The Wayfarer's Inn

Hi all,

Tim Kask is posting over at Dragonsfoot about his personal view of who contributed more to the D&D game:

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewt ... 3&start=75

Now, while I certainly don't want to provoke any arguments about things I can give no judgement about,
I feel that the veterans among you that were among the first D&D players might want to post their own point of view there, if this has to be discussed or brought up.

Yours,

Rafael

For what its worth, most of us are outsiders on these issues. I wasn't there, I don't know the people personally (although I get on quite well with some of them online), but I am curious to know how different aspects of our mutually enjoyed hobby came about.

Its kind of interesting seeing how differnt people have different views on these issues, and while I'll happily read such posts I don't have any need to form strong opinions based on them. While clearly theres hostility from some people towards pretty much any of the writers of any game product you care to name, I think I'm probably part of the silent majority, in that I'm interested from a purely historical/curiosity perspective.

And to be honest, I'm big enough and smart enough to understand that many of these stories are about what happened 30 years ago; even if they are entirely correct (and they won't be, no one has a memory that good) they are certainly neither complete nor a thorough reflection of the persons involved.

Finally, there are many people involved in writing prodcts the game over more than 30 years who have produced some real gems, so I've got a heck of a lot of respect for them. Gary, Frank, Dave, Ed Greenwood, Aaron Allston, Bruce Heard, Tom Moldvay, Mike Carr... All of them and many more have contributed to a hobby I've enjoyed since I was 9 years old. They're all creative chaps, which in my experience means that with the best will in the world they can't all like each other, they can't all have the same views on everything. Now, I could either pick a side on such disagreements or I could listen to what each might choose to say and glean from that whatever points are of most interest to me. And to be totally honest, no one, not them, not me, not the other contributors to boards like this one, will benefit from picking sides.

So, to all of those who have been involved in these games since the early days, I would simply say that on a place like Dragonsfoot, or on Wayfarer, or anywhere else, please, please feel free to contribute in any way you see fit. Post about the old days, the personalities, and tell it how you see it. I, for one, will not suddenly lose respect for anyone whose name appears on high quality D&D products, but I'm sure that like many others I'll find your insight fascinating.

Sorry to have gone on a bit, I'm not gifted with brevity

Thanks for your comments.

I can say that if Mr Kask's assertions are correct about Mr Gygax not using Mr Arneson's material in producing his D&D game, that we (the Blackmoor players in the Twin Cities) would have had to go through some sort of conversion of our characters and our gaming as a result of changing to the new system. The truth is that we did not. We were playing essentially the same game that we had been playing for most of the previous three years in Mr Arneson's basement. The biggest adjustment was that we all had our own copy of the rules, so we could lookup the AC, DD and HD of our enemies and figure out for ourselves when we had enough experience to reach a new level making the game flow faster and opening things up for gaming sessions when Mr Arneson was not present. At some point we did have to convert our character's six basic attributes from 2d6 to 3d6, but at this point I do not remember if that happened at the time D&D was published or before. Even so, that was a change in the mechanics, not in the concept.

I just noticed Tim Kask's thread a couple of days ago. I am happy to see a comments of a different nature here.

I am interested in hearing different stories about the history of D&D and its development, but I wish there wasn't such a need to bring back the bad blood. This ius not just regarding Kask's comments about Arneson, but also many other similar topics. It makes me a little sad. I wish they would spend more time talking about the good memories, friendships etc. Other things are better left unsaid IMO.

Havard