The standard game was eventually expanded into a series of five box sets by the mid-1980s before being compiled and slightly revised in 1991 as the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia.
In 2000 the two-branch split was ended when a new version was designated the 3rd edition, but dropped the "Advanced" prefix to be called simply Dungeons & Dragons.
The original D&D was published as a box set in 1974 and features only a handful of the elements for which the game is known today: just three character classes (fighting-man, magic-user, and cleric); four races (human, dwarf, elf, and hobbit); only a few monsters; only three alignments (lawful, neutral, and chaotic).
[1]: 26 Only $100 was budgeted for artwork, and TSR co-founder Gary Gygax pressed into service anyone who was willing to help, including local artist Cookie Corey; Greg Bell, a member of Jeff Perren's gaming group; D&D co-creator Dave Arneson; Gygax's wife's half-sister Keenan Powell; and fellow TSR co-founder Don Kaye.
D&D was a radically new gaming concept at the time, and it was difficult for players without prior tabletop wargaming experience to grasp the vague rules.
The release of the Greyhawk supplement removed the game's dependency on the Chainmail rules,[2] and made it much easier for new, non-wargaming players to grasp the concepts of play.
[3] Supplements such as Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry and Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes, published over the next two years, greatly expanded the rules, character classes, monsters and spells.
Major additions include classes from supplements like assassin, druid, monk, paladin, and thief,[5] while bard, illusionist, and ranger, which had previously only appeared in magazine articles, were added to the core rulebooks.
While AD&D was still in the works, TSR was approached by an outside writer and D&D enthusiast, John Eric Holmes, who offered to re-edit and rewrite the original rules into an introductory version of D&D.
The booklet collects and organizes the rules from the original D&D boxed set and Greyhawk supplement and features a blue cover with artwork by David C. Sutherland III.
The "blue booklet" explains the game's concepts and method of play in terms that made it accessible to new players not familiar with tabletop miniatures wargaming.
In 1987, a small team of designers at TSR led by David "Zeb" Cook began work on the second edition of the AD&D game, which would be completed almost two years later.
Gygax had already planned a second edition for the game, which would also have been an update of the rules, incorporating the material from Unearthed Arcana, Oriental Adventures, and numerous new innovations from Dragon magazine in the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide and would have consolidated the Monster Manual, Monster Manual II and Fiend Folio into one volume.
Moving away from the moral ambiguity of the 1st edition AD&D, the TSR staff eliminated character classes and races like the assassin and the half-orc, and stressed heroic roleplaying and player teamwork.
This format proved highly susceptible to wear and tear, however, and presented difficulties in keeping alphabetic order when pages had been printed with monsters on each side.
The edition also greatly increases the power of dragons, in order to counter the impression of relative weakness of the game's titular monster.
Demi-human races are given higher level maximums to increase their long-term playability, though they are still restricted in terms of character class flexibility.
Combined, the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide sold over 400,000 copies in the first year of release, a solid hit, but their lifetime sales were not close to matching the huge success of First Edition.
[16] Ben Riggs writes that TSR insiders worried that the word "Advanced" in the title was scaring off interested newcomers into thinking the product was not for them, and more generally that players of First Edition could simply continue using their old books.
Later products include additional and supplementary rules subsystems such as "epic-level" options for characters above 20th level, as well as a heavily revised treatment of psionics.
This revision was intentionally a small one focusing on addressing common complaints about certain aspects of gameplay, hence the "half edition" version number.
[citation needed] Slashdot reported anger from some players and retailers due to the financial investment in v3.5 and the relatively brief period of time that it had been in publication.
[29] In 2024, Torner highlighted that this edition focused on mechanical balance and "was a purely combat-based miniatures game that afforded each character comparable advantages on the battlefield.
[32] Shannon Appelcline, author of Designers & Dragons, highlighted that the Essentials line was "primarily the brain child of Mike Mearls".
This edition also has "setting guides that add some setting-specific rules as opposed to complete supplements that are intended for inclusion with any Dungeons and Dragons game".
[70][71] Revised editions of the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide are scheduled to have a staggered release between September 2024 and February 2025.
[80] Castles & Crusades, published in 2004 by Troll Lord Games, is an early example of the OGL and SRD being used to recreate the experience of older editions.
A particular challenge has been the word dungeon, which in standard English means a single prison cell or oubliette originally located under a keep.
Some languages, like Spanish, Italian, Finnish, and Portuguese, didn't translate the title of the game and kept it as it is in English: Dungeons & Dragons.
In gaming jargon, however, a dungeon is not a single holding cell but rather a network of underground passages or subterranea to be explored, such as a cave, ruins or catacombs.