This morning I was reflecting on the upcoming lunar new year (beginning February 10), as it is going to be my year, the Year of the Dragon. It also happens to be the year celebrating the 50th anniversary of my favorite game, Dungeons & Dragons. So it’s an interesting year for dragons and our affiliates!
Poking through my blog, you might find that I’ve celebrated the game’s function as a theoretical enterprise in the study of comparative religion. Almost ten years ago, I quickly noted that same fact while celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the game in a quick pop article on monsters and the enchantment of the world. In my second book, Virtually Sacred, I wrote about the influence of Dungeons & Dragons on videogame design and, more personally, I acknowledged its crucial role in my own intellectual development.
I was pretty proud of this book, and I was delighted to see it covered on sites like Gamespot and WoW Insider; but I always hated the cover. I have a not very long, but sad story about the awesome cover that could have been but wasn’t. Perhaps if I’d made the right decision at the time (at financial cost to myself), more folks would have bought the book. At a minimum, I would have enjoyed looking at it. Ah well.
So, I’m excited by the confluence of this golden jubilee for D&D and my own lunar year (I know, I’m an Italian Jew living in NY, so there’s some definite appropriation here…but that would be the case with any zodiac system). I guess this is the year that I should add a cave hydra to my tattoos. Hydras are dragons. I already have a cave dragon of the one-headed variety, and this guy was made for me to publish with an academic essay on religion, science, & technology as hydras.
I haven’t been sure where to put the hydra…but sometime after my year begins, it seems inevitable that I must decide!
[for those who wonder, I’ll be heading back to Vanguard Tattoo for it]
So, the Year of the Dragon is also the Year of Dungeons & Dragons. I wish Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson had lived to see the absolute explosion of interest in the game over the past decade (we even got a good movie!); but I hope that all the many early creators still with us are enjoying it.
P.S., If Jim Ward, Rob Kuntz, or Errol Otis (or any of the other artists who contributed) ever sees this and wants to autograph my copy of Deities & Demigods, definitely reach out! 🙂
[up top, that D&D book in the Year of the Dragon comes from DALL-E; see my thoughts on generative AI here and you’ll learn how I’m trying to do right by artists in this new era]
Robert M Geraci 
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