Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

“Dungeons & Dragons” (D&D) is an RPG (role-playing game) founded on a fictional fantasy-based universe. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson originally designed the tabletop game and first published it in 1974 under Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). D&D is often credited as the beginning of the first modern role-playing games, paving the way to the now popular RPG gaming industry.

The Dungeons & Dragons concept expands itself by moving away from traditional two-dimensional top-down war games that originated from a “Japanese Military Chess” concept dating back to known documented origins around 1895. The D&D RPG concept innovatively allowed each player to create their customized character that would imagine their way into adventures within an exciting imaginary realm of action and fantasy. A D&D game session would typically require four to six players, plus a Dungeon Master. The Dungeon Master serves as the game’s adjudicate and storyteller while setting the scene in which the D&D adventures occur. The Dungeon Master also plays the role of the local inhabitants within the gaming realm.

Together the players engage in and solve predicaments, enter into battle, explore the D&D realm, and gather knowledge, power, and treasure to advance each player’s quest. As the game advances, each character seeks to earn “experience points,” providing advanced levels and increasing player powers collected over a series of separate gaming sessions. This innovative concept of continuous development of character structure allowed the player to take ownership in the growth of their characters, therefore increasing the game’s overall replayability.

In 1977, due to the game’s rising popularity, D&D was divided into two divisions attempting to attract new younger players on a more beginners level while maintaining the progressive requirement of advanced players. An entry-level version with an introductory structure and more relaxed rules was created to attract new players and better accommodate beginners. A second version with a more challenging game system, strict structured rules, and detailed narration became Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. By 1981, Dungeons and Dragons had become the most popular game globally, attracting over 3 million monthly players. The popularity of the RPG game continued to expand, allowing TSR to eventually sell over 750,000 copies of the Players Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide book by the mid-1980s.

With the growing success and popularity of Dungeons and Dragons and other RPG games, in September of 1981, a novel by Rona Jaffe titled “Mazes and Monsters” was published too surprising success. The book became popular enough to become a made-for-TV movie in 1982 and featured the star bound actor Tom Hanks as the lead role. Before Jaffe’s novel, Urban myths sounding the Dungeons and Dragons game began to develop, speculating that several university students became heavily influenced by the game. After an RPG game session, students supposedly disappeared into campus utility tunnels and became lost, and were rumored to have died on a subterranean quest. These urban legends became the foundation for Jaffe’s novel and perhaps unintentionally incited cautionary awareness of the then-new hobby of fantasy role-playing games.

Adding to the controversy, a young active role-playing gamer committed suicide on June 9, 1982, with a self-inflicted gunshot to the chest. The boy’s mother, Patricia Pulling, believed his suicide was directly related to the Dungeons & Dragons game and founded the public advocacy group “Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons” (BADD) in 1983. The organization’s primary objective was to regulate role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and encourage parents’ consciousness regarding the alleged dangers of fantasy RPG-style games.

With attempts to capitalize on the recent controversy, TSR, Inc began shopping the Dungeons and Dragons licensing to toy companies and animation studios. After failed negotiations with Mego Toys, TSR struck a licensing deal with LJN and would begin producing a unique toy line based upon the popular “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” game franchise.

Teaming up with TSR’s talented roster of artists like Jeff Easley and Tim Truman, LJN accepted the challenge to bring the Advanced D&D World to life. With a 1983 series one launch, LJN released 3 to 6 inch fully articulated action figures with notable size differences accompanied by a lineup of beasts and dragons. In addition, LJN also introduced several non-poseable plastic (PVC) figurines and one full-sized “Fortress of Fangs” playset to accompany the 1983 series one release. TSR and LJN attempted to develop various D&D character classifications that may be found relevant to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” game. The LJN design team drew additional inspiration from the legendary illustrated fantasy art featured in the original TSR publications and rule books and worked very hard to keep the traditional fantasy combat aesthetic true to the original campaign models. 

In 1984, LJN released a second series with added “Battle-Matic” Spring action features, which allowed arm swinging movement triggered by a switch located on the action figure back. LJN also introduced a new “shield-shooter” feature that allowed a projectile to launch from the action figures shield. Two new action figures were developed with a “shield-shooter” feature, and three previously released series one figures were readopted as a “shield-shooter” variation. In the life span of two years, LJN produced 19 different articulated action figure characters, seven beasts, and one action playset. Several other creatures, characters, and playsets were developed and perhaps even prototyped; however, they were unfortunately never produced.

In addition to the articulated poseable player character and beasts, non-poseable PVC figures, bendy characters, and wind-up toys were also produced, bringing a total of over 45 carded and boxed LJN D&D releases. Although the LJN toy line phased out in 1984, the Dungeons & Dragons RPG game and franchise still live on to this day with popularity and has a worldwide fan base loved by all ages.