The young protectors of an alien visitor played it in the movie ET: The Extra Terrestrial, and the young friends who venture into the Upside Down played it in the first season of Stranger Things.

Dungeons & Dragons, conceived by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, has become enshrined in pop culture over the five decades since it launched as a new kind of game in the early 1970s. Its vividly realised game mechanics and high-fantasy setting contributed to an ever-growing mainstream interest in fantasy that took flight half a century ago, building on an American fascination with the work of J.R.R. Tolkien that had flourished in the counterculture of the late 1960s. In turn, that moment impacted on the wider pop culture and fantasy storytelling space that developed in the 1970s.

Another decade on with the arrival of the 1980s, the excitement around Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) rested not just on its gameplay, but also on its increasingly sophisticated illustration and image material. That body of work has become key to the game’s legacy,