And Another Thing

My very favorite thing about Dungeons & Dragons Online is that it is Dungeons & Dragons. My second favorite thing is the richness of the detailed D&D version that exists within the game. So rich, that here I am, eight years in, still finding wonderful new things. Still, all these years later.

I’ll share, but first, some background.

---

From the very beginning, Dungeons & Dragons has always been about the ampersand. It has never been “Dungeons AND Dragons” but rather “Dungeons & Dragons”. “D&D”, never “DnD”. There has always been the ampersand.

White-box D&D

But it hasn’t always been the same ampersand.

Advanced D&D

That one really is the same. But wait, it gets better.

First Edition Advanced D&D

Note that some creative person somewhere has turned the ampersand into a dragon head. Still recognizably an ampersand. Yet also, a dragon head.

Second Edition Advanced D&D

We seem to be settling on the dragon head ampersand

Third Edition D&D

Now the ampersand is an entire dragon; sort of a serpent-y dragon, perhaps a wyrm, but still an entire dragon. Our little ampersand is all grown up.

Fourth Edition D&D

Is it still an RPG? Has it turned into a miniatures game? The ampersand doesn’t care, he/she/it is still very much the standoffish yet imperial Dragon.

Dungeons & Dragons Online

And then comes our own special corner of the D&D universe: DDO. Note the 4th edition style logo, replete with lovely dragon ampersand.

And there we have the evolution of the D&D ampersand. 40 years later, it now looks this this:
Inspiring the Third Edition-y yet ubiquitous DDO ampersand:

---

Phew. Now with all that in mind, let us consider something I noticed the other day:

There he/she/it is, our little D&D ampersand in fullly rendered 3D glory. How did I miss that all this time? Scepters were introduced in … what? 2007? 2008? And only now did I see that one of the scepter skins is the ampersand.

DDO: putting the “&” into MMORPG, whether the RPG world wants it or not. Way to go DDO peoples, way to go.

Outstanding.