Thursday, July 10, 2025

Explore The Origins Of The World’s Oldest Roleplaying Game With First Look At ‘The Making Of Original Dungeons & Dragons’

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Die hard fans of Dungeons & Dragons will get to explore the origins of the world’s oldest role-playing game with The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons, releasing this summer to celebrate the game’s 50th Anniversary. The hefty tome documents the very beginnings of D&D including Gary Gygax’s first draft of original D&D, and early published writings such as the 1974 original D&D “white box” booklets and supplements. These are all accompanied by commentary by gaming historian Jon Peterson. The book, currently priced at $99.99, hits stores June 18.

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons book
  • Unearth the very first draft of original D&D, never released to the public until now. Crafted on Gygax’s home typewriter, this 1973 document contains handwritten notes by both Gygax and Dave Arneson.
  • Discover approximately 30 early articles and rare documents that lay the foundation for modern D&D, including unpublished correspondence between Gygax and Arneson.
The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons chainmail look
A look at D&D’s progenitor Chainmail
  • Peruse a remarkable collection of magazine and fanzine articles, many of which are no longer publicly available or remain undiscovered by D&D historians and fans of classic D&D.
  • Flip through facsimiles of all the first printings of Original D&D, compiled in a single book for the first time in D&D’s publishing history.
The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons pages
The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons interior showing an early supplement
  • Explore the creation and development of the original 1974 game with insightful commentary by Jon Peterson, one of D&D’s foremost historians.

The book will be released on June 18th, 2024 and is currently available for pre-order from Amazon (and will be available from local game shops and book retailers soon).

Images via Dungeons & Dragons

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Author

  • Dan Arndt

    Fiction writer, board game fanatic, DM. Has an MFA and isn't quite sure what to do now. If you have a dog, I'd very much like to pet it. Operating out of Indianapolis.

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