Fifty years ago, the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons was released.
Since 1974, the game has been played by an estimated 50 million people worldwide, according to NPR.
The game was born in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and is still played throughout the state and the world.
In Madison, players meet weekly across the city, as part of Madison’s Dungeons & Dragons Adventurers League. On Thursdays, a group gathers at Misty Mountain Games.
“You can just come straight from work, escape whatever you were doing, hang out and be in a fantasy,” said Samara Kusztyb, an organizer at this location.
The game is played with dice, a handbook and the players’ imaginations. Their adventure is led by a so-called “dungeon master,” or DM. Tonight, that’s Kusztyb.
“An uncountable number of blazing orbs of fire plummet to different points of the city, one of which striking the Senate hall,” Kusztyb said at the table, setting a scene for tonight’s table of seven.
Dungeon master Samara Kusztyb leads her Dungeons & Dragons game Madison, Wisconsin. (Anna Marie Yanny/WPR)
The dungeon master sits at the head of the table. They play the monsters. They run the show. It’s an adventure with alternate endings, depending on what path the players decide to take, or how they roll their die.
“I need all of you to make a dexterity saving throw,” Kusztyb said. Her players begin rolling dice to see how their characters fare in the fire shower.
Some of the players here tonight are playing D&D for their first time. Others had been playing the game since close to its debut.
The game can change people, Kusztyb said.
“Dungeons & Dragons has made such an impact on my life,” she said. “It has made me so much more extroverted. I used to be, basically, a shut-in high school.”
She’s been playing since 2018. When she’s DMing, Kusztyb works to make sure everyone at the table feels included.
“Dungeons & Dragons has kept me feeling like I have a home no matter where I move,” she said. She’s played in eastern Wisconsin, northern Wisconsin and now in Madison. “This is something that always kind of sticks around. I can insert myself here and feel like I’m part of a community.”
Dee Jasso works at Misty Mountain Games in Madison, Wisconsin. She’s been playing D&D since she was a kid. Jasso often opts to play characters with healing powers. “I just like being useful to the party,” she said. (Anna Marie Yanny/WPR)
‘Not just a game’
Brian Shah has watched the D&D community in Madison grow and give back. He co-organizes Adventurers League games across the city.
“D&D is not just a game. It’s not just a community, but it’s a community that cares about the community that survives it,” he said.
The group raises money for organizations like the Underdog Pet Rescue of Wisconsin in Madison and Open Door Bird Sanctuary in Door County, he said.
Brian Shah leads his game of Dungeons & Dragons in Madison, Wisconsin. (Anna Marie Yanny/WPR)
Tonight, Shah is DMing for a table with new players. To make his players feel more comfortable during the game – which can put them in intense fights with imaginary monsters – he likes to bring them colored cards.
“We’re gonna have people at the table that may have gone through trauma,” Shah said. “If I start to describe a situation and a player’s like, ‘I want to see where this goes, but I’m a little nervous or a little anxious,’ – put the yellow card on top.”
When Shah sees the card, he’ll change the way he describes the scene, perhaps using less details so the conflict isn’t triggering for his players.
‘A testament to who you play with’
Emily Kendall, 27, has been playing D&D for about five years.
Emily Kendall is known for painting miniatures for her teammates. (Anna Marie Yanny/WPR)
The first time she played sticks out. She played a wizard, a character with “notoriously” low hit points, she said.
“I was so ready,” Kendall said smiling. “We get to almost the end and there’s an elephant. I get gored. One shot and my character’s just dead.”
Despite her character’s early demise, she remembers the game fondly.
“It was still fun, because of who’s running it and who you’re playing with,” Kendall said. “I think that really is a testament to who you play with.”
Emily Kendall refers to herself as a “dice goblin,” collecting colorful, many-sided dice for Dungeons & Dragons gameplay. (Anna Marie Yanny/WPR)
Generational play
Since the game’s debut in 1974, D&D has made its way into video games, movies and TV shows. It’s featured in Netflix’s hit show “Stranger Things.”
Madison D&D Adventurers League co-organizer Joe Alfano says he was a “Stranger Things” kid. He started playing in middle school, just down the road from Misty Mountain Games.
“I’ve been playing for 45 of the 50 years it’s been around,” Alfano said.
Tonight, he’s playing with a group that’s essentially been going since 2017.
“It’s playing the game, but we’re also friends,” Alfano said.
Joe Alfano (left) plays Dungeons & Dragons with the same group each Thursday in Madison, Wisconsin. (Anna Marie Yanny/WPR)
A few years back, Alfano had a stint in the hospital. The doctor asked him what he wanted to do when he got out.
“I’ve got family. I’ve got friends. (I’ve) got friends that are like family and I want to get back to playing with them,” Alfano said. “I won’t give this up. Never.”
As an organizer, being inclusive is important to Alfano.
“The people that are here have felt comfortable, whether they are transgender, nonbinary, people of color, women – they all felt comfortable coming and playing here,” he said. “We are not those gatekeeping-type gamers”.
Tonight, he’s at a table with his 33-year-old son, Nick Alfano, who’s DMing.
“I remember…(age) 5, 6, 7 him and all of his friends down in the living room laughing, doing something. I was obviously far too young for that,” Nick Alfano said talking about his dad, Joe Alfano.
But when Nick was in middle school, Joe let him join in. Since then, Nick has continued to play – running games around Madison and at conventions.
“I was naturally much shier as a kid,” said Nick. “But DMing, for a bunch of different people – a bunch of strangers – over and over again really gets you past the whole public speaking thing,”
As he DMs tonight, Nick makes light-hearted jokes and voices the characters his players come upon.
“Go no farther,” he said in a commanding voice, speaking as a ghost his players encountered. “Only death awaits you in these halls.”
D&D players play different “campaigns” at Misty Mountain Games in Madison, Wisconsin each Thursday. (Anna Marie Yanny/WPR)
The birthplace of D&D
Dungeons & Dragons was co-created in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin by Gary Gygax. He published it about four years after his son, Luke Gygax, was born.
“There was never a time I don’t remember role playing,” Luke Gygax said. “People have said I’m D&D patient zero, because I was literally raised on Dungeons & Dragons.”
One of Luke Gygax’s first memories of the game is being at the dining room table with his father. Gary Gygax tasked him to be a helper player.
“He then took me aside and whispered, ‘You’re not really just a Man-at-Arms. You’re a spy for a druid in the woods,’” recalled Luke Gygax.
The character was trying to determine if the other players at the table were working for good or evil. Luke Gygax continued to play him, game after game. Now, he runs a game design company.
After Gary Gygax passed away March 4, 2008, Luke Gygax organized the annual memorial gaming convention Gary Con in his father’s honor.
“We just gathered and enjoyed each other’s company, shared stories about my dad and did what he loved so much in life: play games, enjoy good food and good company,” Luke Gygax said. “It was very cathartic.”
Attendance at the event had increased nearly 20 times since it began.
Gary Gygax’s name is no longer on the cover of D&D rulebooks. In 1985, Gary Gygax was outed from his company, after it struggled financially and he had a falling out with leadership.
It’s Luke Gygax’s mission to make sure Gary Gygax is not forgotten.
“I get to carry forward that legacy,” said Luke Gygax.
Gary Con celebrates the roots of D&D in its birthplace, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The last two years, organizers raised thousands of dollars for Children’s Wisconsin Foundation. The next Gary Con is March 20-23, 2025.
Luke Gygax said his father wouldn’t be surprised that new players are still picking up the game 50 years after its debut – because its elements make us human.
“Storytelling, human contact and play are important,” Luke Gygax said. “And that recharges us as human beings.”
