On the fiftieth anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons a collection of essays that explores and celebrates the game’s legacy and its tremendous impact on gaming and popular culture.

In 2024 the enormously influential tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons—also known as D&D—celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. To mark the occasion editors Premeet Sidhu Marcus Carter and José Zagal have assembled an edited collection that celebrates and reflects on important parts of the game’s past present and future. Each chapter in Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons explores why the nondigital game is more popular than ever—with sales increasing 33 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic despite worldwide lockdowns—and offers readers the opportunity to critically reflect on their own experiences perceptions and play of D&D.

Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons draws on fascinating research and insight from expert scholars in the field including: Gary Alan Fine whose 1983 book Shared Fantasy remains a canonical text in game studies; Jon Peterson celebrated D&D historian; Daniel Justice Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Literature and Expressive Culture; and numerous leading and emerging scholars from the growing discipline of game studies including Amanda Cote Esther MacCallum-Stewart and Aaron Trammell. The chapters cover a diverse range of topics—from D&D’s adoption in local contexts and classrooms and by queer communities to speculative interpretations of what D&D might look like in one hundred years—that aim to deepen readers’ understanding of the game.