D&D General D&D 50th Anniversary Gets A TIME Magazine Special Edition

Luke Gygax posted this image over on Facebook--a special TIME edition which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons!

Look what I got in the mail today! The Time Special Edition on D&D. I gave an interview for this issue and truly enjoyed providing some context for the journalists. I love the sub-title “The Game That Changed the World”. It sure did.

It's not the first time TIME has covered D&D. Back in March 2023, WotC's Kate Welch penned an article on the TIME website about D&D entitled 'The Magic of Dungeons & Dragons Can Save Us--But Only If You Let It'. And way back in 2008 TIME talked about 'How D&D Changed the Culture'. This is the first time D&D has had an entire issue, though!

There's no word yet on how you can buy this issue, and it was not on the TIME website at the time of writing.

 

[rules.mechanic]

I don't think these are available outside the US / North America

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't think these are available outside the North America

To be fair, Time Magazine is barely available in the US at this point.

 

[Parmandur]

Found it at the grocery store: it's pretty good!

 

[Parmandur]

Credits:

 

[Rabulias]

(There's literally only one die I can think of that I can't find -- a d20 that contains all the answers to a Magic 8 Ball, which itself is powered by an icosahedron. I may have to get a custom die-maker to make me one, which is also a thing one can do now; I got myself custom d6s a few months ago.)

It might be easier and cheaper to buy a Magic 8 Ball for $12.00 or so and break it open to get the die...

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

For some reason I always thought the object inside a magic 8 ball was a d8.

 

[AK_Ambrian]

A video of someone flipping through this:

 

[camelotcrusade]

I've since gotten the magazine and read it cover to cover. On the whole I enjoyed it, especially the front sections on the history of the game, and the feature at the end about product tie-ins (pop-tarts?!). There were tidbits I didn't know, and the writing was good. I also really liked the art selections, but -1 for not publishing the artist credits near the image (D&D sourcebook style!).

As I progressed through the rest of it, I continued to find it enjoyable, but a little mixed in terms of quality and focus. The Stranger Things feature struck me as a little off; I don't watch the show, and I felt the article focused on why the show was important vs. why the D&D tie-in made it warrant a feature article.

As well, I didn't feel that every author had a deep understanding of the game (which could have been intentional); sometimes it would read like a surface-level magazine (which, I know, it's allowed to be....). Or maybe it was the editorial team that needed more help... there was a mistake in the timeline, for example, and it wasn't a rookie mistake. The 1994 entry for Planescape has a Birthright thumbnail above it (and they sadly don't talk about Birthright anywhere in the magazine). It was probably a cut from an earlier version.