Inside the 40 Year-Long Dungeons & Dragons Game

quote:

---

When last we heard about Robert Wardhaugh, his Dungeons & Dragons campaign had been running for about 35 years. But now, Wardhaugh’s D&D game has hit the 40 year milestone. Wired recently visited with Wardhaugh to see how he keeps the game interesting. He and his friends started playing in secret many years ago. And now, well, the video notes the game “takes up much of Wardhaugh’s life and most of his house.”

When he’s not in the role of Dungeon Master, or DM, Wardhaugh works as a history professor for the University of Western Ontario. And that career plays into his game. The unique world he constructed for his game is an alternative fantasy version of historical Earth. He started with D&D rulebooks but evolved to a more homebrew style over the years.

Wardhaugh has around 30,000 hand painted figures and custom terrain to play with. He hosts the D&D game for dozens of players. Those players have made over 500 characters for the game over the years. Wardhaugh estimates he runs a 10-hour session weekly. After doing the math, he calculates he’s spent over 20,000 hours of his life playing Dungeons & Dragons.

---