Q&A with Dustin Clingman

[aldarron]

Dustin that's really interesting - thanks for sharing that. You've made me curious about the adventures Dave was running. Were these things he made up, or from old published modules or was it the MMRPG adventures? Did he take you into the Temple of the Frog or Blackmoor dungeon?

[TheMystic]

It was a wide range of stuff. He really loved the Rules Cyclopedia! That was his favorite reference during games.

We played through a number of published modules, but everything was up for improvisation from Dave. From what I recall, we played through Temple of the Frog, Adventures in Blackmoor and a portion of Temple of Elemental Evil. These with a number of side quests, and of course, numerous visits to The Comeback Inn!

[Havard]

Sorry for the slow reply!

Dave did run games for some of the folk who participated in the ZGG work. Alot of them were remote. The games we did play with Dave (before and after his stroke) were quite fun. His daughter Malia and her husband Luke were often in attendance. We were additionally supported by Arthur (a fellow instructor from Full Sail) and a number of guest players and friends who were in town at the time.

Dave was very free wheeling and taught me quite a lot in those sessions. He had a good idea of the encounters we would face and he did not spend a ton of time looking up rules or referencing materials. I felt like he had it all there in his mind, just waiting for us to discover.

We did have some players who helped find arcane rules, but the greatest lesson here was to never let getting bogged down on "rules" detract from the play session.

My character in that game was named "Biggen Gurble" - He was a 3rd Edition halfling barbarian. Dave didn't like this character concept, but he allowed it. To him, halflings were Hobbits, so this particular guy was distinct in Blackmoor for that reason. When we went to press, we wanted to preserve that original conceptualization and as such, the Docrae became a branch of the halfling line, but really a distinct race unto themselves.

We played weekly for months in that game. When Dave had his stroke, he was taken out of commission for a while, but eventually resumed. He had a partial slur just after the incident and found that running the game helped him regain some of that control that was lost.

All in all, great fun! I really miss that guy.

Hi Dustin! This is really fascinating!

I love hearing about your character "Biggen Gurble" and his adventures! Do you recall what year Dave had his stroke?

I noticed that Dave Arneson was listed as a playtester for 3E. Did you play with him before 2000 or would that have been with other players?

-Havard

[TheMystic]

IIRC, Wizards shared some early drafts with Dave and he ran some games with friends locally in Orlando. I didn't start playing with Dave till late 2000/early 2001.

[gsvenson]

It was a wide range of stuff. He really loved the Rules Cyclopedia! That was his favorite reference during games.

We played through a number of published modules, but everything was up for improvisation from Dave. From what I recall, we played through Temple of the Frog, Adventures in Blackmoor and a portion of Temple of Elemental Evil. These with a number of side quests, and of course, numerous visits to The Comeback Inn!

We did Garbage Pits of Despair, too, as I recall.

[Yaztromo]

What's the the mystery behind episodes 56 and 58, that "never were written"?
I'm curious to know why we have two numbers with no episode to show...

[TheMystic]

Trying to think back nearly 10 years on this one. I believe that we had those episodes assigned to writers, but for some reason, they were not able to submit them. That's what my gut/brain tell me, but I could be mis remembering.

At that point in the campaign, things were starting to diverge into storylines, so there was value in staying in order for the storylines, but not in pure sequence for the episodes, making this outcome less of an impact to the overall narrative.

Hope that's helpful.

Dustin

[Yaztromo]

Ever thought about plugging that gaps? It's never too late, after all...

[TheMystic]

Hahahah, well it's been almost 10 years. No plans to do so now.

[Yaztromo]

Well, 10 years can pass very quickly... :mrgreen:
OK, at least I tried...