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+---- Thread: [Gamespy] Dave Arneson (2002) 1st Gamespy Interview (/showthread.php?tid=1797)
[Gamespy] Dave Arneson (2002) 1st Gamespy Interview - Havard - 05-17-2014
Dave Arneson Interview
Dave Arneson, "the Father of Role-Playing," was making the rounds at Gen Con and we got the scoop on what he is up to since helping create Dungeons & Dragons.
By Andrew S. Bub | August 11, 2002
Dave Arneson Dave Arneson is the father of role-playing, no really; it says so on his business card. But he's no braggart and that is no idle boast. Arneson co-created Dungeons and Dragons, the world's first role-playing game. Arneson has a paternal nature. He's soft-spoken, and slow moving. He has a kind face and a wide grin. He seems genuinely appreciative of his fans and he counts other gaming legends like Sandy Petersen (Call of Cthulhu, Ensemble Studios) among them. He's settled down now and living in Florida. But gaming isn't behind him, he teaches a course in Game Design at Florida's Full Sail University (http://www.fullsail.com/). Yes, that's Professor Dave Arneson to you kid! For an elder statesman of pen and paper gaming Dave moves quickly on the show floor, I missed him on the first pass, losing him in a crowd. The second time I caught up with him, and got the following interview:
GameSpy: You co-created Dungeons & Dragons. When did your interest in games begin?
Dave Arneson: We began what became eventually Dungeons & Dragons back in 1971; the game was actually published in 1974.
GameSpy: It began with what was basically a miniatures club, a group of wargamers, right?
Dave Arneson: I had a regular miniatures group that played wargames for, oh, 10 years at that point. We started it in the early '60's really. I had of course encountered role-playing in College. In history classes. And then I applied some of that to our wargames…
GameSpy: You mean "role-playing" by, um, pretending to be Abraham Lincoln?
Dave Arneson: Yeah. We created the Continental Congress and because I knew things the teacher didn't share with the students we ended up not having the Continental Congress, Delaware rejoined the Empire and New York and New Hampshire were at war. Anyway, (laughs) I was accused by my professor of perverting his exercises… and well, it was true I did, and he was mad at me. The same thing happened with the French Revolution, and he accused me of introducing these random events that were of no historical interest at all.
GameSpy: Isn't that exactly what wargames do? Introduce random things into history that change events? Lee winning at Gettysburg, that sort of thing?
Dave Arneson: Yeah. That's right. In our own games we got tired of taking the town, or the hill. So we started thinking about other objectives in a scenario, and to do that we had to give our Generals personality.
GameSpy: You had to role-play them.
Dave Arneson: We found that by doing that players started to identify with them. So, we'd role-play diplomacy and how they'd act out there on the battlefield. D&D sort of came about after a monster marathon week of reading Conan novels, eating popcorn until it was coming out of my ears-no I was not on drugs-and we got the idea to do something in a dungeon. So I wrote the dungeon. All my players showed up and instead of having a nice neat battlefield to fight on there was a castle and all these buildings and they were told they were going to go down and adventure in a dungeon.
GameSpy: What did these wargamers think of that idea?
Dave Arneson: Well, they went along with it and most of them had a great time. So, we literally did that every weekend for probably the next six-months, I had one guy who was a security guard and he'd call me on the phone from work and want to play, every day…
GameSpy: I can't tell you how many D&D players still do that in the High School cafeteria.
Dave Arneson: I know. So, as it started out it wasn't a major gaming effort as such but I was then adding rules and modifying things to make it ongoing. We had to change the old wargame system Gary (Gary Gygax) used in Chainmail.
The beginning of Blackmoor
GameSpy: And this led to the rules eventually published in Blackmoor?
Dave Arneson: And that led to Blackmoor. Yeah, I was really creative: Blackmoor Dungeon, Blackmoor Castle, Blackmoor Village, all in the Province of Blackmoor. (Laughs) Ok, I could have thought of names but…
Anyway, when we tried to use the old matrix rules (for Chainmail) only one die decided combat. So either the player would die or the monster would die. Well, the players didn't like that, so that's where I came up with hit points. Actually I got that from a set of Civil War Naval Rules where you had Armor Class and Hit Points and guns would do different damage.
Next: The D&D Movie »
GameSpy: After Blackmoor, how much longer did you work on D&D?
Dave Arneson: After about a year of playing it we went down and met Gary's group and they liked it. We thought we had something publishable here, and sent him all my notes, which subsequently appeared in the first fantasy campaign, we exchanged copious amounts of correspondence, and the rules were finally published in 1974. My involvement ended in 1976, we had a… it was me and Gary that had a difference of opinion, but I had a difference of opinion with TSR. And that led to… that was the first lawsuit, there's been five, but I can't talk about any of that. So that ended my involvement with TSR and D&D. When Gary became President (of TSR) in 1985 he commissioned me to do a series of modules for the world of Blackmoor. We got to the fourth module and again the company changed hands, and the new people didn't want to do it, so, that was it!
So what's my involvement? I do all the conventions. I talk about it. I use it for my classes. I think I've still had a lot of influence on rules in spite of not being officially involved but it was not until 3rd Edition came about and they involved me in the playtesting that I again had any direct involvement in D&D.
GameSpy: You were involved in the D&D movie, weren't you?
Dave Arneson: I was in the movie as an actor. I was there standing in the background throwing a fireball at a dragon.
GameSpy: I don't remember you…
Dave Arneson: (Laughs) Well when you're standing in a 300 foot tower and there's twelve of you throwing fireballs at dragons, I think it's really stupid. But it was all in the movie. Y'know I didn't find out they were making the movie until about halfway through the filming. And then they found out I was alive, instead of the rumor that I was dead, which was why they hadn't tried to contact me. They were nice. They sent me to Prague for a week and since it was a crowd scene they put me in.
Dave Arneson and Sandy Petersen
GameSpy: Are there plans for future movies?
Dave Arneson: There was talk of it but… I don't hear anything. When you're dealing with Hollywood when they're ready to contact you they do it and they want you to come next week.
GameSpy: Right now you're teaching a class at what school?
Dave Arneson: For the last three years I've been teaching a class in Computer Game Design and Documentation at the Full Sail University in Orlando Florida. I have no idea why they call it Full Sail or why their logo is a DC-3… they explained it to me once but I still don't get it. But I'm Professor Arneson now, I helped them establish the program, we've now had 200 grads, we probably have that many enrolled now-I'm kind of a victim of my own success-we started with 6-8 guys!
GameSpy: Have your students played your games? Are they familiar with your work?
Dave Arneson: Oh yeah, I would say generally half of them have played D&D. It's supposed to be a computer game course, but I'm using all games. If you don't teach the basics of gameplay, it doesn't work. Also, my students can't finish the course until they complete a playable game.
GameSpy: Is it satisfying to shepherd designers through? Anyone famous graduate from your program?
Dave Arneson: Yeah, it's very satisfying. And not yet, it's only been a couple years. They go on to become entry-level programmers. Our students are far better trained then your usual entry-level programmers. They'll get there one day.
GameSpy: Any new games coming from you?
Dave Arneson: We're redoing Blackmoor. But we're playing a little hard to get right now.
GameSpy: Do you play computer games?
Dave Arneson: Oh sure. I play a lot of computer games. In fact, you can get an A in my course if you can beat me in Age of Empires 2.
GameSpy: I bet nobody stands a chance. Thanks for your time Dave, it was a real pleasure. Have a great time in Milwaukee.
Dave Arneson: Thank You!•
*****
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20090412134 ... ndex.shtml
Read the Second Gamespy Interview (2004) with Dave Arneson here: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=644&p=6693#p6693
-Havard