From Genesis to Revelation
A very brief history of Dungeons & Dragons
In 1974 Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson took Chainmail, a glorified boardgame for adult history aficionados and Tolkien fanatics, and turned it into Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), a game of storytelling and improvisation for imaginative people of all ages. This was a game like no other, in that it captured the free flowing spirit of campfire stories and theatrical improvisation, the rules being simply a tool to help players step into a land of shared make-believe. This was a world of pure imagination.
Original D&D (left, 1974) and Holmes Basic D&D (right, 1977)
This first edition of the game, nicknamed "Original" D&D, was followed by the "Holmes Basic" edition in 1977 and then by the "Moldvay Basic" edition in 1980. This latter edition made the game a definite success.
The Moldvay Basic Rulebook (1980)
In 2014, Dungeons & Dragons jumped into the mainstream with the launch of the Fifth Edition of the game, a huge commercial success. The print and page design quality of the books were unparalleled in the game's history, and the quality of the cover was no exception.
Fifth Edition Player's Handbook (2014)
Visual Aids for the Imagination
Dungeons and Dragons is, at heart, a game of make-believe in which players describe what is happening with words, and the players' imaginations complete the picture. I aim to compare the art of the Moldvay Basic edition cover from 1980, to the art of the 2014 edition cover. I argue that the old, simpler art style did more to stimulate the imagination than the modern, more visually dazzling style.
There is no artwork I know can compete with your imagination
"How do you Win this Game?"
How D&D works at the table
First of all, let us take a look at how a game of D&D actually works in practice. There is a "Dungeon Master" --a sort of Referee-- and a number of other Players --each playing a Character as in a play--, ranging from one to however many can fit around the living room table. The purpose of the game is to create a story. The Dungeon Master presents a situation to the players (e.g. there is a damsel in distress, or a treacherous schemer conspiring against the realm, or a bandit in the forest with a heart of gold), and the players attempt --in Character-- to unravel it. This is all done by talking about it and acting it out, and everybody at the table imagines what is happening as it is being told. Whenever a Character attempts to do something to advance the story, something momentous, where it could change the outcome if it fails or it succeeds, there is a dice roll to determine what happened. Then, the players at the table describe or act out the details of what has happened, and the story continues on.
D&D, then, is not a game with winners and losers, but something more like theatrical improvisation or telling a story around a campfire. There are rules for when a Character attempts something important or difficult, but there is also an element of total randomness. Nobody knows how the story is going to end until you come to a good stopping point (the heroes have triumphed, died in the attempt, fled in disgrace, or decided instead to join forces with the charming bandit of Sherwood Forest), and you collectively declare the story to be over -- at least for that weekend. The only way to lose at D&D, one could argue, is not to have fun. And the best way to have fun at it is to use your imagination.
Blank Pages vs Coloring Books
How style hints at the substance of play
Now that we're all on the same page, let's get back to those two covers. Though one should not judge a book by its cover, it still happens, and so companies seek to make covers attractive. This is especially important when one takes into account that the intended audience of these books spans an age range that starts at elementary school and continues into retirement. D&D lives and dies thanks to its Players and Dungeon Masters, and it has always been in the interests of the company to keep the players coming back for more. Because it is a game that relies on the imagination, it is a game that can potentially be replayed for the entirety of a person's life, with no two games being exactly the same.
The purpose of these covers, then, is to spark the imagination, because the books contain the rules, but the game itself is born in the minds of the players. The rules come complete in order to cover most possible situations, but the game is not complete until it is played.
Moldvay Basic (1980) and 5th Edition (2014)
On the surface, the 5th Edition cover is dazzling. There is good use of color and shadow and the composition leads the eyes to the center of the scene, where the single heroine faces impossible odds against the giant, whose body takes up almost the entire frame. There is another character on the bottom right, but he appears as a mere spectator to the heroine's clash, so much so that he is easily missed. The style is reminiscent of modern computer games and CGI-heavy movies.
The Moldvay Basic cover has not aged that well, as it is much more rudimentary by comparison, with little use of shadow or perspective, as well as less realistic lighting and color. The scene is framed as if viewed through a small window. A party of two adventurers face down a dragon together. The characters and their enemy almost appear to be on the same plane. The style brings to mind fantasy books for children or younger teenagers. It almost seems like the finest details and textures of the figures have been left deliberately unfinished.
These differences are related to the different contexts that these books were published in, but even taking this into consideration, I argue that the 5th Edition cover misses the original intent of the game. Let us first address those different conditions, however.
The Moldvay Basic cover only had other books, and two-dimensional animated movies, to compete with. There was, however, a clear attempt to use art to hook the potential gamer, as can be seen by the fact that the art encompasses about half the page, as opposed to what was happening on the cover of Original D&D (left).
Right: World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment's most successful videogame
The 5th Edition cover was competing with modern computer games, movies chock full of CGI nearly indistinguishable from reality, and it was no longer the only game in town. By 2014, the concept of Tabletop Roleplaying Games had taken off, and D&D actually had competitors.
Yet, it is the style of the 1980 Moldvay Basic cover that better captures the spirit of the game. D&D is at its core a game that aims to transcend any art displayed in its rulebooks, since no amount of beautiful shading can compete with the imagination. As such, the more rudimentary style of the 1980 art illustrated that concept right from the cover: this is an unfinished template for the most incredible thing you, the readers, can imagine around the table. It is up to you to imagine the shining scales on the dragon and their reflection on the tip of the spear. You will make it come alive.
The 5th Edition cover, by comparison, presents a practically finished product. The heroine faces the giant in deadly combat and something momentous is about to happen. What could it be? Wait-- the text at the bottom reads "Everything a player needs to create heroic characters for the world's greatest roleplaying game." The fact that she is meant to win is a foregone conclusion. Instead of telling the reader this is a game that lets anything happen, it is telling us this is a game where you can do things like this. Insofar as this runs counter to the core of the game, I argue that this cover is actually less effective.
Moving forward, I will address two other points that further exemplify this argument: D&D as a social game, and D&D as a game with infinite replayability.
A Gaming Table to Rule them All
D&D: a social game
A Dungeon Master and her Players getting deeply into character
I was first introduced to D&D by my brother as a young teenager, but after a few games I put the hobby on the shelf until 2017. Since then, I have delved deeper, participating in dozens of games with neighbors, fellow San Franciscans, and through the magic of online conference calls, people from all over the globe. D&D is a game of constant interaction, both with the Dungeon Master and one's fellow Players. At its heart, and from the very beginning, it has been a group game.
This is, in my view, an incredibly positive aspect of the game, in that it promotes socializing and cooperating. It is by cooperation that the party of Characters can make off with the princess, the treasure or both, and it is also by cooperation that a gaming table creates a memorable experience for everyone to treasure forever. Dungeons and Dragons is an inclusive game, a factor that no doubt contributes to the fact that people of all sexes, sexual orientations, gender identities and different walks of life are drawn to the game. D&D has even been used in prisons to improve inmate morale, promote socialization and fight segregation, including within the California prison system.
Going back to the aforementioned covers, 5th Edition presents a lone heroine in mid-jump attacking the giant, while Moldvay Basic shows a group of two adventurers battling the dragon, their feet presumably square on the ground, shield held up and even a torch to battle the darkness. Tell me, reader, which of these covers most looks like an introduction to a social game portraying the journey from zero to hero, instead of the final result? You guessed it -- they had this stuff figured out in 1980.
A Neverending Story
The Old School Renaissance: how Old School D&D inspires creators to this day
One of the main reasons that Dungeons and Dragons has had so much appeal is that the game can be played an infinite number of times and it will never play exactly the same. This depends, however, on the Dungeon Master and Players' ability to use their imagination to introduce twists into the old tropes. This is an area in which the D&D player community has really shined, by writing, compiling and publishing swaths of original third-party content for the game. Some of this is featured in blog form --see the blogroll to the right of this post-- and some of it in books like the one at the bottom below, which --surprise, surprise-- pays homage to the art of an early edition.
Holmes Basic (1977) and Blueholme (2017)
And so it came to pass that...
Until we meet again, adventurerA game that empowers its players as much as D&D would likely fail to impress a marketing department were it not for the numbers that prove it can be a success. After all, when a table creates its own world, its own content, and its own spin on the fantasy tropes, Wizards of the Coast, the current owner of the D&D brand, does not make a single extra dollar. But once a mind has tasted the fruit of its own imagination, it will keep coming back, and it will gladly pay for a book that serves as an inspiring springboard to another story not yet written, to a world not yet created, a world that will only get its finishing touches at the table -- at least until the following session. Wizards of the Coast has a golden dragon on its hands, and if they only look to past editions, that golden dragon will keep laying golden eggs.
About the author
Ignacio Fernández Ivern is a student of Linguistics from the University of Buenos Aires currently continuing his studies at San Francisco State University with the end goal of an MA in Linguistics. He has made a living tutoring, teaching, interpreting and translating since 2008. He is the co-author of three Tabletop Role Playing Game books of future publication. His free time is spent playing Tabletop RPGs with his friends, or smiling at his very patient wife.
