All the Fanfare
All the Fanfare: A Pop Culture Podcast
50 Years of Dungeons & Dragons
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50 Years of Dungeons & Dragons

Episode 2: What D&D is and why it's my favorite hobby
8

Read to the bottom for a poll and a bevy of free reads.

Longtime readers know I’m a D&D aficionado from way back. Since I started this newsletter, the only things I’ve probably talked about more than D&D is Star Wars and Timothy Olyphant.1

There’s a real risk of getting too inside baseball with something like this. And the people interested in this episode probably at least have an idea of what D&D is, if they aren’t players themselves. I tried to walk a middle ground by keeping discussion of the game at a high level, and delving into specifics in more relatable areas.

And, as always, I tried to keep it fun.

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This Episode Covers

  • Where does D&D fall on the scale of nerdy activities?

  • A super brief and probably slightly inaccurate history of D&D.

  • How the game is played.

    • What a Dungeon Master does (hint: it doesn’t involve whips or gimp suits).

    • What the other players do (hint: it typically involves derailing whatever the Dungeon Master’s plan is).

  • Dungeons & Dragons & Me

    • My favorite classes.

    • How I started during the era in which D&D got you beat up.

  • The legacy of D&D.

  • The 4 types of D&D players.

Further Reading & Related Stories

I have written about D&D. Like, a lot. Here’s a cornucopia of nerdish delights.

Paid Reads

The Absolutely True Story of How Dungeons & Dragons Saved My Life

This is a companion article to the podcast, going into a lot of detail about how and why I got into D&D. It’s deeply personal, and though I try to keep it light, the subject matter gets a bit heavy.

Free Reads

Epilogue

If you’ve played D&D before, I’d love to hear about it!

I’m totally serious. Leave a comment!

1

Moneyball is creeping up these rankings.

Discussion about this podcast

All the Fanfare
All the Fanfare: A Pop Culture Podcast
An irreverent celebration of pop culture. Funny asides and overly serious opinions on movies, TV shows, and video games. Mainly focusing on stuff from the 1980s - 2010s.