#dnd 50th anniversary

[chaoticgremlinmakingart]

Gen Con cosplay pics

It was also DnD’s 50th anniversary so they had displays of the original shit and older versions of the dnd players/dungeon/monster manuals. Which I nabbed a couple of photos of their displays.

Very neat stuff. I am sad however that I didn’t see a lot of cosplayers this year. Mostly a bunch of nerds. It was really nice though that new faces were coming and enjoying their first con. I do regret wearing so many layers too. It was toooo fucking hot. I do this every year. Someone yell at me next year before Gen con. Good golly I was melting. Especially in my zombie Carl cosplay. My improvised Clown fit and Venom SpiderGwen were the least layers but it was still unbearable in the heat and in the crowded halls. I need to bust off all my summer cosplay looks for next year. I have my cosplay sketchbook filled with ideas. Might work on those for next year. It was really fun though. Loved hanging with my cosplay group even though they all chickened out. I’m looking at you @dropoutdaisy. Jk love you but also meany. Jk or am I? Might post more about the experience later idk. It was my third year there and not much has changed so might not. But I do need to show the back of my vest because the back piece was a bitch to sew. Maybe my prop for my Inkyboy cosplay too idk.

[goblinkingvinny]

dnd doodles! Radbug (grey guy) belongs to @/teatimewithsoren on Instagram!

[snowfolly]

I got a random USPS magazine in the mail today and I SCREAMED

I’m gonna buy so many stamps

[epically-epic-epicosity]

[dracofeb]

D&D 50th anniversary

Apparently, it's D&D's 50th anniversary. Honestly, which is cool, and impressive. Kinda glad I been enjoying being a part of a couple campaigns over the past few years. Want to introduce a character of mine, an Aarakocra named "Raven". He's just, enjoys shinies and nature. Thanks to the DM's permission and the group recently leveling up, ended up reworking him some to be a 7 Circle of Spores Druid and 4 Way of Shadows Monk. (A "Drunk" as the DM recently called him.)

[aboleth-eye]

D&D 50th Anniversary - Ask a DM!

Hey there friends! If you didn't know, Dungeons & Dragons came out in 1974, exactly 50 years ago this year! I for one am excited to make this a year celebrating my love of D&D and other tabletop roleplaying games!

(despite what stunts certain companies try to pull)

SO! To celebrate I (Aboleth Eye) wanted to hear from you wonderful ttrpg enthusiasts! I've been regularly playing and hosting Dungeons & Dragons since 2012 (starting and sticking with 3.5 edition), as well as a bevvy of other tabletop roleplaying games! Anything you've always wanted to know about running or playing Dungeons & Dragons? Got a story you wanna share from your own tables? How about sharing how you yourself got into the hobby (e.g. Critical Role, Stranger Things, Dimension Twenty, etc)?

Ask or Share Anything you like! DM me here at @aboleth-eye , @aboleth-workshop or tag me on Twitter!

I eagerly want to share experiences, lessons learned and recommendations with those of you who are amazing fans of ttrpgs! And while drama in the ttrpg community often brings us down, I know we're all going to be playing D&D and other games for ANOTHER 50 YEARS!

See y'all at the 100th Anniversary in 2084!

(I'm gonna be eighty and still hosting should my brain not be mush haha).

With love, Aboleth Eye

[punkbarbarian]

for folks who don’t follow them on instagram— ally beardsley wrote part of an op-ed in the washington post for the 50th dnd anniversary about a moment playing dnd that really stuck with them and i wanted to share it here!

“a character’s journey — and my own”

I was an aspiring comedian in Los Angeles and had just landed a salaried job at the comedy website CollegeHumor. My co-worker and friend Brennan Lee Mulligan was looking for six comedians to create a show that would be like an at-home game of D&D. Why not? “Dimension 20” became a weird punctuation to my day.

I remember there being too many rules to remember. I kept turning to my friend, Brian Murphy, to ask which dice I should be rolling. I wasn’t paid overtime, but I loved the group and was having a lot of fun.

For the second season, I had my sea legs. I created a character for the campaign who was transgender. I had started going by the gender neutral they/them pronouns at work and among friends, but sourcing hormones or getting surgery seemed equal parts expensive and invasive. A fun thing about fantasy is stripping away the crunchy, real-world limitations and asking yourself: “What would I do if I could do anything?”

That season’s arc for my character, Pete, was extremely euphoric for me. I had described him as a trans cowboy you might see at Burning Man, and the artist drew him dressed as a freaky Hunter S. Thompson in an open shirt to show his top surgery scars. He has wild magic — uncontrollable and dangerous in the game mechanics — which we used to explore the painful chaos of leaving a family that doesn’t accept you.

Since then, I’ve started testosterone HRT and had top surgery. It’s funny to listen back to myself playing a character who had transitioned in ways I hadn’t. It’s full of inaccuracies that make me smile. Pete takes a testosterone pill every day; I now know it’s a weekly injection or a topical gel. I see my face, one wrapped up in playing something so new but instantly right. It was like an oracle. A near-future me who has health insurance! Who’s talked to their mom about being trans and even spent a week post-top surgery on that mom’s couch in Temecula, Calif!

As I started transitioning my appearance, seeing that in front of the camera felt raw. I was starting hormones, and my voice was cracking. Realizing it was all being recorded felt naked at times, but it has been really nice to talk to fans and friends about how important it is to see someone that looks like you taking a big risk on themself.

With Pete, it was really important to me to tell a story other than the dramatic lead-up to a medical transition. So we started with him having just gotten out of surgery, but that’s all you see of that process. Part of his backstory is that he doesn’t have a relationship with his transphobic parents, and before shooting the first episode, I felt sick to my stomach. I’ve been on a journey with my parents, and our starting place didn’t have much common ground. When my character meets with his father, it felt as though I was actually running into my own on the street.

Brennan could sense that discomfort, and as my character’s dad was about to call Pete by his deadname, Brennan shut the interaction down, surrounding his dad with bubbles that carried him into the sky. Magic is the power and freedom to manipulate your reality, and you can banish the awful voices in your life — let them swirl away into the air.

[markrosewater]

I played the 50th anniversary DnD battle for baldur's Gate special draft with the new dungeon. HOLY COW. Was this ever a fun draft. I LOVED the collector booster in your draft pool. I loved the new dungeon. And the set remains as fun as ever to draft and play. High fives, yes. But please, can we have more special drafts like this?

I can pass along how much you enjoyed it.

[entropyrpgs]

Kobold Press, one of the largest DnD creators, is creating their own system due to the recently announced changes to the Open Gaming License (OGL 1.1). Above is the video announcement on Twitter. Here's the blurb from the website:

As Dungeons & Dragons moves toward the 50th anniversary of the game, foundational changes are afoot in the tabletop roleplaying game arena. While we wait to see exactly what shape the Open Gaming License might take in this new era, Kobold Press is also moving forward with some clear-eyed work on work on a new Core Fantasy tabletop ruleset: available, open, and subscription-free for those who love it: Code Name — Project Black Flag. To receive future announcements and to register to playtest this ruleset, please sign up using this form.

When the new Open Gaming License and an updated System Reference Document are made public, Kobold Press will review the terms and consider whether they fit the needs of our audience and our business goals.

The kobolds are looking forward to the continued evolution of tabletop gaming, and we aim to play our part in making the game better. Rest assured Kobold Press intends to maintain a strong presence in the tabletop RPG community.

The form to sign up that is mentioned above is located here: https://koboldpress.com/kobold-press-announces-new-core-fantasy-experiment/

This could easily move the needle on how WoTC goes forward with this plan, but no matter what I think they've lost a lot of trust with the community.

[brickcentral]

Review: LEGO Ideas 21348 Dungeons & Dragons

After many Lego Ideas attempts and a massively successful Ideas challenge campaign, Lego is finally releasing a set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons. The winner of the challenge, Dragon's Keep: Journey's End, designed by BoltBuilds, was selected through an exciting fan vote. Although the set is not an exact copy of the submission, which is to be expected, it delivers an incredible experience.

The sets presents itself like a One-Shot Adventure. There is a QR code with a link in the build instructions to download the adventure, with pre-designed characters and a few scenarios to feed the adventure. There is a brief description on the monsters and the characters and some intro to the Dungeons & Dragons history. Full disclaimer, I haven't had my hands on the actual adventure that comes with the set (the code does not work yet), so this is mostly based on intuition and guesses. I will try my best to avoid any spoilers.

If you are a DnD player, or even more a dungeon master, building the set itself is pure joy. As you go along creating the parts of the set, you also go along building secrets, treasures, traps, monster hideouts... No brick is placed randomly and there is a purpose for even the smaller space. You feel like you are preparing the stage for your players.

The heroes and the NPCs

The adventure comes with four pre-designed heroes: A Dwarf Cleric, a Gnome Fighter, and Orc Rogue and an Elf Wizard. All three come with two different heads, male and female, with the exception of the orc that just has two different expressions. They are customizable up to a degree, including weapons and spells.

Besides the heroes, we have two NPCs: the innkeeper (also two heads for male/female) and a green dragonborn, which uses the head mould from the Vidiyo series.

The monsters

There is a surprisingly large selection of monsters in the set. A gelatinous cube (which was teased on social media), a beholder, an owlbear, a mimic (or two?), a displacer beast, a treant, two Myconid? (I'm not sure if that's what they are meant to be), several skeletons and a large red dragon.

The smaller monsters are all brick-built and very well made, in perfect proportion for the heroes and to fit inside the scenarios. The owlbear and the beholder however might be too big to put inside the buildings or ruins though, so maybe they will just appear in specific places, but both of them are gorgeous builds.

The dragon itself is huge and beautiful, but delicate. I keep having to reattach the legs often when trying to pose it. The head also keeps looking down, since there is not much friction on the ball joint and the head is too big and heavy for it. And yes, there are printed tiles for the eyes! They are just almost impossible to see behind the horns.

The scenarios

The set is divided into four different builds with their respective books of instructions: the inn, the forest/dungeons, the tower, and the dragon. All three have different styles and building techniques, so it makes the building experience entertaining. I'm not a fan of the blue/purple roof of the inn, but I agree that it needed a color pop to separate it from the rest of the build and the dragon.

All three are open in the back, to allow the players to move around. For a toy photographer, this gives the chance to shoot many different scenes. They are also modular and can be easily separated, I'm assuming to allow players to go around discovering each one individually as they explore the environment. On their own, the scenarios are small, so I'm guessing movement will have to be limited or counted by studs.

Everyone knows a good adventure starts and ends on an inn. Our heroes need a place to rest and prepare for the coming adventure, so I'm guessing this is where the adventure will begin.

Some details will have to be described by the Dungeon Masters, otherwise I don't see how four players's heads can look into the tiny inn and say: "Hey, I want to investigate the chest, it looks interesting" or "That brick has a different color, I want to know if I can move it". It will also look very cramped if all four minifigures try to be in the same room investigating or fighting a monster.

There are already a few secrets on the inn for the more curious adventurers, and food and drinks for the more relaxed ones.

As they leave the inn they will most likely step into the forest, and from there, several paths can be followed. One could go through the ruins, or the dungeons, explore both, or find a completely new path to the tower (which I assume is the final destination).

On the way, there will be treasure to be found, weapons and spells, some potions... These are things to prepare for the upcoming final battle. But to get to those there will be monsters and traps and mysteries to be solved.

As with the inn, the space is very small to see and put all the players in, so the Dungeon Master must be very involved in describing and hinting so the players can be more successful at finding these secrets.

Eventually, they would reach the tower where there is a climb up to the adventure finale. I don't want to show much there to avoid spoilers, but the same applies here. Secrets to be found and possibly the story will unfold into an unexpected conclusion.

Verdict

With a high price of 359,99€/$359.99 and 3745 pieces, it is a large and expensive set. But for both LEGO and Dungeons & Dragons fans, if you can afford it, this one is worth it. The joy of physically building the adventure and being able to play with the characters and monsters is for me what makes it so great.

I also believe that most of the scenes are rather a visual reference than a playing grid, it does feel small for four players to move around and still be able to see the surroundings, let alone have full battles in a few squared studs. But I'm more than happy to try!

I would also say that fans of medieval fantasy would probably enjoy the set, but perhaps some of the lore will pass unnoticed. However, for those who are not DnD or Medieval theme fans, it might not be worth it at all.

As a toy photographer, heavily invested in fantasy themes, I love all the different backgrounds and characters that come with the set. It feels like there are so many storytelling possibilities, so many moments to capture, and it has so much potential for modifications. You could add your own characters for the story, add a few more treasures and traps, or create your own adventure.

[j-unos]

so charmed by the portraits included in the dnd 50th anniversary retrospective in today's washington post (art by eva widermann)

(x)

[glamfellens]

I suppose with all the bioessentialism ingrained in dnd bc gary gygax was a racist piece of shit it only makes sense that d&d would double down on its racism for the 50th anniversary.

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

50th Anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons today.

Idr seeing it trend so I guess ppl forgot or whoever owns DnD didn’t announce some bs. Either way, cool and hopefully it sticks around longer

[song-of-baldy-ron]

Poor Gale catching strays and hes not even at the table at the DnD 50th anniversary live play

[chillinglikeashilling]

Pulled out my old Antiope Jones closet cosplay for Toronto Fan Expo!

Also I got to take a photo with Neil Newbon (and my friend cosplaying as Gideon).

I thought dressing as one of @quiddie's PCs (and Brennan's NPCs) was especially appropriate after the 50th anniversary game they all played for DnD.

[an-avocado-at-law]

Hi it’s me (the anon who asked about building legos)

I recently got the 50th anniversary DnD set and it’s really huge and is taking forever- I would not mind if you sat and chatted with me while I built the dragon (I love dragons)

Awesome!! Just tell me when you want me to come over!