NEW YORK - It must be tough to be 34 and already see your children overshadow you.

That's what's happened to ''Dungeons & Dragons,'' the roleplaying game that for decades has drawn geeks to roll dice and pretend to be elves, sorcerers and other fantasy heroes. It has never quite become mainstream entertainment, but it has inspired roleplaying computer games like ''World of Warcraft'' to borrow its principles and turn them into a multibillion-dollar industry.

Now, D&D is borrowing from its imitators. The next edition of the game, due out in June, will for the first time be paired with online features.

''That group that broke up in 1987 because you all graduated from high school and went to schools across the country? Well, you can get that old teenage group back together,'' said Scott Rouse, brand manager for D&D at Wizards of the Coast.

Roleplayers have always faced the difficulty of getting together regularly, especially since the games are lengthy. But they talk warmly about the camaraderie fostered by the games, since the players cooperate rather than compete.

The new edition, the fourth since D&D was created in 1974, may do nothing for the game's social stigma, but at least players will have the option to commune online. Each screen will show the same virtual 3-D ''tabletop,'' and the players will be able to talk via Internet voice chat.

Wizards also is building its own social networking site as a Facebook or MySpace for gamers. The players will be able to create fantasy characters for themselves. D&D had about six million players worldwide last year, according to a survey by. The online features of fourth-edition D&D will carry a monthly fee of $14.95.

About role-playing games

How big are they? Wizards does not reveal sales figures, but it is estimated that the overall market for traditional role-playing games is $30 million annually.

A 'Warcraft' world: The massively multiplayer online (or MMO) game ''World of Warcraft'' has more than 10 million subscribers, most of them paying. Publisher Blizzard Entertainment doesn't say how much the game is earning, but it's estimated that it pulls in more than $1 billion per year. U.S. subscribers pay $14.95 per month.