You've been walking now for several hours on the rough mountain path.

Your war, your father is riding ahead, fully armored and keeping a lookout.

Your mother is driving the wagon, which is tethered to two oxen.

The wagon holds all of your worldly possessions, except for the sword gifted by your father,

which you always carry on your person.

You come up over a ridge, reveal a vast valley before you, anchored by a massive black lake.

A tattered wooden sign reads appropriately, shadow lake.

There's a settlement on the opposite bank, far off in the distance.

Smoke emanates from the chimneys of the thatch-roofed wood stone and plaster dwellings.

This must be the village of shadow lake, which your parents have spoken of.

Surrounding the lake is dense forest, which your eyes cannot penetrate more than a few feet.

A men's mountains rise high in all directions.

This is your new home.

What do you do first?

If this sends a shiver of anticipation down your spine, you might be a dungeon's and dragons

player, one of the many millions of people who have been captivated by this groundbreaking

game.

When it debuted in 1974, dungeons and dragons were something the world had never seen

before, not quite.

Wargaming was nothing new, but dungeons and dragons paired the tactical qualities of

tabletop miniature wargames with the flexibility and imagination of group storytelling in a unique

way.

...