Dan Ayoub

My name is Dan Ayoub, and I run D&D.

A crazy thing to say.

I joke a lot that 12-year-old me is still somewhat in shock.

This game I've been playing my whole life and has shaped my whole career.

If you were to tell me when I was playing in the basement with my friends that one day I was going to be overseeing this, I never would have believed you.

Absolutely, yeah.

I was about 10.

I was hanging out with some older kids in the neighborhood and then I got super into the books.

Started reading the Dragonlance books and Crystal Shard and that was it.

I was done.

I was just sucked into the universe and a group of friends and I started playing

And I still play, not the same campaign, but I still play with that same group of friends.

And, you know, I always say that's part of the magic of D&D, right?

Through marriages and divorces and kids and births and deaths, right?

Like this game.

Absolutely.

It is this thing that just brings you all back together, right?

Like, even if you're feeling like shit because something happening in your life, you know, you can come back and sit and go to another world and just have a great time.

Things we take for granted right now originated with this game, like the concept of leveling up.

That's where it started.