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What is Dungeons & Dragons?
"Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a role-playing game: players choose on of their number to be the Dungeon Master or D.M., a sort of referee, and the rest each create a character, an imaginary person or creature, defined in terms of randomly generated physical and mental attributes (such as Strength, Intelligence and Charisma). The player also fills in such details as the name, sex, age, height and weight. When this is done the player will have a fairly complete description of his character, yet it is still lifeless. This is where the role-playing begins: he 'assumes' the personality of the character and directs its actions. A character, on its own, can do nothing, but with a player the character can live and adventure in a world which the D.M. has created and populated with fabulous and mythical creatures.

The game can be regarded as a conversation between the D.M. and the players, the former describing what is happening to the characters ('You are standing in a ten-foot-wide passageway; ahead is a solid oaken door with intricate stone carvings round the frame . . .'), the latter describing their actions ('All right I'll kick the door down'). The D.M. needs to have a good imagination, the ability to think fast (it seems you can get away with anything as long as you can justify it) and to sound plausible. The players, to quote the inventor, Gary Gygax, need imaginative, retentive memories, [to be] competitive, co-operative, thorough, bold, but not rash, and quick thinking (my emphasis). It is important to realise that there is no winning or losing in D&D and other role-playing games.

:arrow: Taken from What is Dungeons & Dragons by John Butterfield, David Honigmann, and Philip Barker, published by Penguin Books Ltd, Middlesex, England, 1982.