Why D&D
Modernized
Its Magic
for a New
Generation of
Fantasy
D
UNGEONS & DRAG-
ONS is the oldest
tabletop roleplaying
game of sword and
sorcery—empha-
sis on the sorcery.
Because without
magic, D&D wouldn’t
be very exciting, unless you like
wargaming the Battle of Agin-
court while rolling constitution
checks to not contract the plague.
Magic, and its evolving rules,
gives D&D its storytelling power,
letting players’ minds wanderbeyond the real world. It makes
sense that, in the game’s first
edition, D&D creator Gary Gygax
borrowed mythical races and
monsters like Ents, Orcs, and
the Balrog from J. R. R. Tolkien’s
The Lord of the Rings. Gygax also
modeled certain game mechan-
ics after Jack Vance’s Dying
Earth stories. Like Vance’s tales,
Gygax’s magic was inherent, like
gravity, but could only be sum-
moned by text-bound formulas.
It was also kind of clunky.
In Tolkien’s world, Gandalf’s
magic might only need a whisper.
But in D&D, before a “magic-user”
could cast spells, players had to
spend in-game hours committing
them to memory from spell books.
In 1974, the first edition fea-
tured over 100 distinct and largely
inf lexible spells. Wielding them
was like having an enchanted
utility belt: Your arcane abilities
were finite, preselected, and each
good for one job. Once you spent
your last spell, your character was
defenseless fodder for orcs, gob-
lins, and trolls.
But if you could survive those
vulnerable early levels, spells
could grant godlike powers,
like the reality-warping Wish
spell, which does exactly what
you think it does. A maxed-level
fighter might be Achilles, but a
level 20 magic-user was Zeus.
For the second, “Advanced,”
edition in 1977, Gygax intro-
duced more types of magi-
cians—paladins, druids, and
rangers—and almost triple the
number of spells. And rote repeti-
tion was no longer enough to cast
them. New rules required special
hand movements, even materi-
als: everything from costly gems
to soil from a grave.
The very idea of spells
changed, too. Arcane magic still
existed, but for clerics and dru-Games
& Toys
// BY WILLIAM HERKEWITZ //PHOTOGRAPHY BY TREVOR RAAB8
24 September 2019