Dungeons & Dragons related products

The Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game has spawned many related products, including films and videogames.

Magazines
In 1975, TSR began publishing The Strategic Review. At the time, roleplaying games were still seen as a sub-genre of the wargaming industry, and the magazine was designed not only to support Dungeons & Dragons and TSR's other games, but also to cover wargaming in general. In short order, however, the popularity and growth of Dungeons & Dragons made it clear that the game had not only separated itself from its wargaming origins, but had launched an entirely new industry unto itself. The following year, after only seven issues, TSR cancelled The Strategic Review and replaced it in 1976 with The Dragon (later Dragon Magazine). Although Dragon Magazine was originally designed to support the roleplaying industry in general, it has always been primarily a house organ for TSR's games with a particular focus on D&D. Most of the magazine's articles provide supplementary material for the game, including new races, classes, spells, traps, monsters, skills, and rules. Other articles will provide tips and suggestions for players and DMs. The magazine has also published a number of well-known, gamer-oriented comic strips over the years, including Wormy, SnarfQuest, Yamara, Knights of the Dinner Table, Nodwick, Dork Tower, and The Order of the Stick.

In 1986, TSR launched a new magazine to complement Dragon. Dungeon Adventures, published bimonthly, published nothing but adventure modules for Dungeons Masters. While Dungeon now publishes other kinds of material as well, Dungeons & Dragons adventures remain its main focus.

Although many other magazines have partially or fully devoted themselves to supporting Dungeons & Dragons, Dragon and Dungeon remain the only two official publications for the game. In 2002, Wizards of the Coast licensed the two magazines to Paizo Publishing.

Films and TV
A popular Dungeons & Dragons animated television series was produced in 1983. The cartoon was based upon the concept of a small group of young adults and children who get transported to a D&D-based fantasy realm by riding a magical roller coaster. When they arrive, they are given potent magical weapons and must survive against the chromatic dragon Tiamat and a power-hungry nemesis called Venger. They are assisted in each episode by a gnome-like creature called Dungeon Master and a baby unicorn named "Uni".

A Dungeons & Dragons movie was released in 2000. Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God, a made-for-TV sequel, was first aired on the Sci-Fi Channel on October 8th, 2005, and was released on February 7, 2006 on DVD. (This sequel is also known by the alternate title Dungeons & Dragons 2: The Elemental Might.)

In 2003, a computer animated motion picture entitled Scourge of Worlds: A Dungeons & Dragons Adventure was produced for DVD, featuring the iconic characters (Regdar, Mialee, and Lidda) created for the 3rd Edition. This is an interactive movie that asks viewers to decide what actions the heroes should take at crucial points in the story, allowing hundreds of different story-telling combinations. A special edition was released later that included even more choices, two additional endings, the making of the Scourge of Worlds, and the original (linear) version of film.

Computer and video games
Seventy-three unique digital games had been released and sold under the D&D license as of May 2006. Almost half of these games were published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). Most, but not all, are computer role-playing games that use rules derived from some version of the D&D rules. Many of the games were released on multiple platforms, including programmable computers, consoles, and handheld devices (including mobile phones). Notable titles include:




 * Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Cartridge, designed for the Intellivision, the first console game based on the D&D license.
 * Pool of Radiance (1988) was the first D&D computer game. Designed by SSI, the same game engine would be used to develop ten more D&D games, the Gold Box series. It was "remade" by UbiSoft in 2001 under the name Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor.
 * Eye of the Beholder (1990) was the first in a trilogy of popular games designed by Westwood Studios and published by SSI in the early 1990s.
 * Neverwinter Nights, (1991-1997) was developed by Stormfront Studios and was the first graphical MMORPG, paving the way for derivative games including Ultima Online and Everquest. The game was a major hit, and the name and settings formed the basis for the Neverwinter Nights PC game (see below).
 * Baldur's Gate (1998) was the first D&D computer game developed using Bioware's Infinity Engine to be published by Interplay. It met with critical success and was followed by several more D&D games, including a sequel (Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn), similarly developed by Bioware with Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale II and Planescape: Torment developed by Interplay's Black Isle Studios.
 * Neverwinter Nights (2002), also developed by BioWare