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Today is Gary Gygax Day. If you don’t know who that is, Gary Gygax was the father/co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), and also founder of Gen Con. His game, which began with the name “Chainmail” before it evolved into Dungeons and Dragons, was pretty popular back when it first came out, sparking a lot of spin-off games and terabytes of third-party content.

Recently, the game has been undergoing a resurgence, with a lot of new people wanting to get into the hobby. (If you want to try it out yourself, you can make a simple character using THIS tool for free.)

As opposed to the more complex ruleset we have now, in the original version there were only three alignments:

  • Lawful (predictable, honorable, respectful of society’s rules)
  • Chaotic (unpredictable, rebellious, put personal goals before society)
  • Neutral (someone trying to find a balance between moral extremes)

And only three classes:

  • Cleric (Healing and combat assistance)
  • Fighting man / Fighter (Combat expert)
  • Magic User / Wizard (Magical abilities)

Since then, the alignment system has grown into the traditional 9 alignments:

c5a50347-8ea6-40bc-903d-a3b9af892fae-DnD_Alignments.png

And the classes have expanded into 12+, depending on what source material you use.

Here is the list currently offered on dndbeyond.com :

be3647e0-c8db-4308-b6ca-8fd83938d61d-classes.png

If you’re interested, here are a couple of quizzes you can take to find out your character’s alignment:

10 question version

36 question version

And, if you are really into it, you can take this test to find out what kind of D&D Character you would be based on your non-fictional self:

140 Questions

Vote in our poll below and tell us what class you would play if we went back in time to the very first edition.

Also, if you took any of the tests, be sure to fill us in in the comment section. We want to know! :slight_smile:

Now that you know your D&D Alignment, find out your SysAdmin Alignment or your regular IT Alignment !

Don’t forget SysAdmin Day – only one shopping day left! And for more fun, check out the SysAdmin Day landing page which includes the Dungeons and Datacenters one-shot : a perfect blend of the Gary Gygax and SysAdmin Day holidays!

Going back to Gary Gygax’s D&D 1e … what class and alignment would you be?
  • Lawful Cleric
  • Chaotic Cleric
  • Neutral Cleric
  • Lawful Fighter
  • Chaotic Fighter
  • Neutral Fighter
  • Lawful Wizard
  • Chaotic Wizard
  • Neutral Wizard
0 voters
79 Spice ups
2

Happy Gygax day!

I am liking the rise of D&D, I have a waiting list for my 5E games ahha!

7 Spice ups
3

I miss doing D&D… no one I even know locally that is even interested in the game anymore… Ugh.

9 Spice ups
4

Why not play online with a VTT?

5 Spice ups
5

I agree with Spicy Joseph. Get together a virtual tabletop, or try another option like play-by-post. They play much more slowly, but I make up for that by being in like 15-20 of them at any given time. :slight_smile:

5 Spice ups
6

Because its not the same to me. It has to be a group of people in the same room. Playing over Zoom makes it feel too much like work.

6 Spice ups
7

When I first moved to New York I found a group by checking out one-shot groups on meetup.com, then from there met people and joined/formed 4 different regular games. Might be worth a look if you need that face to face experience. :slight_smile:

6 Spice ups
8

Fair enough, it’s not for everyone so I understand entirely.
Personally, I’ve ran campaigns over Discord with camera & mic and to us they’re just as fun as in person. Especially when you can throw in things like VoiceMod, whisper channels for private conversations/RP (or party splits), and Spotify bots for music.

5 Spice ups
9

As someone who is going to be starting as a Chaotic Good wizard in the next few weeks, I approve of this holiday. Great to see more people getting into this hobby.

4 Spice ups
10

+1 for Neutral fighter.

4 Spice ups
11

I’ve never got into the game, but seeing it played on “The Big Bang” I’ve often wondered if I’m missing out. My favorite episode is where they play the Christmas D&D game with the hand bells and Santa shooting Sheldon with a canon!

6 Spice ups
12

How about n/a since I’ve never played and don’t want to be bothered following the links or using brain power before my morning caffeine?

13

That’s fair. No one is forcing you to vote, and there are plenty of other good things to spend your brain power on. Good luck with that potion of energy. :slight_smile:

5 Spice ups
14

I used to play D&D with friends but we’ve all got family’s now and are farther apart. I still have my dice and would like to play again.

2 Spice ups
15

Take everything they do on Big Bang Theory with a very big grain of salt. They most often don’t play the games properly, and I’m not saying “they don’t play right” the way that people are complaining about the new D&D movie trailer not following the rules exactly as written. I’m saying on BBT they talk about playing D&D and then just completely make everything up. That said, I love all of the exposure that it’s getting in media and pop culture lately, it has brought a ton of new people into one of my absolute favorite hobbies, and that’s the best!

I played a lot of D&D with VTT (mostly Roll20 and Discord) during the pandemic lockdown. It was nice, it helped keep me somewhat sane, and it was fantastic that my friends and I could still ‘get together’ and play D&D, for some minor sense of normalcy, especially in a time when none of us were leaving our houses. However, as soon as it was safe to do so, we returned to in person gaming around a big table. Playing online just isn’t the same. Meetup is a great place to find local groups, and there are a few subreddits you could check out, as well. Also check with your local game store, they often have groups or people looking for more.

3 Spice ups
16

So, this is interesting, was D&D the game in Stranger Things? Is there a way to play virtually?

Thanks for sharing @suzanne-spiceworks ​

4 Spice ups
17

Well, according to the test (slow morning), I am a Neutral Good Human Cleric (8th Level).

I have only played D&D a couple of times, but I did enjoy it a lot. I just find that there is usually too much other life coming at me to spend much time on most games…

1 Spice up
18

Oops, I voted my desire, did not use a quiz. It is all fantasty anyway so. Never got into D&D, was more Axis and Allies and Risk.

2 Spice ups
19

The poll is not the result of any of the quizzes… you did it right. :slight_smile:

20

Yes, it is the game from Stranger Things, and there are ways to play virtually, but you would have to either find people to play with, or play a D&D based video game (of which there are many).

1 Spice up