Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a fantasy role-playing game first published in 1974. As the popularity of the game grew throughout the late-1970s and 1980s, it became referenced in popular culture more frequently. The complement of games, films and cultural references based on Dungeons & Dragons or similar fantasies, characters, and adventures became ubiquitous after the end of the 1970s.
Dungeons & Dragons, and tabletop role-playing games in general, have exerted a deep and persistent impact on the development of all types of video games, from "first-person shooters to real-time strategy games and massively multiplayer online games", which in turn play a significant and ongoing role in modern popular culture.
In online culture, the term dungeon has since come to mean a virtual location where people can meet and collaborate. Hence, multi-user dungeons emerged throughout the 1970s and 1980s as a form of social networks or a social virtual reality. By creating a means for players to assemble and explore an imaginary world, the Dungeons & Dragons rules provided a transition from fantasy literary settings, such as those of author J. R. R. Tolkien, to fully virtual worlds.
Public figures who play or have played Dungeons & Dragons include comedians Stephen Colbert and Chris Hardwick, musician Moby, and actors Vin Diesel, Matthew Lillard, Joe Manganiello, Mike Myers, Patton Oswalt, Wil Wheaton, and Robin Williams.
Literature Books
Independent fiction derived from the Dungeons & Dragons game appeared with the Endless Quest series of books, published by TSR, Inc between 1982 and 1987. The Endless Quest books provided a form of interactive fiction in the style of the Choose Your Own Adventure series. The continuing success of Dungeons & Dragons then sparked an even more extensive series of novels, also published by TSR, Inc. The first of these were based upon the Dragonlance campaign setting, and were released in 1984. There proved to be a lucrative market for these works, and by the 2000s a significant portion of all fantasy paperbacks were being published by Wizards of the Coast, the American game company that acquired TSR, Inc in 1997.
The impact of Dungeons & Dragons on players and culture has inspired reflective non-fiction works: The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange (2007), by novelist Mark Barrowcliffe; a memoir of playing Dungeons & Dragons and other role playing games in the 1970s. American Nerd: The Story of My People (2008) is Time magazine writer Benjamin Nugent's study of the history and culture of people labeled nerds. It includes insights into why people play and enjoy Dungeons & Dragons. Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms (2010), by journalist and gamer Ethan Gilsdorf; a travel memoir about Dungeons & Dragons, role-playing games, and other fantasy and gaming subcultures. Designers & Dragons (2011), by historian Shannon Appelcline, is a book series about the history of the tabletop role-playing games. The first edition was published in 2011 by Mongoose Publishing. Appelcline later wrote an expanded four-volume version, Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry. It was published in 2014 by Evil Hat Productions, with one volume dedicated to each decade from the 1970s to the 2000s. The first edition won a Judges' Spotlight award at the 2012 ENnie Awards; the second edition won the Gold Ennie for Best RPG Related Product in 2015 and was a finalist for the Diana Jones Award. Appelcline's next Evil Hat Productions series, titled Designers & Dragons: Origins, will be "a product-by-product chronicle of every item released by TSR for Original D&D, Basic D&D, and Advanced D&D 1st edition". In 2025, this series was funded through a crowdfunding campaign. Author Shelly Mazzanoble wrote a humorous self-help guide called Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Dungeons & Dragons: One Woman's Quest to Trade Self-help for Elf-help (2011). This followed her guide book, Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the Dungeons & Dragons Game (2007). Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It (2013), by journalist David M. Ewalt; a best-selling history of the game's development and cultural impact.
Several characters created for playing Dungeons & Dragons, or games derived from Dungeons & Dragons, have later spawned popular fantasy series.
Comics Begun in 1986, the comic books The Adventurers and Redfox were inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. Several commercial comic strips are based entirely upon the game or make reference to the game in specific panels. Knights of the Dinner Table is a comic-sized magazine featuring comic strips with a variety of characters who play "HackMaster," a parody of Dungeons & Dragons. (HackMaster would later go on to become an actual role-playing game.) Early strips appeared in the official Dungeons & Dragons magazine Dragon. The Order of the Stick is a satirical webcomic that features a cast of characters in a world that loosely operates by the rules of Dungeons & Dragons. Penny Arcade, a longstanding webcomic, created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, references and even depicts humorous instances of bizarre campaigns, and other Dungeons & Dragons subject matter; implementing dice-rolling humor and other game dynamics.
Plays Dungeons & Dragons has been used as a central motif in plays, including:
She Kills Monsters (2011) by Qui Nguyen Initiative (2025) by Else Went
Film and television Film
There have been multiple feature films released that were based upon the game: Dungeons & Dragons (2000), Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God (2005), and Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness (2012). A new film based on the game, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, was released in March 2023; it was directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley.
Several films include instances of characters playing the game of Dungeons & Dragons or make other references to the game: In scene 2 of Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the character Elliott, his older brother, and his friends are shown playing Dungeons & Dragons. Prior to the production of the film, Spielberg ran a Dungeons & Dragons session with the young cast members. The Futurama film Bender's Game includes Dungeons & Dragons as a crucial plot device, in which the main characters end up in a fantasy realm after the game is played. The film was already in production upon Gygax's death and debuted later that year, so it was dedicated in his honor. The film included parodies of Dungeons & Dragons-influenced films. The films The Gamers and The Gamers: Dorkness Rising by the Dead Gentlemen are parodies of Dungeons & Dragons. The 2020 animated film Onward by Pixar used Dungeons & Dragons monsters, particularly the Gelatinous Cube and the Beholder.
Television The CBS network ran a Saturday morning cartoon series called Dungeons & Dragons, in which a group of teenagers visiting a Dungeons and Dragons-themed theme park dark ride are magically transported into the fantasy world of Dungeons and Dragons. The show included the voice talents of Willie Aames of Eight is Enough, and ran from 1983 to 1985.
Dungeons & Dragons is also referenced in a variety of television programs: The Big Bang Theory – In the episode "The D&D Vortex", Wil Wheaton invites Leonard to play a game with him and a group of celebrity players, including William Shatner, Kevin Smith, Joe Manganiello, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Will serves as the Dungeon Master. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – In the episode "Chosen", Andrew, Xander, Giles, and one of the potential Slayers, Amanda, play Dungeons & Dragons while Anya sleeps at the table. Community – A second-season episode titled "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" (AD&D) centers around the study group playing a game of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to cheer up their near-suicidal classmate, "Fat Neil". Pierce's exclusion leads him to barge into the game, and torment everyone. A later episode called "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" included a game of D&D which is played in order to reunite Buzz Hickey with his son. Corner Gas – In the episode "Happy Campers", Brent is seen playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons with a group of teenage boys in the city. Freaks and Geeks – The final episode of the series, titled "Discos and Dragons", Daniel (James Franco) is forced to join the Audio/Visual Club and the geeks invite him to a game of Dungeons & Dragons. He ends up enjoying it. Futurama - Gary Gygax guest starred as himself in the season two episode "Anthology of Interest I" where he, along with then-vice president Al Gore, Star Trek cast member Nichelle Nichols, and Stephen Hawking (all of whom guest starred as themselves) try to kill series protagonist Philip J. Fry to repair the space time continuum. They fail and end up playing Dungeons & Dragons for the next quadrillion years. Gravity Falls – The thirteenth episode of the second season, "Dungeons, Dungeons & More Dungeons", is centered around a game of a similar name based on mathematics, chance and imagination. The IT Crowd – In the fourth series episode titled "Jen The Fredo", Moss has been making his own Dungeons & Dragons game and eventually gets John, John, Roy, and Phil to play, entertaining his business connections and helping Roy relieve his depression. The Magicians – The eleventh episode of the first season, "Remedial Battle Magic", has the protagonists discover a Japanese spell called マジック ミサイル (majikku misairu) which causes Quentin to exclaim "Magic missile? That's like straight up Dungeons and Dragons." My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – In the sixth season episode "Dungeons & Discords", Discord, Spike and Big McIntosh play a fantasy role-playing game titled Ogres & Oubliettes. In reference to this franchise crossover, Wizards of the Coast sponsored a D&D-themed charity fundraising campaign featuring the My Little Pony main characters, dubbed with the title Friendship & Magic, and a set of cards compatible with Magic: The Gathering. NewsRadio – In the episode "The Real Deal", Dave demonstrates to Jimmy that he manages the station as if it were a D&D game. The Sarah Silverman Program - In the second-season episode Bored of the Rings, a planned date night is disrupted by a Dungeons & Dragons game. The Simpsons – Homer tells how he bonded with some new geek friends by playing Dungeons & Dragons "for three hours ... then I was slain by an elf." Stranger Things – The main characters are seen playing Dungeons & Dragons, and the game both sets the tone and functions as a storytelling tool within the series. Monsters from the alternate reality known as the Upside Down are nicknamed after creatures from the game, like the Demogorgon, the Mind Flayer, and Vecna. Season 4 also depicts aspects of the moral panic surrounding D&D of the mid-1980s. Ted – In the episode "Dungeons & Dealers", the titular anthropomorphic teddy bear Ted, and his housemates Johnny and Blaire, play the game to win marijuana. That '70s Show – In the episode Radio Daze, Donna is asked if she and Eric would like to stay to play Dungeons & Dragons at the radio station where she works. At the end of the episode, two staff members are shown playing a session, with a cameo appearance by Alice Cooper who is also shown playing. Tucker's Luck – In the third series episode 7 Peter "Tucker" Jenkins played by Todd Carty played Dungeons & Dragons at his girlfriend's pal's house. The Dungeon Master was played by Charley Boorman.
Other performance Actual play