The DUNGEON! Boardgame at 40

Dave Megarry has recently posted an interview he did regarding how the Dungeon! board game came to be published (HT Zach H of the ever excellent Zenopus Archives blog). In the interview, Megarry discusses the inspirations behind the game, how he put together the first prototype, and the game's journey into publication.

I can still remember the first time I played the Dungeon! game. I was at my friend Mark's house, this was before the Sweet Pickles Wars of the early 80s, and he had a copy of the purple edition of the game.

I loved the game, but couldn't easily find a copy. I played a couple more times with Mark, we even added some of the alternate characters from Dragon magazine which we read about in the Best of Dragon vol. 1. It was a fun game. It's a bit cutthroat and has player elimination, which can be a nasty combination, but I've been happy to see that the game continues to receive updated releases. I own three or four editions of the game and am looking forward to playing the latest iteration, the one with the cartoony box art.

Returning to the interview though, it's nice to see living history information about role playing and board games. Too often the "history" people know about the industry is more hearsay, gossip, and opinion than history. This can be true of living history as well, but at least the hearsay, gossip, and opinion are first hand.