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As Dungeons & Dragons turns 50, NPR listeners describe what it has meant to them

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Did you know this? Dungeons and Dragons is 50. The first edition came out in 1974. When I was growing up, I knew kids who played, and decades later, one of my kids started playing and explained to me it's a kind of role-playing game. Most of the action takes place in your head as players roll dice to determine the next moment in a story that may involve mythical creatures or daring rescues.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And, you know, maybe this won't be surprising to you if you play, but it was surprising to me because when we asked NPR listeners about their passion for the game, I have to tell you, a lot of the responses were remarkably poignant. Michael McKenna says D&D quests helped his transgender son Julius.

MICHAEL MCKENNA: Being a kid dealing with being bullied and having somewhere safe to go from that, which is what D&D provided. But the best part of it is that they've actually taken it, the ideal way that we use fantasy and fiction and we translate that into a way to make ourselves different or better in the real world, and they've done that.

INSKEEP: D&D is a kind of industry, and has a place in pop culture, like in the Netflix series "Stranger Things." It's also global. Khaver Siddiqi played it growing up in Pakistan, and it made him think.

KHAVER SIDDIQI: Other cultures have this fascinating history and mythology. Does my culture have that, too? And the answer was, yes. So I got into my own culture and history, and it kind of gave me like a sense of purpose. It was like my anchor to be like, OK, this is my identity.

MARTIN: D&D has faced its skeptics, like those who have sometimes linked D&D's fantasy elements to demon worship.

INSKEEP: But the game and its fans have persisted, and they say it makes life better for them. Stacia Seaman's partner Reese plays D&D to aid in her recovery from a traumatic brain injury.

STACIA SEAMAN: It helps with her fine motor control because she's rolling dice. It's bringing back so many memories for her. She's just a happier person. Again, she'll never be who she was, but she's a lot more herself.

MARTIN: James Rubis' daughter Gwen died in 2021. She was memorialized in an adventure from a D&D subscription service that they had played together. He says he'll never forget his first look at the booklet.

JAMES RUBIS: I lost it. I just started crying because everything they put in there was her story and how she acted. She would have loved it.

INSKEEP: Abby Morrione Matz discovered more about her identity as a transgender woman through creating and playing as her D&D character named Ara.

ABBY MORRIONE MATZ: It was beyond just picking Princess Peach in Mario Kart. You know, it was - she was me. She was an extension of me, and it was really, really special.

MARTIN: This month, the Dungeons and Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast releases its 2024 players' handbook. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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