What is Dungeons & Dragons?
Q: What is Dungeons & Dragons?
A: Dungeons & Dragons is a paper-and-pencil roleplaying game created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974.
Q: Are all role-playing games played on a computer?
A: No, from the early 1970s, role-playing games have been played by people sitting together at the same table using their imaginations and written rules of the game to play (as well as dice to generate random numbers when needed).
Q: What type of characters do players take on in this type of game?
A: Players take on imaginary characters that go on heroic adventures. The characters can be many types such as a strong warrior, wise wizard or skilled thief.
Q: Who is responsible for making sure there is fair use of the rules?
A: One person in the group acts as a moderator or referee (called the "dungeon master" or DM in Dungeons and Dragons and "game master" or GM in other games) and they are responsible for making sure there is fair use of the rules.
Q: Is there more than one genre of these types of games?
A: Yes, there are now many types of fantasy role-playing games both traditional paper-and-pencil games and computer games. Many genres are played such as fantasy, science fiction, horror, war etc., and there are hundreds of companies that produce their own written rules systems and software products.
Q: How many people usually play these types of RPGs?
A: Typically these types of RPGs involve several players sitting together at one table with one person acting as a moderator/referee who makes sure everyone follows the rules fairly.
