# dnd *The Game of Dungeons* - Work: Dungeon crawler - Date: c. 1975 (PLATO); revised into the 1980s - Platforms: PLATO - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-plato/ > Named for the letters D and D, this PLATO dungeon sent players down the multi-level Whisenwood Dungeon after an Orb guarded by a dragon, arguably the first boss in video games. **Why it matters:** dnd was one of the first computer RPGs and among the most influential of the PLATO dungeon games: it introduced a multi-level dungeon with an ultimate treasure and a climactic guardian, and its ideas flowed into later microcomputer games. ## Quick answers **When was dnd first released?** dnd was first released in c. 1975 (PLATO); revised into the 1980s. **What kind of work is dnd?** dnd is a dungeon crawler in the First-Person Dungeon Crawlers ('Blobbers') and Western Computer RPGs (CRPG) tradition, released for PLATO. **Why is dnd important?** dnd was one of the first computer RPGs and among the most influential of the PLATO dungeon games: it introduced a multi-level dungeon with an ultimate treasure and a climactic guardian, and its ideas flowed into later microcomputer games. ## Overview If [*pedit5*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pedit5/) was the first PLATO dungeon to survive, *dnd* was the one that lasted. Written by Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood, students at Southern Illinois University, in the TUTOR language for the [PLATO](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/plato-system/) network, *The Game of Dungeons*, universally called *dnd* after its lesson name and the abbreviation "D&D", dropped players into the multi-level Whisenwood Dungeon in search of an ultimate treasure: the Orb, guarded on the deepest levels by the Dragon. It was maintained and expanded for a decade, it is still playable, and it helped establish the shape of the computer dungeon crawl. ## Origins Whisenhunt and Wood took their inspiration from two sources: [*Dungeons & Dragons*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/), published the year before, and Reginald Rutherford's *pedit5* on the same network. Rutherford later said he knew of their project while writing his own; one account holds that the repeated deletion of *pedit5* by PLATO administrators spurred the pair to finish theirs. Southern Illinois had a single PLATO terminal, and Whisenhunt became its administrator, which gave the project a home. Like other game authors, they faced administrators who regarded games as a misuse of the system. The date is debated. PLATO lore and some references place *dnd* in 1974; the historian Aaron A. Reed, searching PLATO's archived notes files, found no mention of the game as late as June 1976 and argues for a first appearance around the fall of 1975 at the earliest, after *pedit5*. What is certain is that it was soon in wide use. Dirk Pellett, who arrived late in 1975 (at Iowa State University, by most accounts), sent so many suggestions that Whisenhunt and Wood gave him editing privileges. He added items, potions and encounters and refined the rules; his brother Flint, who attended the University of Illinois from 1977, helped program later editions, which continued into the mid-1980s. The earliest surviving version is 5.4 from 1977. ## How it plays Players roll a character with D&D-style attributes (strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity) and enter the dungeon, viewed from above as a maze on PLATO's plasma screen. Each level is a labyrinth; players can press deeper or climb back toward the surface, making it one of the earliest games with non-linear progression between levels. Teleporters shift characters between depths. There are bottomless pits, trapped chests, potions with a range of effects, magic weapons and armor, and books that alter attributes when read. Early versions placed the Orb on levels 17 to 20, where a Dragon waits that can deal enormous damage; later editions, as preserved today, add a second great treasure, the Grail. The economy is a neat loop. Gold means nothing inside the dungeon, but carried out it converts into [hit points](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/hit-points/) and spell capacity, so each expedition finances the next. Death is [permanent](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/permadeath/): lose a character and you roll another. The designers also had a sense of humor, with joke spells such as "Kitchen Sink." ## Reception & impact *dnd* became one of PLATO's most popular games, and its influence traveled beyond the network. Daniel Lawrence, who had seen PLATO, wrote a version called *DND* for DEC PDP-10 and PDP-11 computers; Dirk Pellett later called it plagiarized, while allowing it some original programming. Lawrence's game evolved into *Telengard*, a commercial dungeon crawl for home computers in 1982. The line between these games and [*Rogue*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/rogue/) is harder to prove, but the CRPG Addict blog, which played *dnd* in 2012, considered the resemblance strong. Through the first-person PLATO games it helped inspire, *Moria* and *Oubliette*, its lineage also reaches [*Wizardry*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/wizardry/). ## Legacy *dnd* is widely credited with the first video-game boss: a single, singularly powerful guardian standing between the player and victory. Its dungeon of many levels, ultimate treasure at the bottom, and the return to town to convert loot into power is still the skeleton of the [dungeon crawl](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/dungeon-crawl/) from [*Diablo*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/diablo/) onward. The game has existed continuously in some form since its first edition, and the Pellett-era versions run today on Cyber1's revived PLATO, where Dirk Pellett also wrote down much of its history. ## Facts - The title screen says The Game of Dungeons; history remembers it by its PLATO lesson name, dnd. - 'Whisenwood,' the dungeon's name, fuses the surnames of its authors, Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood. - The Dragon guarding the Orb is often cited as the first boss in a video game. - Gold carried out of the dungeon converted into hit points and spell capacity for the next trip. - Dirk Pellett had so many suggestions after arriving in late 1975 that the authors gave him editing rights; his brother Flint joined later. - Daniel Lawrence's DND for DEC computers, ancestor of the 1982 game Telengard, borrowed heavily from it. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnd_(1975_video_game)) - [The CRPG Addict: The Game of Dungeons](https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2012/02/game-69-game-of-dungeonsdnd-1975.html) - [Aaron A. Reed, 50 Years of Text Games: dnd](https://if50.substack.com/p/1975-dnd) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.