For nearly a decade, there hasn’t been more than a vestige of a black society in the official world of Dungeons & Dragons. There have been black people, but no black civilizations except for a relatively small group of survivors of a catastrophe and locals living under colonists’ control. Back in 2008, D&D’s…

Decades of D&D fans repeating the old adage “Friends don’t let friends play half-orcs” may have had some tangible effects. Yesterday, FiveThirtyEight published data on the most D&D popular classes and races and, well, half-orcs only make up about five percent of all D&D characters played between August 15 and…

Last week, Wizards of the Coast reimagined their classic horror game Betrayal at House on the Hill in a Dungeons & Dragons high fantasy setting. Back in 2004, Betrayal captured the curiosity and fear that comes with crawling through a haunted mansion with mechanics that brilliantly mirrored its horror theme. Slowly…

Divinity: Original Sin 2 has a mode that lets players design their own Dungeons & Dragons-esque adventure inside the role-playing game, and in case you were wondering what kind of dweeb would port their homebrew D&D game into DoS: 2, the answer is me. My experiment was instructive and, I think, says a lot about the…

Dungeons & Dragons’ selling point is that is lets players be and do things they’ve always dreamed of. Dinosaur racing has never been one of those things for me, but if it is for you, D&D’s newest adventure, which launched today, delivers on that very specific fantasy.

So, uh, I’ve been pretty fixated on the idea of a dungeon-crawl-slash-cooking show—a Dungeons & Dragons game where you kill what you eat. A few questionably-spent days of vacation after spawning this ludicrous idea, I found a way to mod Dungeons & Dragons to accommodate my cooking fantasies. And, surprisingly, it…

As we sat together at Gen Con in Indianapolis this weekend talking Dungeons & Dragons, the game’s lead rules developer Jeremy Crawford motioned towards a copy of the Player’s Handbook resting on the table between us. “I wasn’t about to have this book go out and not acknowledge that people like me exist,” he said.

Dungeons & Dragons’ lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford has a tough job. To keep the game in top form, he’s got to make sure its exhaustive ruleset walks that fine line between combat and role-play, thoroughness and accessibility, firmness and flexibility. Along the way, he’s come up with some good tips on getting in…

A bloodthirsty janitor, Colonel Mustard, Death, a God-fearing cleric and a dabbing teen had one thing in common at Gen Con last weekend: they were among over a hundred Level 1 characters whom a sadistic dungeon master killed in the span of two hours.

When everything in the physical world is getting uploaded onto some great supercomputer in space, you will find me hiding somewhere dark, clinging to my Dungeons & Dragons character sheets. Yes, that’s how much I love playing D&D the traditional way: real dice, real paper and real damn pencils. But Dungeons & Dragons’…

Enter the tavern. Bite the plot hook. Go on your righteous journey. Kill the monsters. Fight the boss. Free the town. Rinse, repeat, and rejoice in those experience points. There you have it: the life of a lawful good Dungeons & Dragons character.

Almost every copy of the first Dungeons & Dragons adventure written by a woman is buried in a landfill in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Dungeons & Dragons is no longer a basement sport. It took 40 years, but now, in 2017, Dungeons & Dragons has emerged from its cultural cavern as the video platforms Twitch and YouTube help players bring their intimate D&D games to the public realm—including Overwatch voice actor Matt Mercer, whose Twitch show Critical…

Dinosaurs are coming to Dungeons & Dragons with its upcoming adventure, Tomb of Annihilation. Slated for a September 19th release, Tomb of Annihilation will have players hacking through a jungle full of undead, dinosaurs and, yes, undead dinosaurs to find a legendary artifact that could quell a curse.

Dungeons & Dragons’ biggest livestreaming event ever goes down tomorrow. Steam of Annihilation will be two days of D&D games played by the game’s designers and big fan personalities. Throughout the stream, publisher Wizards of the Coast will dole out info on D&D’s next storyline.

Last year the company responsible for D&D, Magic: The Gathering, My Little Pony and Transformers announced Hascon, a three-day fan celebration of the stuff it makes. Tickets for the Providence, Rhode Island show are now on sale, with adult three-day passes ranging from $165 to $600. Wow.

Storytelling was never the same after Dungeons & Dragons. When players, guided by a dungeon master, knit a dense narrative whose many threads are each supported by their neighbors, it makes the case that many voices are greater than one. This is the pitch on which Dungeons & Dragons stakes its brand.

Adam Davis, co-founder of the Dungeons & Dragons therapy group Wheelhouse Workshop, thinks kids with social issues aren’t being asked the right questions. In a dreary school counselor’s office, it can be hard to engage with “Why aren’t you doing your homework?” and “Have you tried joining clubs?” For Davis, more…

If you, like me, are an evil dungeon master, you will love Dungeons & Dragons adventure Dead in Thay’s map. If you are a mascochistic D&D player who loves getting trapped in fiery pits with ferocious liches, you will also love it.