Arnesonian Games

***Havard*** · 07-11-2011, 04:43 AM

Which RPGs can be called "Arnesonian" in flavour?

I am thinking about games Arneson worked on as well as games inspired by his works.

Some examples:

D&D
Adventures in Fantasy
Dragons at Dawn
Adventurer Conqueror King System

Any others? I guess we could include all the clones, but are some more worth mentioning than others?

-Havard

finarvyn · 07-11-2011, 10:24 AM

Havard Wrote:Adventurer Conqueror King System

Drawing a blank on this one. Sad

Refresh my memory.

I agree on the other three, however. I'm pretty sure that Dave also created an unpublished Civil War Ironclads style miniatures game that had AC similar to the way he did it in D&D. Wish I could get a look at that one!

***Havard*** · 07-11-2011, 12:07 PM

finarvyn Wrote:
Havard Wrote:Adventurer Conqueror King System
Drawing a blank on this one. Refresh my memory.

Sorry, should have included a link to this one. Just found out about it myself! Smile

Quote:I agree on the other three, however.

Good

Quote:I'm pretty sure that Dave also created an unpublished Civil War Ironclads style miniatures game that had AC similar to the way he did it in D&D. Wish I could get a look at that one!

Yes, that is something I would be interested in as well. Did Dave invent the AC system though? I thought he borrowed it from another board game/miniatures game?

-Havard

finarvyn · 07-12-2011, 07:19 PM

Havard Wrote:Did Dave invent the AC system though? I thought he borrowed it from another board game/miniatures game?

Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but I was thinking that the AC system he used is from the Civil War Ironclads rules that he created. Perhaps he got it from some other source prior to this, but I can't remember any earlier source ever mentioned. (I'm sure I asked him about it once. I'll see if I saved the e-mail.)

finarvyn · 07-12-2011, 07:22 PM

Havard Wrote:
finarvyn Wrote:
Havard Wrote:Adventurer Conqueror King System
Drawing a blank on this one. Refresh my memory.
Sorry, should have included a link to this one. Just found out about it myself!

Honestly, I can't tell enough about it from the link other than the "Arnesonian" mention. I'd have to take a peek at it before I gave it my stamp of approval as an Arnesonian game. :|

***Havard*** · 07-12-2011, 07:24 PM

Maybe this is what you are thinking about?

Dave Arneson Wrote:Something similar to Armor Class appeared in a naval wargame by Fred T Jane's (Jane's fighting ships). (The game had the players throwing darts at pinned up ship pictures for hits, I think?) They also figured in a couple WW I era sets of rules and my own Damm The Torpedos! (Never actually published.)

Arneson

Source: http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?ac ... 178&page=1

Smile

I was thinking about Jane's game, but had missed the part about Damn the Torpedos.

-Havard

***Havard*** · 07-12-2011, 07:26 PM

Quote:Honestly, I can't tell enough about it from the link other than the "Arnesonian" mention. I'd have to take a peek at it before I gave it my stamp of approval as an Arnesonian game. :|

I agree that its a little early to say, since the game isnt finalized yet, but I know that at least one of the designers is interested in looking back at Arneson's ideas.

-Havard

aldarron · 07-12-2011, 09:32 PM

Trapman: the man with the X-Ray eyes

Not a lot of rules in this one though, you basically are playing a comic book hero.

and

Don't Give Up the Ship. I have a hunch that most of the core mechanics for this game came from Dave.

***Havard*** · 07-13-2011, 05:44 AM

Aldarron Wrote:Trapman: the man with the X-Ray eyes

Not a lot of rules in this one though, you basically are playing a comic book hero.

Cool, I think its called Trapman: The Dog with X-Ray eyes. I hadnt realized before that it was an RPG rather than a comic book. Just ordered a copy. Smile

Quote:Don't Give Up the Ship. I have a hunch that most of the core mechanics for this game came from Dave.

Seem likely. This brings up an interesting point.
I tend to consider RPGs as a separate hobby from Board and Miniatures Games. To Arneson and the other early pioneers of the hobby it was of course much more natural to look at other types of games for rules. Given the recent developments in the board game industry, there might be a lesson there for modern RPG developers as well...?

-Havard

finarvyn · 07-13-2011, 08:35 AM

Havard Wrote:This brings up an interesting point.
I tend to consider RPGs as a separate hobby from Board and Miniatures Games. To Arneson and the other early pioneers of the hobby it was of course much more natural to look at other types of games for rules.

You're spot on with this observation. When I started playing OD&D in '75 I'd been playing Chainmail for a couple of years already and OD&D was a natural step from miniatures to near-miniatures play. (We used dice and coins and pawns as minis in our D&D games rather than the real thing because all of the minis we owned were human soldiers. Actually, I still use dice for monsters so that I can let the number of pips showing represent the hit points remaining.)

And the rulebooks do call themselves "Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniatures Figures" after all! 8)