sends a shiver of anticipation down your spine, you might be a Dungeons and Dragons player, one of the many millions of people who have been captivated by this groundbreaking game.

When it debuted in 1974, Dungeons and Dragons was something the world had never seen before. Not quite. Wargaming was nothing new, but Dungeons & Dragons paired the tactical qualities of tabletop miniature wargames with the flexibility and imagination of group storytelling in a unique way. Led through these imaginary adventures by a referee of sorts called the Dungeon Master, each player and D&D developed a customized character, complete with a unique persona, instead of tangible attributes, to be guided through the adventure cooperatively

with other players. Unlike common board games that were meant to be played and concluded in one sitting, and D&D, both your character and the adventure were ongoing and upgradable, created a more intense and lasting sense of continuity for players and Dungeon Masters alike. Within a few years of its release, 1974, this game will curiously gain a reputation for being subversive and very demonic in some circles. It will become a worldwide phenomenon as well, more popular now than ever. In fact, drawing communities of bright gifted, imaginative people together, giving them a home to explore their imaginations, world building abilities, and group cooperation skills.

All of this had been unimaginable just a few years prior to its creation when the game's main creator, Gary Gaggak's was just a random dad trying to put food on the table, working on his hobby whenever he could. Gary who had grown up on his father's fantasy stories before graduating to the fantasy tales of Robert E. Howard's Cone in the Bar barbarian series and the Hobbit and Dragon infused world of J.R.R. Tolkien love gaming even when he made almost no money at it. Despite some real meager beginnings, he refused to give up on paying the bills through sword and sorcery gaming.

He made tons of connections with gamers, studied the games he loved and the games they loved and even produced early editions of dungeons and dragons in his basement hand packing the boxes that would become so iconic. Guy gags his new board game soon became a massive success, but one fraught with near constant problems. Warnings and accusations of psychological dangers allegations of satanic worship, costly lawsuits, broken partnerships and suspect business decisions plague Gary and his world of Dungeons and Dragons for decades. Parents protested Dungeons and Dragons, believing it was a gateway for their children into supernatural terror and even damnation.

School districts banned it. School districts. Even today, there are many still who view Dungeons and Dragons as something suspect. Its players as somehow disturbed. So how exactly did Dungeons and Dragons as something suspect its players as somehow disturbed. So how exactly did Dungeons and Dragons become so controversial? Is there any credence to these claims? What went into the creation of this beloved game and how is it almost brought down by cultural forces that accused it of just about every evil there is? Will you roll the dice and follow your Dungeons master into this murky landscape? Join me today on my

quest to bring light to the darkness of dungeons and dragons, probably make quite a few devil and nerd jokes. And have a lot of fun learning about a game that still holds a special place in my heart, in the sword and sorcery, dragon layers and treasure, sexy half-eldon, maiden edition of Time Suck.

This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck. Oh! Oh! You listening to Time Sutton. You're listening to Time Sutton. Happy Monday and again, happy new year, Mietzekz. Did you hear how excited I got? Trying to say half-elvin, Maiden. Word Maiden was upcoming.

I just got flustered. 2023 is here. By the time you hear this, recording this with just a few days left yet in 2022. For me, welcome to the Cult of the Curious. I'm Dan Cummins, the SDM, AKA Suck Dungeon Master, Helen Keller's Guide Dog, Cleric of Nimrot, and you are listing the time suck.

Two short announcements, and then we are off and running summer camp 2023 baby. The second wet hot bad magic summer camp is a fucking go. We are still locking down the final details as I record this, but tickets will go on sale the week of January 16th, the week of January 16th in phases. OG campers get first dibs, followed by patrons and then general admission. There is a limited number of tickets available. More details on all of this to follow.

Can't be gains on Thursday, September 21st ends on Sunday, September 24th. Camp will take place in the poke notes just outside of Inquanon, Pennsylvania on hundreds of private acres that'll be there that weekend just for us. Sharing it with no one, hiking trails, arts and crafts, ropes course, big ass heated pool, rock climbing, wall on one side of the pool, a yoga studio, private lake at our disposal with a boat to pull tubers, numerous bars, modern accommodations, modern accommodations with hot showers and every cabin, Wi-Fi everywhere, a custom way to add reserve, you know, and reserve activities through this app, there we go, custom app.

That's what I was trying to say. I'm like reserve activities, make sure you don't miss marquee events like another live scared to death and a big comedy night. Stand up comedy night where I will be performing with my buddy Chad Daniels for the first time in a decade. Bucking pump for that. And there will be more awesome comics that'll be flying in,

tickets will be approximately $1,300 and are all inclusive, covering food, drinks, accommodations, no cuts, no canvas tents this year, covering activities. Think about how a cruise ship works, right, but on land. You get there, we provide the rest. Camp last year was magical. This is gonna be a million times more organized,

more accommodating, more activities. There'll be a way to have a payment plan instead of having to buy the ticket in one chunk. Karaoke night, yes, we'll be back bigger, sellier. There'll be numerous meet and greets to get a chance to chat it up with Lindsey myself. And yes, the rest of our staff will be there, our in-house suck dungeon staff all weekend as well. And again, more details to come soon. Just want you to please put it on your calendar.

We are swinging for the fences going, going big for this one. This year, hoping to keep it going and build it bigger and bigger going forward. Also, so yeah, very excited for that. Also, the first bad magic productions, donation 2023 is going to the museum of tolerance. Don't have a total amount to give you this very moment because the end of the month is not come. I'll mention that later.

For me as I record this, the Museum of Tolerance is the only museum of its kind in the world. The MOT is dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts. And in front, all forms of prejudice and discrimination in our world today. For more info, you can visit museumoftolerance.com sadly less than eight decades from the horrors of the Holocaust anti-Semitism on the fucking rise again. It's not just athletes like Kanye and Kyrie Irving or conspiracy theorists like David

I or Alex Jones. We have politicians in office right now who have recently spoken at fundraising events put on by known outspoken anti-semite I've been outspoken about rising anti-semitism for years now ever since digging into conspiracies here in this show and Finding out the time and time again They lead back to a core belief in a secret Jewish cabal who want to take over the world even though no such cabal has ever Existed ever and it's dangerous to believe otherwise and just fucking sad the people choose to be that ignorant.

Uh, feels good to donate to this important on profits. So thank you. And that's it. Next week, I'll really start promoting the Burnin' All Down stand up tour kicking off and spoke in and boy see coming up quick. Uh, all right, for the uninitiated, what is Dungeons and Dragons? Well, D&D is a board game of sorts. Set quite literally in Satan's colon.

First thing you have to do if you want to play is master a powerful conjuring spell, along with some basic protection and transmutation spells. You're going to have to conjure bells above. Start the game and you're going to want to be careful when you do so. Oh dear, he will not be happy. He's going to try and eat your soul. He's going to try and eat your soul and then you're you can lose the game and also, you know, you're your soul.

So it's kind of a pretty big bummer if you really think about it, you know, if you get it wrong. To avoid this dreadful fate very quickly, you will need to transmute it yourself and do, I would suggest a powerful little flying ant, something of similar-sized strength, toughness, mobility, get your die rolling hands warmed up, you can need to roll like a champ. Then hopefully once you've given yourself the right rolls and been able to transform, hurry, fly up into Satan's butt hole after tossing a little protection from energy spell in your tiny ant ass, case he tries to swatter, smush you, now quickly push your way into his butt hole, get up on in there, get in the colon, protect it from his stomach acid, you know

and what not by the magic. And then now you turn back into a fucking character class based self and get ready for your quest Now wait no no you should not transmute it actually into an aunt the more I think about it better idea more straight forward Just as you are and use a basic teleportation spell bingo Take you in your entire fucking campaign party into Satan's colon after protecting everyone from stomach acid and whatever nightmares Satan eats with some protection spells of course No, no wait no Dungeon dragons and advanced dungeon dragons primary game played for decades now

It's a it's a board game where you can play almost anywhere except for ridiculous places like inside of evil entities Collins These are board game also loosely. It's a game. You don't they don't have to have a board D&D is set in a medieval fantasy world, which players form a group made of different races, fantasy races outside of the character class of humans, characters or different classes, barbarians, druids, fighters, sorcerers, rangers, etc. All led through the story by the dungeon master who narrates their adventure, their adventure. Players determined how to respond to the events in the game and the success of their

actions are determined by rolling dice. Dice are four sided, six sided, eight sided, ten sided, twelve sided. Most of the choices in the game decided by the infamous 20-sided die. Each player's character class, race, class, strengths, weaknesses, I think I said class-twice, all played in the success of their actions. It's such a great blend of a lot of customization set within a fantasy world full of a lot of rules so everyone knows how to play together. You know, so a lot of rules, but also a lot of room to make your own choices. There's also quite a bit of chance involved with all the dice rolling, but you know, lots of room for strategy and storytelling as well.

It's a very special blend that makes it a very special game. While in the current fifth edition of AD&D, there are 12 different character classes. In the original D&D box set, there were actually only three main classes a character could play. So less choices early on. There was Cleric, Magic User, and Fighting Man. As for races, while there are now nine different races, players could originally choose from four. Human, Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit. Later renamed Halfling. After Tolkien's estate sent out a little cease and desist.

I like the fighting man, character class. I am fighting man! Making picture an old knockoff action figure from the 80s. Like when I was a kid, I loved him and Star Wars and G.I. Joe action figures. That kind of shit was all I wanted for my birthday, for Christmas, for several years. Save up on my lawn mowing money for these figures. I was lucky enough to get a lot of them. My mom did the best she could, right? To spoil us with some gifts, grandparents as well. But sometimes from like a rogue aunt or uncle or you know, second cousin or some shit, sometimes I was lucky honestly looking back to get anything from from I would get a weird cheap knockoff figure instead

There was so many of it like instead of like Chewbacca from Star Wars It might be an unnamed kind of chewy looking creature from a derivative universe called star Raiders For like much less money and said a he-man from masters Universe, it might be an unnamed like shrunken he man kind of mutated he managed looking guy, like shorter weaker, not nearly as smart maybe from galaxy heroes. Instead of Duke from GI Joe, it was Commander Chaos from Commando Force, brought you by Sears.

Not even getting. I am fighting man, watch out for my melee sword. It can cut you badly. And do not think for a moment you can harm me. Your weak weapon device will not get past my defense shield. I can defend any attack with my mighty defense shield. I already have a janky commercial. Uh, worked out for fighting man fight monsters Fighting man loves good guys, fighting man loves maidens Fighting man hates conversation Fighting man has limited emotion, don't ask fighting man question

Fighting man is one dimensional, fighting man lacks true care to death Fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight Hoji D&D possesses a unique traits and abilities, many of which are helpful in the context of dungeonering and combat. Humans are typically the most numerous versatile and culturally diverse elves are graceful, patient and have a connection to nature, dwarves fucking suck. Another short, hardy and bearded, halflings, short stealthy and lucky. Since the first publication, D&D, in 1974, this game has continued to evolve with new rulebooks, modules, and adventures that expand the world and what is possible. 2014 players' handbook, Thith Edition, 5E, launched with a record 9 playable gnome, half-elf, half-orc, and muskrat. The muskrat has not unfortunately been a big hit.

Just not able to do a lot. It's not able to upgrade its defensive abilities, since you can't wear anything but leather armor and still be able to actually move. So small, no more than 4.5 pounds. For most foes, they can literally completely crush it armor or not just by stepping or stomping on it. Also, unable to hold a weapon bigger than a very small dagger and it attacks at a 1-8-9, which means it can literally never land an attack no matter what die you roll. Its arms are just, you know, too short, not built for thrusting, but it can hide

pretty well during some battles because it can stand to water for up to 17 minutes at a time. No, the ninth race is the teafling. Spelled typhling. Why do you fucking do that, guys? Why, why, just spell it teafling? Maybe the tenth race can be a muskrat. Pretty cool if you can win a quest with a couple muskrats in your party.

More important than races or classes, that's the real cornerstone, cornerstone of creating a dungeon dragon's character. RPGs such as dungeon dragons, role playing games are built on engaging and complex characters. Indeed, if you can't have living, breathing, evolving worlds, what's the point? And you gotta have multi-dimensional characters, unique personalities and skills to do that.

Which is why there is now so much more variety in dimension than there was with fighting man, cleric or magic user. RPG classes define characters based on their skills, abilities, personality and nature. It's these categories that make D&D complex and engaging. You can combine different races and classes to make vastly different kinds of characters, often with conflicting abilities and engaging. You can combine different races and classes to make vastly different kinds of characters, often with conflicting abilities and behaviors, just like us regular meat sex. Your character will come from a class that has certain special skills and traits. The main 12 official classes are barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, warlock,

and Wizard. There are now also blood hunters and artificers using some campaigns, but they're not the player's handbook. So they're not official. What's cool about this world is you can customize it so much. You can add your own lore. There's these like a dendum, these accessories, they'll add things if you choose to add them

to the core of what's currently official within the D&D world. You can make up your own character class and race and whatever if you want to get in that deep and everybody in your party agrees to do that might not be official, but the gameplay can be basically the same. You don't have fun, get especially creative. There is not an agreed upon best class, just one that suits your character better. The Barbarian was initially a subclass of the fighter, however, it evolved into a standalone class known for excelling in combat through a combo of fury and force. The Barbarian often less skilled in the fighter, but powerful enough to make the deficit

with, uh, make up the deficit, with overall strength and aggression. Think, think Berserker, or think Conan the Barbarian, huge influence on that character class. Bards are versatile characters that are capable of fighting and using their minds to avoid fighting. The main characteristic of a bard is they have a way with words. Often pretty good with a song. They can turn words in magic spells. Maybe a cleric is right for you. Combining strength and divine magic clerics are masters of healing. Characters in this D&D class can control the undead and have powers over life and death in some cases

Which make them extremely useful in a number of situations Or he can be a monk a skilled fighter with a mystical edge You can see these characters as masters of discipline Interverted not necessarily physically imposing They can be deadly things so their apparent connection to another realm and that can go on and on There are so many options to choose from just maybe don't pick what I think is probably the weakest option. And that is the, the rassler character class from the Russian realms expansion pack. Super good at avoiding arrests, not very good at fighting, unless their opponent is a

child or a small one. Very good at quite a little jerk and soft shame clock. And the father and no one, but that almost never comes in handy, right? Pun not intended, but acknowledged on any quests. Why does Big Deal, I import parts of campaign now, put me in back and there's actually Halfling Key. That promise, nothing bad happened to them. Other than maybe he can stab, so I come.

Fucking Andre Chikotilo, never know what he's gonna jerk his way into an episode. 2023 and he's still wrestling. You can also choose your character's alignment in the original Dungeons and Dragons game from 1974. All characters and monsters are either lawful, neutral or chaotic. AD&D, the trilogy of its core gameplay books, the monster manual, the player's handbook and the dungeon master's guide were published between 1977 and 1979 and introduced a second axis, allowing characters and creatures to additionally be described as good, neutral or evil These two axes, you know have nine independent combinations For certain monsters and other creatures not sapien enough to make decisions based on morality

There's also this tenth, you know, unaligned kind of morality class law and chaos represent the opposing principles of order versus entropy control versus chaos Society versus the individual, and stability versus change. Law and chaos are neither good nor evil, they just simply are. According to former TSR employee Tim Kask, law represents predictability and rational thought. All chaos represents the opposite. As originally conceived, lawful men that you were a creature of habit, not that you were a badge, you could be predicted to react in a familiar way, given a familiar situation time and time

again. You weren't a kinder or an elf who was constantly flitting off, okay? That's chaotic. The personality that can't focus or won't focus on something or you literally have no idea how they're likely to react to any given provocation, even if they reacted one way before, they might react to different way. That is chaotic. All right, so much nuance and thought has gone into this,

right? You can see how immersive and addictive this game can be. To me, the game being so damn complex and immersive, that is where the real danger with D&D or AD&D lies. Right, forget to say, tannic panic concerns, not gonna lose your soul and sense of reality to some dark entity, in my opinion, at all. Instead, maybe worry about simply avoiding too much

of real life because life of your character in the game is way more fun. No fucking bills to worry about, none of the physical limitations you might find in this world, not worried about losing weight or getting your bum shoulder checked out. You know, not sad because so and so doesn't feel the same romantic feelings you feel for them,

not stressed out about your financial future, what you're supposed to do with your life. Now, fuck that. You're your badass half elf ranger named Horan, level 20 motherfucker, 194 hit points. You got a long bow with a plus 13 attack bonus to one die a plus eight damage. You speak five languages. You wear studded leather armor, cool as fuck plus three. Overall armor class of 20 deck, staredia 20 with a plus five bonus, you're in perfect shape, right? And you're fucking around with an elven lover and some dragon-born smoke show.

Yeah, she's kind of a monster. And it scales and horns and shit. But also, such a perfect p-chass. You're crushing it and forgotten realms. Who gives a fuck how you're doing in Milwaukee? Right, this is why I don't play now. These type of games weigh my brain works. I don't really enjoy playing them unless I can devote so many hours to them.

I really get lost in them. When I was a dungeon master, so many moons ago now. Yeah, I'm a fucking nerd, but you knew that. I would spend so much time trying to build out an amazing campaign for characters to fight their way through. I didn't want to just follow a quest directly from the box. Not 100%, I wanted to modify, customize it. Add more monsters, deeper storylines. I could go on. follow a quest directly from the box. Not 100% wanted to modify, customize it. Add more monsters, deeper storylines.

I could go on. If I was playing as a character and I did have a half-elf-ranger name, Horan, level 18, peaked out, not 20. And I wanted to keep going. Keep leveling up more side quests, right? Long-lasting campaigns. Let's get that tragic.

Let's kill another dragon. I wanna draw pictures of my characters. I wanted to make them real. I daydreamed about them a lot. Maybe masturbated to some sexy elf drawings and sometimes pretended I did live in another land and did have an elf lover. Don't you fucking judge me.

I can just get so lost in that shit and it's wonderful. But for some of us, you can kind of get in the way of responsibility's relationships and real people in this room. I've had to literally throw away games in the past because I would just do stuff like pretend to be asleep and sneak out of bed to play something like World of Warcraft in the middle of the night.

Then be exhaust to the next day, but also keep playing. Do shit like skip meals or not shower to squeeze in a little bit more playing time. And I'm not judging you if you play right now, by the way, maybe you're able to exercise a lot more restraint. If you can manage life in this world and have a you know a fucking another life or three or four And in the in the world of fantasy in the world of Dungeons and Dragons

Well, honestly, I'm I'm more jealous of you than anything you lucky bastard Back to moral alignments for a second now Good and evil represent the familiar moral divide of altruism versus harm, kindness versus hatred, mercy versus malevolence. A standard approach is to consider good and evil to be objective, cosmological forces rather than subjective or debatable. Any given creature is either evil or not evil. Best known version of a D&D's alignment system is a 3x3 grid, by showing those nine valid alignment combinations of lawful good, neutral good, chaotic good, lawful neutral, true neutral, chaotic neutral, lawful evil, neutral evil, and chaotic evil. A lawful good character is a protector. The iconic example of a lawful good character is a paladin, holy night, who protects the weak and destroys evil. I had a paladin character, right? Great healing abilities. I remember rightly or wrongly, as the paladin being harder for me to develop kind of shitty at lower levels,

but bad ass at higher levels, you know, peaking around the internet, though, it doesn't seem like a lot of people agree. I would have I would have I would always like try and pair them with like somebody playing like a basic fighter or something that has more abilities in the early levels, more strength, more hit points. Nerds and scoundrels.com, pretty comprehensive gaming and entertainment site, says this, ah, the paladin, covered in armor, swinging a giant sword and even casting spells. There's a lot to like about this class and the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons.

In fact, its subclass options may be the strongest top to bottom of any class. Different kind of good player may have an alignment of chaotic good. This is a character who believes in freedom as the highest virtue. The iconic example of chaotic good is maybe Robin Hood. Right for belling against authorities, a way to protect the poor from poverty and suffering. I feel more of a kinship with chaotic good than lawful good. Lawful neutral character believes in principle and fairness, for example, a judge who treats all fairly and equally would be considered lawful neutral

true neutral character is neutral on both axes cares not for any stance or alignment This is often described somebody who cares only for their own personal needs rather than Neither inclined to hurt nor harm others to obey or rebel So maybe a bit of a sociopath But a sociopath who doesn't go out of their way to harm others, not a sadist, just apathetic to both the success or suffering of others. A chaotic neutral character follows their heart,

but without the willingness of self-sacrifice as a chaotic good character might, great many adventures or chaotic neutral, doing what they wish and rejecting all forms of authority, but also not going out of their way to be horrible fuckers. A lawful evil character is a tyrant. They have no moral qualms about punishing individuals for the supposed greater good of furthering society. Lawful evil villain is often easy to deal with and as they can be trusted to keep their word despite being a piece of shit. A neutral evil character is selfish and has no problem

harming others to get what they want if they can get away with it. A chaotic evil character is malevolent. A villain bent on revenge might be of this alignment where the most powerful lawful evil villains might aim to conquer the world. This might be preferable to their chaotic evil counterparts who just uh who just wanted to destroy it. I read an interesting comment on Quora.com when someone posed the question, what moral alignment was Hitler? And someone answered, while it may be arguable that Hitler himself could have been chaotic or neutral evil, the Nazi regime was very definitely the epitome of lawful evil. I like that.

Yeah, I would say that Hitler leaned towards neutral evil. There was a method to his madness for the most part just a horrible evil method. Many of those who followed him, however, has most devoted followers. They did care about the law, Hitler's law and following that law often had, you know, no problem carrying out blatantly evil actions. Look, look at you, Dr. Mingola. Once you've chosen a race, class, background, alignment, now it's time to get those ability scores. Get those dice warmed up, baby. Time to roll. Following carefully written instructions, you'll roll a six-sided die four times, drop the lowest of the four scores to determine your character's beginning

values for strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligent wisdom and charisma. Your scores and easy areas help determine so many things in conjunction with your race and character class. What kind of spells you can learn learn how likely to be killed you are especially the lower levels? How well you can fight which weapons you're able to handle and not and not? You add all this into an official character sheet. You can just print these out or buy them There's free PDFs all over the web. You also roll dice to determine your starting hit points You'll pick you know like basically your health. You know lose all your hit points, you'll pick, you know, like basically your health, you know, lose all your hit points, you fucking dead, you'll pick weapons, proficiencies, and languages, and armor, speed, and initiative, and more based on character class and race,

and you build this whole complex, real feeling character. And you can give your character a name and backstory to help bring it to life. And all this might sound like way too much effort to just play a game. And for a lot of people it is. If you're looking for something pretty mindless, like Yachtsy or sorry, well, this ain't it. This is not Black Jack or Rummy. This is, this is Ball's Deep.

This takes commitment. This is why some of the characters on Stranger Things would get so pissed when someone tried to back out of a scheduled night to keep a campaign going. Right, the other party members, they've been scheming, Jonesin' for the next battles and objectives all week or longer. This complexity and they can't do it. They don't have the right party. They don't have enough fucking powers. They got to work in conjunction. You need the fighter to do this. You got to have the rogue sneak over here. Do this. You got to have this fucking

wizard come down with these spells. For this coordinated attack and somebody now has a girlfriend and they fuck it up for everybody. Uh, this complexity, this richness, this world building, true escapism is what made D&D massively successful. There was just really nothing like it before. What made D&D a breakthrough innovation in gaming was that it combined two very different ways, uh, thinking about the world. On the one hand, it entailed a preoccupation with mathematical models and rules. The roots of which can be traced back to Prussian officers,

perfecting the science of war with their own early war games. And then on the other hand, it reflected cultural trends of the 60s and 70s, including a recent fascination with history, myth, and fantasy. In particular, the fantasy and myth of the sword and sorcery, subgenre, as well as a renewed appreciation for value,

such as cooperation and imagination. In 1977, Dungeons & Dragons will divide into basic and advanced versions of the game. The Monster Manual was the first book in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons product line, introducing 350 different monsters in the gameplay. I used to love flipping to the Monster Manual, checking out cool illustrations. A year later, 1978, a 128- page hard cover called the players handbook further expanded the world of advanced D&D finally in 1979 TSR released the dungeon master's guide a third and final core advanced dungeon dragons hardcover rulebook to trinity was now complete TSR tactical studies rules incorporated published dungeons and dragons content back when I played until 1977 when Wizards of the Coast purchased the company.

Then after three years of development, they released Dungeons and Dragons third edition in 2000. In the biggest revision of D&D rules to date, this new edition of the game combined the basic and advanced D&D games into one unified game. Right, they've been separate for two decades. New edition also allowed players to customize

their characters in unique ways, introducing skills and feats into character creation. If you know anything about Dungeons and Dragons, then you probably also know that along with its success, the game has had a lot of controversies throughout the years. If you don't buckle up, so much drama. From corporate struggles and so much infighting and fucking lawsuit after lawsuit and the later fear of satanic influence during the satanic panic of the 1980s, D&D has had a complicated and controversial legacy. Thank Nimrod, none of that destroyed it because these games have literally changed thousands.

If not millions of people's lives, for the better, introducing them to their own imaginations, creative potential lifelong friends and teamwork. An example of this is the following letter, which was written by a soldier, US soldier, served in Saudi Arabia. It's part of Operation Desert Shield 1990, published in Dragon, a magazine for Fantasy role playing games. I'm the only person in my six member family, including both parents to graduate from school,

and the only person in my family to graduate from college. I have AD&D games to thank for much of that. I was introduced to gaming when I was 16, when my friends and I discovered that AD&D game. At the time, I was a fairly withdrawn underachiever. Through gaming, I learned that any obstacle can be overcome through some very simple principles. Teamwork, faith in friends, faith in your own abilities, perseverance, and dedication. These principles were buried behind piles of discarded sotocans and empty potato chip bags,

and I learned them while surrounded by loyal friends who faced creatures that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger run in fear. In the meantime, my quote unquote normal peers spent their weekends getting drunk, getting high, taking part in other normal activities by playing this dangerous quote unquote game. My friends and I became adults. Well, hey, I'll Nimrod. I love that. And with that long intro complete, let's dive further in. So how are we going to cover AD&D today? I know we already covered quite a bit.

Part of what makes Dungeons & Dragons so alluring is that it offers near infinite possibilities. Literally hundreds of adventures you can go on. Each of the campaigns can be modified by a DM or people can simply write their own or the DM can write their own, sorry, completely, leading to an infinite number of potential stories and encounters.

It's amazing, but also makes the world of D&D very, very big, too big to cover every addition, supplement, and a two hour podcasts. So what are we gonna do with Dungeons and Dragons here? Well, first we're gonna take a look at a brief history of war games in general. DD&D would be based off of earlier war games. Before looking at some additional important influences of Dungeons and Dragons, the fantasy and sci-fi literature that captivated American audiences in the 1950s and 1960s, when Gary Guy Gaxe would begin developing his fascination with gaming and then actually

developing games that would lead to D&D. Then we'll be diving into a time-suck timeline that Guy, Guy Gaxe would begin developing his fascination with gaming and then actually developing games that would lead to D&D. Then we'll be diving into a time-suck timeline that'll take us through Gary Guy Gaxe's childhood to his development of Dungeons and Dragons and the many innovations and scandals and lawsuit after lawsuit that would follow. Follow me, you trust the SDM, you get the suck dungeon master as we wait into the waters of sword and sorcery RPGs, sneak past litigious monsters hoping to end our quest and Examine the people and creatures who inspired and helped develop this magical world

Might surprise you that war games the kind of games that would lead to the creation of dungeons and dragons are almost as old as warfare warfare itself Uh, surprise me Uh, simple games designed to represent battle existed in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. As early as the 3rd century BCE, Go was created as early as the 4th century BCE, a favorite game of Chinese generals and statesmen. Chess, the classic war game, I forget that it is technically a war game, believed to have originated in the Gupta Empire of Northwest India

way back in the 6th century CE. All of these games were symbolic of war, I think chess, right, with knights and pawns rather than simulating warfare itself. War simulation, what as far as we know, began to emerge in Europe following the Enlightenment in the 19th century. Enlightenment thinkers believed that war like anything else could be understood scientifically and simulated using mathematical models. In Prussia, military officers attempted to make an increasingly accurate simulation of warfare using models to represent all of the factors that determine the outcome of a battle.

This process seems to have begun with Christopher Vaikman, who created an expanded version of chess called Konik Spiel, the King's game, just before the enlightenment in 1664. Vaikman claimed his game. We could furnish anyone who studied it properly, a compendium of the most useful military and political principles. Vaikman's game featured 30 pieces per side, yeah, 30 pieces per side instead of 16. And this was later modified substantially by Johan Christian Ludwig Hellwig, master of the pages for the Duke of Brunswick in 1780. When he created a game called Krieg Speo, literally War Game, played on a board containing no less than 1,666 squares.

There are just 64 on a chess board. And Hellwig's board featured a variety of terrain, had units represent infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Sounds complicated as fuck. Squares were painted different colors to represent different types of terrain. Pieces could move a different number of squares, depending on what type of terrain they were crossing. The pieces represented units, rather than individual soldiers. Hellvig giving created rules to represent entrenchment and the use of pontoons. Reminds me a bit. It's like a much more comprehensive version of the War Game risk. Apparently, some people could understand and play it because in 1798, George Vinturinus Vin Ohmboi.

Vinturinus of Sheldvik. Now expanded on Helvig's game to create new Kriegspeel, new War Game. Reminds me of Fighty Man. Fighty Man Play War Game reminds me of fighting man. Fighting man play War Game. This game expanded the board to 3,600 squares, more than double what Helvin created and featured a rule book that was 60 pages long. Man, War Games revised it again following the Napoleonic Wars in 1811, Prussian, Baron, George, Leopold, Ven, Rice Fitz.

Nobody had fucking short names back then. And his son developed a new game that they called instructions for the representation of tactical maneuvers under the guise of a war game. That is a title. Word economy. Not applied to names back then. Also not master became the naming products that you were trying to market. Right, risk. That is a fucking nice ring to it, one syllable. Instructions for the representation of tactical maneuvers under the guise of a war game. Does not have a nice ring to it. Imagine playing that type of titling logic to say beverages. I had like a 20 ounce artificial sweetener infused, caramel-colored carbonated and caffeinated beverage preserved with potassium sorbet,

long rumored to contain prune juice. So, uh, uh, a doctor pepper then. Yeah, here it is also known by that name. I, however, prefer the original proper title. The Barron's lengthy title, Gamed to introduce many of the elements that came to define modern war gaming as a genre. It did away with the board entirely,

was instead played on a so-called map, consisted of a special table covered in sand. Ceramic models would be placed on the table to represent terrain, not unlike the puter figurines that would later come to represent characters and dungeons and dragons. Ah, the puter figurines. Love to collect those little guys.

Unions were represented by miniature soldiers called the red and blue respectively. Each unit had a different speed so they could move a different distance across the map each turn. Game also featured dice to determine the success of actions and an umpire to adjudicate the outcome. So sort of like a dungeon master. The game was supposed to be mandatory for Prussian officers, but the rules were so fucking

complex and tedious that a lot of officers were very reluctant to play it, or were not able to play it because it was too hard. As you know, guys didn't make the best real life tacticians. In 1876, another Prussian, Colonel Von Verde, von Wau, I believe, sub name. Wait, wait for Colonel fucking Bill Jones, but no, this guy, Von Verdi, fucking what's his nuts, produced a simplified version of this game that removed the dice and delivered more authority to the umpire, who's expected to be a veteran officer who could draw on his own combat experience to determine what the results of each player's action would be.

These early war games would be used for a very different purpose than Dungeons and Dragons. For the Prussian military war games, we're not understood to be an imaginative and immersive escape from reality. On the contrary, the experienced officers gained while playing these games was expected to have immediate application in the real world on the battlefield. Game designers also understood that the more realistic, more detailed, their models of warfare were, the more the simulation would prepare officers for actual combat. In 1870, the militia army of Prussia defeated

the professional army of France and the Prussian success was attributed to war games. And then other Western militaries began to develop similar training exercises. In 1880, Charles Totten, Lieutenant United States Army, developed a war game called Stratagos, not to be confused with the much simpler board game of Stratigo, no S, that would be developed three decades later 1910. I fucking love playing Stratigo as a kid. I don't know what to play now. German inspired war games were introduced to the US Army in the late 19th century and incorporated into the curriculum of the naval war college. But it would still be some time before war games were created for civilian amusement and escapism.

Luminary science fiction writer H.G. Wells was among the first to create an amateur war game. In 1913, he created a game published as a rule book. It had a great abbreviated title and a shitty full title. The abbreviated title is Little Wars. Alright, awesome. The full title is Little Wars, a game for boys of 12 years of age to 150 and four, that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boy games and books.

What the fuck? That is so lengthy and also preposterously sexist, like so much so it feels like satire. Like, are you kidding me? Not only did HG think that it was okay to give this rulebook this title, but then the publisher was also like I had no it's cool. Now that's great. That'll do and then no public outcry. So apparently a lot of parents back in 1913 We're like, no, that feels fair. Who is this game for HG? Boys and men, any and all boys and men 12 years old and older Can girls also play it?

Not most now not most most Most girls being of, of course, female are way too fucking stupid to play this game with their tiny little girl brains. There's too much. Now, most girls couldn't possibly begin to comprehend this game since it doesn't involve tea cups and party dresses and flowers and stuff. I mean, some girls, like, like one in a thousand, the most intelligent girls girls they will be able to kind of understand and and play this game a little bit but of course if they play a boy any boy or man between twelve and 150 that boy or man will fucking destroy them much like how a man would be to cat or a donkey in a game of chess. Unlike the war games meant for military officers little wars was meant to be fun and possibly

even to satisfy impulses that might lead to actual wars, like a combat deterrent. Soon another feature of Dungeon Dragons would emerge into the gaming scene, and that's role plane. Evidence of what may be the earliest transition from war gaming to role plane appeared in the pages of Life magazine in 1941. An article entitled Life Visits the Planet Atsor. Describe 19 year old Frederick Peltin of Lincoln, Nebraska, would organize a club around a fantasy world he called Atsoor.

Each initial member of this club, all whole boys and men, of course. This game required the ability to think complexly. And not just clean dishes and sweep floors. Created a persona who ruled a nation called Atsoor. The group held parties in which attendees would hold court and their personas. Atsoor parties were attended in costume, which generally resembled the dress of European royalty.

They went big on this club eventually expanded to 400 young Nebraska's many of whom and I do find this disgusting morally reprehensible were women and they would play queens and emphasis. And I'm assuming those positions just required them to look pretty and be quiet and have no part in strategizing. And court gatherings usually resulted in declarations of war and battles fought by the fucking men, of course. And they were resolved using miniatures. But at so involved much more than simulated battles. Club members produced at Zorian currency, a passport, a postal system, even a fucking dictionary of the planet's language. So, some mark, oh my god, some mark and dean.

But as much fun as these, no Nebraska nerds were having, this game did not spread like wildfire to other places in the world that had, you know, mortar offer than corn and boredom. And pretty much just corn and boredom. Come on. No, it would take a long time for anything like this, like this game to hit the commercial scene. and uh... and corn and boredom and pretty much is corn and boredom come on no take a long time for anything like this uh... like this game hit the commercial scene

the first commercially successful war game would be tactics designed by Charles Roberts nineteen fifty three not the Charles Roberts we met in the omnisuck who killed five omniscores different chuck bops this fucking chuck is also a railroad story and based on his obsession his obsession with both war gaming and railroad history, most likely an in-sell.

I'm not the only one who thought that. This chuck is sometimes referred to as the father of board war gaming. Tactics pioneered many game mechanics, which became standard in the board war game industry, including the odds ratio, combat results table, and variable movement cost for entering squares. Later hexes containing different types of terrain. Chuck Bob's soul tactics on a male order basis from his home in Canton'sville outside of Baltimore

for six years, selling 2,000 copies and barely breaking even. He later formed the company Avalon Hildo and started publishing both tactics two and then Gettysburg in 1958, a game which players could simulate one of the most storied battles of the Civil War Gettysburg was a huge success and by 1962 Avalan Hill was the fourth largest producer of all adult board games in the United States Good for him Avalan Hill was bought out by Hasboro 1998 Then Wizards of the Coast bought it out in 2004 and then Hasbro bought it out again in 2021. So a nice little success story for old Chuck Pops.

We'll get into Gettysburg a bit more in the timeline. This game will be a major influence on Gary Geigax. Gary Geigax sounds like someone who create D&D too by the way Geigax. Sounds like a forgotten realms term. By the 1960s, a new subculture had formed around war gaming in a variety of countries around the world. There were several magazines now for war gamers. War gaming clubs had begun to appear on numerous college campuses, especially in the US, as with Gettysburg Wargamers turned to military history for new conflicts to simulate.

Where the military games in the 19th century had been attempts to simulate current technology, war gamers created simulations for World War II, the crusades, the campaigns of Roman generals, dedicated groups would arrange series of games known as campaigns in which each battle determined the starting conditions of the next. Though all these concepts sound familiar to contemporary D&D players, Dungeons and Dragons was still years away at this point. The first step in the transition from war games to fantasy role-playing games occurred with an experimental game called Braunstein, hosted by Dave Wesley at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 1968.

Wesley enjoyed war games but disliked their competitive nature because he was a fucking baby, a stupid little baby and I will despise him forever. Now he's fine. He actually got sick of playing with other babies. Too often he felt games degenerated into pointless, unpredictable or unproductive bickering. Another problem was the game's last two for hours and allowed for only two players. So in college war gaming clubs, it was not uncommon at all to see a bunch of bored war gamers sitting around idly,

waiting hour after hour for their chance to play next. Wesley decided to create an entirely new kind of war game. He took a game published in strategy and tactics magazine called the Siege of Boddenberg to use as a springboard for his experiment. The Siege of Boddenberg was designed by Henry, a bodenstead owner, proprietor of a hobby shop in New Jersey. This game was one of the earliest known sets of rules had, you know, has one of the earliest known sets of rules for conducting battles with medieval miniatures.

Sometimes people still play this old game, not often. Most it seems a conventions, you know, like put on little demonstrations of how this game used to be played. It's a relatively simple war game in which an army of knights defends a medieval town against an invading force of Huns. The game called for miniature knights and Huns that could be purchased of course at Bodden's Dead Shop Wesley renamed the town, Bronstein set the siege during the time in Napoleon more importantly He modified the game to include multiple players playing together as well as a referee Building directly off the back of the previous game. This is a common in today's story one game leads to the next to the next to the next and then we arrive at D&D Which keeps you know, you know, just changing and evolving. You know, someone, as with a traditional war game, two of the players assume the role of the French and Prussian commanders, but like with Frederick Peltin and Atsoor, Dave Wesley introduced

more players by allowing them to assume the roles of various parties and bronze team, like the Mayor, the banker, the University Chancellor and others. So a bunch of people could play. When interested in Wesley's experiment attracted 20 people, he found roles for all of them. Each role had its own objectives and goals. Dude must have spent weeks planning all this out. And then it didn't really go well. He didn't think the game quickly became chaotic. Every player announced that they wanted to do something different. Dave had to improvise things.

He didn't expect his game play went on and Wesley walked away from his experiment feeling that it was a failure That the players had taken over the game that the rules he had lovingly and painstakingly created which is fucking trampled So depressed he cut his own ears off and jammed a screwdriver into his ear canals and he walked bleeding badly Into a room with a student union building for early gamers gathered and he just kept screaming never again Will I hear your petty grievances. Never again will I hear your petty grievances as the blood just poured down into his shoulders and then the police showed up and they shot him in the head 368 times and he lived, he was vegetable and he'd become known as Swiss cheesehead, the rest of his shitty life.

It's a fucking crazy story. It's never happened. Now he was just sad. But uh, but everyone else saw it wasn't. Some of the players felt very differently about Bronstein. They enjoyed their chaotic struggle over the town. One particularly enthusiastic player was Dave Arniston. Arniston, excuse me, no tea, a student at the University of Minnesota. He later recalled his experience of the game and uh, and his name will come back up later. He's a big figure in the world of D&D. He said, as a local student leader,

I tried to rally resistance to thwart a French attack. I ended up arrested by the press in general because I was too fanatical. Later on, this beloved nerd will be integral to the team that will develop dungeons and dragons. Hail Dave Wesley and Hail Dave Oneson. The original D&D? Dave and Dave?

No. While Wesley's experiment had failed as a strategy game and a triumph as a role-playing game, even if he didn't see that at first. But within Daisy Wood, his sadness was short-lived and he would create more scenarios, including the game set during the Russian Civil War, another set during the Latin American coup. Local gamers of Minneapolis came to use the term Bronstein, generically to describe this new genre of open-ended war games. Later the same year that Wesley organized Bronstein at the University Bronstein, generically, to describe this new genre of open-ended wargames. Later the same year, the Wesley organized Bronstein at the University of Minnesota, Gary Motherfucking Guy Gags organized the first annual GenCon, a convention for wargamers.

It was held in the Horticultural Hall in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, which Guy Gags rented for 50 bucks for the Gencomes from Geneva. There were 96 attendees just enough to cover the cost. Guy Gax was introduced to the siege of Boddenberg by Jeff Perrin, the owner of a hobby shop in Lake Geneva. Like Wesley, Guy Gax loved the game, immediately said about modifying it. He expanded the rules from four pages to 16. The following year, 1969, Guy Gax and Perrin debuted a new medieval war game in the magazine of the castle uncrucated society calling it chain mail oh fuck yeah bro fighting man here we come fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight and fight and fight. Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, tokens middle earth, hobbits dwarves elves goblins orcs trolls, several varieties of dragons elementals, ball rogues, ants, all these things worked within a particular system.

Like with the old style of war games, there was only limited amount left to chance. Even in the world with magic, everything operated on a logical basis, so players could learn how to repeatedly play the game well. And many did. Immediately people found the game to be a beautiful escape from the real world and a fantastical setting. Many of D&D's early players had come of age in the US during the time of quite a bit of turbulence, right? Marked by the horrors of the modern world, they grown up during World War II, heard and seen the mechanized horrors of the Holocaust, saw how the cold war meant that a single push of a button might send a planet into nuclear winter. It also grown up unlike people from previous generations with a lot of available and detailed

sci-fi and fantasy literature. The first fantasy literature magazine published in English was Weird Tales in 1923. We've heard about this before. Decade later, the father of the sword and sword and sorcery subgenre that would heavily influence Dungeons and Dragons Robert Howard Friend of HP Lovecraft who we met in that suck Conceptualizes Conan the Barbarian and writes 21 stories over the next few years later on other authors will write more stories Thanks largely to these Conan stories becoming more and more popular in the years following Howard's tragic death in 1936 when he sadly took his own life with the age of only 30, by 1950 this type of fantasy had found a large audience,

especially amongst teens and people in the 20s. Thanks largely to J.R.R. Tolkien. Ritton's ages between 1937, when the Hobbit was published in 1949, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings first published in 1954 become a fucking massive success and introduced many of the rings, first published in 1954, become a fucking massive success, and introduce many of the creatures to the world who would later show up in D&D. By 1960s, the Lord and the Rings had become, so wildly popular,

going to sell over 150 million copies. One of those popular novels of all time, and with that popularity, more people were exposed to more of that genre, like the world of Conan, and other sword and sorcery publications. Many of them are exposed for the first time to a 1950s fantasy comic, a variation of putty and juju called putty and jujuts and chennet forest.

And the most popular issue of this hit series putty and jujuts and chennet forest issue number six, bang bang, bap, published in March 1957. The comic begins with putty walking in on Juju, conjuring an air elemental to help keep the cottage floor clean, not understanding how dangerous that was. And Poodie tried to shut it down, young zip it, Juju, and then Juju, not understanding what Poodie was talking about, right, gets annoyed and just yells back, put it in your lunch box, Shirley, as the elemental now shows up, begins completely destroying their cottage, trying to kill them.

They spend the entire right issue, mostly just running and hiding from this entity, a lot of funny shenanigans, finally finding the sorcerer who agrees to banish the elemental in exchange for Pudy and Juju, bringing in milken cookies, fresh baked, daily for a full year. Once the elemental is gone,

Pudy and Juju have nothing left. As they look at the wreckage of their cottage, Pudy says, at least the wizard banished that baddie. And then Juju holding the tattered remains of what was once Juju's favorite toy cries, too little to dinner, Pudy. And that's it, yeah. What an ending. What an episode. What entertainment. Something to that, you know, that single issue influenced the development of Dungeons and Dragons more than the Lord of the Rings. Others think Putin, Jude was made up by me early in the history of Time Suck and there's

not a lot to it and you know it definitely didn't exist when D&D was being developed. You know, it's a big world. There's a lot of beliefs out there, a lot of different beliefs. Anyway, too many of the early chainmail players, people very familiar with all this fantasy literature, the state of modernity was not players, people very familiar with all this fantasy literature, the state of modernity was not defined by knowledge and hope but by alienation and uncertainty. Technology had not produced a utopian society but horrifying weapons, and to escape they turned to a time when battles were fought according to principles.

At least now when you romanticize it, honor, heroism, and with technology that was magical and fanciful. Characters worked together to accomplish their goals not against each other, right? And good, often triumphed. John, a gamer interviewed for an article about D&D that appeared in the magazine, New West in 1980, with some, some of the sentiment up saying, ever since I was 10, I've wanted to drop out of this world. There are so many flaws. A lot of things are unfair. When I'm in my world, I control my own world order. I can picture it all. The groves and trees, the beauty. I can hear the wind. The world

isn't like that. My beliefs, morals, sense of right and wrong are much stronger. It's just playing D&D. Pretty pretty pretty pretty beautiful. Kind of sad. Sad. You hate to spoil that much, but also, you know, there's some beauty there. So how do this fantasy world work? And what were the things that inspired it? Well, let's dive back into British author, J.R. O. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit books. Nothing would influence the Indie more than the works of Tolkien. In particular, the Lord of the Rings.

Right? Lord of the Rings is an epic, high fantasy novel set in middle earth and tended to be earth at some point in the distant past. Story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger book work, not really intended for locates. The title refers to the story's main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other rings of power, given to men, dwarves, and elves

and his campaign to conquer all of Middle-Earth. From the early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early early and his campaign to conquer all of Middle-Earth. From home and beginnings in the Shire, a Hobbit land, reminiscent of the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-Earth, following the quest to destroy the one ring, manate to the eyes of the Hobbits of Frodo, Sam, Mary, and Pippin. When Lord of the Rings went into a pirated, much cheaper than the original published in a, you know,

hardback version, when it went to this cheaper paperback in 1965, millions of American readers now became aware of the book's existence. And how it spoke to a young, disaffected generation who wanted to escape through fanciful adventures and feel like there was still good left in the world to fight for. Gary, one of the biggest nerds in the world of the 1960s, Guy Gex, will be one of these young people. He was 27 and 1965.

The world of Dungeons and Dragons would take many things from the Lord of the Rings including its fictional races Halflings elves half elves dwarfs orcs Rangers and more Rangers being a class not a not a race The resemblance was even closer before the threat of copyright action from Tolkien Enterprises prompting the name changes of Hobbit to Halfling and to Trent Baalrog to Balaure etc According to dangerous games what the moral panic over role-playing game says about play, religion, and imagined worlds,

the lawsuit was headed by Hollywood mogul Saul Zance on behalf of his company, Middle Earth Enterprises. That's what separated Lord of the Rings and D&D a little bit. The success of Lord of the Rings also prompted American publishers to start publishing new science fiction and fantasy, works that would find their way into Dungeons and Dragons. The D&D magic system, for example, in which wizards memorize spells that are used up once cast and have to kind of re-memorize them for the following day, that was heavily influenced

by the dying earth stories written by Jack Vance. Other influences are too many to name, right? They span everything from the book of Genesis to former suck subject and Cthulhu creator, HP Lovecraft to non-Western religious traditions, the prominence of original fantasy religions and D&D as opposed to adaptations of Christian saints and demons can be attributed largely to the influence of a philologist. Don't get to say that word very often named M-A-R Barker. Barker was born in 1929 as Philip Barker. Born just 30 minutes more I sit and record in Spokane, Washington. And like me grew up at a largely in rural Idaho. His next door neighbors were a baske family for part of a childhood. And Barker developed an interest in philology in part because

he was jealous that his neighbors could tell secrets in another language. Philology, by the way, is a branch in knowledge that deals with the structure, historical development, and relationships of language or languages. Barker studied Indian languages in college, and then in 1951, the Smarty Pants received a full-price scholarship to do further research in southern India. During this trip, he converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad, Ab al-Raham Barker. He later explained, I adopted Islam while I was over there for purely theological reasons. It seemed like a more logical religion. He went on to receive a doctor from Berkeley where he wrote his dissertation on Klamath, a vanishing Native American language from Southern Oregon in Northern California.

In 1972, we took a position at the University of Minnesota. It was there that the scholar went full-nured and became very interested in war gaming. Even before discovering war gaming, Barker had developed a fictional world for much of his life. His world was called Tecamel, and he'd imagined an entire history, nations, and social structure for its inhabitants. Like Tolkien, he had used his expertise in philology to even construct new languages for this imaginary world. He went real fucking deep on all this. Where Tolkien was inspired by Celtic mythology and Anglo-Saxon literature, Barker drew on his experience in South Asia as well as in Maloo,

of dark science fiction in the vein of Lovecraft. Tecamella is similar to Earth, but hotter, weather, its climate resembling that of India rather than that of Europe. Millennia Go is terraformed by space-faring humans and their extraterrestrial allies. For a time, Tecamel was home to a utopian civilization which humans live side by side with creatures from other worlds. Then the world won a cataclysm plunging the world into darkness. And while Tolkien shared his fantasy with the world through novels, Barker did so through a role-playing game. Barker sent a manuscript of all this to T.S.R., right? To technical

studies rules. Gary Guy-Gaxx's new company, formed in 1973 for a new game called Empire of the Pedal Throne, set in the world of Tecamel. Barker would self-publish this in 1974, the same year D&D came out, and then TSR would publish a proper box set of this game a year later. Barker's fantasy was infinitely more vivid and rich than the campaign worlds that TSR had already produced. Dave Arnison later declared as far as on concern, Phil Barker's world of techML is the most

original and detailed fantasy world ever published. In 1975, T.S.R. published Barker's game as a variation on D&D, right? Individual dungeon masters from the beginning could combine elements of various games into campaigns, make their own choices. And so very early on, Barker's game found its way into D&D's worlds and subsequent editions borrowed heavily from him, especially from his created religions. Barker's religions featured numerous gods,

elaborate rituals, human sacrifice, a lot of world building. He featured both gods' stability and gods of change. The latter included entities as the five headed Lord of Worms, master of the undead, the green-eyed lady of sins. And they all have actual names that I'm not even going to try to say they're like a Kathulu, right? Better and print than to be read aloud since they're written in a language that's made up.

Barker's fantasy religion, so we're so detailed and convincing that eventually a supplement was produced called the Book of Even Bindings, which describes religions and demonology of Tecamel. Oh, but it's so deep. of even bindings, which describes the religions and demonology of Tecamel. Oh, but it's so deep. Man, while Barker had once just been another fan of T.S.R. and Dungeon Dragons, now he was actively influencing it. This collaborativeness was also something new to the world of games and role playing and people loved it.

But these spaces have limitless possibilities for imagining both the best and the worst of humans and fantasy creatures, tenancies wasn't as attractive to everyone, right? Various parental groups, many of them religious would blame D&D for corrupting the youth, making them live in a dangerous fantasy world, even introducing them to Satanism. Accusations like these would follow D&D for decades, even as the game became more popular and more beloved. People should have been more familiar with it to see that maybe they're mistaken.

These accusations still around, especially as we possibly head into a new era of Satanic panic. Okay, now that all that is set up, time to hop into today's time suck timeline. But first, well, it has nothing to do and we'll learn about Gary Gags' life and the formation of all this and more detail. First, well, it has nothing to do with Dungeon Dragons. I wouldn't feel right not mentioning that Barker, or he just went over, who passed away Minneapolis in 2012 with age of 82, also randomly published an anti-Semitic novel under a student in 1991 that Sherpens Walk, published by a national Vanguard books

part of a neo-Nazi political organization. So not good, he moved to Minneapolis 1972 to teach at the University of Minneapolis, our University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he chaired the Department of South Asian studies and then retired around the same time that he published this Nazi book. So coincidence or pushed out of academia because he went low, Craig, Craig.

Serpent's walk features in alternate history where SS soldiers began an underground resistance after the end of the World War II with their descendants rising up a century later to take over the US with their tactics with the tactics of their enemies quote unquote building their economic muscle and buying into the opinion forming media the book cover the excuse me the back cover of the book states the good guys win Sometimes not always of course they lost big in the Second World War that was a victory for communist Democrats and Jews but everyone else lost a Century after the war they are ready to challenge the Democrats and Jews for the hearts and minds of white Americans. We began to have their fill of government and force multiculturalism and equality. EEEEAK!

Very fucking cringy. And then Barker also went on to become an advocate for Holocaust denial. So how fucking sad his fans were devastated when all this just came out back this March. So seems to have gotten a little carried away with his imagination later in life and started to really see shit that wasn't there and form connections where there weren't any. And really tarnished his legacy. But again, none of that shit went into D&D. It's just a sad example of how even really smart people can do shit that's really fucking stupid.

The weird world, but you knew that. Now let's explore a different weird world, one where there is zero percent Nazis, but a lot of fucking orcs and dragons and such, and quite a few fighting men. In today's Time Suck timeline. Right after today's mid-show sponsor break. Thank you for continuing to support this show so we can have our sponsors, and now it's timeline time for real. Shrap on those boots soldier, we're marching down a time suck timeline. video. The original Dungeons & Dragons, now often referred to as OD&D, was a small box set of three

booklets published in 1974. The company that created and owned the company TSR Incorporate was based in Lake Geneva, it was constant But long before it would become a product It was simply a concept being developed in the basement of the Guy Gaxe family home So let's journey back in time a little bit to get familiar with Guy Gaxe Ernest Gary Guy Gaxe born July 27th 1938 in Chicago, Illinois His father was a 44-year-old Swiss immigrant and Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist, also named Ernest Gary Geigax.

But the violin didn't pay the bills and Ernest got a job as a suit salesman at Rothschild and Co. to make ends meet. Junior would be named after his father of course, but he was commonly known as Gary because his mother loved the actor Gary Cooper. Gary's mom, 31 year old Almina Posey, Burtic, Guy Gaxx, was a maniac obsessed with wanting to fuck Gary Cooper. Yeah, Gary would file several restraining orders against her. She covered the family home and Gary Cooper wallpaper. She covered tables all over the house

with magazines featuring Gary Cooper on the cover. She would only have sex with her husband if he pretended to be Gary Cooper. And being surrounded by all this Gary Cooper bullshit is what would push young Gary into a world of fantasy to escape it. No, I don't think post you like that Gary Cooper that much. She was a housewife. Now on her second marriage, she previously been married to Gary Cooper. No, I'll stop. No, I don't know who she's married to first.

Sources don't say. I do know that she came from a prominent lake Geneva, Wisconsin family and had two children from her previous marriage Nancy and Hugh 11 and nine years older than Gary respectively From his youngest days Gary's mother had a special affection for him. He was a baby the family right reading him stories playing with them and proving his vocabulary As a young boy guy gags live with his family on Kenmore Avenue close enough to wriggly field that he could hear the roar of the crowds watching the cubs play. But the games that Gary loved were not made to the baseball games. They were card games like Pina colin chess. Uh, chess obviously not a card game, but card games like Pina colin also games like chess

where he, uh, he began to play these games. He was five. And for day of playing games, it was customary for his father to tuck him in with fantastic stories of giants and dragons, wise old wizards with magic rings It's a good dad and a young Gary was the apple of both his parents eyes They just seven he became a member of a small group of friends who called themselves the Kenmore pirates And apparently these Kenmore pirates got into quite a bit of trouble for kids at age 1946 the Kenmore pirates were involved in a little little ruckus little fracas

With another gang of young boys at age 1946 the Kenmore pirates were involved in a little little ruckus little fracas with another gang of young boys the opposing gang were from the wealthier north side of Chicago. These are like tiny kids. I love this this is real. This is the family lore and they outnumbered them by more than two to one but that didn't stop low gear bear. He launched himself these bullies as the other Kenmore pirates did the same and just as the fight seemed lost the leader ofmore pirates did the same. And just as the fights seemed lost, the leader of the pirates, Jerry Paul, beamed the other gangs leader in the fucking head with the cement rock knocked him unconscious. And his gang carried him away.

Gary was in bad shape that night when he came home, cut, bruised, closed, torn up. And his parents took one look at him and decided to sell him the head of change. Yeah, I bet. He's doing this at the age of seven. What the hell was he gonna be doing at the age of 17? What's going on here?

His father decided now to move the family to Gary's mother's family home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in between Chicago and Milwaukee, where her family had settled in the early 19th century and where Gary's grandparents still lived. Really pretty town. Over 8,000 full-time residents call Lake Geneva their home, it's a home, it's a resort town, has been for a long time.

In 1968, the late Hugh Heffner built his first playboy resort in Lake Geneva their home, a home, it's a resort town has been for a long time. In 1968, the Lake Hugh Heffner built his first Playboy resort in Lake Geneva. Since late 19th century, Lake Geneva has been home to numerous Lake Front mansions owned by wealthy Chicagoans, the second homes leading to it, leading it to be nicknamed the New Port of the West. Newport is in the wealthy seaside resort city of Newport, Rhode Island. Gary's maternal grandparents, Hugh and Grace Burtick owned a towering six bedroom green and white Victorian home with a generous porch in a chalet-like second-story balcony situated among similar homes at 925 Dodge Street.

It was much better than a small cramped apartment. The guy gaxes lived in Chicago. Gary now had his own room, the first door on the left, the top of the stairs. Gary even had the, the choice of his room. As Nancy, his teenage half sister had recently married, moved out and given birth to a baby boy. So Gary's the only baby boy in the house now. In this new setting, Guy Gack soon makes friends with several of his peers, you know, neighbor

kids, including Don Kay, later co-founder of TSR and Mary Joe Powell, his future wife. Pretty adorable. And he will have quite the quaint idyllic upbringing now. Powell kept up so well with the neighborhood boys that Gary's father often teased her, pretending he thought she was a boy and expressing surprise when she would tell him otherwise. During his childhood and teen years, Gary developed a love of games and appreciation for fantasy and science fiction literature as well as playing Make Believe. At the age of 10, he and his friends played the sort of make believe games that eventually came to be called live action role playing games. With one

of the Macon is a referee. His dad introduced him to science fiction and fantasy pulp novels that would inspire the settings for his role plays and pretty soon Gary was hooked on all this shit. He started developing a miniature war games in 1953 with his buddy Don as teens they designed their own rules for toy soldiers had a large collection of figurines even used lady fingers or small firecrackers to simulate explosions. I mean, they got into this Gary loved sci-fi and fantasy and became enamored with writers like Robert Howard, Jack Vance, Fritz Lieber, Lovecraft, Burrows. What he was not enamored with was school.

He was a mediocre student. In 1956, he dropped out of high school during his junior year and joined the Marines. But after being diagnosed with walk in pneumonia, I returned home, sent back home to live with his mom who had recently lost her husband, Gary's dad. Gary would now commute to a job as a shipping clerk with Kemper Insurance Co. in Chicago. About an hour drive each way, plenty of time to daydream, but all sorts of fantastic shit. Also, around this time, a friend introduced him to

Avalon Hill's new war game, Getty's Burg, that game I mentioned earlier. Getty's Burg was originally published in 1958, the first board war game ever based on a historical battle. Avalon Hill decided to make it because the 100-year anniversary of the Civil War, and it would be groundbreaking, introducing concepts and gaming that would influence creators for years to come. In traditional war games, two players control armies.

Each acting is a sort of abstract commander. As in an actual battle, each game ends with a winner and a loser. But in Gettysburg, war gamers began to experiment with scenarios that involved numerous factions, which might or might not be adversarial towards one another. These experiments in war gaming would later require an impartial referee to mediate between players. Akaaya, a dungeon master, the DM. Gettysburg also innovated the combat results table, which determined the outcome of a clash between individual units in a larger battle. And a combat results table, the attacker and defender typically compare the relative strengths of the units involved in the clash and reduce these numbers to a ratio, which corresponds to a column on a table.

Right, for example, two to one. If the attacker is twice as strong as a defender, let's often the columns may be based on the difference between the combatant strengths, rather than the ratio. For example, three, if an attacker was a strength of five, a tax to defender was a strength of 2. 5-2, 3. Dice roll is then made using one or more dice. That one or more dice, sorry, I always forget the dice is singular. And the resulting number is then cross reference to the table to determine the winner and loser, the results of an individual clash.

Thus Gettysburg used a format that would be essential to D&D later. A combination of chance from the dice rolls and statistics based on player's strengths. Stronger your character, the more likely they are to win in battle, but always a small, element of chance, right? Always a small chance. They can work for you or against you, and that keeps shit interesting. Add so much emotion. You can be saved by a miraculous role or you can be fucked by random chance, which is just how life works, right? You can eat like shit, never exercise,

get really lucky, stay relatively healthy until the age of 95 and then die peacefully in your sleep. The universe rolled an incredible role for you. Or you can eat really well, work out all the time, keep yourself in phenomenal shape, take all the supplements and then randomly stroke out at the age of 42. Probably won't, your lifestyle has increased the odds of you living long, but in the end you just never know. There's always a little bit of chance out there. Universe just might fucking snake at you. Gary became obsessed with Gettysburg, often playing marathon sessions. Once or more a week, then when the game was re-released in 1961 with brand new Hex mapping sheets, sheets that divided aboard in the Hexacons, Hexagons, Gary

ordered some to begin designing his own games Around the time that he discovered Gettysburg Gary would also make a different kind of discovery One that I prefer. I don't know if he did or not His mom reintroduced him to Mary Joe Powell. I married Joe as a childhood friend had left late Geneva as a kid Now just returned and she looked very different No one was confusing her with the boys now. She had these things, what are they called, these things, our chest boobs, she had boobs, glorious memories and hips, hairless of fina. She really was quite beautiful looking at

pictures. Dude was punching way, it was way class with this neighbor buddy and she didn't really care. He played his war games. Not at first. It'll it'll wear on her in time, but not yet. Gary hit the fucking lottery. He was immediately spitin'. Soon asked her to marry him, even though he was just 19. Couldn't I find a source anywhere that definitively lists Mary Jo's age,

but based on them being childhood friends, right, I have to assume she was around 19 herself when I got married. The two would be married September 14th, 1958. And it caused some friction with Gary's buddy Don, his best friend, also smitten with Mary Jo. Everybody was smitten with Mary Jo.

It reminds me so much of Stranger Things in various ways. Don was so hurt, he chose Gary over him, he wouldn't attend the wedding. And then they would reconcile later. The young couple then moved to Chicago where Gary continued working as a shipping clerk at camper insurance. Also found a job for Mary Jo there, but then the company fired her and she became pregnant with her first child back when that was sadly a thing that companies did all the time.

While working, Gary also took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago on top of helping to raise a family, right? Studying cultures to help him build some new worlds later. And he of course found time to keep playing his war games. A lot of war games. He played so much that Mary Jo, when she was pregnant with her second child, thought he was

having an affair, went to a friend's house to confront him, went down into the basement, and then discovered he'd have a bunch of friends, right? Eating snacks, a bunch of fucking nerd dudes sitting around a map cover table where they've been playing for hours. Love it. 1962, Gary, just 22 now gets a job as an insurance underwriter at Fireman's Fund Insurance Company. His family's quickly continuing to grow After the birth of his third child, he decides to move the family back to Lake Geneva where life's a little more manageable

Aside from a few brief stints elsewhere. This will be his home for the rest of his life By 1966 Gary is now a I mean manageable with head family and stuff By 1966 Gary now is especially active in the war game Hobby World and is getting published albeit to small circulation you know outlets writing many magazine articles on the subject of war game war gaming. Now also learns about H. G. Wells little wars book for playing miniature military war games and is able to understand it perfectly since he's older than 12 and has a penis. Also reads Fletcher Pratt's Naval War Game book, one of the most successful naval war games

of the 20th century, first published in 1940. Also busy figuring out how to generate random numbers, not only was six sided dice, but with dice of all shapes and numbers of faces. He discovered some extra sided dice in a school supply catalog. Some tools they used for math exercises. While 20 sided dying particular are now pretty much exclusively associated with D&D,

the earliest one ever found actually dates all the way back to 300 BCE. Roughly around the time of the first soldered, the first soldered companion chronicler, Alexander the Great began the total make dynasty in Egypt. The dye found are in remarkable condition despite the passage of time and display clear numer make dynasty in Egypt. The die found are in remarkable condition despite the passage of time and display clear numerals written in Greek. Second oldest die 20 on record,

traced back to Rome, circa 100 CE. I didn't not have a surprise by that too. 1967 Gaigax co-founded the International Federation of Warmers. I have W with Bill Spear and Scott Duncan. The IFW grew rapidly, particular by assimilating several pre-existing wargaming clubs. I think it's, I guess maybe it's Wormer, and a Warrer's maybe, I think I ought to,

I ought to spell what other fucks called, I ought to correct, fix that, but mess it up. And Andrew Mote, interesting wargames of all periods, and provided a forum for wargamers, via its newsletters and societies, which enabled them to form local groups and share rules. 1967 GuyGax organized a 20 person gaming meet in the basement of his home. This event would later be referred to as GenCon Zero. 1968 GuyGax rented Lake Geneva's Vine covered Horticultural Hall for 50 bucks. We have been doing about $400 now. I mentioned earlier

to hold that first Lake Geneva convention, all snowed as I mentioned, GenCon for short. Still going. It's been held in Indianapolis now since 2003, but an average in over 50,000 attendees, a year, spread out over four days. It's the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. And it would mostly be held in Lake Geneva until out growing the capacity of the venues there following 1977.

It would stay in Wisconsin after that primarily Milwaukee until moving to India in 2003. And anyway, Guy Gax met Dave Arnison, the future co-creator of D&D at the second Gen Con in Lake Geneva in August 1969. Together with Don Kay, Mike Reese, and Leon Tucker, Guy Gaxx created a military miniature society called Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association, the following year in 1970, with its first headquarters in Guy Gaxx's basement. And all these big lofty names, a lot of these groups would fade out for a few years, and they had a handful of members. Late in October of 1970, Guy Gaxx loses his job at the insurance company after almost nine

years, unemployed now with a family of five kids,, earnest, Ernie, Lucien, aka Luke Heidi Cindy, and at least he tries to use his enthusiasm for games to make a living by designing board games for commercial sale. He fucking goes for it. Now we're never, hail them, Rod. But in 1971, he'll only make $882 equivalent to less than $6,000 in 2021 terms as the Calculation happened to use for this nowhere near enough to support a large family

So now so fucking random he begins cobbling shoes in his basement Which actually provides him a steady income and gives him more time for pursuing his interest in game development Shoes in the base no idea where that came from it does does not say in sources that is such an odd choice to me. Listen, I just never would have guessed that. So random, like if you'd asked me Gary Guy Gaxx did what in 1971 to make extra money to support his family after losing his job. And if you gave me unlimited guesses,

I don't think I would guess cobbling, shoes, and his basement in the first, probably thousand or even five thousand tries. I would guess all kinds of crazy shit before basement, shoe cobbling shoes in his basement in the first probably thousand or even five thousand tries. I would guess all kinds of crazy shit before basement shoe cobbling. Kai traffic control supervisor. No, okay. Pet massager. No.

Dominatrix. Small monkey breeder. Large monkey breeder. Wizard staff, sander. Wizard staff, refurbisher, customer service agent at a boomerang factory. What the fuck did you do? 1971 Gary began doing some editing work.

Now he's taking a little time away from basement shoe cobbling to work for Guy Don Games, which published war games at a Evanson, Indiana. Gary would transition from editing to producing the board games Alexander the Great and Dunn Kirk, the Battle of France. And now he felt it was this time to make his own war game. 1971 Gary would publish Chain Mail, a miniature war game that simulated medieval aerotechnical combat, which he'd originally co-written with local Lake Geneva hobby shop owner Jeff Perrin.

So let's fucking go! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fanzine, the Doomsday book. And this might be my favorite part of this episode. Right? This, this sounds pretty cool. The castle and crusade societies, fanzine. The, actually,

it's not the Doomsday. It's the Doomsday, all these fucking weird variations, the Doomsday book where my mind wants to like transition to a more familiar word. And I think about 20 people read this Doomsday book. And I'm not just, you know what, I'm so sorry. I, these little things that auto corrected and catch and my brain didn't catch until of course I recorded the episode, it is the Domes Day book. I was like Domes Day, it is a Domes Day book. And I think about 20 people read it and not talking shit.

To say that circulation was small for this thing is such an understatement. The first two Domomsday book issues published in 1970 are exactly one page each, a page, not even like the backside of the page. So not exactly books, not even pamphlets. I think flyer, like the kind of shit you might find under a windshield instead of in a bookstore is more appropriate. And they did not print many of these pages as of the third doomsday book,

the membership had increased to nine people. Nine, not 90, not 900 or 9,000, nine. Basically odds are that at whatever holiday get together, you went to this past holiday season. If you would have brought a few hundred words or whatever you decided to write about, that you printed on the sheet of paper at home, and then you handed that sheet of paper to some cousins and aunts and uncles and family friends before they dug into some fucking cheesy potatoes with the corn flakes on top or some sugar cookies. You would have had a more successful publishing history

than the early days of the Doomsday book. Talk about humble beginnings. Guide on games now hired guy gags. I imagine they never paid him much in this early period. He and Mary Jo had to have been scraped and bi with some family help, maybe doing a lot of late night shoe cobbling or something to keep their five kids fed. To produce a war game with miniature series of games and a new addition of chainmail with the first book in the series.

The first addition of chainmail included a fantasy supplement to the rules. This comprised a system for warriors, fighting men, wizards, various monsters of non-human races, drama for the works of Tolkien and other sources. For a small publisher like Guide on Games, Chainmail was a pretty big success. This old 100 copies a month. Now Gary starts working on all kinds of other games. He collaborates on Tractics with Mike Reese and Leon Tucker. And his contribution began being the change to a 20 sided spinner or a coffee can with 20 numbered poker chips

Eventually transitioning to 20 sided die to decide combat resolutions instead of the standard six sided die also clad with Dave Arnison on the Napoleonic naval war game don't give up the ship On the fall of 1972 around late November Dave Arnison and his friend Dave McGarry, inventor of the dungeon board game, traveled to late Geneva to showcase their respective games to Gary, who's now representative of Guide on Games. And Gary saw potential in both games, but especially was excited by Arnison's role-playing game. Gary and Arnison immediately started to collaborate on creating what they first just called the fantasy game, the role-playing game that would evolve into dungeons and dragons. Initially, there were only three types of characters, right? The players could role play as we

talked about. The fighting man, magic user, and clerics, this religious class. The game also included an experience system from Artisans Blackmore campaign, which characters could level up. After successful adventures, aka quests, or a series of quests a campaign There was no way to win the game the continued development of characters became the closest thing the game had to any sort of objective Just two weeks after the initial meeting Gary had produced a 50 page set of rules 50 pages and was ready to try it on his two Oldest kids earning a lease and a setting he called Greyhawk This group of players rapidly expanded to include Don Kay, Rob Cunts, or Coons, Rob Cunts, Rob Cunts, Rob Coons, and eventually larger circle. It was Guy Gaxx who decided on a name he wanted to continue a pattern of paired

nouns already used in the castle and crusade society and cavaliers and round heads. Oh boy, these lengthy terms. He drew up two columns of titles. He drew up two columns of words that included men, magic monsters, treasure, underworld, wilderness, castles, dragons, dungeons, giants, labyrinths, mazes, sorcery, spells, swords, trolls, and so on. Then he ran various combination of words, and he ended up deciding on dungeons and dragons because the eliteration police is then two year old daughter Cindy that is adorable. Gary also sent the 50 pages of rules to his wargaming

context asked to play test this new game. Gary and Arnison would continue to trade notes about the respective campaigns seem what worked what didn't. Despite their partnership, it was Gary who had final say the last draft would include details that weren't ever vetted by Dave Arnison. Based on the feedback he received, Guy Gaxx now created a 150 page revision of the rules

by mid 1973. He got to be dedicated to play this. Several aspects of the system governing magic in the game were inspired by the dying earth stories of fantasy author Jack Vance. Right? Noticeably, as I went over before, that fact that magic users would forget their spells

and have to relearn the next day. He based systems of magic and settings and all kinds of authors, many of whom he'd first been introduced to, uh, two in his childhood. And finally, he was ready to pitch this game. Gary asked guide on games to publish it. And they told him to suck their dicks. And he was like, what? Excuse me?

And then they just said it slower. Suck our dicks, Gary. Uh, they didn't, of course, say that, but they did turn him down. The massive three volume rule set in a labeled box was beyond the scope of that small publisher, which is too many pages. So then Gary attempts to pitch the game to Avalon Hill, but the largest company in war gaming does not understand his new concept of role playing, and they turned down his offer. They say it even slower suck our DX Gary now, you could have given up now a lot of people would have but he didn't know when in the small gaming world

Had any interest in publishing the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons. He didn't understand it So Gary again with five kids and very little cash bets on himself and fucking goes for it Hail Nimrod. He takes a big risk, but he takes a calculated risk Gary was confident his game would be popular because he had product tested it extensively on himself and fucking goes for it. Hail Nimrod. He takes a big risk, but he takes a calculator risk. Gary was confident his game would be popular because he had product tested it extensively. By 1974, Gary's Greyhawk group, which he started off with himself, right?

Ernie Guy-Gax, Don Kay. Sorry, yes, what happens to give his name there? Oh no, son. Rob Coons, Terry Coons, it had grown to over 20 people. With Rob Coons becoming the co-dunge of masters, so that each of them could referee groups to of only a dozen players and these groups fucking loved it How cool to think they're very likely a bunch these people still around today, right? They were the first the first D&D players the first dungeon masters And I'll back up this little bit 1973 Gary leaves guide on games that October and he founded tactical studies rules incorporated later known as TSR Inc

With his old buddy Don Kay the two men each invested a thousand bucks in the venture K head to borrow his share on his fucking life insurance policy to print the first thousand copies of Dungeons & Dragons the first box set Which were assembled in K's dining room? Gary and Don tried to raise additional money for D&D by immediately publishing a set of war game rules called Cavaliers and Roundheads, but sales were poor. Then when the printing cost for the thousand copies of D&D rose from 2000 to 2500, they didn't have enough capital to publish it.

Gary just did not have another $500 to spare. That's the equivalent of about $3,000 today. And I wonder how often he would later think about how he should have tried to do anything he could to figure out how to borrow that money from somebody who didn't wanna be an investor in his company because what he will do instead will lead to so much pain later on

and the loss of so much future revenue. Worried that other play testers and war gamers, now familiar with Gary's rules, would bring a similar product to the market first. The two accepted an offer in December of 1973 by Gameplay and Equaintons, Brian Bloom, for him to invest 2,000 into TSR to become an equal one-third partner. Best investment of Brian's life, worst business move in a sense, and Gary's life. But at the time, it seemed like

a perfect move. Bloom's investment finally brings the financing that enables them to publish D&D. The first commercial version of D&D would be released in January of 1974 as a box set put together in a Gary's basement now. Gary's basement also dons a dining room with a very limited production budget of only $2,000 with only exactly 100 budget for our work. It was amateurish in production and assumed the player was familiar with war gaming. The box also contained a list of equipment, a lot of equipment that was not included, but necessary to play the game, which is absurd. It said, Dungeon Dragons, you have it.

Outdoor Survival, a game available from the Avalon Hill Company used to play travel across the wilderness. Dice, the following different kinds of dice are available. You don't get them, but they're available from TSR. One pair, four- die, dice, uh, one pair, 20 sided dice, one pair, eight sided, actually, it should say die. But this is the way they run it. One pair, 12 sided die, four to 20 pairs, six sided die. Chain mail miniature rules available from T SR hobbies. Other supplies, one three-ring notebook for the referee and each player, graph paper, six lines per inch is best, sheet protectors, the heaviest possible, three ring lined paper, drafted equipment and colored pencils, scratch paper and pencils, imagination, one patient referee.

I mean, last couple are just pretty cute there, but I laughed out loud so hard when I first came across his info, because that's so ridiculous. Like can you imagine buying a game today, or even better, getting one as a gift, and then you open up to play and realize you need to buy about 10 other things to actually play the game. It's like opening up a fucking monopoly box and inside there's a rule book and the community chest cards and like the top hat. That's it. And then just a sheet of paper telling you where you can go to buy the board, the chance

cards, the fake cash, the die, right, the dice, the houses, the hotels, the other figurines. You buy a $20 game and immediately read about how you have to buy $80 worth of extra shit to actually play it. As you can imagine, the first edition was not a monumental success, but it was successful enough to push things forward. In addition to not having so much shit necessary for gameplay, by all accounts, the game was hopelessly confusing for anyone who'd not already have a detailed knowledge of war gaming. There was also no money for marketing, it advertised the game by word of mouth. It took 11 months to sell the first 1,000 copies, but they sold it.

Despite these problems, the core idea, while rough, was so damn good for hardcore gamers that the game became popular in that world. Mimigraph copies of D&D, Mimigraph's being like an old fashioned coffee machines basically began circulating around college campuses, right, new versions of the game. GuyGax began to receive letters

and you receive phone calls sometimes late at night. I ask him for clarifications about the rules. I love that his fucking home phone number is accessible to a lot of people playing this game. The game also became popular in the military, the cultural birthplace of war gaming and American servicemen spread D&D to Europe. So in the British company, Games Workshop became D&D's first European importer.

After an initial slow start, it grew quickly in popularity. Roughly a thousand copies of the game right sold in the first year, followed by 3,000 the next year in 1975, and many more in subsequent following years. In 2018, a first printing of the box set in near-minnd condition sold at auction for more than $20,000. I bet that thing would go for more than $30,000 today. Despite the first 1,000 copies selling out, you know, that first year, an early tragedy was looming.

It could have crushed things. At the end of 1974, the future was looking bright, right? For Guy Gax and Kay, both only 36 long-time friends. However, in January of 1975, Kay unexpectedly dies of a heart attack. So young to die of a heart attack that is terrifying. And he had not made any specific provision in his will regarding his one third share of the company, simply leaving his entire state to his wife Donna, right in the sucks. Cause now two of the three investing partners and D&D don't know fuck all about Gary's game.

Although she had worked briefly for TSR as an accountant, she had not shared her husband's enthusiasm for gaming at all. Didn't like it, in fact, made it clear she would not be having anything to do with managing the company. Not only had Gary lost a friend in a business partner and a collaborator, he'd had all that replaced

with someone who didn't give a fuck about his new baby that he had dumped all his family's money into. Gary will later describe Donna as less than personable. Feels like a diplomatic way of saying she was a bitch. He added, after Don died, she dumped all the tactical studies rules, materials off on my front porch. Damn. What have been impossible to manage a business with her and involved as a partner? Yee. After K's death, T.S.R. was forced to relocate from being spread between the two homes to all in Gary's basement. In July of 1975, Guy Gax and Bloom reorganized the company from a partnership to a corporation

called T.S.R. Hobbies. Guy Gax owns 150 shares. Bloom owns the other 100 shares, both have the option to buy up to 700 shares additionally at any time in the future. But T.S.R. Hobbies has nothing to publish. D.N.D. is still owned by the three-way partnership of T.S.R. and neither Guy Gax nor Bloom have the money to buy out the shares owned by K's wife. Bloom now persuades a reluctant Guy Gax to allow his father, Melvin Bloom, to buy Donna shares. And those are converted to 200 shares in TSR hobbies. It's all getting convoluted.

In addition, Brian buys another 140 shares and this fucks care bear because these purchases reduce guy gags from the majority shareholder and control of his company to a minority shareholder. He effectively, effectively becomes the blooms employee, uh, an employee of the company that he fucking founded a company making money off the game. He co-created with Dave Arnison. Ain't that a bitch. This hurts me. I would not love being a minority shareholder in bad magic productions.

That's not makes me stick to my stomach. I just burn in the midnight oil to give most of the money to some randoms who don't even fucking care about it, who just threw some investment money at it. People who could technically kick me out and replace me at any point. Nevertheless, Guy Gaxx keeps working on all this. He loves it. He goes on to write some supplements for the original D&D game, creates a magazine called the Strategic Review,

becomes his editor, then changes that magazine to the fantasy periodical, the Dragon, which debuted in June of 1976. Also in 1976, T.S.R. moves out of Guy Gaxx's house into its first professional home known as the dungeon hobby shop Sounds kind of like the suck dungeon I don't think I knew about that. I liked that little Association D&D co-creator Dave Arnison now hired as part of the creative staff

But was let go after only 10 months guy gax and Arnison have some had some creative differences over D&D But as the co-creator of D&D, Arnocen entitled to lucrative royalties. So now Guy Gax, a minority shareholder in the company he built, continues to build, and has to give another big cut of future royalties on new additions he develops to someone he's no longer working with. So trying to avoid some of this mess, Guy Gax makes some minor changes and begins calling some new products advanced dungeons and drageths, AD&D. TSR continues to describe all of its new products as advanced in order to avoid continuing

to pay royalties to Arnison for these future versions. I had no idea that was the real motivation to go from D&D to AD&D. But then Arnison will sue TSR on five separate occasions going forward to get his royalties. So much drama. Early 1977, TSR creates the first element of a troop of a two-pronged strategy that will divide D&D for about two decades. A Dungeons & Dragons basic set box edition was introduced that cleaned up the presentation of the essential rules, made the system understandable to the general public, and was sold in a package that could be stocked in toy stores.

Later 1977, the first part of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, AD&D, was published, which brought together the various published rules, options, and corrections that expanded them into a definitive, unified game for hobbyist gamers. TSR marketed these two systems as an introductory game for new players, and then a more complex game for experienced players. The basic set directed players who exhausted the possibilities of that game to switch to AD&D. As a result of this parallel development, the basic game included many rules and concepts which contradicted comparable ones in AD&D.

John Erikaum is the editor of the basic game preferred a lighter tone with more room for personal improvisation. AD&D on the other hand was designed to create a tighter, more structured game system than the loose framework of the original game. Between 77 and 79, three hardcover rule books commonly referred to as the core rule books were released. The player's handbook is a, I mentioned earlier the Dungeon Master's Guide in the Monster Manual. 1977 supplement Eldrick Wizardry introduced further religious elements into the game, in addition to a new Druid character class. This supplement introduced demons for the first time and real demons, which dramatically increased the price of the game.

Getting to go on a campaign, excuse me, against the actual Valkyrie, well, that's going to set you back about 10 grand. Very hard to conjure and trap inside of a box set. And then you can only play with Valkyrie for one campaign, right? You're going to fight him and you're either going to either get box set. And then you can only play with VLOG for one campaign, right? You're gonna fight him and you're either gonna either get possessed and he to fucking destroys you or you're gonna send you back to hell and get so much fucking experience points, right? You're gonna level up at least three levels. So kind of a risk worth taking in my opinion. For real now, rules were provided for a demon prince named Orcas, the name of Roman God of death

referenced in Virgals, Anid, another demon prince is named the Demagorgan. Might sound familiar, that's the name that appears in several early modern and romantic narratives and in the hit Netflix series, Stranger Things. Did you know that name actually comes from an ancient copywriter completely misreading something? I love that. Art historian, John Ceznic once said that Demigorgan is a grammatical error become God. Also in 1977, T.S.R. is sued by someone else now, Hollywood mogul,

Saul Zance, Shobius, who had acquired certain rights to Tolkien's works the year before. Zance claimed the terms such as dragon, orc, and elf were all protected and demanded a million dollars in damages. TSR settles out of court and dnd creatures that were clearly derivative of Tolkien such as hobbits, ants and ball rogues are renamed halflings, trance, baller, I can't, my tongue has died and baller demons. And get the fuck out here with dragons, Tolkien didn't come up with that. Saul Zance was maybe a huge fucking asshole. He sued John Foggedy from Creedence Clearwater Revival claiming John plagiarized himself after Saul owned the rights to some of John's

earlier recordings. He lost this and several other similarly shitty lawsuits. Excuse me. Throughout his career, he was a very wealthy man who seemed to use his money to bully people. I do get what he did here with T. with TSR, I understand why he didn't just let a growing gaming company rip off a lot of token creatures, but he also once forced a small pub called the Hobbit in Southampton, England to change his name right after he acquired the rights to tokens works. Little pub had been known as the Hobbit for two decades. They weren't franchising out, weren't expanding.

They just like the Hobbit. By March 1979, despite having to change around a bunch of, a change around a bunch of monster names, TSR is now selling 7,000 copies of the D&D basic set each month to an estimated 300,000 players, you know, buying other supplements and stuff. Few months later, July 11th, 1979, TSR gets some press that will start to plant the seed

and a lot of people's minds at this game is evil. Now we get a little less nerdy, a little more mainstream in the suck, little more interesting probably for many. The LA time is published in article called Simply Dungeons and Dragons. While the article was not intended as an attack on D&D, it described children losing interest in ordinary activities,

suffering from depression after their characters die, and hoping for spells that will bring back to dead. And also had unusual sexual references, noting that monsters may spare characters with high charisma, so that they can impose their romantic or sexual wills upon them, and that one player's character is a slightly gay cleric. Alright, weird. Significantly, the article explains that the player who is the dungeon master functions

as a cross between God and a psychologist, analyzing player's character's abilities and giving each as much challenge as tolerable. At his whim, the dungeon master can easily have players killed off or just as easily allow them to advance with little difficulty. Just a month later, the public would be led to believe that the prediction had literally come true about, you know, the kind of stuff noted in this article. So here we fucking go. Cue some some satanic panic and the, uh, same type of fear that was around back during the Salem witch trials. On August 15th, 1970, Michigan State University student,

James Dallas Egbert III, allegedly disappeared into the school steam tunnels while playing a live action version of D&D. It was last seen in the tunnels in the center of a pentagram where a dark entity turned into a black mist, swirled its way into his mouth inside of his body. His eyes now went totally black. Then he levitated several feet into the air and screamed, I will end all light. I will cover the world in absolute horror and doctorous. I do as you command Satan my lord. Now, jk, he didn't say that. He was 16,

was allegedly a child prodigy. He had a high IQ, was said to have been repairing computers for the Air Force, the age of 12, following his disappearance and note was found in his dorm room. The red template to whom I may concern, should my body be found, I wish to be cremated. His parents James and Anna Eggbert offered a $5,000 reward for any info leading his recovery. On August 22nd, Dallas's uncle hires private investigator, William Deer, Bill Deer, not a fan of this guy. Former Florida highway patrolman and huge fucking tools you're about to find out, Deer

honed in on Dallas's interest in D&D and constructed a highly imaginative scenario in which Dallas had become the victim of this fantasy world. Deer arrived at the MSU campus with a five-man team of investigators, one of the first clues discovered by Deer was a corkboard in James's room. Nothing was affixed to the board except for 38 white and blue pushpins and thumbtacks. Most of the pins were in an apparently random pattern, but some had been arranged into a rectangular shape that kind of sort of not really vaguely resembled a handcut. Deere became obsessed with the significance of this corkboard and was certain it had some

sort of code that would lead to Dallas's whereabouts. He had members of his team fly over MSU and a plane to see if the buildings resembled the shape formed by the pushpins, photos of the corkboard were sent to TSR for analysis, why sent to TSR because Deer believed that James had been playing Dungeons and Dragons a lot in an elaborate network of steam tunnels beneath the campus. And the network of steam tunnels did actually exist. According to many there at the time,

students would explore the tunnels or even use them to move between buildings on cold days. And sometimes groups of students would organize live action fantasy role playing games in these tunnels. Which to me actually sounds pretty fucking badass. I mean, I wish I had access to a big set of tunnels like that We really put me in the mood to work on scared to death

While conducting its own exploration of the steam tunnels deers team found graffiti that read this way to middle earth And even a sort of tablo of a mannequin seated at a table that had been built in an empty chamber. I like it like how weird is Well dear learned of James's interest in D&D and hypothesized that he had disappeared into the same tunnels to play a new and more immersive form of D&D and then never returned. And he still might be somewhere in the tunnel still alive. James he suggested was undergoing some kind of psychotic break and when she becomes so engrossed in his role that his identities of college student have been completely forgotten. And he's pulling all of this out of his ass by the way. He would later explain to his memoir.

James might actually have begun to live this game, not just to play it. Dungeons and Dragons could have absorbed him so much that his mind had slipped through the fragile barrier between reality and fantasy. Isn't that fragile? And he no longer existed in the world we inhabit. At one point he even suggested that a mysterious dungeon master might have warped Alice's mind. It was now using him as a bait to lure investigators into his mad game. Ah, right, buddy. Calm

the fuck down. There is a logic to what he's saying about getting lost in the game somewhat, but now he's acting like the dungeon master is some kind of fucking comic book supervillain or some kind of actual sorcerer, right? It's a real life, not a comic book, not a movie. Deer would even launch a crackpot investigation by offering a student $50 to visit him at his motel and play a game of D&D. He added his memoir, $60 if the game is a good one. The student did show up with a friend.

The three of them played a short game with one dungeon master, two players. Even though the game only lasted a little while, you know, just like no more than a couple hours because the DM got frustrated with the two players constantly stealing from each other instead of cooperating. Deer was convinced he had gotten insight into James' psyche. Later while describing his exploration of the tunnels, Deer remarked, being the tunnel was similar to that game of Dungeons and Dragons I had played in my motel room.

For me, that game had been exciting enough because my imagination is a good one. But maybe if I had played the game more, I would have wanted more. These tunnels were practically guaranteed to set your imagination racing, but you didn't need an imagination down here. Regardless of how crackpot this whole investigation was, history caught fire, newspapers across the country ran headlines such as, game cultist, still missing. Dungeons and Dragons cult may lead to missing boy,

and fantasy turned real life may have killed student, right? It's a deadly cult now, cult, cult, cult. Same people who think Dungeons and Dragons is a cult. I feel like are the people who think rock and roll is influenced by the devil. And the people who burn books, right? It's just scared, paranoid. It's kind of sad people who cause so much unnecessary harm

in paying in chaos by refusing just to get a little bit out of their own ill-informed way and improve themselves and their minds. You know, find out what they're talking about, like learn a little bit about. You know, to me, they're the version of the kind of person who hates foreigners, but has never traveled.

Doesn't meet any. Like, when you're afraid of something, you don't understand, I don't know, maybe try to understand it. Instead of just demonizing it and avoiding it. I have to remind myself of this sometimes. Interestingly, while James did have an interest in D&D, he had never actually participated in any games

at Michigan State University. Right, like he was like, curious about it, like a lot of people never played. He did, however, have a large number of social, mental, and emotional problems before his disappearance. James felt immense pressure from his parents to perform academically. Remember, he's pretty young. Also a member of MSU's gay council, who was apparently struggling, trying to come to

terms with his own sexual identity, also suffer from epilepsy and would occasionally have seizures. And allegedly, he manufactured PCP, uh, like, you know, made his own PCP and other dangerous substances and got high in his own supply. So maybe the homemade PCP and sexual identity struggle and academic pressure and fucking seizures had a little bit more to do with his disappearance than dungeons and dragons. Uh, after all the crazy D&D press around the country about this, James would then be found. And by his own admission, his disappearance had literally nothing to do with gaming. Turns out on the night of his disappearance, James did enter that network of tunnels underneath the university.

He had brought, uh, with him a bottle of quailudes, with an intent to end his life. But then he survived that suicide attempt, right? woke up, walked the fuck out of the tunnels, went into hiding in a friend's house, then continued to travel for several several weeks, staying with the quainzes, many of whom he had met through the gay community, eventually ending up in New Orleans, where he again attempts to poison himself. And for a second suicide attempt, which he again survives, he contacts his family, and then Deer is sent to collect him in Morgan City, Louisiana on September 13th. James' month-long disappearance was more than enough time for the media to create a huge

story about the dangers of D&D. Deer would then make a statement to the press that Dallas' disappearance had not actually been related to D&D, but that retraction received nowhere near the attention the original headlines had. Right? Because that's the way it works. Everyone reads the headlines almost no one reads the retraction. All this still doesn't stop deer from telling the story how he wants later. He will later back pedal on his retraction because he was a fucking weasel. In his memoir, the dungeon master, deer still cast himself as a compassionate hero on a quest to save a vulnerable child genius from a web of destructive fantasy, even though he knew that had nothing to do with any of this.

Dear is a piece of shit knowingly, erroneously, defaming D&D to try and sell a memoir and no one would fucking buy otherwise. He would even begin the book with a blatantly made up story about he saved a child from a cult, writing, once Dick and I recovered a child from religious cult that had kidnapped her in eerie Pennsylvania. We put our helicopter down in an empty school yard, how dramatic. And got the girl, but then we had to deal with armed cult members. Okay.

I handed the child to Dick and told him to run for the copter, and I saw the struggle of loyalties in his face. Oh, cuz the cult almost fucking sucked him out, I guess. He didn't explain ever what cult this was that he heroically fought off single handedly with it getting into a chopper no less or why there was zero press coverage ever about this story because it never fucking happened he did introduce a character named dick into this suck which I am happy about our streak continues yeah yeah I actually don't know how many sucks in a row now I've had a character named dick show up, but it feels like someone around a hundred

William Deer might still be a PI by the way. He's 85 years old now based in Dallas, Texas has an active website social media channels But no post establishing him working on anything for sure currently Also a candidate for governor Candid for Texas governor at the 2010 Texas Democratic primary of course. He's also a politician at the 2010 Texas Democratic primary. Of course, he's also a politician. Uh, this dipshit would go on to tell his version of James's story, the, the bullshit one that put D&D in the center for years and years and years and years. And telling the story, Deer built on a decades worth of anxieties about young people being preyed on, brainwashed by Colts and other subversive forces. Deer speculations and musings also helped to establish the two

key players in this tableau, the gamer as a gifted but vulnerable youth and the dungeon master as sinister cult leader. Together, these two figures of player and dungeon master convert and cult leader provide the crucial ingredients cited by noted and now deceased UK sociologist Stanley Cohen for creating a moral panic, a suitable victim and a suitable scapegoat. The very title of Deer's book, The Dungeon Master, serves to frame the dungeon master as something far more significant than a role in a game. For instance, Deer claims he met a gamer who once told him, you must remember that the dungeon master, although supposedly an impartial arbiter, can abuse his position

and take on the status of God. He can do whatever he wants. If the dungeon master believes that a particular character is weak, he can send that character off on his own, not just in the game, not just in his head. He can send him on a real mission. Eh, you have to prove your worthy to play with us,

the DM might say, you have to show your medal. I have a mission that you must complete. Now, fuck off, this guy's so full of shit, this conversation never happened. Back when I was a dungeon master I said maybe two players to go sacrifice some pets. To the Dark Lord to prove their metal. And that's how I framed it, exactly two. Because that is how D&D players talk.

I need you to show me your metal. D&D is mostly about metal. Are you a fighting man with plenty of metal? Or are you a metal man with plenty of metal? Or are you a metalist poopy diaper baby boy? The story, this completely fabricated story written by Moron became the master narrative about the dangers of fantasy role playing games.

Even though James' own family would publicly say that the book didn't reflect what happened at all in the investigation. Sadly, James enrolled in a new college after returning home, but in August of 1980, almost exactly a year after he disappeared, he did commit suicide using a handgun. And though the publicity for Dungeons and Dragons was overwhelmingly negative throughout all of this with deer laying the blame for James's disappearance and D&D's feet, many laying the blame of James's death at D&D's feet, even though it had no connection, sales of the game actually do go

up. Fuck yeah, Gary Guy Gags remarked ultimately it was immeasurably helpful to us in name recognition. We ran out of stock. Hail save. I mean, Hail Nema. 1980, TSR's gross income was 4.2 million. So business doing pretty good for this little company like Geneva.

1991, the basic version of Dungeons & Dragons revised by Tom Moldve to make it even more novice-friendly, promoted as a continuation of the original D&D tone, whereas AD&D was promoted as an advancement of the mechanics. Also in 1991, two novels published about gamers suffering psychotic breaks induced by their new hobby, Hobgoblin by John Coyne, a fictional horror novel about a teenage boy who becomes obsessed with the D&D type game called Hobgoblin, who loses touch with reality thinks the game is real and then mazes and monsters by Rona Jaffe. Oh boy, I think her name is Jaffe.

It's J-A-F-F-E, maybe it's Jaffe. Jaffe! Jaffe novel is a fictionalized account of James, or James Ingbert's, Eggbert's, excuse me, disappearance, a fictionalized account of the supposedly true account of Eggbert's disappearance, the was fiction. And this new book goes on to become a best seller. And then in the fall of 1982, CBS adapts it

into a made for TV movie, Maze is a monster's, that people think is based on a true fucking story. The life is keeping getting bigger. More publicized, when everybody knows this is not true, who was dug into it. James' role as a young man lost in a world of fantasy is played now by Tom Hanks. A role he never played in real life.

Here is a promo for this movie that I did see many, many years ago. Tom Hanks and his friends get caught up in a deadly game of fantasy. I am the main control. Until they take it too far. I propose we play Maze and monsters in a real set Too bad for one of them because now there's no turning back

Mases and monsters Sederity at three on ZTV I Know I killed somebody. Tom Hanks is best acting right there. Yeah, when I saw that movie, I thought it was based on truth. No, the trope of the delusional D&D player losing their fucking mind, thanks to this wicked game is now firmly established in the American consciousness. And then also in 1982, more dark association,

thrown upon D&D in a very nonsensical way. On June 9, 1982, 16 year old Irving Pulling, again very sad, commits suicide by shooting himself from the chest. Irving had been in his school's gifted and talented program where and I hope you're sitting down me six. Several games of D&D have been offered as a reward for completing classroom assignments. He had played for a total of nine hours and it fucking killed him. His mother Patricia Polin looking for someone to blame now or something.

Now chooses to believe her son's suicide is directly related to Dungeons and Dragons. She believes that the Dungeon Master, a high school English teacher, had literally cursed her son to murder his own family. And she just pulled that out of her ass. No one talked about curses. Curse and family is just 100% made that up. And their son Irving, being the brave hero he was, had of course resisted and killed himself instead to heroically murder himself to save his family, right?

To end the curse. This is what she actually believes on her words in her memoir, Patricia Pulling Would Write when my son died and I saw the death curse. I saw it. I saw the death curse that had been given to him. I thought that surely no one would take such a curse seriously. Surely no one would follow a command to commit suicide. Then it began to think about the 900 plus people of Jonestown who committed suicide to

the command of a drenched leader named Jim Jones. Because that's so similar. Also inaccurate as we learned in that suck a long time ago, many people in Jonestown did resist the mass death and they were murdered. But who cares about truth? When you want to push a fanciful boogie man narrative? So you don't have to deal with the, you know, your emotions properly and maybe even, you know, possibly blame yourself somewhat. But Patricia bad brain now files a wrongful death lawsuit against her son's high school principal. Robert A. Bracey III holding him responsible for what she claimed was a D&D death curse.

Placed upon her son's character shortly before, what the, it's a fucking character! The case was thrown out as it should have been. Undaunted though, pulling now attempts to sue T.S.R. for $10 million. A judge also throws this case out, citing Freeman's speech. And at this point, she should have had to pay for any time

and expenses T.S.R. or the, incurred because of this. I mean, the case is worth thrown out, but if they had to, you know, spend any money preparing to defend themselves or whatever, she should have fucking paid that pay this. You should be punished for trying to sue someone or something for something this fucking stupid. Although the suits were not successful, they did resonate with a lot of communities around the country in response to pulling lawsuit. The local school board and Arlington Virginia decides to bandy and D Several other school districts follow suit right good job. You mindless sheep What a bunch of great wise people enriching young people's minds

Capitalizing on becoming the face of let's save our kids from the devil's new board game Patricia now forms an organization called bad BADD bothered about lunches and tracks That's just the lame name, by the way, bothered. We're not even against, we're just bothered. We're bothered about it. Are you guys trying to end it? I mean, kind of, we're just annoyed. You imagine if that was like imposed on like, you know,

mothers against drug driving, if it was something like mother, it's annoyed by a drunk drive. It's like it doesn't carry nearly the weight. Bothered about. They're attacking the game. The company that produced bad literature. It's like it doesn't carry nearly the weight. Fathered about. They're attacking the game. The company that produced it. Bad literature.

It's now distributed throughout schools, churches, and police stations. By 1975, the organization is earned tax exempt status, and it's newsletter has 500 subscribers, which I'm relieved by that number. When I first looked into notes, I thought it was gonna be like 5,000 or, I was afraid it was even gonna be like 500,000.

Bad members were not only in the US, but also in Canada, the UK, Australia. A lot of people bothered worldwide bothering. Pauline now had effectively reinvented herself as an occult crime investigator who could discern satanic plots behind everyday occurrences. Of course she could. Get out of here devil Unsurprisingly bad, you know mostly about taking down D&D Very bothered with the indie echoing statements that William dear and made a psychiatrist with ties to bad warned

Fucking psychiatrist part of this group. He's the most powerful role in the game is that of the dungeon master the player God who runs controls the game he can't control the characters completely But he can restrict a character's actions and he can destroy Kill him Yeah, people dying games all the time All the rumors developed about the control dungeon masters held over their players bad claimed to woman left her career in order to become a full-time dungeon master That her players paid for her house groceries and expenses. Who cares? Pastor Affiliate with the group claimed that the players could save

the lives of their characters by paying the dungeon master, but also file that and who gives it shit. Let that DM take some suckers money. Again, they're just characters. People sell games all the time. Why not take some money for characters? Some, Guy Gax was now framed as a sort of grand cult leader, a mastermind behind the cult of D&D, attract by the daughters of St. Paul, the group of nuns, warned parents. You may have just discovered that your son has joined the Legion of unsuspecting students who will become victimized by a master con artist, Gary Guy Gax. Good job, ladies. Now, shut the fuck up and go back to your comment. Go back to smack and kid the knuckles, by a master con artist, Gary Guy Gax. Good job ladies. Now shut the fuck up and go back to your comment.

Go back to smack and kid's in the knuckles, right? And you know, pushing needless shame upon them that'll leave them with psychological scars they'll never fully recover from. Bad also argued that the game could not only lead to exploitation by humans, they could lead to the acceptance of different AKA demonic gods.

Patricia Poein was somewhat more specific. She explained a white male who is intelligent, creative and curious. This is the most likely to be seduced by the occult. White male who's intelligent, creative and curious aka the exact person, you know, probably playing D&D the most. Bad point into publications like Deedies and Demogods, which have been released back in 1980 to prove its point. The book's cover features two dueling priests in the sky behind them was an armored man battling a dragon, a cosmic reflection of the priests earthly battle. Right? A lot of conservative Christians did not like this book. Evangelical authors John Anchorburg and John Weldon warned readers. Warned that readers were encouraged to do further research

on mythology. Oh no, further research. An actuality of the book remained in such titles as the Egyptian book of the Dead and the Golden Bow by James Frazier, Anchorburg and Weldon described Frazier's classic work of anthropology as a compendium of occult practices. We should burn this book for groups like bad deities and demigods was a smoking gun that proved indeed was not a potentially Psychologically dangerous game like William Deer suggested but an actual doorway directly into the world of the occult Satanic panic was now ramping up dungeon dragon was gonna become one of its main targets

As a refresher the term Satanic panic it generally refers to the over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse to the over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of satanic ritual abuse. Sometimes known as just ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, sadistic ritual abuse, started in the US in the early 1980s, spread throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s and persisting until today. The satanic panic is a type of moral panic, right? That sociologist Stanley Cohen famously described given the following definition of a moral panic, a condition, episode, that sociologist, Stanley Cohen, famously described, given the following definition of a moral panic, a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests. Its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media.

The moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people, socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions, ways of coping are evolved or more often resorted to, the condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes more visible. This Atlantic panic originated in 1980 and we've mentioned this in several episodes now with a publication of Michelle Remembers, a book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Lawrence Padsder and his patient and future wife, hello conflict of interest. Michelle Smith, which used the discredited practice of recovered memory therapy using hypnosis

to make sweeping lured claims about satanic ritual abuse involving Smith. It was not fucking true. It was all fucking bullshit. And that bullshit would also then soon target Dungeons and Dragons. Evangelical Rebecca Brown who died just two and a half years ago would say this about the game. One of Satan's biggest tools in our country today is the cult role playing fantasy games, which becomes so popular.

Satan is using these games to produce a vast army of the most intelligent young people of this country, an army that the Antichrist will be able to tap into and control an instant. Oh boy. Our Becken not only believed that the young men she spoke to were demonically possessed and had supernatural powers, but that they knew they were possessed and were lying about it. She describes giving the following advice to a gamer named Bob. Already I'm like, who's character was allegedly an 80th degree? Clearly, clearly. Which is not a thing. You would say level, not degree, and you don't go fucking 80 levels.

Researching this, because I didn't think it was true, but I looked into it to make sure. It seems the highest level you can currently have with a D&D character is 20. And the highest any addition has ever had from what I can tell, no more than 36. You can tweak a game to go higher But there are no official spells or any kind of powers to be gained by continuing to go up and up and up With without getting lost in the nerdy weeds This is a clear indicator to me that you know Rebecca is just a fucking huge liar a lazy liar who didn't take 10 minutes to look into the rules So she wouldn't sound stupid

But anyway, here's what Becky said about her never really happened conversation with no one. Bob, let's get honest, your powers come from demon spirits and your deity is actually a demon, which affects every aspect of your life. Not just the game, it rules you. Did you know that you can be set free from the rule of your deity? Is that how people actually talk? This line fuckface, lined her congregation and God's name warning them not to be tricked by demons as she is tricking them. To combat Satan's influence and multitude of evangelical organizations now distribute leaflets, manifestos against tabletop RPGs like one entitled dark dungeons. In this comic a group of precious teens, innocent souls, ripe for the harvesting, sit around a table, playing dungeons, and let Satan butt fuck your face.

Ah, with a- Now, they sit around playing like a D&D game. With a blonde, haired girl, casting a spell. She says, Okay, dungeon master, my spell of light blinds the monster. Later in the game, the dungeon master kills a character named Blackleaf, telling her player, Marcy. Marcy, get out of here. You're dead. You don't exist anymore. That doesn't happen in these games. When you're playing with people, yeah, they set off to the side and

you either snack, she'll like, well, your character's dead. Get out of my house. You don't exist. Then the DM tells the blonde girl, Debbie, that your clearic has been raised to the eighth level. I think it's time that you learn how to really cast spells. And Debbie replies, you mean you're going to teach me how to have the real power? This is the shitty script of a terrible after school movie. The very next panel shows a group of people in dark robes standing standing of course on an enormous pentagram with the caption all caps the intensicle training through dnd prepared Debbie to accept the invitation to enter a witch's covered burn the witch burn the witch

This is like salam's witch trials, but happening so much more recently This makes the game now real and now Debbie is able to cast real spells like one on her dad, mind bondage that keeps him from trying to stop her from playing D and D. Uh, excuse me. Uh, the spell mind bondage results in Debbie's dad buying her $200 worth of new D and D figurines and manuals. That's how Satan gets you to the little figurines. What's a real geniuses getting together to create this cautionary comic?

Later that week, Debbie goes to see her old friend, Marcy, and Marcy's mom says that ever since her character in the game got killed, it's just a little part of her died. And then you guys, when Debbie enters Marcy's room, she finds that Marcy has hanged herself. Damn you, don't just the truckings! Damn you, the hell! Wait, you're already in hell!

Damn you, the somewhere else, ah fuck. The DM is of course not sympathetic to Marcy's death, right? She tells Debbie that her spiritual growth in the game is way more important than some quote, lousy losers life. Debbie now starts to wonder what she's gotten herself into. The DM now wants her not to be stupid. Don't be stupid, Debbie. And then you guys, Debbie now starts to wonder what she's gotten herself into. The DM now wants her not to be stupid. Don't be stupid, Debbie. And then you guys, Debbie now realizes she doesn't want to be Elf Star anymore. She just wants to be Debbie. She just wants to be Debbie. Luckily Debbie meets up with her buff ass friend.

Maybe some guy who might, you know, poop all up all her. Mike. Fucking Mike. Mike tells her that Jesus is the only answer. And that he has been praying and fasting for her. According to him She's involved in spiritual warfare that you just can't win without the Lord Jesus You need killer Christ the most bloodthirsty savior the world has ever known as played of course by Nicholas Cage in the Michael Bay blockbuster of this past holiday season

Love thy neighbor my bottom The time for love is over. The time for obliteration has begun. Hell yeah. I heard that fake movie did a $1 trillion in sales on its fake opening weekend. Anyway, back to this important comic. Mike invites her, vice-debted he got a church of them

and the pastor there says this, Jesus sets us free from the bondage of witchcraft and gives us victory over the power of the enemy. God words, our God's word declares that you must repent, turn to Jesus Christ, turn to Him as your savior. Then according to Acts 19, you should gather up all your occult paraphernalia like your rock music, occult books, charms, dark dungeons material.

Don't throw them away, burn them. We'll do that here tonight. Oh, fuck, Abra, burn those books, burn the books. Then in the comment, good guy, Mike says, we will also be praying for the deliverance of those who have allowed occult forces to control them. The speaker orders the spirits of the occult to leave Debbie and Debbie says that she wants God to be in charge of everything.

Not that loud, he's D&D manual. And now thanks, Lord Debbie burns all of her occult stuff and thanks, Lord, for setting her free. Oh, good job, Deb. Silly is that story may sound to you. It sounds pretty silly to me now. Stuff like that caught on like wildfire in the 80s to a lot of people. Guygex had to defend the game, is not being part of the devil's tool chest on a fucking

segment of 60 minutes, aired in 1985. He got, he started to fear for his life, death threats, or arriving at the T.S.R. office, Guygex has to hire a fucking bodyguard, crazy fucker sending death threats, cause of this board game, right? The QAnon crowd, before there was the internet, same dummies, different haircuts, now bits. Despite this negative publicity or perhaps because of it, TSR's annual D&D sales increase, right? Good publicity in 1982 to US dollar $16 million and in January 1983, the New York Times speculates that D&D might become the great game of the 1980s in the same manner that monopoly became emblematic of the

great depression. So D&D's kick and ass, of the 1980s in the same manner that monopoly became emblematic of the Great Depression. So D&D is kicking ass, but also creating or rather being the victim becoming the victim of a lot of scary turmoil. There was turmoil within the company as well, Brian Bloom persuaded Guy Gax to allow Brian's brother Kevin to purchase Melvin Bloom shares. And this gave the Bloom Brothers a controlling interest in this company and by the early 1980s, Guy Gax and the Blooms are increasingly at loggerheads over management of the company.

Guy Gags' frustrations at work and increased prosperity from his generous royalty checks also make his personal life a bit rocky. Ian Mary Joe have been active members of the local Jehovah's Witnesses for years. What? Did not see that coming. Others in the congregation already felt uneasy

about Guy Gags's smoking and drinking, but now it's connection to the satanic game of D&D is more than they can bear, and they disassociate themselves from the Jehovah's Witnesses. Mary Jo is not happy about this. She misses her old friends and is really starting to resent the amount of time

or husband is spending playing games. She develops a drinking problem, the couple argues frequently. GuyGax meanwhile starts doing a lot of fucking blow. Co-gain, baby. spending playing games. She develops a drinking problem, the couple argues frequently, Guy Gags meanwhile starts doing a lot of fucking blow. Co-gain, baby. It starts to have a number of extra marital affairs. Finally in 1983, when Gary's 45,

and I imagine Mary Jo's the same age, close to it, the two have an Acrimonious divorce. At this time, the blooms want to now get Guy Gags out of Lake Geneva so they can manage the company without his interference, and they split T.S.R. Hobbies into T.S.R. Incorporated and T.S.R. Entertainment. Guy Gax becomes the president of the entertainment branch and the Bloom sending the Hollywood to develop TV and movie opportunities. Gary Newellty single takes advantage of his time on the West Coast, written in a men's mansion, increasing his cocaine use and spending time with several young starlets.

He goes, he goes fucking all in on gaming and he goes all in on his midlife crisis. Also 1983 revisions of those sets by Frank Metzner were released revised the presentation of the rules to a more tutorial format. These are followed by companion in 1973. Yeah, master 1985 in Immortals, 1976 those sets. Each set covers gameplay for more powerful characters in the previous. These would be compiled into a single hard cover in 1991, the Dungeons & Dragons Cyclopedia. That same year, Ravenloft, an adventure module is released.

So it's 50,000 copies. It's first year out, pretty big number. Getting 50,000 new people to play D&D by generating a Gothic horse setting seems like a good plan, but it's not actually a massive success. The real number was not 50,000 new people buying that setting turns out it was mostly people already playing AD&D second edition So they're not finding new fans. They're just taking their existing fanbase and chopping it up and every new setting is another chop You would suddenly have people go from buying 200,000 copies of forgotten realms and then for the next set of forgotten realms

They're selling 30,000 copies Forgotten realms that was the study I played in. Horan probably still kicking ass somewhere in there. D&D was also now expanding in other ways with TSR, the CBS Network created Dungeons Dragons cartoon, aired on Saturday mornings from 1983 to 1986. Premise the cartoon was the same as Arnestin's original Blackmore campaign, features a group of teenagers who bored a dungeon than dragons right at a carnival and are magically transported into a world of magic and monsters.

Each episode portray the teens continued efforts to return home, and I'm sure a lot of parents forbid their children to watch this. Speaking of a showbiz, because he was occupied with getting a movie off the ground in Hollywood, Guy Gaxx now has to leave the day-to-day operations of T.S.R. to Kevin and Brian Bloom. 1924, after months of negotiation, he reaches an agreement with Orson Wells to star in a D&D movie and John Bournemont to act as producer and director. But almost the same time he receives word that back in late Geneva, T.S.R. has run into severe financial difficulties.

And Kevin Bloom is now shopping the company for $6 million. Gary immediately discards his movie ambitions. The D&D movie will never be made now. Flies back to late Geneva, discovers to his shock that although industry leader T.S.R. is grossing over $30 million a year, it's barely breaking even. In fact, it's $1.5 million in debt

teetering on the edge of insolvency. How? And for investigating, Guy Gaxe brings his findings to five other company directors. What he finds is that it was a mismanagement by Kevin Bloom, excess inventory, over staffing, too many company cars, and some very questionable and expensive projects like dredging up a 19th century shipwreck. All right?

The rumors of the company owned a mansion on the Isle of Man in the UK had discussed purchasing a railroad company to vertically integrate shipping. Many of TSR's woes stem from a fundamental issue with tabletop role-playing games as well as far as revenue. How do you make money selling a product that encourages players to use their own free imagination? Gary demands that Kevin Bloom be removed as CEO, the board agrees, but they still believe that financial problems are terminal and the company needs to be sold. Gary does not agree In March, 1985 guy guy gags exercises his 700 share stock option giving him just over 50% control go Gary go

Points himself president CEO rather than sell the company he takes steps to produce new revenue generating products Life and much he loves to protect this baby He contacts original dnd co-creator Dave Marnison with a view to produce some new Blackmore material also but heavily on a new AMD D book on earth, dark Anna compilation material called cold from dragon magazine articles quickly writes a novel set in Greyhawk saga of old city featuring a protagonist called gourd the rogue in order to bring some financial stability to TSR, higher asires Company Manager Lorraine Williams. Lorraine was the sister of Gary's close friend and business associate, Flint, Dill, and Lorraine. We'll fuck him over. Around this time, Gary become a

seriously involved with his former TSR assistant, Gail Carpenter, dating the assistant continuing with the midlife crisis. They lived together in a lavish four room condominium on the second floor of Stone Manor, a converted mansion on the shores of Lake Caniva, scandalous. When unearthed Arcona is released in July of 1905, GuyGax's bet pays off for the new book sells 90,000 copies in the first month. Novel sells really well also and he immediately publishes a sequel artifact of evil. The financial crisis had been averted, but Guy Gax also has paved the way for his own downfall. In October of 1905, the new manager Lorraine Williams reveals that she has purchased all

of the shares of Kevin and Brian Bloom after Brian triggered his own 700 share option. By this time, the blooms were more than happy to acquiesce. They wanted out after many turbulent years with Gary, and most recently Gary's aggressive removal of Kevin's CEO. Excuse me, the Williams now is now the is now the majority shareholder and she replaces Guy Gaxx as president and CEO of his own company. This fucking witch. Guy Gaxx is out of his own company. Again, two by this guy wasn't as good with real world business as he was with fantasy world building. The rain now makes it clear that Guy Gaxx would be making no further creative

contributions to TSR. Several of his projects in development immediately shelved, never published. Guy Gags now takes TSR to court and a bid to block the Bloom's sale of their shares to Williams, but loses to turn back to another character for a moment in 1986. A nutball extraordinaire, Patricia Polling, still at it. Giving lectures to police officers now who are actually listening to us. That's fun about her son and satanic conspiracy theories. At a lecture in Fort Collins, Colorado, polling states that several weeks before her son's death,

he had been displaying like in, like in thropic tendencies, such as running around the backyard and all fours and barking. Hmm. The game turned him into a fucking werewolf. She's using her son's suicide to put more money in her pocket now. Some people truly know limit to what they'll do to make money and have some level of fame. All right, polling also quoted as saying that within the month before her son's death, 19 rabbits he had raised were inexplicably torn apart. Although no loose dogs were seeing a cat was also found disemboweled. Uh-huh, more lies, just liking you less and less, Patricia.

Meanwhile, business for D&D is great, not so great though for its co-creator. While sales of Dungeons and Dragons reach a fever pitch worldwide, Gary Guygax resigns from all positions in October of 1986, settling disputes by the following December, by the terms of his settlement with T.S.R. Guygax kept the right to gourd the rogue, as well as all D&D characters whose names were anagrams or plays on his own name, like Y-R-A-G, Z-A-G-Y-G. However, he lost the rights to all his other work, including the world of Greyhawk. And the names of all the other characters he had ever used in TSR material. Immediately after leaving TSR, Guy Gax is approached by a war gaming acquaintance. Now, Forest Baker, who has done some consulting work for TSR or had done in 1983 and 1984.

So he does get a new business opportunity. Life isn't all terrible. And he's still getting royalties. Guy Gax, who is tired of company management was simply looking for some way to market more of his gourd, the rogue novels now. But Baker has a vision for a new gaming company. He promises he'll handle the business end.

Guy Gax and handle the creative. Barker also is guaranteed that using Guy Gax's name, I'm excuse Barker also is guaranteed that using Guygex's name, I'm excuse me, Baker also guaranteed that using Guygex's name, he'd be able to bring in one to two million dollars of investment. Guygex's aside, this is a good opportunity, and in October of 1986, new infinities, productions incorporated, is publicly announced. Gary works quickly to poach a couple of his best people from TSR, but before a single product is released, Forest Baker leaves NIPI when his promised outside investment of one to two million dollars fails materialize. Now Gary is back in charge of the business, which he doesn't want to be. He immediately looks for a quick product to get

NIPI off the ground. He retained the rights to go to the Rogue as part of that severant agreement. So he licenses Gray Hawk from TSR, starts writing new novels beginning with Sea of Death. Sales are brisk. Guy gax is gored the rogue novels and of keeping new infinities in business, legal battles with TSR, however, will drain NIPI's capital. So much garbage. During all this drama, Guy Gax becomes a father again in November of 1986. Gail gives birth to Guy Gax's six child Alex. Oh man.

August 15th, 1997, I want what would have been his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, Guy Gax marries Gail Carpenter. During 1987, 1988, Guy Gax works with Flint Dill on the Saggered the Barbarian books, as well as role play mastery and a sequel master of the game, writes two more gourd the rogue novels. However, by 1988, T.S.R. had rewritten the setting for the world of Greyhawk and Guy Gaxe not happy with the new direction in which T.S.R. is taking his creation, how maddening he can't stop him. In a literary declaration that his old world was

dead and wanting to make a clean break with all things Greyhawk, Guy Gaxe now destroys his version of the setting and the gourd the rogue novel Dance of Demons. While the setting and the Gord, the Rogue Novel Dance of Demons. While the Gord, the Rogue Novels, with them finished, NIPI's main source of steady income is dried up and the company needs a new product now. Guy Gaxe announced in 1988 in a company newsletter that he and Rob Coons, his co-dungeant master during the early days of the Greyhound campaign, were now working as a team again. This time they would create a new multi-genre fantasy RPG called Infinite Adventures, which will be supported by different gamebugs for different genres. This line would detail the

castle and city of Greyhawk as Guy Gax and Coons had originally envisioned them now called Castle Dunfalken. However, before work on this project could commence, an IPI ran out of money, forced into bankruptcy and dissolved in 1989. After an IPI fold, Guy Gaxx decides to create an entirely new RPG again called the Carpenter Project. One considerably more complex and rule heavy than his original and relatively simple D&D system. He also wanted to create a horror setting for the new RPG called Unhallowed.

Work progresses favorably until March of 1992 when TSR files an injunction against dangerous dimensions claiming the name and initials to similar to Dungeons and Dragons. So GuyCax changes it to dangerous journeys and starts work again. In addition to his work on the RPG and the myth of setting, GuyCax also writes three new novels. Man, he's fucking pumping out a lot of shit. Released under publisher Penguin and reprints by and reprinted by Paisal publishing. Meanwhile there is still religious opposition to D&D. Evangelical Theologians Peter Lightheart and George Grant make a very weird argument.

In the 19th book a Christian response to Dungeon Dragons the catacism of the new age. Then the problem is not only that the fantasy role-playing games ignore God, instead they suggest that reality is an extension of God's will, and therefore imagining an alternative reality is a form of rebellion against God. What? Sounded that these guys had too much time on their heads. Basically, don't fucking daydream about fantastical shit. That's the devil.

They explain ultimately all extreme identification with the role is a sin, because it involves a rebellious rejection of the role to which God has assigned us. So don't cosplay. This motive is apparent in many of the D&D enthusiasts. They hate their God-given role in the God-directed drama of history, and they play D&D in order to create

their own identity in their own history, which is a, you know, slap in the face to God. Yeah, okay. Line 100 grant also assert the games like D&D lead to violence and the literal practice of witchcraft. But they regard the ability to imagine and mentally inhabit other inhabit other worlds as the most serious threat. Good job, guys. Way to really put your minds good use. I hope you get a bunch of high fives and fist bumps and have it. What are you doing? Late 1992, the dangerous journeys RPG is released by game designers workshop, but then

TSR immediately applies for an injunction against the entire dangerous journeys RPG and their myth is setting, arguing that it's too similar to D D D D D D D D D D. My God, it's just not stop courtroom stuff. Although the injunction fails, TSR moves forward even more litigation. Guy Gags believes all this legal action is without merit and fueled by Lorraine Williams' personal hatred of him. Both of the companies backing Guy Gags with draw

from the project, killing the mythist computer game that they were also developing. It must have wanted to fucking kill her. I bet Lorraine showed up in a lot of his gaming campaigns because he's still playing, you know, when he's DMing. Behold, now before you lies the most powerful demigurgan you have ever seen, it is the Lorraine. And she is surrounded by the most vile, covenant of trocadite ever witnessed, the litigators. Only fighting man can save you! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! D&D which came with a cheesy instructional video and here's how it starts. To be clear, that voice comes from a dude in a black turtle neck, of course, with an alarming amount of hairspray in his feathered bangs. My favorite one, he said, ready to battle monsters. I really like the, the game was supposed to hook a new generation on fantasy adventure and set it sat in the warehouse, taking them space, eating up production costs and being

mocked when people did see it By 1974 the legal cost associated with many months to pretrial discovery had now drained all of Guy Gax's resources Believe in the TSR was also suffering Guy Gax offers to settle in the end TSR pays Guy Gax for the complete rights to dangerous journeys and mythos Although Guy Gax is well compensated for his years of work on dangerous journeys of mythos TSR immediately and permanently just shelves them both. Just so much pettingness. 1995, the core rule books are slightly revised, although still referred to by T-S-R as the second edition, and a series of players' option manuals are released as optional rule books. The release

of AD&D's second edition deliberately excluded some aspects of the game that attracted negative publicity. All right, all that satanic panic has has a nervous references to demons and devils, sexually suggestive artwork and playable evil-aligned character types are removed. Come on, no, you got to double down on all that, lean into it, get more free publicity. The edition moved away from a theme of 1960s and 1970s sword and sorcery fantasy fiction to a mixture of medieval history and mythology. The rules underwent minor changes, including the addition of non-weapon proficiencies,

skill-like abilities that originally appeared in first edition supplements. The game's magical spells were divided into schools and spheres. Major difference was the promotion of various game settings beyond that of traditional fantasy. This included blending fantasy with other genres such as horror, like Ravenloft, science fiction, spell jammer, and apocalyptic dark sun, as well as alternative historical and non-European mythological settings. The company experienced another crisis in the mid 1990s then, D&D now more popular than ever, but the company has published more supplemental products than a saturated market

it is willing to consume. Meanwhile, new games eaten away at TSR's market share. The biggest of these is a car game called Magic the Gathering, published by Wizards of the Coast. Fuck yeah, been years since I played it. Although Magic was not a role-playing game, it contained elements of fantasy and attracted the same market. More importantly, Magic was sold in the form of inexpensive packs that contained a random

assortment of cards. Some players were willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money in search of rare cards. Despite these obstacles, 1996 was the best sales year in the history of the company, 40 million in revenue. However, clause and TSR's distribution contract quickly turns that triumph into disaster. 1981, TSR entered a distribution agreement with Random House, which shipped TSR products to small bookstores like Walden Books. Oh, Walden Books, sorry, I used to shoplet from you as a teen. Rest in piece, they died in 2011. Anyway, at the end of the year, the contract allowed random house to

return any unsolved products to TSR at which time TSR would have to pay for the products as well as a handling fee. That year, TSR had heavily invested in hardcover fantasy novels as well as a new game called Dragon Dice. In any way, this process, this handling fee comes back to Vitamin D. As also, Dragon's Dice was if you come back to the bottom of the ass. Also Dragon's Dice was T.S.R.'s answer to Magic Gathering. Instead of packs containing random cards, players were encouraged to purchase box containing randomly patterned dice, which doesn't sound fun or cool. Both of these products flop.

At the end of the year, nearly a third of T.S.R.'s products are returned. After paying random house, all these fees, the company now does not have capital for further printing and finished project, products are sitting unprinted. Starting to look like TSR is done, despite a lot of popularity. Just so many bad business decisions. Williams immediately begins searching for someone to purchase TSR, assume its debts, and in 1997 she will find it, bear evil incorporated. Yes, bear evil is owned, Dungeons and Dragons ever since.

They fucking own everything. No, TSR was initially purchased by a collectible card company called Five Rings Publishing, and then soon afterwards, they are bought out by Wizards of the Coast. So, both companies owned by them. Now following three years of development, Dungeons and Dragons, third edition released in 2000. New release folds the basic and advanced lines back into a single unified game. Largest revision of D&D rules to date serves as the basis for a multi-gen role-playing system designed around 20-sided dice called the D20 system.

Third edition rules designed to be internally consistent and less restrictive than previous editions of the game, allowing players more flexibility to create characters they want to play. Skills and feats introduce into the core rules to encourage further customization, new rules also standardized, and mechanics of action, resolution, and combat. Our standardizes the mechanics of action, resolution, combat. While Wizard of the Coast, excuse me, was busy refocusing TSR's products,

Christopher Clark of Intercity Game Designs approaches GuyGag's 1997 to suggest they produce some adventures to sell in games doors while TSR is otherwise occupied. And the result is a pair of fantasy adventures published by Intercity Games, a challenge of arms, 1998, and the ritual of the Golden Eyes, 1999. Guy Gags then introduces some investors to Clark's publication setup, and although the investors are not willing to fund publication of legendary adventures, another project, Clark and Guy Gax form a partnership called HECCA forage productions. And now Guy Gax is able to return to publish legendary adventures in 1999, publishes a three-volume

set. Luckily, the new owner of TSR, Wizard of the Coast, Peter Atkinson, does not harbor any of Lorraine Williams' ill will towards Guy Gax and purchases all of Guy Gax's residual rights to D&D and AD&D for a six figure sum. I thought it would be more actually. After that, Guy Gax continues to work on legendary adventures, which he believes is his best work. However sales below his expectations. And then in 2000, Guy Gax now 62 years old makes some extra cash performing voiceover narration for cartoons, video games shows up in future Rama

By 2002 Guy Gags has given Christopher Clark of Heckophorge and encyclopedia 72,000 word text describing the legendary earth Clark splits the manuscript into five books expands it With each of the final books showing up at around 128,000 words man a lot of stuff This guy never stopped just, you know, it loves this shit. During his time with T.S.R. Guy Gecks had often mentioned the mysterious castle Greyhawk, which formed the center of his own home campaign. Despite all of his written output over the previous 30 years, Guy Gecks had never published details about this castle, though. And now that's about to change. Big passion project, 2003. He announces he's

again partnering with Robert Coons to publish the original and previously unpublished details of Castle Greyhawk and the city of Greyhawk in six volumes. The project would use the rules for castles and crusades rather than D&D now though. Since Wizard of the Coast, you know, still own the rights, the name Greyhawk, GuyGak has to change the GuyGak's, changes the name of Castle Greyhawk to castle zagig, reverse homophone of his own name, and changes the name of the nearby city to ixburg, plan his initials eGG. Scaled with a pride is enormous, and by the time guy gags and cunts had stopped working

on the original home campaign, the castle dungeons had accomplished 50 levels of complex pastures, thousands of rooms and traps. This plus plans for the city of Xburg and encounter areas outside the castle and city would clearly be too much to fit into the initially proposed six volumes. This is a huge challenge, big project. Although Guy Gack still had his old maps of the original city, all of his previously published work on the city is owned by Wizard of the Coast. So we have to create most of the city all over again from scratch while trying to maintain the look and feel of his original work, very annoying. And then the work comes to a complete halt when he suffers a stroke in April of 2004,

another one a few weeks later. Finally in 2005, Castle, Zagig, part one, Iggsburg, the first book in the six book series appears. But that same year, GuyGax is diagnosed with potentially deadly abdominal aortic aneurysm. Doctors concur that surgery is needed, but their estimates of success vary from 59 percent. With no firm medical consensus, GuyGax comes to believe he'll likely die in the operating table and refuses to have the surgery, knowing that he could die at any moment. In one concession to his condition, he switches from cigarettes, which he had smoked since high school to cigars, wasn't until 2008, the guy gags is able to finish the second volume of the six volumes, which describes details of the castle above ground. Next two

volumes, supposed to detail the dungeons beneath castle zaggyg. However, before they could be written, GuyGagst dies March 4, 2008. And strangely, no demonic spells would be used to resurrect the OG DM. Guess I'll let Satanic panic stuff was really nonsense. A Gen Con, the din of the exhibit hall was halted in order to hold a moment of silence for the man who had founded the conference. The Gen Con staff also had a special plaque dedicated to Guy Gaxx that read the first DM. He taught us to roll the dice. He opened the door to new worlds. His work shaped our industry He brought us Jen con for this we thank him And Lake Geneva guy gags his funeral followed by an impromptu session of gaming. I love that they quickly developed into an annual event called Gary con

Meanwhile after his death a cult accusations continue in Don Rimmer, a retired police officer from Virginia Beach, utilizes the popularity of vampire media, such as Twilight and Trueblood, to revive fears of teenagers driven to violence by fantasy role playing games. In a newspaper article about the growing threat of a cult crime, Rhymer warned fantasy role playing like Dungeons and Dragons and vampire gaming are alive and well They are there are people who take gaming to another level one the results in deaths and suicides in the world of gaming There is evil All right, Don I sound like since you've retired you you need to find some new fucking hobbies

Then in April of 2013 Pat Robertson appears in the 700 Club and answers an email asking, is it safe for a Christian to enjoy video games that have magic in them? If the person playing the games is not practicing the magic. No one is actually practicing magic. What the fuck is going on? Robertson responds that Christians should not play such games adding that Dungeons and Dragons have literally destroyed people's lives.

It's so dramatic. Hey, is anyone seen Billy-Lay Uh, haven't seen him in months. Not since he started playing... Dungeons and Dragons. Oh, I saw him yesterday at the insane asylum. He was wearing a straight jacket, sitting alone in a padded room. He wouldn't answer any of my questions, or even make eye contact.

He just stared off, blankly, into the corner, just constantly saying, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight One of the first items on the list reads, heavy into fantasy games. Note, fantasy games have no rules or guidelines. They encourage creativity without boundaries. The player loses the boundary between reality and fantasy. My God, some real geniuses, run to the police department down in that chest. If there's one thing I know about imagination is dangerous and satanic.

I guess that's two things, maybe three. Cranking paid for math wizard. Hey, people are not meant to think freely to get lost in daydreams. That's where the devil gets you in your daydreams and your creativity. We have to keep an eye on artists, remain vigilant and ready to snuff them out at a moment's notice. I picked up this department, sending undercover officers to like horror movies at the movie theater.

And Halloween, man, no one gets that night off. We must remain vigilant. Okay jump it up to 2020 now. Information released by Wizard of the Coast declares 2020 is the best year ever for the world's biggest role playing game. The pandemic, great time to get into long form fantasy gaming while you're stuck inside. Company claims that over 50 million people have played Dungeons & Dragons to date in the 2020-70 year of consecutive growth. Finally, pretty recently, August 18, 2022, as part of a new publishing initiative, Witch of the Coast reveals that it plans to make a number of changes to D&D, which includes

the introduction of an official virtual plane space, physical slash digital book bundles, and eventual 2024 re-release of the core D&D rule books. The initiative OneD&D marks a significant move by Wizards of the Coast to move D&D into the modern gaming landscape, and what D&D's current design architect Jeremy Crawford calls the start of a new generation. Under OneD&D, Wizards plans to release its own virtual play space, restructure and streamline the game's rules and try to organize All of its digital play tools for D&D together into one single place. I love it And I hope someday I have time to dive back in to it Looks like 2023 will bring us a dungeon dragon's movie horror among thieves

Excuse me horror honor among thieves traders have been I've been out for a while, and they see Jialix pretty dope. Plot summary on IMDB describes it as a charming thief and a band of unlikely adventures embarking on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic. But things go dangerously awry when they run a foul of the wrong people. Time will tell if it captures the magic of the original game, and now let's get out of this timeline.

Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely. You find yourself standing in front of an open door. Beyond it lies a cavern of riches. Though you have suffered much, your bravery and courageousness has rewarded you. And you are now one of the richest men in the land. But you are even richer in companionship as those on the quest with you will remain lifelong friends.

But for now, your quest has ended. Dungeons and Dragons. Hard to tell the story of an entire massive subculture just few hours. I hope I didn't fuck you thing up. It's a lot of like details that, or a little tricky to get my brain around some of them. So many people, good and bad shaped. It's so many events made it, you know, what it is today, both as a game and in cultural memory.

Almost all of it goes back to Gary Geigex. As a young boy living in Chicago, raising hell with the Kenmore pirates, still can't believe what they were doing in seven years old. Gary fell in love with his father's stories, fairy tales, which brave heroes fought fears of monsters and prevailed in the end. As a young man after moving to Lake Geneva, he would become obsessed like many others with the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, as well as many other science fiction and fantasy novels that were now being published for a young and hungry American audience. Gary would grow up pretty quickly, getting married at 19 to his childhood, friend Mary Jo Powell, starting a family, working to

support that family, but his child like wonder never left him. He also proved to be a skilled tactician when he started learning war games like Avalon Hill is Gettysburg. Then he was started designing his own games. Before D&D was the game is we know it. It grew out of a medieval war game called Chainmail. And then later in 1974, he would publish Dungeons and Dragons. Originally it came in the form of three booklets in a wood grain colored cardboard box.

First print with run was a thousand hand assembled copies and it sold out less than a year. Thanks for looking good. Sales got better and better year after year, but then the lawsuits came right after his partner or co-creator, you know, dies and that kind of shit just would never stop. Gary would be forced out of his own company. You have to deal with death threats because of satanic panic alarmists and making all kind of wild accusations. Now write lies about a game that they never took the time to understand. For decades now, D&D has been accused of promoting Satanism and witchcraft.

Satanic panic peaked in the 80s with religious groups, publishing anti-D&D tracks that showed the RPG to be a slippery slope into demonic worship murder suicide more. So many lies around the 1979 disappearance of James Dallas Egbert, who was later revealed hadn't ever played the game before lies promoted by William Deere, the investigator who wrote a fraudulent memoir about finding him. All right, that all got the satanic fire around the indie burn and so bright that it still hasn't gone out. And hopefully it's not going to get, you know, start burning brighter again.

Groups like bothered about Dungeons and Dragons. I still love bothered in there. Spirit headed by Patricia Pulling. Tried to convince the nation that the game was part of a satanic conspiracy, meant to destroy the souls of young people. Now it's just a game of really fun, imaginative and rich, wonderful game. We can get out of your head for a few hours a week or a lot of hours a week and be someone else living in a different world with your friends who also get to be who they want to be. You can all work together and go on mythical adventures in a spirit of fellowship. You can make friends, maybe find real romantic interests with the people you're playing with. You can do it all without ever having to step outside and actually battle anything and

never be too far from beverages and snacks. As of 2022, Dungeons & Dragons is played by millions and millions of players, many of whom are joining the legacy of imagination and creativity established decades ago. None as far as I know have had their lives destroyed by the dock load. Just people enjoying spending time together who can find a want to find, excuse me, a bit of magic, maybe to put in their everyday lives. So go play, go try and find it. Enjoy it. Nimrod will be watching as we'll lose to phenombo jangles. they might even show up in the game, help you out in your quest, or harm you.

Who knows? Maybe you'll even run into a nice white haired bard in some dingy tavern. Triple M, singing songs for coins. Oh, which are already playing me? Oh, already playing me? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,, I apologize for hurting your ears. Time, shock, tough, right takeaway. I'm having a hell of a time, fine and buttons today, but number one, a dozen dragons have become a hugely popular game, something to define, many people's childhoods and young adulthoods, letting them explore their creativity alongside one another, often fostering lifelong connections and friendships. But the beloved game had a pretty humble beginning. Gary Geigax,

building on his childhood love of fantasy and science fiction as well as his adult obsession with war games, Gary and his collaborators developed the first edition Dungeons and Dragons with all the money they had, which wasn't much and packaged it all in their homes, dreaming that their homegrown game would maybe possibly make enough money for them to be able to quit their day jobs And it became so much more than that Number two meat sex love games for as long as society's been around we have love playing games together gives us an opportunity to learn to simulate what we observed in the world around us and to figure out a Co-operate with one another from Prussian generals trying to simulate battles to teenagers role-playing

Meat sex have always found self-expression in games. Number three, as much as we meat sacks love games, all we're going to be people who will oppose them. Scared people who sometimes just don't get it. In this case, people who truly think that this nerdy fantasy game is the devil's work. After the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert in 1979 and the suicide of Irving Pulling in 1982, a media frenzy, you know, just burned across the country and the group bad.

People so bothered by Dungeons and Dragons, led by Patricia Pulling, did its best to convince the country that D&D was a pathway to literal hell. Number four, not only did religious controversy follow Dungeons and Dragons, but controversy inside the company led to oh, so many lawsuits, the forced Gary Guy gags out of the very business that he built. Number five, new info. Another index of current attitudes towards fantasy games developed during the 2012 election cycle when Colleen, uh, Lashwitz, social work for Maine, ran for the state Senate. Her opponents discovered that she regularly played the online fantasy game World of Warcraft

and the game. Access to comments she made during the game. Her opponent's strategist sent out mailers, alerting voters to Loshwitz's interest in the game and even created the website callinesworld.com, which featured comments she typed while playing this game, and pictures of her character, an orc assassin named Santiago. The site declared main needs a state center that lives in the real world, not in Colleen's fantasy world. There's another sad reminder of how fucking dumb so many politicians are.

Don't need a degree or any successful business experience to enter the world of politics, too often far from the best and brightest. I went to see and uncovered the story, Lashwood's gave an interview by phone during which a news anchor demanded an explanation for the comments on the World of Warcraft page. I love poise need and stabbing.

It is fun. The rhetoric that last wits lives in a fantasy world was calculated to build on 30 years of claims that fantasy role playing games contribute to violent behavior and an inability to discern fantasy from reality. She's fucking stabbing poison people, but the strategy backfired not only did last wits win the election outrage gamers around the country donated thousands and thousands of dollars to political action committees supported her campaign. So hell, Nimrod and fuck idiots against gaming. Time suck, top five takeaways.

Dungeons and Dragons, satanic tool or harmless game has been sucked. Again, hoping I got it right. And I'm guessing if I didn't pay attention to the updates coming up because people really know this world, they will let me know. Thank you to the Bad Magic Productions team for all the help making time suck. Thank you to Queen of Bad Magic, Lindsey Cummins. Thank you to the art warlock Logan Keith producing and directing today staying a little late to do so. Thank you to the suck Ranger Tyler C for help with production. Thanks to Bitelix here for upkeep on the Time Suck app, Art Warlock again for creating the merch at badmagicmerch.com

and for helping run our socials along with the Suck Ranger and a team managed by a social media strategist, Ryan Handelman. And thanks to every member of our numerous online communities on Facebook, Reddit, and Discord. Next week on Time S, so let's dive into the old controversial Amanda Knox murder trial. I didn't learn a lot about it as a time, kind of like with Casey Anthony and Lacey Peterson,

but I'll learn a lot now. Did you know that she is a podcaster? Currently, she is. Is she also a murderer? Imagine that you're 20 years old, you work three jobs for a year and saved up as much as you could to have the experience of a lifetime studying abroad in Italy.

You worked out all the details, found a school in housing, you board your flight, land in Italy, excited for the adventure of a lifetime, but it all comes to a tragic end when your roommate is murdered in the police think that you are involved if you didn't do it outright. That's the story of Amanda Knox, an American student who is convicted of murder twice and then exonerated twice. Amanda, her boyfriend and the third suspect were all convicted. The brutal murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kertcher,

a British exchange student. Meredith was stabbed inside her house while her roommates were gone for the night. When details came out about Amanda's supposed promiscuity was believed that Meredith was murdered in a sex game gone wrong. Amanda and her boyfriend,, Rafael Celetito, were questioned for hours by the police

when they couldn't take any more, they both confessed. Rafael spoke first, he said that Amanda's Alibi was a lie. She wasn't with him the entire night of Meredith's murder. Amanda told the police that her memories were fuzzy, but she recalled her boss, local bar owner, de-apatric Lumumba, being being at the house and remembering hearing Meredith scream. Then there was a third suspect Rudy Guide, Rudy's fingerprints and DNA were found

in the house. He was arrested for fleeing the country. He had another confusion later to the story. He claimed that he spent the evening with Meredith when while he was in the bathroom, an unknown man broke into the house and murdered her. As the weeks, months and years passed, new evidence came out that cast doubt on everyone's stories from the defendant to the prosecutors. So who was telling the truth? What really happened to Meredith Kertcher on the night of November 1st, 2007? Did Amanda Knox and Raphael Slecchito get away with murder?

Or were they repeated victims of investigative errors? Aside for yourself next week on Time Suck, right now let's head on over to this week's Time Sucker Updates. Our first update comes from a fantastic sack of course, Kedra Holderman. He gave me a little fanatic help. Wrote, no end you fucker. Thank you. Kendra. I'm probably saying, name wrong is still. It's probably like Kedra.

Uh, master sucker and holder of the leash of both jangles and teleturns on you. I've been driving for 12 hours. I may be delirious, but I'm so excited. I can officially tie two of your sucks together, which I'm not sure many can do. Here's the deal. I come from a badass family, uh,

whom are obvious descendants of Nimrod. Nice. Family of heroes, if you will. My fifth great-grandfather was awarded the very first congressional Medal of Honor for a single act of bravery posthumously. And you did say, I can't wait for you to fuck that word up. I would have said posthumously if you wouldn't have wrote that. So I was like, oh yeah, I need to look down on him.

J.K. Anywho I digress, my great-grandfather on my other side, fathers also received the Congressional Medal of Honor and many other incredible decorations for a single active bravery for his actions in World War I, which was later made into a movie The Lost Battalion. He was highly decorated and a man you would definitely enjoy sucking on. LOL, epic, by the way. And this leads me to the reason for my email. As I mentioned, I just completed a very long drive up the Butthole of California back to her Fleshy Tand Caves.

I had time for a lot of second. Managed to complete the end of the night's Templar II, the Aztec sucked, the Donner Party suck, and Motherfuck and Pancho Via. And I started the toy box killer suck. U. Yeah. Here's where my curious tale takes twist. Hope you're still reading.

My aforementioned great-grandfather was Colonel Nelson Miles Holderman from June to October of 1916 before World War I. He was stationed in California and participated in the hunt for none other than Poncho Motherfuckin' Bia. Onward or backwards in this many times, timeline, the Colonel Sister Lucifina, oops, I mean, Emma Holderman, birthed Dana Lamb. This man went on with his wife, Ginger, Gigi, to build their own canoe, a 16 footer, which they dubbed the vagabond and paddled down the Pacific coast

by themselves. Another necessary time that could be asked me, they paddled to South America and during their exploration, may have during their exploration, may have discovered the lost city. This is chronicle in their story, the lost city. And just to throw this little twist, a relates to toybox killer, years later as a direct relative, I own and operate peaceful hearts for change. I partner with the county of Riverside providing much needed access to alternative mental health therapy with horses, just start the toybox killer and feel it's important to mention you never truly know your neighbors. Several years ago, I received an immediate client.

This turned out to be one of the 13 turpent children rescued from the awful situation back in 2018 in Paris, California. Worked with her for a year helped her find her way through that tragic part of her life. She is now a productive member of society and I'm not ashamed to say my horse is assisted in that transition. Anyway, thanks for making poop scooped and enjoyable. Thanks for never holding both jangles back. Good boy.

Keep on sucking. Love in the Pudian juju. PS, my dog is a Pitsky Husky Pitbull mixed named Love in the Pudian, Juju. PS. My dog is a, uh, Pitsky, Husky pit bull mix named Gypsy and I have fun. Call her Juju. I've loved every story, uh, of those crazy fuckers antics. Just made it home. I'm definitely delirious. Hope this made sense. Love, love everything you do. Five out of five stars. You keep me busy while I shovel and lift a ton of horse shit daily. You're devoted. Remember the Colton Curious, Kendra Holderman. Uh, PS. My husband's best friend is a direct relative of Mr. Pancho V.S.

So my great grandfather hunted his great grandfather. Crazy. So much love for the entire team. Oh, wow. Okay. That's so much. You know, actually you reminded me to try to like put Putin, you do back into a story.

Thank you for that. And thanks for sharing the incredible history with your family and some family friends. Love that you're actually aware of all of that. So that's really cool. I did not know nearly that much about my own family at all and all at all. And now Super Stucker Steve has some interesting information to share with us.

Let's get into this Steve writes, Dear Stuck Master, years ago I heard about you on the RIS show and you even read my story about being Car Jacked while listening to your podcast. One of the give you some updates. The car jacker has since been caught arrested and sensed over 20 years in prison since that event, and through COVID, and the opinion more people have had

about law enforcement, I got burned out. Oh, sorry, man, really bad. Didn't love my job anymore. Time for a change. Magic had been a hobby, and out of the blue, I got a call from a friend with a talent agency. I thought Dan took a risk with his business, you know podcasts. Why can't I do something different? I had the support of my girlfriend who will soon be my wife and March, Hey Lucifina and my kids

So I left and over 14 year career as a police officer to be an entertainer Working for the St. Louis based circus kaput. I have been able to perform magic make balloon animals juggle and still walk I get to make people happy for a living not getting rich, but I love it That is fucking awesome. I'm happy for you. That is fucking awesome now for a close call comments law I volunteered to perform my daughter's school Christmas party as a divorce dad I get to look like the loving father. I am by doing a whole magic show for a room full of first graders This is great. I've been listening to the Mengele podcast in the car as I was setting up my speaker speaker for the music during the show, I thought my Bluetooth on my phone was off. Yep, that's how it happens. Just then I hear none other than the suckmaster talking about Nazi Germany in a room full of first

graders. Forge now is able to shut it off before anything adult was said, but damn it was a close call. Not sorry for the long email. Thanks for all the joint inspiration you bring. I listen every week. Wouldn't change the things. Three out of five stars and keep on sucking Steve Steve. I'm fucking so happy for you man. That's awesome man. You're you're doing what you love. I'm sorry that you got burnout doing another very important job, but happy that you're just happy and moving forward in a great way in your life. So thanks for sharing that story. And glad I was a tiny part of it, inspiration wisewise in some way. And now let's get another little shout out now. A little shout out from a sweet sucker named Tori.

Tori says, taking a chance and sending this in early. The intended day is January 30th. This is my thinly veiled attempt at getting my message considered to be read. Sorry about the hassle, thanks for consideration. If my message is read, maybe don't read my last name. Done, cut it out. Keep this message a surprise. Hale and and Well Met, Suck Master General, right hand of Nimrod, total

and totally rock and roll leader of our cult. The very important message I have to share with you, should you choose to take the task? Is it January 31st of the birthday? Is the birthday? Excuse me, I have a very dedicated and enthusiastic longtime member of of the cult. A space is who is dragged me into listening to your mad rambles. The most awesome nerd and an overall fan of all things weird and crazy. My dad. Oh, fuck yeah. It'll be his big 4-0. Oh, a young dad.

And I know he would be so stoked to hear a birthday shout out in his honor. Even if not exactly on his birthday, my dad Joseph is truly the best. Always extremely supportive and enthusiastic. So much of who I am is a result of his influence. He has shared with me so many of his interests, so much of his sense of humor and so much love and support. Since he's been listening to the show for so long and introduced me to a while back,

I can't think of a more perfect way to celebrate the occasion. Thanks for everything you do, Dan, and give him my dad and I another great thing to nerd out about together. Hail Nimrod, three out of five stars. Also, if you could read this message from me, I love you forever, dad. You're always my superman from bug.

Thank you, Timesug team. Also, sorry if I sent this more than once, just trying to get a good chance and surprise. Well, you did a bug. And then it's so awesome. I love how close you are to your dad. That's, man, very cool that Joseph is such an awesome guy. Happy birthday, Joseph.

And fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. I'm gonna have that in my head forever now. Even though there's no rhythm to it, I just wanna keep saying fight. And we have one more. We're gonna end on another solid message from another solid meat sack with a cool connection to the show.

Let us hear what the marvelous Melissa has to say. Melissa writes greetings, master sucker. My name is Melissa, we've chatted before. I wanted to give you an overdue update on a project you helped inspire. I don't know if you'll read this one on the updates, but I hope you will. Long time ago, I reached out,

we chatted because you inspire me to create content. After your Titanic episode, I became engrossed in the story of the ship's second officer. You were kind enough to chat with me, told me you were proud of what I was doing. I wanted to give you an update. What if I stopped right there and I was like, I was fucking kidding.

I never thought this was a good idea. Now, the stuff is on. You told me you were proud of what you do. I was lying. I was spaced off. I just agreed because I didn't know what you're saying. No, I remember. I wanted to give you an up to the project I undertook.

You had mentioned, you had mentioned, excuse me, what a badass Charles Light-Tolder was. After surviving the Titanic, he went under rescue 130 men during the Dunkirk evacuation. Since a recently tackled World War II, I thought he'd like to know I tracked down his boat, the sundowner, that he used during Operation Dynamo. It had been in the museum in the UK where it had fallen into disrepair. It is no longer sea worthy, but I found out that two awesome guys had saved her and are working to fix her out of their own pockets. I went and visited the boat.

Now we have joined forces to save this boat by crowd sourcing. Couldn't believe that the boat was in such awful shape. It's gonna cost a lot of money to fix her. But we have built a website and our campaign in both the US and the UK to save her. I'm writing to say that because of your podcast and commitment to telling excellent stories,

thanks, I felt extra mushed mouth today. So I don't know if I was at today, but I tried. We are going to save this piece of history. We have a website, sundowner.online. And I just want to thank you for being awesome and inspiring me to help keep the legacy afloat. Was that pun intended? I like it. You don't know the people who inspire daily keep on sucking Melissa. And then yeah, it's a sundown or dot online. Well, thanks Melissa. And yeah, it is. I do I feel very fortunate that this fucking mush mouth idiot speaking right now is able to inspire anybody. I have the time in the middle of these episodes. I'm like, what the fuck? I should stop. I should stop right now. But I do like it. I like

the challenge. And I like learning all this stuff. And I'm glad that it inspires people in any way. So very, very thankful. Thank you all for sending these messages. What a fun way to start. 2023. Thanks, time suckers. I need a net.

We all did. Thanks for listening to another Bad Magic Productions podcast. You know what? I hope you have a great week. This week start the new year. I just hope you try not to blame any board games on satanic influences. And you know, just instead get into it, deep dive on these games and keep on sucking. And magic productions.

You know what's coming? Join me. You know what's coming? Join me. Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. I am fighting man. Look at my defense shield. Check out my melee sword. Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, I can. I am fighting man.

Are you fucking think of this? How much can you take? Why don't you hit skin? You should go to another pot that it has to be better than this? Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. I'm in your head. Yes. I don't know.

What am I doing this? I don't, I don't even like it now. Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. and like it now. Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight.