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The appeal of Dungeons and Dragons is the escape from reality to a land where dragons and magic rule the land. The player gets the chance to step out of our world for a time and visit a Tolkien like land where elves and dwarfs and half-lings and other good creatures can battle and destroy monsters in combat.

The Dungeon and Dragons game has been with us now for some twenty five years. Originally it was created to be a set of rules for miniatures combat by a pair of war gamers from Wisconsin. One of these two war gamers expanded these original rules, called Chain-mail, to include magic and to cover small group combat. These new rules formed the original Dungeons and Dragons game.

Later editions of the game evolved into Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and even later versions of the rules arrived. Unfortunately the death of Gary Gygax a month ago is likely the end of any future versions of the game. Gary Gygax was the innovator who took the chain-mail rules and formed the game we know now.

Even after twenty five years the game still has a great deal of appeal. I have been running an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons group now for quite some time and the game is still going strong. For some reason the game is still exceptionally popular over seas. This is especially true in Britain. A quick search on the internet will reveal dozens of active sites in England. There are still quite a few sites here in the states as well.

The Dungeons and Dragons game allows players to do things they cannot possibly do in real life. They can fight monsters, cast spells, fight mythical creatures, complete feats of heroism and face awesome traps and obstacles. They can even be brought back to life after a horrific death.

The game has extensive rules which cover a wide variety of situations that could come up in a combat situation. The players themselves have a wide variety of skills. Teamwork is essential in this game and the various skills assigned to each player makes each player an indispensable part of the team.

The game is often a battle between good and evil. The players are given heroic tasks which often determine the fate of others who are far too weak to help themselves.

There has been some controversy in the past involving the game. A couple of high profile incidents involving suicides in the late seventies as well as a mostly unknown Tom Hanks movie tarnished the reputation of the game some. Some religious groups were offended by the idea that the game could include gods, demons and

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