King Normans and Dungeons & Dragons in 1981

December 31, 1981. TSR’s Dungeons & Dragons game was big business in the early eighties, with the company growing rapidly as awareness and popularity of fantasy roleplaying games took off in a big way. How big? Well, the fact that we can find newspaper advertisements for retailer sales of the game in 1981 should give you some idea of the game’s popularity over three decades ago.