There and Back Again: Nostalgia, Art, and Ideology in Old-School Dungeons and Dragons

This essay examines the aesthetic construction of nostalgia in the cover art of the Advanced Adventures, a series of tabletop fantasy role-playing modules published by Expeditious Retreat Press between 2006 and 2011. The art of these modules reveals a genre and period-specific set of aesthetic codes with distinct subcultural rules of application. In order to construct a sense of nostalgia, the cover art highlights the representation of adventurers, monsters, and dungeon environments within a unique visual style reminiscent of the early Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) aesthetic from the late 1970s and the early 1980s. The Advanced Adventures use nostalgia ideologically as a form of homage to early D&D, to assert the values of old-school gaming, and to chart a new direction for classic fantasy role-playing that challenges the style of play espoused by the current fourth edition of D&D (4E) published by Wizards of the Coast.