Unpublished Works of Dave Arneson

[Havard]

A recent discussion on Facebook gave me the idea for this thread. While it should be made clear that there probably arent many even early stage manuscrips written by Dave that have never seen the light of day. This is why I am going to include on the list items that exist in the form of notes, anecdotes by players of adventures etc. I'd rather have a more inclusive list even though many of these items would probably never have seen the light of day in any parallell universe.

The Medieval Braunstein/ The Fantasy Game / Dave Arneson's Dungeons & Dragons
Status: This would have been what D&D would have been like if it had been closer to the rules Dave used when he ran Blackmoor for his players. Obviously this game evolved over many years so different versions of it would have existed on the conceptual level. Beyond This Point Be Dragons, Empire of the Petal Throne and Adventures in Fantasy might give us more ideas of what that game would have been like.

DA5 Adventures in Blackmoor
Status: This product was never published, but supposedly completed by Dave J. Ritchie based on drafts by Dave Arneson. Since Dave Arneson was never sent a copy of DA4 for approval, Dave was never likely sent a copy of the completed version of DA5 either, although Zeitgeist Games claimed to possess a copy of it.

Adventures in Fantasy 2nd Edition
Status: this game was annouced. Whether drafts exist in any form is unknown.

Unpublished Ironclads Board Game
Status: Unknown. Supposedly, Dave Arneson took the Armor Class rules from a submarine Board Game he was also working on.

Dave Arneson's Strategos Variant
Status: A manuscript for this may exist. Dave may even have written more than one version. See PatW blog.

Dave Arneson's Dragons in the Skies
Status: Rumors of this game, that might be a fantasy version of Mike Carr's Fight in the Skies, appeared during the production of Secrets of Blackmoor.

Chronicles of Thonia/Chronicles of Blackmoor Series
Status: Dave Arneson announced plans for 12 adventures set in Blackmoor. It is possible that these were truncated into the four DA modules (there are a lot of adventure hooks in those). A massive manuscript called Chronicles of Thonia was sold on ebay many years ago. Apparently this was the copy of a manuscript sent to TSR.

Gauls vs Romans
Status: This was a war game session refreed by Dave Arneson in 1969 where he added laser weapons to the historical game. Dave referred to this session in interviews.

Vikings vs. Medieval Castle
Status: This was a Braunstein variant Dave ran in 1970. Notes for this scenario are in the posession of Jon Peterson.

Merchants of Blackmoor
A trade war strategy game scenario ran as part of the Blackmoor campaign.



What are other adventures, war games, RPG products, board game concepts, novels or other works have been mentioned in interviews, player anecdotes or elsewhere that Dave might have considered working on at one point or other? Could any of them exist even if just as scribbled notes?



-Havard

[aldarron]

Skipping down the list a bit

Unpublished Ironclads Board Game
Status: Unknown. Supposedly, Dave Arneson took the Armor Class rules from a submarine Board Game he was also working on.

I *think* you are confused on this. There's no board game based on a submarine game that I know of. There is an Ironclads game.

We have that. You can see parts of it in the SoB documentary. The Arneson's Ironclads game is a his take on Walter Gurney Green's rules published in Chapter 13 of Featherstone's Naval War Games. Arneson copied out the rules by hand and made changes and additions.

Dave Arneson's Strategos Variant
Status: A manuscript for this may exist. Dave may even have written more than one version. See PatW blog.

There are several Strategos variants. I think the one you mean is Strategos A, (ancients) which Arneson co wrote with Randy Hoffa ca. 1970. Most of these variants are available for the asking, but all they consist of is 3-6 pages of supplemental rules to Strategos N.

Dave Arneson's Dragons in the Skies
Status: Rumors of this game, that might be a fantasy version of Mike Carr's Fight in the Skies, appeared during the production of Secrets of Blackmoor.

We sort of have this - well some of it. Gygax edited down Arneson's game into the OD&D aerial rules. Arneson's rules have more to them of course but it is in a private collection so not readily available yet.

Chronicles of Thonia/Chronicles of Blackmoor Series
Status: Dave Arneson announced plans for 12 adventures set in Blackmoor. It is possible that these were truncated into the four DA modules (there are a lot of adventure hooks in those). A massive manuscript called Chronicles of Thonia was sold on ebay many years ago. Apparently this was the copy of a manuscript sent to TSR.

The Ebay listing indicated it was a rough TSR edit - so probably not Arneson's original mss., but still closer than the finished products.

Gauls vs Romans
Status: This was a war game session refreed by Dave Arneson in 1969 where he added laser weapons to the historical game. Dave referred to this session in interviews.

Just one of many wargames. Not an unpublished mss. In all probabiltiy Strategos A was used for this. Oh, the game actually took place in the second half of 1970. Megarry didn't know Arneson in 1969.

Vikings vs. Medieval Castle
Status: This was a Braunstein variant Dave ran in 1970. Notes for this scenario are in the posession of Jon Peterson.

Well, the notes are Bill Hoyt's, and copies are in the hands of several researches.

Merchants of Blackmoor
A trade war strategy game scenario ran as part of the Blackmoor campaign.

I don't think there were any rules for this outside what you see in the FFC.

What are other adventures, war games, RPG products, board game concepts, novels or other works have been mentioned in interviews, player anecdotes or elsewhere that Dave might have considered working on at one point or other? Could any of them exist even if just as scribbled notes?

Yeah, the big one would be the gangster game Machine Gun Kelly, that was in development at Adventure Games.

In DW Arneson talked about working on a Samurai game but that might not have gotten past the research stage.

I'm also recalling Chirine mentioning - I think it was shipping rules, Arneson put together based on railroad boxcar logistics or some such.