Celebrating 40 Years of D&D (or 35)

So here we are 2014.

So far it is cold (-6 outside as I write this).  But it is also something of a banner year. It is the 40th Anniversary of the Dungeons and Dragons game.  The original D&D game, the one hand assembled by Gary and family came out in 1974, but exactly when did it do that?

Well Jon Peterson over at Playing at the World has some pretty good ideas.
http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2013/12/when-dungeons-dragons-turns-40.html

With some pains taking research and the skill of an archaeologist he has unearthed a number of artifacts from the time between June 1973 and July 1975 to narrow down the exact date.

I did not start playing then.  My start was a little later. Again, hard to pin it down exactly but I have always said December of 1979.  That is the first time I read over the Monster Manual and played a game of D&D during recess consisting of the MM and a bad 7th generation Xerox of Holmes.  I would not get my own copy of the rules till later, but it is the Dec. 79 date that sticks with me.

We have quite a lot to look forward to really.  D&D 5th edition will be out this summer.  You can now go to your FLGS (and many Barnes & Nobles) and buy pretty much any edition of D&D you want.  DNDClassics.com has gobs of PDFs. Plus there are still plenty of retro-clones, near-clones, what-if clones, Castles & Crusades and Pathfinder.

I am sure there will be plenty of reflections on D&D over the next year leading up to Gen Con; we are a nostalgia soaked bunch really.  But that is fine. Spending some time reflecting on where we were is not a bad thing. As long as we keep moving forward too.