Bill Owen on the First Fantasy Campaign

[Havard]

Forwarded from my blog:

In 1977, Judges Guild published the First Fantasy Campaign. In a recent Save or Die Podcast, Judges Guild Co-Founder Bill Owen talks about Judges Guild history, including his contact with Dave Arneson. Mr Owen and the legendary Bob Bledsaw had formed the Judges Guild in 1967. When they went to meet with TSR on July 18th 1976, it was Dave Arneson who gave them the verbal approval to publish D&D related material. More on this story can be learned from mr Owen's book, Judges Guild's Bob & Bill, a Cautionary Tale, which was reviewed at Grognardia.

Dave Arneson left TSR later that same year and in 1977, he submitted his manuscript for the First Fantasy Campaign to Judges Guild for publishing. Echoing former TSR employees, Bill Owen describes the material Arneson sent them in the mail as "somewhat disorganised". Where mr. Owen differs from those who worked on Supplement II, is in his attitude towards the author. "I respected Arneson greatly", Owen says. He goes on to say that he was intimidated and frustrated that this work had been delegated to him, but the reason for that was that he was worried that the changes he felt neccessary to make in order to make the product "look like the kind of thing we would make" would not be worthy of an Arneson authored product. On the other hand, he stresses that Arneson was not the kind of person who might be upset about any such changes. "He was very easy going about the whole thing", Owen says, mirroring how many others have described Arneson's generous nature.

Perhaps it was this attitude of respect for the author and his professionality that made mr Owen that allowed the First Fantasy Campaign to become the gem among gaming products that it is. While others might have been tempted to apply heavy handed edititing in order to make the product onto a preconcieved idea of what a D&D product was supposed to look like in those days, Owen allowed the First Fantasy Campaign to appear as the unique product that it is, with the author's voice being heard clearly. We are eternally thankful for this!

See version with pictures and links here


-Havard

[Havard]

Hopefully this review came out as balanced and respectful...

-Havard

[finarvyn]

Mr Owen and the legendary Bob Bledsaw had formed the Judges Guild in 1967.

Um ... was this 1976?

I agree that FFC is somewhat unorganized. Perhaps that's part of its charm, since all of us feel like we could have typed up our own campaign notes and published essentially the same thing.

Perhaps that's something I enjoy best about OD&D, FFC, RQ 1e, and other games of the era -- the fact that notning was really slick and polished and you kind of felt like the guy who wrote it might be at your gaming table some day. Personally, I can't imagine looking at the slick paper, colored map, wacky font, hardback books out there and saying "see, this is our stuff."

Dave was a visionary. Perhaps not an organized one, but a guy who created magic where it hadn't been created before and that's a lot of what I liked about him and his FFC.

Just my two coppers.

[Havard]

Mr Owen and the legendary Bob Bledsaw had formed the Judges Guild in 1967.

Um ... was this 1976?

1976, yes! Typo, thanks for catching it!

I agree that FFC is somewhat unorganized. Perhaps that's part of its charm, since all of us feel like we could have typed up our own campaign notes and published essentially the same thing.

Perhaps that's something I enjoy best about OD&D, FFC, RQ 1e, and other games of the era -- the fact that notning was really slick and polished and you kind of felt like the guy who wrote it might be at your gaming table some day. Personally, I can't imagine looking at the slick paper, colored map, wacky font, hardback books out there and saying "see, this is our stuff."

Dave was a visionary. Perhaps not an organized one, but a guy who created magic where it hadn't been created before and that's a lot of what I liked about him and his FFC.

Just my two coppers.

I totally agree with this. That is sort of what I was trying to convey in my article as well. I think an editor complaining that what the author submits to him is disorganised doesnt really know what an editor's job is. Not criticizing mr Owen though. He was intimidated by being put in charge of publishing what was already at this time a legend. And he did a damn good job. The FFC proves how clueless those TSR guys were when they were complaining about what Arneson sent them.

-Havard

[aldarron]

Ditto. Arneson certainly knew how to be organized. That Napoleonic campaign he ran required a massive amount of bookkeeping and could not have been done haphazzardly.

I think, judging from his interview comments, Dave fully expected Owen and Judges guild to rearrange and reorganize the text he gave them, instead of the random layout they published. The thing to remember too is that a great deal of the FFC actually is notes and short segments prepared as notes for Blackmoor or for innclusion in D&D, and only some biridging materials where written for the FFC itself.

[DungeonDevil]

I think an editor complaining that what the author submits to him is disorganised doesnt really know what an editor's job is.

-Havard

Editor's don't edit, or if they are forced to do so by their superiors they whine and resist as much as possible. This is something I've learned from dealing with the publishing industry over the past 16 years. :? They will reject something before they ever decide to use any red ink. :evil:

Dave was really lucky that he had friends at JG.
99.99% of any publishers would have instantly rejected the disorganised heap of random, crazy material in the FFC. I've learned to appreciate the book's 'raw', natural state--kinda like seeing the universe a millisecond after the Big Bang: chaotic, oftimes incomprehensible, but awe-inspiring and humbling.

[Havard]

Editor's don't edit, or if they are forced to do so by their superiors they whine and resist as much as possible. This is something I've learned from dealing with the publishing industry over the past 16 years. :? They will reject something before they ever decide to use any red ink. :evil:

Interesting to hear about your experiences DungeonDevil. I have no personal experience with publishing, only things I have read. I think it may depend on which industry and the kind of publisher though.

Dave was really lucky that he had friends at JG.
99.99% of any publishers would have instantly rejected the disorganised heap of random, crazy material in the FFC. I've learned to appreciate the book's 'raw', natural state--kinda like seeing the universe a millisecond after the Big Bang: chaotic, oftimes incomprehensible, but awe-inspiring and humbling.

I think you are forgetting that we are talking about Dave Arneson here. I suspect that already at this time he was a legend in D&D circles, even if he had gained some enemies. The interview with Owen seems to confirm this too. Getting to publish Arneson's campaign was a big opportunity for JG and they knew that this was something they would have to do right. I wonder if Owen's awe of Arneson may have been a problem for JG too though. If Owen had that many questions, why didnt he just call Arneson and ask him? Afterall, he did say that Dave was easy going about Owens input to the product.

-Havard

[Havard]

Bill Owen dropped by and left a comment on my blog:

I don't know if I made the point in the podcast but I had judged very little of our campaign from 1974-1976. Bob did 90% of that with Marc Summerlott, Craig Fogle, Mark Holmer and I dividing the tiny remainder (to give Bob a break). My point is that Bob was already a hard act to follow... then I am to make sense of Dave's stuff?! I am glad that my minimalist approach worked well for you. My memory now (sorry there's no more) of FFC was the failed cover art. It's a rookie mistake (to use the same value colors together for the red heading and the brown background art) that could have been caught if we would paid for a proof. But by a combination of desire for speed (I was 22 years old and "at a slant") and parsimoniousness (we wanted to provide a variety of play aids inexpensively), I charged ahead.

-Havard

[DungeonDevil]

Red on most backgrounds is hard for me to read, but that's because of my colour-blindness. I'm surprised to hear that others, without CB, had trouble with the cover.

[Havard]

Nah, it is pretty hard to make out for anyone. It is supposed to be a fire elemental creature of some sort, but you have to study it quite closely to make out the details.

-Havard