Numerous different editions of the Dungeons & Dragons game have been published since the game's original release in 1974. Each edition features significantly different rules, which are typically incompatible with previous editions. As of 2018, the most recent edition is Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, released by Wizards of the Coast in 2014.
Opinions over which edition of the game is best are a major topic of discussion in the Dungeons & Dragons community.
Original edition (1974)[]
- Main article: Original Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons was initially released in 1974 a box set of three rulebooks: Men & Magic (1974), Monsters & Treasure (1974), and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (1974).[1]
This initial release was simply known as Dungeons & Dragons, but is retroactively called Original Dungeons & Dragons or OD&D to disambiguate it from later editions. Other names include 0th edition (zero-th edition, or 0e), White Box (after the color of the box used from 1975 in its 4th printing onward), wood box (after the design of its original box), Original Collectors Edition or OCE (a name applied to its sixth printing in 1977 to distinguish it from the new Basic D&D), or simply "Dungeons & Dragons (1974)".
It was followed by four expansion books known as Supplements I-IV: Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975), Supplement II: Blackmoor (1975), Eldritch Wizardry (1976), and Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976).
Original Dungeons & Dragons remained in print until the end of 1979.[1] Wizards of the Coast later released a digital download edition with new cover art, and a deluxe wooden boxed set.[2]
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons[]
From 1977 until 2000, the D&D game was divided into two product lines: the more complex Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and a newbie-friendly Dungeons & Dragons (Basic Dungeons & Dragons).
AD&D 1st edition (1977-1979)[]
- Main article: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was released as three separate books over three years: Monster Manual (1e) (1977), Players Handbook (1e) (1978), and Dungeon Masters Guide (1e) (1979).
TSR was unable to afford to run the company without a product release during the game's long development, leading Gygax to write and release one book at a time. Owing in part to this edition's staggered release schedule, many players would mix-and-match between different editions of the game, despite the fact that the rules systems were not completely compatible.
AD&D 2nd edition (1989)[]
- Main article: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition
Following the departure of original designer Gary Gygax from the company, TSR wrote and published a new second edition of the AD&D game.[3] Its rules content was substantially similar to AD&D first edition, and Gygax later claimed it was done to deny him royalties on sales of AD&D.[4]
The Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide were released in 1989.
In 1995, TSR released revised edition of the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. These consisted largely of a new, cleaner layout and a large amount of new artwork.
Basic Dungeons & Dragons[]
During the publication of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' 1st and 2nd editions, TSR continued to produce a separate Dungeons & Dragons product line based on Original Dungeons & dragons and intended an entry-level game.
Holmes Basic (1977)[]
- Main article: Basic Set (Holmes)
The Basic Set was a boxed set written in 1977 by Eric Holmes, based largely on the original D&D White Box rules. This edition is identified by its cover, featuring a dragon lying upon a pile of treasure. It is often called Basic D&D, D&D Basic, or Holmes D&D after its author.
It featured four character classes (Fighting Men, Magic-users, Clerics and Thieves), and three races (dwarves and halflings, who were effectively limited to the Fighting Men class, and elves, effectively limited to dual-class Fighting Men/Magic-users).
In many places, Basic refers players to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons for further rules, and many players effectively played some ad-hoc combination of the two systems. Notably, Basic has no rules for characters above third level.
This edition featured the two-axis alignment system. It also used the word "Dungeon Master" to refer to the game referee, something which the original D&D White Box set did not.
Moldvay B/X (1981)[]
In 1981, a new edition of the D&D Basic Set was written by Tom Moldvay. This new Basic Set can be distinguished by its cover, a red book with artwork featuring a spearman and sorceress fighting a green dragon. It was followed by the blue Expert Set, which allows play from 4th to 14th level. The cover of this book features a wizard scrying on the events of the Basic book's cover.
This edition is sometimes called B/X (Basic/Expert) after its two core rulebooks, red and blue books after their color, or Moldvay D&D or Moldvay/Cook after its primary authors.
In this edition, each non-human race is explicity a character class. The classses available are clerics, dwarves, elves, fighters, halflings, magic users, and thieves. It returns to the single-axis alignment system (law, neutrality and chaos).
Mentzer BECMI (1983)[]
Yet another new edition of the basic D&D game was released beginning in 1983. This edition is known as Mentzer D&D, for its author, or BECMI, for the initials of its five core rulebooks. It is noted as the edition of D&D played in the TV series Stranger Things. It is sometimes called fourth edition, but this has fallen out of favor to avoid confusion with WotC's D&D 4th edition (2008).
The Basic Rules (1983) is a red book, and has a warrior fighting a red dragon on the cover, drawn by Larry Elmore. It takes players from levels 1-3. Like Moldvay's edition, it has single-axis alignment, and elf, dwarf and halfling are classes rather than races.
The Expert Rules (1983) is a blue book, with the cover featuring a mounted warrior fighting a dragon. Like Cook's Expert rules in the 1981 edition, it takes characters through levels 4 to 14.
The Companion Rules (1984) is a green book, with the cover art featuring a warrior with a magical two-handed sword fighting a green dragon. It takes characters through levels 15 to 25, at this point surpassing AD&D, which limits characters to level 20.
The Master Rules (1985) is a black book, with the cover featuring a warrior riding a gold dragon. It takes characters through levels 26 to 36, and establishes level 36 as the maximum possible level for humans.
The Immortals Rules (1986) is a golden book featuring a flying man and a red dragon on another world. This book throws out the entire class system and establishes a system for characters who have ascended to a kind of divinity.
Easy to Master (1991)[]
In 1991, TSR released The New Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons Game, by Troy Denning. It it sometimes called the Black Box.
This edition took players from levels 1-5.
Rules Cyclopedia (1991)[]
- Main article: Rules Cyclopedia
In 1991, TSR published the Rules Cyclopedia, by Aaron Allston. This edition is usually simply referred to by players as the Rules Cyclopedia or RC.
This edition combines elements of all five BECMI books, detailing character classes from level 1 to 36 in a single book. It introduces the optional druid and mystic classes. It includes rules for converting game supplements between RC and AD&D 2nd edition, and optional rules removing the harsh level caps on dwarves, elves and halflings.
Classic D&D (1994)[]
The Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game (1994), edited by Doug Stewart, was the last new edition under the basic Dungeons & Dragons brand line until TSR's buyout by Wizards of the Coast.
This edition takes characters from level 1 to 5.
Dungeons & Dragons[]
Following TSR's bankruptcy and acqusition by Wizards of the Coast, all new editions of Dungeons & Dragons dropped the Advanced/Basic divide, and the game was simply known as Dungeons & Dragons.
D&D 3rd edition (2000)[]
- Main article: Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition
In 2000, Wizards of the Coast released a subtantially updated and revised of the Dungeons & Dragons game, consisting of the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual.
D&D 3e drew considerably from AD&D 2e, including in its decision to officially continue the version numbering system from that edition. However, Wizards of the Coast decided to retire the "Advanced" product title, since it had no intent of maintaining the "basic" product line and did not wish to divide the audience between two incompatible sets of D&D Rules.
Third edition's lead designers were Skip Williams, TSR's former AD&D rules expert; Monte Cook, a Planescape writer unrelated to AD&D 2e author Zeb Cook (although Zeb Cook's name originally inspired Monte to become a D&D writer); and Jonathan Tweet, creator of rival fantasy RPG Ars Magica.
This edition unofficially became known as "D&D 3.0" after the 2003 release of D&D 3.5. The term "third edition" is variously applied to D&D 3.0, and to the 3.0/3.5 era in general.
D&D 3.5 (2003)[]
In 2003, Wizards of the Coast released a revised and updated edition of D&D third edition, termed Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. This was largely similar to the original third edition, but made numerous minor rules adjustments.
The decision to revise the rules in this manner was initially controversial in the D&D community. Many players resented being forced to re-buy three core rulebooks (Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual). Designer Monte Cook thought 3.5 came out too soon, made too many changes, and was motivated by profit rather than need for improvement.[5]
However, D&D 3.5 was ultimately popular, and remained so even after the release of D&D's fourth and fifth editions. As of 2018, D&D 3.5 is the third most popular game on digital gaming platform Roll20 with 22,731 players, after Paizo's D&D 3.5-based Pathfinder RPG (25,443 players) and D&D 5th edition (59,806 players), and ahead of D&D 4th edition (8,714 players).[6]
D&D 4th edition (2008)[]
- Main article: Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition
In 2008, Wizards of the Coast released D&D 4th edition. The three core rulebooks for this edition are the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual . 4th edition also introduced a subscription-based online component, D&D Insider, which provided access to various tools, such as a monster designer, character builder, and an online rules database called the Compendium.
4th edition made many changes and additions, some of them quite pervasive or far reaching. Combat was designed with precise terminology, range, and area, which were difficult to make effective use of without battle maps and tokens or miniatures. Spellcasting was formally divided between combat and non-combat magic, with most non-combat spells becoming Utility powers or "Rituals", the latter requiring expensive material components. New concepts included the skill challenge, a format for running more structured, interactive non-combat encounters.
Some of these changes were highly controversial with some players. As with the previous edition, negative comparisons were often drawn to other media, such as anime, or MMORPG video games, such as World of Warcraft. Wizards had also hoped to monetize gameplay by selling miniatures in blind "packs," much like Magic: The Gathering cards, but this was generally rejected by players. A digital gametable and other software tools promised in the Player's Handbook were never released.
In 2010, Wizards of the Coast began releasing D&D Essentials, a D&D 4th edition product line aimed at restoring many traditional D&D class mechanics and appealing to new players. While some saw it as an "edition" in the vein of D&D 3.5, Essentials was still part of 4th edition, merely adding new options, rather than replacing any existing options.
D&D 5th edition (2014)[]
- Main article: Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition
Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition was released in 2014 with three core rulebooks: the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual. This followed two years of playtesting (2012-2014) under the name "D&D Next."
According to Wizards of the Coast, as of 2018 D&D 5th edition is the most successful edition of the game yet. The advent of online game streaming, with D&D play streams like Critical Role introducing countless new players to the game, has been cited as a major factor in its success.
The design of D&D 5th edition draws design-wise from D&D 3rd edition, with influences from rules systems such as E6, Dungeon World and D&D 4th edition. The rules are more streamlined than third edition, with less focus on character optimization.
"One D&D" (2024)[]
On August 18, 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced plans for a new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rules, known by the codename "One D&D". Playtest rules were released via D&D Beyond. The new D&D would be backwardly compatible with D&D 5th edition, and slated for release in 2024, the fiftieth anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons.[7]
Unofficial editions[]
Retro-clones[]
The departure of D&D 4th edition from D&D's traditional roots in 2008 sparked a period of renewed interest in early editions of the game, known as the old-school revival or OSR. At the same time, the Open Gaming License used by D&D 3rd edition gave publishers the legal option to use copyrighted D&D game terminology.
The result was a number of unofficial games intended to simulate the rules and atmosphere of older editions of D&D, known as retro-clones. Well-known retro-clones include Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, and Dark Dungeons.
Pathfinder RPG[]
In 2002, Wizards of the Coast outsourced its magazines Dragon and Dungeon to Paizo Publishing, on the conventional wisdom that print magazines were on the way out. In 2007, with the upcoming release of D&D 4th edition, Wizards chose not to renew Paizo's license to print the magazines.
Paizo responded by publishing Pathfinder, initially a series of adventure modules for D&D 3.5. As that edition of D&D went out of print, Paizo published Pathfinder RPG, their own spinoff of the D&D 3.5 ruleset.
As of 2017, Pathfinder is the second most popular RPG at digital gaming site Roll20.
In 2019, Paizo released the second edition of Pathfinder, featuring major changes to the rules and game-play. In 2023 going into 2024, Paizo began releasing Pathfinder Second Edition Remastered, which removes D&D-specific names or elements in order to end the game's reliance on the Open Game License, following the 2023 OGL controversy.
External links[]
- Every Edition of D&D: A Quick History of the World's First Roleplaying Games, Jun 12, 2021. The Alexandrian, YouTube.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Original D&D Set, The Acaceum.
- ↑ Original Dungeons & Dragons RPG (2013)
- ↑ "When Zeb Cook rewrote AD&D, I was no longer associated with TSR is any way." - Gary Gygax, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, ENWorld (2002).
- ↑ "It was done so as to remove my name and have a “derivative” game for which no royalties were payable to me per agreement." - Gary Gygax, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, ENWorld (2005).
- ↑ "This revision is too much, too soon. In fact, it's much more than just a "revision." ... Even before 3.0 went to the printer, the business team overseeing D&D was talking about 3.5. Not surprisingly, most of the designers -- particularly the actual 3.0 team (Jonathan Tweet, Skip Williams, and I) thought this was a poor idea. Also not surprisingly, our concerns were not enough to affect the plan. The idea, they assured us, was to make a revised edition that was nothing but a cleanup of any errata that might have been found after the book's release, a clarification of issues that seemed to confuse large numbers of players, and, most likely, all new art. It was slated to come out in 2004 or 2005, to give a boost to sales at a point where -- judging historically from the sales trends of previous editions -- they probably would be slumping a bit. It wasn't to replace everyone's books, and it wouldn't raise any compatibility or conversion issues. Here I sit, in 2003, with my reviewer's copies of the 3.5 books next to my computer, and that's not what I see." - Monte Cook, Looking at D&D v 3.5 (2003).
- ↑ The Orr Group Industry Report: Q4 2017 (2018).
- ↑ One D&D