Imagine, if you will, a world of fantasy; a realm where magic is as real as the land, where brave adventurers set out on quests to thwart evil, where you can spend a lifetime exploring and never run out of things to do.  This is the world of Dungeons and Dragons: a world full of places to discover and people to meet, a world free from the constraints of reality: a world where anything is possible.  The experience you can have playing Dungeons and Dragons is only limited by the depth of your imagination.
	Since its original introduction, Dungeons and Dragons has been a popular activity among the RPG enthusiast population.  When it was introduced in 1974, it was one of the first games of its time, and it marked the beginning of the modern RPG era.  In fact, D&D is the best-known and best-selling game of its kind, easily surpassing other fantasy role-playing games of the time, such as RuneQuest, Space Opera, or Traveller.  Even today, the Dungeons and Dragons system of gameplay (the d20 system) is the most widely used 	set of game mechanics, and has spawned countless campaign settings and derivative games.  Examples of this include Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, or Call of Cthulhu.
	Engaging in a game of Dungeons and Dragons is a unique experience.  Because of the incredibly wide variety of campaigns, adventures, and settings available, you will never have to play the same game twice.  Dungeons and Dragons also includes the Dungeon Master, who controls the game mechanics, plays the roles of the NPC’s (Non-Player Characters), and basically has full control over the game world, making each run of an adventure unique.  Furthering this uniqueness is the fact that almost every action in D&D is a success or a failure dependent upon the roll of a dice.  If you wish, the Dungeon Master can even create a unique adventure to suit you and your friends.  It is for this reason that Dungeons and Dragons is often played by those who enjoy gaming with friends, in a world where no rule cannot be broken.
	While most people may not see the appeal of spending hours hunched over a card table with a group of other nerds, rolling polyhedral dice, drinking caffeinated soda, and eating chips while debating various strategies and arguing over the merits of so and so spell, I enjoy playing Dungeons and Dragons for a great many reasons.  Because of the game’s relatively open structure and the lack of limits on possible character actions, I feel free and unhindered by the rules of traditional society when I play.  For in what other game could you rescue a princess from a castle guarded by ogres, retrieve a magical amulet from the tomb of an ancient king, and slay a legendary dragon, all in the span of a single afternoon?