The Many Deaths of Dungeons & Dragons | Wizards and Witch Hunts | 1

0:00As we get started with our new series on Dungeons & Dragons, a quick note to listeners that this episode includes brief references to suicide. Please be advised.

0:19It's September 1979 in East Lansing, Michigan. William Deere walks into a bar near Michigan State University. It's a typical college watering hole, badly lit with a pinball machine, jukebox, and nothing but beer on tap. He claims a table in the far corner and orders a drink. Deer is 42 years old. He's over six feet tall with a mustache and big gold rings adorning several of his fingers. He's a private eye, and he's meeting an informant today. They often ask to meet in dives just like this. Maybe they want the courage alcohol brings. Or maybe they've just watched too many movies. Deer's working his highest profile case yet.

1:03The disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III. Dallas to his friends, if he had any. Dallas is a loner, a 16-year-old brainiac studying computers at Michigan State. Or at least, he was. He vanished without a trace 19 days ago. Dallas' parents have hired Deer to find their son. So far, he's struggled for leads. But this morning, he got a call from someone who's willing to talk. A tanned college student enters the bar. He joins Deer at his table, orders a pitcher of beer, then speaks. Uh, I, uh, I don't want my name out there or my description. I'm a senior this semester. I can't get into trouble, okay?

1:51Kid, I don't reveal my sources. If I did, I'd be out of business tomorrow. All right, so what can you tell me? The student looks around to make sure no one's paying attention, then leans forward. Well, I played Dungeons and Dragons with Dallas in the steam tunnels. Deer straightens up. He hadn't heard of Dungeons and Dragons before this case. Few have yet. It's still very much a cult game. But everything in this case seems to lead back to the strange game of dice, demons, and sorcery. Dallas played it obsessively. But until now, no one would admit to playing it with him. Rumor is, students have been sneaking down into the maze of steam tunnels beneath the university and playing Dungeons & Dragons by flashlight.

2:40Deer's hunch is that Dallas suffered a psychotic break while playing the game and is now lost in the miles of tunnels, convinced that he's in the game for real. Either that or something terrible happened down there. Maybe Dallas got killed accidentally. Or maybe someone wanted it to look that way. Deere locks eyes with the college student. Tell me everything from the top. Later that evening, Deere arrives at his motel and finds the reporters following the Dallas case waiting for him there. Usually, he finds this kind of attention annoying, but tonight, the reporters might be useful. The student's information has convinced Deere that Dallas is lost somewhere in the steam tunnels, but the university refuses to authorize a search.

3:30So Deer is going to use the press to force their hand. I have just received new information. The university insists students cannot access the steam tunnels, but they can and do. Dallas Egbert played Dungeons & Dragons in those tunnels. The school needs to let me down there. A boy's life is at stake.

3:56Deer steps into his motel room confident at the university will have to let him into the tunnels now. But the university is not the only one feeling the pressure. TSR, the company behind Dungeons & Dragons, will soon find itself at the center of a moral firestorm. It spent years building a cult following for its revolutionary game. Now, it's about to become embroiled in a satanic panic that threatens to both make and break its business. and this won't be the last time Dungeons & Dragons is tested. On its quest to become a brand worth hundreds of millions of dollars, it will have to find ways to keep its rabid fanbase happy without alienating newcomers.

4:41A journey that will see it failing forward, time after time.

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6:24From Wondery, I'm David Brown, and this is Business Wars.

6:55Dungeons & Dragons. It's the pen and paper game that rewrote the rulebook and generated enough treasure to make a dragon jealous. Since its debut in 1974, that game, known to its fans as D &D, has gone from nerd niche to geek chic. Once dismissed as a pastime for basement dwellers, it's now a celebrity-endorsed cultural icon with a starring role in Netflix's Stranger Things. It didn't just invent the role-playing game. Its game design also had a massive influence on video games of all kinds, from World of Warcraft to Fortnite to NBA 2K. The game's mix of fantasy, storytelling, math, and play-acting has endured for generations now, and with an estimated 13 million active players, plus hit video game spinoffs, it's a major moneymaker, too.

7:47In 2023, D &D earned its owner Hasbro an estimated$267 million in revenue. So, how did this game survive moral panic, corporate turnover, and decades of changing tastes to become bigger than ever 50 years on? And how is a pen and paper role-playing game managing to stay relevant in a digital age? This is Episode 1, Wizards and Witch Hunts.

8:21It's fall 1972, and Dave Arneson has just arrived at a small white clabbered house in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Arneson is a 25-year-old war game fan, and he's here to see his friend, Gary Gygax. Gygax is a local character, a Jehovah's Witness, a father of five, and a big deal in the world of war gaming. He designs war games and runs a convention called Gen Con. Running a convention sounds grand, but it barely attracts enough people to fill a New York City subway car. War games are basically make-believe battles fought on tabletops. Think tiny metal soldiers, rulers for measuring movement, and intimidating rulebooks that cover everything from marching speeds to the weather.

9:04They grew out of real military training tools designed to simulate historic conflict. Everything in a war game is governed by numbers and dice. Charts in the rule books determine, say, the odds that a rifle can hit a target from 200 yards away. The player rolls the dice to see if the shot lands. If, for example, the chance is 1 in 20, the player has to roll a 1 on a 20-sided die. The complexity and calculations are off-putting for many. But for wargamers, it's all part of the fun. And since there's so few of them, they're a tight-knit community who like sharing ideas. Arneson is one of these diehard wargamers.

9:45But lately, he's been experimenting with a new kind of game back home in Minnesota. Something more open-ended. More about imagination than simulation. And that's why he's driven 300 miles to see Gygax. He wants to show his new prototype to his friend. They head down to the basement. Gygax's games room and workplace. By day, Gygax is a cobbler. repairing shoes pays better than designing war games, but not by much. His family relies on government assistance to get by. Arneson introduces Gygax to the game he created for his pals back in the Twin Cities. It uses the optional fantasy rules from one of Gygax's own games, a medieval war game called Chainmail.

10:31The rules added dragons and magic to medieval combat. Traditionalist wargamers sneered at these additions, but not Arneson. He used those rules to create something revolutionary. A game where players control characters instead of armies. A group of heroes exploring catacombs full of monsters, treasure, and danger. Arneson walks Gygax through a game. First, Gygax creates his hero, maybe a fighter or a magic user. Then, he rolls the game's polyhedral dice to determine his hero's strength, intelligence, and other traits. The quest begins. Arneson plays Dungeon Master, the creator, director, and referee of the game.

11:16He describes the world, tracks what's happening, and applies the rules. Gygax can try anything he imagines. But, like a war game, success depends on probabilities and dice rolls. For example, Gygax might try to befriend rather than fight a monster. The chances of success are low, but Gygax's hero is charming, increasing the odds. Now, a roll of the die will determine if he's made a new monster pal. Arneson uses tabletop miniatures to help Gygax visualize the scene, but they aren't required. This is a game played mostly in the imagination, and it's even better with a group. The player's characters continue from one quest to the next, gaining experience as they go and leveling up with new abilities.

12:05Gygax is spellbound. Compared to traditional war games, this is far more absorbing. It's unpredictable, personal, and fun. So before Arneson leaves, Gygax asks him to mail him the rules. I know it may be heresy in some boardrooms, but here goes. A live demo beats a perfect deck. When a prospect plays the thing, they co-author the vision and become a champion. Ship a scrappy prototype that creates an undeniable first win, then refine around what users actually do with it. Treat objections as a design brief, not rejections. You know, early believers are your cheapest distribution channels. Give them something contagious to show others.

12:52not something polished to admire.

12:59A few weeks after Arneson's visit, 18 handwritten pages land in Gygax's mailbox. They're from Arneson and contain the rules to the new game. So with Arneson's approval, Gygax polishes and improves the game. His daughter Cindy names it Dungeons & Dragons. He tests it with his buddies and fellow wargamers who all want to know when he's going to publish it. Gygax thinks this could be big. 50 ,000 copies big. A huge number for a war game. Most sell less than 10 ,000 copies. But Dungeons & Dragons isn't a war game. It's, well, he's not sure. There's no name for this brand new type of game, and war game publishers won't touch it.

13:42They can't imagine people choosing dragons over generals. But Gygax and Arneson can't afford to publish it themselves. Gygax is on the poverty line, and Arneson is working a low-paying security job. So Gygax's childhood friend Don K. steps in. He borrows$1 ,000 against his life insurance and goes into business with Gygax. In October 1973, they form a business called Tactical Studies Rules, TSR for short. Arneson doesn't buy into TSR, but will get a cut of the royalties from the game. Kay's Kitchen Table serves as TSR's headquarters, but$1 ,000 isn't enough to publish the game, so they bring in local wargamer Brian Bloom and his father as investors.

14:32A few weeks later, in January 1974, Dungeons & Dragons debuts. It takes almost all of TSR's funds to print 1 ,000 copies. The game is sold by mail order and comes in a brown box with three rule books inside. The production value is low. The rule books are badly printed and are full of amateurish illustrations. Still, Gygax is optimistic. But by summer, only 600 copies have sold. Part of the problem is price. A small print run means a high production cost per unit. So TSR charges$10. It's about$65 today. It's cheaper for people to photocopy the rulebooks rather than buy them. TSR estimates that for every box sold, 10 more are copied.

15:21The company is struggling. And then, tragedy strikes. Kay dies suddenly from a heart attack at age 36. The Bloom family buys his stake and gains control of TSR. By spring 1975, sales are still slow. TSR is selling a few hundred games a month and barely breaking even. But price isn't the only thing holding Dungeons & Dragons back. The bigger problem is people just don't get it. It's a novel product. And when your customers have no reference point, your sales pitch can get met with blank expressions. Even people who bought the game struggle. Many just play the example quest over and over until they get bored and stop playing.

16:08Here's the thing. When you invent something nobody's ever seen before, you're not just in the product business. You're also in the education business. Confusion kills faster than competition. You need to show customers what good looks like. You know, simple examples, quick wins, clear steps. Don't assume they'll figure it out. Even the smartest product needs instructions. Dungeons & Dragons is confusing because it's the opposite of how games usually work. In most games, the rules restrict what players can do. But in D &D, the rules enable possibilities. They're not commandments. They're a springboard for creativity and imagination.

16:51So, TSR improves its messaging. It starts calling D &D a role-playing game, so at least people know what to call it. They publish a newsletter, and later a magazine for fans of the game. These publications bring the fan base together. answer their questions, and provide additional revenue. Then come the expansions. TSR releases supplements to the game that offer new adventures and new monsters like the Demogorgon, the demon prince later made famous by Stranger Things. These supplements give TSR a way to earn money from existing fans, including those who pirated the game. It also encourages dungeon masters to create their own adventures, increasing the game's appeal.

17:36Next, TSR relaunches the game. In 1977, it releases The Basic Set, a simpler, more action-driven version aimed at newcomers. It's packaged like a board game to encourage toy stores to stock it. Then, TSR publishes Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, three sold-separately hardcover rulebooks aimed at players who want a deeper experience.

18:04There's another lesson here. Segment by readiness, not just by features. An entry bundle for newcomers and a deep track for power users turns one funnel into two on-ramps. Packaging has to fit the channel, too. A board game look for toy shelves, premium hardcovers for hobby shops. Keep progression obvious so customers see where to go next. The new additions spur sales. The game catches on among geekier college students who see it as a superior alternative to poker night. It's also on trend. Fantasy is hot stuff in the late 70s. In 1977, Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara became the first fantasy novel to make it onto the New York Times bestseller list.

18:48By early 1979, the Basics set is selling 4 ,000 copies a month, and the advanced books are on track to sell more than 100 ,000 copies. And this, all from word of mouth. TSR's best salespeople are its fans. And as the fan base grows, so do the company's opportunities.

19:16It's 1979, and at TSR headquarters in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Gary Gygax is on the phone with Mildred Marmer. She works for Random House, one of America's leading book distributors, and she wants to put Dungeons & Dragons into bookstores across the country. But this wasn't her idea. Her kids turned her on to the game's potential. Once again, Dungeons & Dragons fans are doubling as TSR's sales force. Gygax is excited by the opportunity to get his game into thousands of bookstores. Okay, how many copies should we send to your warehouse? Well, I suggest tens of thousands. If you get traction, you don't want stores to run out of stock and miss out on sales.

19:59Oh, that's a lot. How soon would we be paid for the sales? Depends how fast the books sell in store. Once they've sold, the bookstores pay us and then we pay you. Minus the cost of any returns, of course. You're probably looking at six months or more. Gygax's excitement fades. Getting into bookstores could really boost sales. But TSR can't afford to wait months to get paid. The company is still small. It brings in around$900 ,000 in annual sales, but profits are under$60 ,000. And there's barely$30 ,000 in the bank. Printing tens of thousands of rulebooks would leave TSR unable to make payroll.

20:42We can't wait months to recoup our costs. We just don't have that sort of cash. Hmm. What if every time you shipped your products to our warehouse, we paid you for the inventory? You'd pay cash? Up front? Well, technically it's a loan. As books sell, we'll recoup our money from your cut of the sales. If you don't sell enough for us to make our money back, you'll have to cover the difference. But as long as your return rate is below 20%, you should still make money. Gygax grins. With this deal, TSR can now print all the Dungeons & Dragons books it believes it can sell without going broke in the process.

21:22He once dreamed that D &D would sell 50 ,000 copies. Now, he's thinking a million. The game has major distribution, a vibrant fan base on college campuses, and a community that's around 300 ,000 players strong. Everything is finally going right. Right up until James Dallas Egbert III goes missing.

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22:35A rising star in the heart of Soviet power, However, Gordievsky is secretly feeding MI6 the Kremlin's deadliest secrets. For 11 years, he walked a razor's edge, exposing KGB threats that hastened the Cold War's end and helped prevent nuclear annihilation. But the KGB have a mole of their own. When they discover the truth, Gordievsky's world collapses. MI6 hatch a desperate, high-stakes plan to smuggle him out of Moscow. an escape that could rewrite history. Follow The Spy Who on the Wondery app or wherever you listen to podcasts or you can binge the full season of The Spy Who Outran the KGB early and ad-free with Wondery Plus.

23:42It's September 6th, 1979. Private investigator William Deere clicks on his flashlight. The beam cuts through the dark, eliminating the long, cramped steam tunnel beneath Michigan State University. Slime glistens on the walls. Steam pipes stretch into the black void beyond the flashlight's reach. Deere glances back at the maintenance engineer who's joined him for this search, then steps towards the darkness. James Dallas Egbert III has been missing for 20 days. The media circus is in full swing. The nation wants to know if Dungeons and Dragons twisted the boy's mind and lured him to his death somewhere in this underground maze.

24:27There are more than eight miles of tunnels to search, and conditions are harsh. The air is swampy. Trip hazards are everywhere. Rats scuttle in the dark. The steam pipes are hot enough to burn your skin. And pressure vents blast out scalding steam without warning. Deer and the engineer reach an intersection and turn left. It's easy to see why students play Dungeons and Dragons down here. It's a real-life dungeon, full of death traps. Deer chats with the engineer as he edges forward. Do you think Dallas could have come down here? I can't have. Could he still be here? Maybe. Do you think we'll find him alive?

25:10Not a chance. No chance that we find him or no chance we'll find him alive? Both. Deer's foot hits something metallic and it clatters down the tunnel. He hunts for the object with his flashlight beam. A beer can. Proof that someone's been here before. They press on. A blast of boiling steam narrowly misses Deer's face. Salty sweat stings his eyes. The heat turns suffocating. The engineer marks the walls with chalk so they can find their way back out. It seems unlikely anyone could survive down here for long. Deer spots something scrawled on a wall. A list of 13 names. The number for a witch's coven.

25:58Deer jots down the names and keeps moving. They find more signs of life. Graffiti, beer bottles, cigarette butts, condoms. And then, something that's not on their map. A tiny room. Inside, there are empty milk cartons, a blanket, and a table with a creepy papier-mâché figure sitting on top. Deer tries to make sense of what he's found. Is this a place for occult rituals? Somewhere college kids smoke weed? or the place where Dallas has been hiding? Dallas! Dallas! Deer listens, but there's no reply. He returns to the surface without any evidence that Dallas is in the tunnels. Even so, his search makes national news.