Multimedia titans have noticed that success of Marvel's shared superhero universe, which replicates the comic model of characters crossing over into other arcs to create a web of stories that spiral into infinity. Hasbro has also taken note, and it looks like the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movies are planned to take a similar approach. The concept of a shared universe is a key part of D&D today, but it wasn't always that way.
[h=3]A Small Army[/h]The Original Dungeons & Dragons rules, itself inspired by Chainmail, which was a miniature wargaming rules set, largely reflected the style of wargaming play that was common at the time. And that style involved a lot of people, because players were involved in a wide variety of armies that required quite a bit of management. This style of play -- at co-creator Gary Gygax's very large sand table -- carried over to D&D, which included so many people that it required a caller. What's a caller? RPGExchange explains:
In essence, early D&D games could potentially be so large that it was necessary to have someone representing the small army of players at the table so the DM knew who to listen to. Later editions slimmed down the number of players involved, likely bounded by the smaller number of players that were available.
Gygax recognized this limitation, but also saw the benefit of players joining each other's disparate groups, as later editions would demonstrate.
[h=3]A Common Language[/h]The original D&D boxed set was a bare bones outline of how to play D&D -- simple, effective, but open to interpretation. As a result, an entire industry sprung up to modify the game to suit individual players' tastes, as expressed in the fanzine Alarums & Excursions. Gygax, who supported customization at first, later changed his tune. Fragmentation was becoming a concern. Gygax planned to fix that with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, as quoted in Dragon Magazine #26:
Gygax laid out his intent in the introduction to the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide:
TSR certainly had a vested financial interest in keeping the new version of D&D penned within certain boundaries -- creating an "official" set of rules through Dragon Magazine and published books distinguished it from its competitors. But Gygax was also trying to create a massive shared meta-universe in which players could move their characters between them.
This fragmentation of its player base would ultimately be part of TSR's downfall, as TSR published so many incompatible worlds that players no longer recognized each other's games. TSR attempted to correct this with universe-spanning campaigns like Spelljammer and Planescape, but it wasn't enough to save the company. The idea of a shared universe predates the publication of AD&D however.
[h=3]A Thousand-Person Campaign[/h]The concept of a shared gaming world goes back as far as 1976, when Keith Abbott planned a campaign called Loera. It would feature 55 Dungeon Masters, each controlling an area 600 miles on a side, working with approximately 20 players. It was, in essence, a thousand-person campaign. It didn't quite work out that way, as reported by Jon Peterson:
Players might recognize this format in living campaigns:
Living Campaigns were replaced by Wizards of the Coast with the Adventurers League; Paizo has its own Organized Play for Pathfinder.
[h=3]Art Imitates Life[/h]Collider reports that the movies are planning to take a similar approach as Marvel's multimedia universe -- an approach that should sound familiar to D&D fans. Producer Roy Lee thinks a multi-universe approach is a possibility for for future D&D films:
Given that the Yawning Portal will feature prominently, it's likely an approach similar to Planescape might tie all the film universes together. This isn't a guarantee for success of course -- Universal's shared Dark Universe (featuring its monster franchises) may be the first casualty -- but if the D&D movies are successful, they may end up right back where D&D started: a massively shared universe where everyone plays the same game.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, communicator, and a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to http://amazon.com. You can follow him at Patreon.
[h=3]A Small Army[/h]The Original Dungeons & Dragons rules, itself inspired by Chainmail, which was a miniature wargaming rules set, largely reflected the style of wargaming play that was common at the time. And that style involved a lot of people, because players were involved in a wide variety of armies that required quite a bit of management. This style of play -- at co-creator Gary Gygax's very large sand table -- carried over to D&D, which included so many people that it required a caller. What's a caller? RPGExchange explains:
In early D&D it wasn't uncommon to have a dozen or more players in one gaming session. The role of the caller was primarily a table role: they were the liaison between the giant mob of players and the DM. The role of the caller allowed the responsibilities of table management, player organisation, maintaining speaking courtesies and discipline, and consensus-building in terms of course of action, to be devolved from the DM's chair onto one of the players. The chaos of having "What do you do?" answered with a babble of a dozen or fifteen voices all talking over each other is instead replaced by a single speaker for the player-group.
In essence, early D&D games could potentially be so large that it was necessary to have someone representing the small army of players at the table so the DM knew who to listen to. Later editions slimmed down the number of players involved, likely bounded by the smaller number of players that were available.
Gygax recognized this limitation, but also saw the benefit of players joining each other's disparate groups, as later editions would demonstrate.
[h=3]A Common Language[/h]The original D&D boxed set was a bare bones outline of how to play D&D -- simple, effective, but open to interpretation. As a result, an entire industry sprung up to modify the game to suit individual players' tastes, as expressed in the fanzine Alarums & Excursions. Gygax, who supported customization at first, later changed his tune. Fragmentation was becoming a concern. Gygax planned to fix that with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, as quoted in Dragon Magazine #26:
Because D&D allowed such freedom, because the work itself said so, because the initial batch of DMs were so imaginative and creative, because the rules were incomplete, vague and often ambiguous, D&D has turned into a non-game. That is, there is so much variation between the way the game is played from region to region, state to state, area to area, and even from group to group within a metropolitan district, there is no continuity and little agreement as to just what the game is and how best to play it. Without destroying the imagination and individual creativity which go into a campaign, AD&D rectifies the shortcomings of D&D. There are few grey areas in AD&D, and there will be no question in the mind of participants as to what the game is and is all about. There is form and structure to AD&D, and any variation of these integral portions of the game will obviously make it something else.
Gygax laid out his intent in the introduction to the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide:
As you hew the line with respect to conformity to major systems and uniformity of play in general, also be certain the game is mastered by you and not by your players. Within the broad parameters give in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Volumes, YOU are creator and final arbiter. By ordering things as they should be, the game as a WHOLE first, your CAMPAIGN next, and your participants thereafter, you will be playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons as it was meant to be.
TSR certainly had a vested financial interest in keeping the new version of D&D penned within certain boundaries -- creating an "official" set of rules through Dragon Magazine and published books distinguished it from its competitors. But Gygax was also trying to create a massive shared meta-universe in which players could move their characters between them.
This fragmentation of its player base would ultimately be part of TSR's downfall, as TSR published so many incompatible worlds that players no longer recognized each other's games. TSR attempted to correct this with universe-spanning campaigns like Spelljammer and Planescape, but it wasn't enough to save the company. The idea of a shared universe predates the publication of AD&D however.
[h=3]A Thousand-Person Campaign[/h]The concept of a shared gaming world goes back as far as 1976, when Keith Abbott planned a campaign called Loera. It would feature 55 Dungeon Masters, each controlling an area 600 miles on a side, working with approximately 20 players. It was, in essence, a thousand-person campaign. It didn't quite work out that way, as reported by Jon Peterson:
In the early days of Dungeons & Dragons, as people recognized the world-building possibilities in the game, naturally some would feel the call to build world-sized structures, a goal that was out of reach at the time. But the possibility was built into the way that people thought about role-playing games, pretty much from the start.
Players might recognize this format in living campaigns:
Living Campaigns are a gaming format within the table-top role-playing game community that provide the opportunity for play by an extended community within a shared universe. In contrast to traditional isolated role-playing games, living campaigns allow and encourage players to develop characters that can be played at games run by many different game masters, but which share a game world and campaign setting, as well as a plot line that is overseen by a central core of professional or volunteer editors and contributors. Many living campaigns serve a dual role of providing a creative outlet for highly involved volunteer contributors while also serving as a marketing tool for the publisher of the game system that is the focus of the living campaign.
Living Campaigns were replaced by Wizards of the Coast with the Adventurers League; Paizo has its own Organized Play for Pathfinder.
[h=3]Art Imitates Life[/h]Collider reports that the movies are planning to take a similar approach as Marvel's multimedia universe -- an approach that should sound familiar to D&D fans. Producer Roy Lee thinks a multi-universe approach is a possibility for for future D&D films:
“I think it will really be moving forward quickly, and I don’t anticipate it not getting greenlit this year, mostly because Warner Bros. has DC now, and LEGO, and the Harry Potter universe that’s being cultivated as their franchises. I believe they see Dungeons & Dragons as something that could be cultivated as a multi-universe movie where there will be spinoffs from the first movie being in Forgotten Realms and subsequent movies being in different worlds.”
Given that the Yawning Portal will feature prominently, it's likely an approach similar to Planescape might tie all the film universes together. This isn't a guarantee for success of course -- Universal's shared Dark Universe (featuring its monster franchises) may be the first casualty -- but if the D&D movies are successful, they may end up right back where D&D started: a massively shared universe where everyone plays the same game.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, communicator, and a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to http://amazon.com. You can follow him at Patreon.
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