Old 'Dungeons & Dragons' Stats for Bugs Bunny, Other Cartoon Characters Rediscovered
A viral Twitter post has reminded Dungeons & Dragons fans about the time when Bugs Bunny and other [...]
A viral Twitter post has reminded Dungeons & Dragons fans about the time when Bugs Bunny and other popular cartoon characters were given stat blocks for use in campaigns.
Loyola University professor Robert A McNees posted several excerpts from an old issue of Dragon magazine, a publication run by original Dungeons & Dragons publisher TSR Inc. The pages contained stat blocks for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and several other popular cartoon characters that could be used in actual AD&D campaigns.
Here’s something weird to wrap up your Sunday evening. In 1981, Dragon magazine published AD&D character stats for Bugs Bunny (15th level illusionist) and other cartoon characters. pic.twitter.com/INMlLDzjxw
— Robert McNees (@mcnees) May 21, 2018
Bugs Bunny was presented as a 15th level illusionist with innate reality-warping abilities. Popeye the Sailor was presented as a 9th or 18th level fighter (the level boost was likely due to his ingestion of spinach) and Rocky and Bullwinkle were presented as mid-level fighters....although Bullwinkle's Wisdom and Intelligence stats were woefully low.
McNees also posted a follow-up tweet revealing several more cartoon characters were also transformed into D&D monsters the following year. This new batch included Donald Duck (presented as an immortal barbarian with a hair-trigger temper and no sailing skills), the Tazmanian Devil, Marvin the Martian, and the Jolly Green Giant.
Follow-up: In 1982 they added Donald Duck (10th level Berserker!), the Jolly Green Giant, the Tasmanian Devil, and Marvin the Martian. pic.twitter.com/oFq6CBftOz
— Robert McNees (@mcnees) May 21, 2018
While this information wasn't exactly lost to time (as plenty of copies of old Dragon magazines still exist on the secondary market), it was the first time that many newer fans of Dungeons & Dragons had seen this interesting peek back into the game's earliest days. It also serves as a good reminder that D&D fans and designers have been homebrewing existing characters from other stories and mediums into their games for as long as the game existed.
D&D players still find ways to add pop culture references into the game over 35 years later. Whether it's designing a paladin after Captain America or homebrewing Pokemon into monsters for your campaign, just about anything can be transformed into a D&D character or monster for a home game.
Let us know what's your favorite homebrewed addition to a D&D game in the comment section!