Chances are, you know what Dungeons and Dragons is - the most famous fantasy role-playing system there is (plus a fun cartoon)! Here's a little bit of history though, to start off this page.
Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) published by Wizards of the Coast. The original Dungeons & Dragons, designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, was first published in 1974 by Gygax's company, Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). Originally derived from tabletop games, D&D's publication is generally regarded as the beginning of modern roleplaying games, and by extension, the roleplaying game & MMORPG industry.
The early success of Dungeons & Dragons quickly led to a proliferation of similar game systems, such as RuneQuest, Tunnels and Trolls, Traveller, and Arduin. Despite this competition, D&D has continued to dominate the roleplaying game industry throughout its existence, enjoying a nearly impenetrable market position. In 1977 the game was split into two slightly different versions: the simpler Dungeons & Dragons and the more complex Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as AD&D or ADnD). In 2000, the simplified version of the game was discontinued and the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons was released as a major revision of the AD&D game. The current version of the game, released in July 2003, is Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 (also known as the Revised 3rd Edition or D&D3.5).
As of 2006, Dungeons & Dragons remains the best-known and best-selling roleplaying game, with an estimated 20 million players worldwide and over US$1 billion in book and equipment sales (according to a BBC news report). Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of the RPG products sold in 2002. Outside of the gaming community, "D&D" has become a metonym used to refer to roleplaying games in general.
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