The Strong Museum of Play announced this week that Dungeons & Dragons, that seminal tabletop role-playing game first published in 1974, will now be inducted its National Toy Hall of Fame.
That's important because game developers have long cited D&D as a heavy influence in their work, and now The Strong (which, incidentally, also maintains a Video Game Hall of Fame and a significant archive of video game ephemera) has formally recognized that influence.
"More than any other game, Dungeons & Dragons paved the way for older children and adults to experience imaginative play,” museum curator Nic Ricketts stated in a press release announcing the inductees. “It was groundbreaking. And it opened the door for other kinds of table games that borrow many of its unique mechanics. But most importantly, Dungeons & Dragons’ mechanics lent themselves to computer applications, and it had a direct impact on hugely successful electronic games like World of Warcraft.”
Now, Dungeons & Dragons will be put on permanent display at the museum in Rochester, New York alongside honored toys like alphabet blocks and the ball. D&D isn't the only 2016 National Toy Hall of Fame inductee, either; it shares the honor (see above image) with Fisher-Price's Little People toys and the perennially popular swing.