Now to cover the last picture in January’s set of anniversaries going down this 2024 since D&D is the biggie at 50 this year.
Around this time, the first set of rules were published. TSR printed a thousand copies, full of typos (some things never change), and offered it for a mere $10, over $65 today. I know ten smackers could feed a family of four at McDonald’s then but I don’t think it would be enough for two at Ponderosa (Outback’s ancestor).
Since TSR (aka Gygax) was not familiar with how book publishing actually worked, the game lacked ISBN numbers which are very critical if you want your stuff distributed and sold to more than your friends and family. They also figured, hey, little ads in all the magazines bought and read by their fellow war-gamers would be enough. Dead wrong on both counts. They sold, one copy.
Meanwhile, another technological change was happening at the same time and it would help make D&D a hit. In my opinion, it also solidified one ugly stereotype about gamers…they’re incredibly cheap.
What was this new tech? The photocopier by Xerox. It debuted in the late Sixties but took off as a large-office/university must-have by the Seventies but they were very expensive with high maintenance costs, thus the rise of Kinko’s to aid smaller businesses and their other key market, students. Cunning co-eds with free access to a copier often pirated the D&D rules so they could play with their friends.
TSR’s fortunes did turn around in 1975. Word-of-mouth, reviews in the smaller press and those photocopies I mentioned earlier, led to the first print run being sold out by the following Spring. Several additional runs of those famous three little books in a box would soon follow, with fewer typos and maybe better art.
Given Gary’s huge ego, dark clouds were already on the horizon. The first one they solved relatively quickly. TSR was discovered by those who held Tolkien’s copyrights. Hilariously, it was the same guy who screwed over John Fogerty on the CCR catalog! So specific races were relabeled to appease what was in the Cease & Desist letter. Hobbits became halflings and the Balrog demon became a balor. I’m sure a few more were found. The second sadly involved D&D’s co-creator, Dave Arneson. He would leave his Minneapolis home to work full time in Lake Geneva, WI to contribute more directly. This would quickly create friction because Gary could really crank out the material and as a former victim of his raw writing, not all of it is good. I’m also confident, Gary used his age difference to bully Dave. The last problem would be solved with revisions and continues to be “solved” as D&D unlike other popular games (Monopoly, Risk, Settlers of Catan) evolves. D&D has never been set in stone. If you’ve seen this first iteration of D&D like me, you’d probably think, “This game is incomplete!” and to some extent, you’re right. It’s one reason why the 1974 rule set is often called Zero Edition. D&D still had stronger connections to the predecessor game it was derived from in the late Sixties, Chainmail. Sadly, you also needed a copy of Chainmail to run combat. What else was missing that we take for granted today? Injured in a fight with orcs. Better find a healing potion! No clerics to cast those great spells. Class and race were intertwined. So Dwarves were just different fighting-men, elves were fighting-men who could cast spells and halflings were just different thieves (now rogues). Given D&D’s first and original core audience, it more likely played as a one-on-one combat simulator and not the beloved story-telling game.
For me, the game Gary really created with his playtesters (friends, biz partners and his five kids) would be published later, the Grandfather of all murder-hobo games Dungeon. What was removed was being killed due to your own stupidity, how Gary built in the adversarial nature of DM v. players to D&D while keeping what he wasn’t good at, roleplaying.
Sources: Of Dice & Men, my numerous conversations with other people in the D&D biz from 1991-93 and my brief year working with Gary Gygax while I was at GDW.