Dungeons & Dragons Undergoes First Rules Revision in Over a Decade

Posted on July 26, 2000

Wizards of the Coast Inc., a developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products, has announced that the third edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Role Playing Game (RPG) will be unveiled Thursday, August 10. The debut will take place at the 33rd Annual Gen Con Game Fair in Milwaukee, Wis. Dungeons & Dragons was originally released in 1974.

To celebrate the release of the new edition, ``Third Edition Thursday'' will offer fams an opportunity to take part in the launch. The celebration will include panels, discussions, and game demos. Members of the third edition design team, as well as David Arneson and Gary Gygax -- the original Dungeons & Dragons co-creators -- will be in attendance to discuss the philosophy behind the team's work, and to discuss the reasoning behind the enhancements in this new release.

The designers of the third edition -- Jonathan Tweet, Skip Williams and Monte Cook -- tapped into the creativity of Dungeons & Dragons fans by incorporating comments from more than a thousand new and veteran playtesters. The revamped version will offer flexibility to players, emphasizing consequences rather than limitations in character generation and development. Other changes include increases in spell potential, an integrated skill system, a standard resolution mechanic, the reintroduction of half-orcs, assassins and monks, and the removal of demi-human level limits.

Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc., is a developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products as well as the owner and operator of a game retail chain. The company produces the Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon trading card games. Wizards of the Coast is also a publisher of adventure games such as the classic Dungeons & Dragons games, family card and board games and electronic media products. Headquartered near Seattle, Washington, Wizards of the Coast has international offices in Antwerp, Paris, Milan, London and Beijing.