Dungeons & Dragons riding geek wave, 44 years after table-top fantasy game brought wizards and goblins to life
With 15 million players in North America alone, D&D is more popular than ever thanks to a fantasy revival led by shows such as Game of Thrones and Stranger Things
This is where reality ends, and where the stories and characters that inspire awkward teenagers and accomplished adults to transform into wizards, clerics, bards and trolls begin.
On the third floor of a nondescript building in the city of Renton in the American state of Washington, a stone’s throw from Ikea and lines of car dealerships, Dungeons & Dragons – the table-top fantasy role-playing game now in its 44th year – carries on under the ownership of Wizards of the Coast. (The Hasbro subsidiary has owned the game since 1997.)
During the past few years, Dungeons & Dragons – also known as D&D – has gained legions of new players, thanks to the rise of geek culture and the new-found realisation that people need to look up from their screens, create their own stories and connect.
“It was the cosmos and us colliding in one magic moment,” says Nathan Stewart, D&D’s brand director and executive producer, citing the popularity of films based on Marvel and DC comics and shows such as Game of Thrones and Stranger Things. “You’ve never seen geek culture at such a height as right now.”