ABSTRACT
One of the many reasons Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) became so popular was the rational and sophisticated way it handled so many unpredictable phenomena, requiring just the right ratio of dumb luck to smart planning. Many students had access to a powerful and flexible learning system called PLATO, an advanced time-sharing system that supported many simultaneous users on one mainframe. Rutherford, a PLATO programmer for the Population and Energy Group, had been playing D&D since 1975 and heard that a computer game called DND was already in development, but he still decided to try his hand at it. There are only four player stats in Moria: cunning, piety, valor, and wizardry, which link up nicely with the four guilds advanced players may join: the Thieves' Guild, the Brotherhood, the Union of Knights, and the Circle of Wizards.
