In a testament to the power and longevity of geeks and nerds, the most popular role playing game in history, Dungeons and Dragons, celebrated its 30th anniversary Aug. 26, 2004 at the GenCon conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Over the years, the fantasy game has been a cult favorite for unadjusted kids everywhere. The anniversary of the game coincides with a revival of 80s pop culture, and with the comeback of Morrisey and crimped hair, Dungeons and Dragons may also have a surge in popularity, though fans have been very loyal to the game.

Dungeons and Dragons was introduced in 1974 by creators Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax. The entire first print of the game sold out in the first year, according to Wizards of the Coast, the company that purchased Dungeons and Dragons in 1997.

Since 1974, the game has been played by more than 20 million people
worldwide, sold in over 50 countries and translated into over a dozen languages. Wizards of the Coast estimates that 1.6 million people play Dungeons and Dragons each month, and it has heavily influenced the billion dollar role playing game industry.

Peter Adkison, who founded Wizards of the Coast in 1990, believes it is the social and creative aspects of Dungeons and Dragons that aid its longevity.
“It’s being able to create worlds, stories, characters,” said Adkison. “It’s not necessarily competitive, you work as a team. It’s more like a soap opera,” he says. “An ongoing story that never has to end.”

Most of the fun in Dungeons and Dragons is in the players. There is no traditional board or cards to use. Players use dice, scrap paper and their imagination to create characters and adventures for themselves. The only guides are rule books, with titles like Monsters Manuel, Serpent Kingdoms, and Savage Species.

The complex rules and concepts for the adventures are controlled by the Dungeon Master, commonly called the DM for short. Sitting around a table, the players vie for greater powers, more treasure and better story plots. It is a difficult game to understand in a few minuets, or even a few hours, and that is what makes it special for many who play.

“I don’t think Dungeons and Dragons will ever be mainstream,” says Adkison,“It’s too complex for mainstream.”

Even without mainstream acceptance, Dungeons and Dragons is bigger than ever, thanks in part to more understandable rules and redesign. There will be a new introductory manual released this year with an updated players handbook, a dungeon master guide for running the game, and a cd-rom character generator. The blending of the traditional game with computer and internet tools is a natural progression.

“Dungeons and Dragons provided a tremendous boost to online gaming,” Adkison says. Many of today’s most popular video games and interactive online games borrow from the Dungeons and Dragons concept. In return, the Internet provides an organizational tool for D&D players. The Dungeons and Dragons official web page organizes conferences, chat rooms and message boards.

The popularity of online games such as Everquest, which has its roots in Dungeons and Dragons, also helped with the acceptance of traditional D&D players. Still, there is a certain stereotype associated with the game, and the people who play it.

“They were the outcasts, ones with no social life who hated high school,” says Matthew Castro, 29, a student at SF state who remembers high school classmates playing the game in the library. Even the players themselves know their reputation. 21-year-old SF State student Amir Preston’s eyes light up at the mention of Dungeons and Dragons. As a kid he played the game but rejects the old stereotype of players, “That they’re nerds, kinda weird. I guess I am kinda weird but I’m still cool,” he says.

Thirty years after the first issue of the game, die hard fans, many now in their thirties, are still playing. Adkison has been playing with two of the members in his Dungeons and Dragons group since 1981.

“At the end of the day, we’re getting together with friends and hanging out,” says Adkison, who also dismisses any lingering negative stereotypes about Dungeons and Dragons players.

“All those geeks grew up,” he says. “A lot of those geeks are engineers making $100,000 dollars a year. Geeky is more accepted.”