Dungeons & Dragons is the most maligned and most recognised roleplaying game. D&D was the first RPG ever First released in 1972 by Gary Gygax as a set of small white pamphlets (now much valued) and then properly released as a series of boxed sets starting in 1974 by his company, TSR. It was developed from a set of wargame rules developed by Gygax and game rules by Dave Arneson, who was later ousted by Gygax who became figurehead and lead designer of the entire D&D project. TSR became the great grand-daddy of the RPG industry but ran into financial trouble in 1997 until it was bought out by card gaming giant Wizards of the Coast in late 1997, becomeing a full WotC subsiduary by 1998.

At first D&D featured only simplistic treasure gathering adventures in underground 'dungeons', betraying its origins as a wargame. (Hence the D&D term for Games Master, Dungeon Master). As the game grew in popularity, however, adventures became more vaired and intellectual, and new versions of D&D were designed, culminating in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, (or AD&D). It is now AD&D that is played instead of D&D. AD&D is still the largest RPG of all, with hundereds of supplements, game worlds and rules, and most roleplayers will have played it at least once. However many roleplayers also regard it as a sytem past its time, with an emphasis on complex rules, combat and fantasy settings. Indeed it is quite possible to divide most roleplayers into AD&D haters and fans.

Because Dungeons & Dragons is the oldest and most well known game it is also the game that non-roleplayers associate with roleplaying in general. It is common to describe roleplaying as "You know, Dungeons and Dragons." To many roleplaying and AD&D are the same things. For this reason AD&D has borne the brunt of fundamentalist attacks on roleplaying as an activity, especially in the U.S.

See Family Tree of D&D Games.