Origin in Publication: the dungeon is where Underground adventures take place

The dungeon as a place to conduct an underworld adventure is spelled out in the opening paragraphs of Volume III of the Original Publication of Dungeons and Dragons "Wilderness and Underworld Adventures" on page 3. (© COPYRIGHT 1974 • TACTICAL STUDIES RULES, by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson).

Why Dungeons and Dragons?

Dave Arneson was up in St. Paul and not with me when I wrote down two single-word lists of possible titles for the game. I did ask my player group which they liked, also queried my family. My youngest daughter Cindy, was adamant that I must use "Dungeons & Dragons." As a number of others were in agreement with that choice, and I liked the alliteration, that's what I went with when I took the mss. I had written to the printer in early December 1973. ~ Gary Gygax

Two Meanings of "Dungeon" in the game's context

1. the generic setting for an underworld adventure and is below ground, dark, and dangerous
2. the D&D campaign/setting run by a given person.

The second usage is probably as old as the playtests Arneson's playing group, and later Gygax undertook (early 1970's) in the adventures under Arneson's Blackmoor castle.

This jargon (unique to a small community of gamers) is seen in the TSR newsletter The Strategic Review #6 (Volume II No. 1, Feb 1976) on page 7 in one of E. Gary Gygax' articles:

Personal Experience: the second usage had spread, and was present as far back as 1975, when I first began to play Dungeons and Dragons. We would ask one another "whose dungeon are we playing in?" to decide who would be the game master/dungeon master for the next session. It obviously preceded our experience -- we lived in Virginia and the game spread from the Wisconsin-Chicago area (in our case, through a game store where a friend bought the first boxed set any of us had seen). There was no internet to spread memes or jargon at the speed that they now spread.

Origin in Publication: the dungeon is where Underground adventures take place

The dungeon as a place to conduct an underworld adventure is spelled out in the opening paragraphs of Volume III of the Original Publication of Dungeons and Dragons Wilderness and Underworld Adventures on page 3. (© COPYRIGHT 1974 • TACTICAL STUDIES RULES, by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson).

Why Dungeons and Dragons?

Dave Arneson was up in St. Paul and not with me when I wrote down two single-word lists of possible titles for the game. I did ask my player group which they liked, also queried my family. My youngest daughter Cindy, was adamant that I must use "Dungeons & Dragons." As a number of others were in agreement with that choice, and I liked the alliteration, that's what I went with when I took the mss. I had written to the printer in early December 1973. ~ Gary Gygax

Two Meanings of "Dungeon" in the game's context

1. the generic setting for an underworld adventure and is below ground, dark, and dangerous

2. the D&D campaign/setting run by a given person.

   The second usage is probably as old as the playtests Arneson's playing group, and later Gygax undertook (early 1970's) in the adventures under Arneson's Blackmoor castle.

This jargon (unique to a small community of gamers) is seen in the TSR newsletter The Strategic Review #6 (Volume II No. 1, Feb 1976) on page 7 in one of E. Gary Gygax' articles:

Personal Experience: the second usage had spread, and was present as far back as 1975, when I first began to play Dungeons and Dragons. We would ask one another "whose dungeon are we playing in?" to decide who would be the referee/dungeon master for the next session. It obviously preceded our experience -- we lived in Virginia and the game spread from the Wisconsin-Chicago area (in our case, through a game store where a friend bought the first boxed set any of us had seen). There was no internet to spread memes or jargon at the speed that they now spread.

It began with "Dungeon Crawl" during the development of the game Dungeons and Dragons.

It began with going into a "Dungeon" (the areas underneath a fortress) during the development of the game Dungeons and Dragons.

The second usage is probably as old as the playtests Arenson's playing group, and later Gygax undertook (early 1970's) in the adventures under Arneson's Blackmoor castle.

The second usage is probably as old as the playtests Arneson's playing group, and later Gygax undertook (early 1970's) in the adventures under Arneson's Blackmoor castle.