DGUTS - Don't Give Up The Ship, By Arneson, Gygax & Carr

[Havard]

First published in 1972 by Guidon Games, this naval strategy game by Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax and Mike Carr was the first publication involving both Arneson and Gygax. This page at the Collector's Trove has some pictures of Co-Creator Mike Carr teaching the game to a group.

According to this thread at the OD&D74 Forum, Arneson had intended to bring the game back in 2008:

DGUTS will be re-released by GHQ this summer. No, no RPG in it.
There were actually three editions. Two by GUIDON games and one by TSR.

Dave Arneson

and later:

OK here is the latest. Stillwaiting for a publication opening at GHQ. "Real soon now">

There will be PDF files for all single ship actions in the American Revolution, French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars and, of course, The war of 1812. These are based primarily on a six volume set of NAVAL HISTORY OF GREAT BRITIAN by James.

There are also a set of Campaign rules which I am testing next month. And finially their was a set of "Privateer" rules based on the AWI where each player has a ship, goes raiding, and progress up the command ladder based on how well they do. Pretty well tested but needs anther run through. That's about as close to RPG as DGTS gets.

Dave Arneson
"Dark Lord of Gaming"

Does anyone know more about the game? Is it true that some of the mechanics used in DGUTS were also used in the Blackmoor Campaign?

-Havard