The introduction of the game Dungeons and Dragons in 1974 marked a dramatic innovation in board games. Like the interactive computer games that would follow two decades later, Dungeons and Dragons (often known as "D & D") was an active game that required creativity and imagination from its players. Dungeons and Dragons was the first of the "role-playing games." In role-playing games, players imagined themselves in another world, making choices and taking actions that affected the outcome of the play. Millions of people, many of them teenagers, joined in the game. The game allowed them to escape from the limitations of reality to enter a wondrous fantasy world where they could wield supernatural powers.

Invented by Gary Gygax (1938–), a Chicago insurance salesman who had been a childhood chess whiz, Dungeons and Dragons does not require a lot of equipment. A playing board, multisided dice, and a...