Arneson put R into RPGs (Cracked.com article)

[Havard]

Preserving this link for later reference: http://www.cracked.com/article_19576_6- ... it_p2.html

I'm sure you have seen this article before, which has the following to say about Dave Arneson:

E. Gary Gygax is considered the father of not only Dungeons and Dragons, but also the modern RPG industry itself. When, in reality, he was more like the weird uncle who lives in the garage and keeps clogging the toilet.


Who Actually Deserves the Credit:

During a nerd side quest, Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax had an epic random encounter when they chanced to meet at Gen Con in 1969. Gygax was working on something called Chainmail, which was a war simulator only a bit more complicated than the average board game. With Arneson's influence, Chainmail was adapted to include:

- Exploring dungeons

- Using a neutral judge/dungeon master

- Conversations with imaginary characters (NPCs) to develop the storyline

- Hit points

- Experience points

- The concept of role-playing an individual character rather than just rolling dice

So, basically, he put the "R" in RPG.


In fairness, Gygax was the man who introduced Cheetos and Mountain Dew to tabletop gaming.

Then why did Arneson's name fail its saving throw against history? Because in 1976, Arneson left TSR, the company that published D&D, to pursue a career as an independent game designer. In 1977, TSR released a new version of the game, cleverly titled Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and insisted that they didn't owe him any royalties. Arneson started filing lawsuits, while Gygax just looked around, realized that somebody was paying him to play D&D and tried his best not to rock this boat that should not be.

I think the slam against Gary in the article is unneccesary. It should be possible to honor both men for their important contributions to founding our hobby. However, it is nice to see someone giving Arneson credit besides those belonging to our little community here

-Havard

[gsvenson]

Both men deserve credit for D&D. Dave Arneson for the innovate ideas and Gary Gygax for reorganizing Dave Arneson's material in a way that someone else could use to run or play the game. Gary Gygax even gave Dave Arneson credit in his interviews before 1976. I think greed, fame and poorly understood contracts got in the way of allowing appropriate recognition...

[Havard]

Both men deserve credit for D&D. Dave Arneson for the innovate ideas and Gary Gygax for reorganizing Dave Arneson's material in a way that someone else could use to run or play the game. Gary Gygax even gave Dave Arneson credit in his interviews before 1976. I think greed, fame and poorly understood contracts got in the way of allowing appropriate recognition...

I agree. Consider Gygax' description of Dave in the introduction of Supplement II: Blackmoor

Although [Dave Arneson] is a man of many talents who has authored many historic rules sets and games (which TSR will be publishing periodically), Dave is also the innovator of the "dungeon adventure" concept, creator of ghastly monsters, and inscrutable dungeonmaster par excellence. He devises complex combat systems, inexplicable dungeon and wilderness areas, and traps of the most subtle fiendishness. Herein you will get a taste of these, but he never reveals all. This writer always looks forward with great anticipation to an adventure in the "BLACKMOOR" campaign, for despite the fact that I co-authored the original work with Dave, and have spent hundreds of hours creating and playing DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, it is always a fresh challenge to enter his "world". I can not recommend him more highly than simply saying that I would rather play in his campaign than any other — that other dungeonmasters who emulate Dave Arneson will indeed improve their games.

(underline emphasis, mine)
Bad blood lead to people at TSR to trying to discredit Dave. Fans later caught onto this and made old conflicts their own. Although most people have now put such foolishness behind them, I still see even serious researchers underestimating Dave's role. OTOH, giving Dave the credit he deserves should not in any way be seen as an attempt to discredit Gygax, which is my only issue with the article quoted in the first post.

Although we have not yet reached the point where the truth is fully accepted, at least we have come quite a way compared to just a decade ago.

-Havard

[Havard]

Moved to the Archives.

Note that archived threads are still open for comments!

-Havard