UPPER LAKE— The Upper Lake Post Office is inviting customers to unleash their imaginations and celebrate the 50th Anniversary of DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS with a special pictorial cancellation and stamp unveiling.
The Postal Service in partnership with The Dragon’s Den game shop will host a special stamp unveiling event for customers to celebrate DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, purchase stamps, artwork and special commemoratives.
Attendees will have the opportunity to purchase Dungeons and Dragons First-Class stamps and receive a free pictorial cancellation with purchase. Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024 from noon to 3 p.m.
Where: Dragons Den at 9490 Main Street in Upper Lake, CA 95485.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024, brought a bold new type of game to tabletops all over the world, one in which players collaborate by telling an open-ended story guided by books, dice and their own imaginations.
By inviting participants to imagine themselves as wizards, warriors and other adventurers in exciting and treacherous fantasy worlds, the game opened doors to whole new universes of creativity for generations of players.
From its Midwestern roots as a niche pastime, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS has grown into a global phenomenon, with an estimated 64 million fans worldwide since its debut in 1974.
Greg Breeding, an art director for USPS, served as both art director and designer for the stamps.
The pane of 20 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS stamps features 10 different designs that highlight characters, creatures, and encounters familiar to players of D&D:
• A bronze dragon wearing a necklace glances down at a blue plesiosaur.
• The five-headed Tiamat, queen of evil dragons, who has been featured in D&D materials since the 1970s.
• A lone figure lost in a maze, perhaps the victim of a ten-minute “maze” spell.
• A blue-robed figure casts a “magic missile” spell.
• The archlich Acererak raises an army of the dead. Acererak has appeared in D&D materials since 1978.
• Drizzt Do’Urden, the heroic drow ranger, stands against a wintry backdrop. Drizzt is known for breaking from an evil cult in the Underdark in favor of heroism and friendship on the surface.
• A warrior with his back to the viewer fights a massive red dragon in a detail from an illustration that appeared on the box cover of the popular 1983 D&D Basic Set, often known simply as the “Red Box.” This illustration has since become one of the most recognizable pieces of art in the history of the game.
• A character holds a pan of toxic green dragon’s blood over her head, preparing to bathe in it in the hope of gaining magical powers.
• A death knight rides a nightmare, backed by an army of the undead and a sinister, flame-shrouded castle.
• A purple worm, a fearsome creature that burrows through the earth and leaves massive tunnels in its wake, rises from the ground and coils, its teeth on display.
On the left side of the pane, the selvage features a detail of an illustration showing a party of adventurers encountering a massive green dragon amid a gold-strewn ruin. The illustration previously appeared on the box cover of the D&D Starter Set.
Below the illustration is a photograph of a gold 20-sided die above the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS logo with its distinctive ampersand formed from a fire-breathing dragon. Below the logo is a detail of a hand-drawn map of a typical “dungeon,” a network of caverns where D&D players might encounter monsters, traps, and treasure.
“D&D” appears in a lower corner of each stamp, with “USA” and “FOREVER” in smaller type on two lines alongside it.
The DUNGEONS & DRAGONS pane of 20 stamps are issued as Forever stamps. Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1 ounce price.
News of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS stamps are being shared with the hashtag #DandDStamps.
The cancellation will be available at the Upper Lake Post Office for 30 days.
Pictorial postmarks also may be obtained through the mail for anyone unable to attend through Sept. 10, 2024.
For one or more postmarks, affix the minimum of a First-Class stamp to an envelope or postcard, address the envelope or postcard to yourself or to others, insert a card of postcard thickness in the envelope(s), and tuck in the flap(s). Place the envelope(s) or postcard(s) in a large envelope and mail to:
Upper Lake Post Office ATTN: Upper Lake Postmaster 9435 Main St. Upper Lake, CA 95485
