When it comes to unearthing the influences behind Chainmail (1971), Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren's medieval rules with a fantasy…

Sometimes you need to stop dissecting the roots of Chainmail for long enough to appreciate the humor that the authors…

Just months before Chainmail came out, when Gary Gygax put together the seventh issue of the Domesday Book, he included…

This weekend at the Wizards of the Coast "Stream of Many Eyes" event I got my hands on a copy…

"We're known down here as the strange people with the funny dice," begins Bob Waltman, describing the reputation of the…

In the early days of gaming, a title could pass through a lot of hands before making its way to…

Early in 1980, TSR Hobbies circulated a slender booklet containing graphics and copy for hobby stores to reuse when advertising…

Gary Gygax explicitly called the Guidon Dungeons & Dragons document the "first draft" of the game in a cover letter.…

If anything could draw the attention of the mainstream press of 1976 to an obscure pastime like Dungeons & Dragons, it…

Two years before Chainmail was released, and a year before there was a Castle & Crusade Society, Gary Gygax was…

Early in 1976, no one had any idea that Dungeons & Dragons would go on to transform the gaming hobby.…

Of the gamers who assembled and self-published variant fantasy role-playing rules in the 1970s, few showed the dedication of Michael…

Early press about D&D rarely has the luxury of wading deep into the play of ongoing campaigns. That is what…

It was early in November 1979: the publication of the Dungeon Masters Guide had recently completed the core Advanced Dungeons &…