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R.I.P. Dave Arneson


Harshax

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I know some of you were never D-n-Ders. I was, and proud of it. Dave Arneson was hugely influential on a game I enjoyed immensely as a young adult, and I will always be thankful of his contribution (creation?) to my favorite pastime.

R.I.P. Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dave Arneson, 1947-2009 | Geekdad from Wired.com

And don't forget Realism Rule # 1 "If you can do it in real life you should be able to do it in BRP". - Simon Phipp

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Sorry to see Dave go. From all account's I've read, he was a nice guy and major factor behind D&D who got shafted by Gygax.

Edited by Atgxtg

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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Sorry to see Dave go. From all account's I've read, he was a nice guy and major factor behind D&D who got shafted by Gygax.

A bit harsh on Gygax considering that when he was president of TSR he brought Arneson back into it.

It is a shame that both are gone now, it seems a lot of the old guard are leaving us.

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A bit harsh on Gygax considering that when he was president of TSR he brought Arneson back into it.

It is a shame that both are gone now, it seems a lot of the old guard are leaving us.

Well Arneson sued Gygax for some reason...

But let's not turn this thread into a contest over who knows what about who did what to who, only Gygax and Arneson know everything about their relationship. If there happens to be an afterlife, and they happen to be in the same one, then hopefully they've got it all worked out.

This thread should be about paying respects to one of the fathers of RPG's who has passed on. Like D&D or not, it is the first RPG and still the biggest. It probably brings more people into this hobby than any other game. It is hard to imagine where Roleplaying would be today without Arneson's contribution. Hey, Blackmoor even had hit locations.

So R.I.P. Dave, thanks for helping get this whole thing started.

Help kill a Trollkin here.

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If anyone hasn't read Ben Robbins fascinating piece on the origins of "role playing" and Dave Arneson's role (pun intended) in it, I heartily recommend it.

It is very hard these days to conceive of our entertainment industry landscape WITHOUT the influence of D&D and RPG's - MMORPG, CRPG's, the interactive and viral marketing of film and TV shows we now take for granted has evolved from those seeds. As James Wallis recently pointed out in a thread at RPG net, one of the great strengths of TTRPG development is that, once you have developed a core setting and rule book, you also have something that's very useable as a setting bible for an MMORPG, or a TV series...

Whilst it is almost certain that something similar would have happened without Gygax and Arneson what we have now is directly descended their pioneering steps that created this hobby. And if one ever needed a perfect image of what is awesome about playing an RPG character, Dave Arneson's character in Braunstein 4, dumping revolutionary leaflets on the town from the helicopter is pretty near perfect.

The roll call of great figures who founded and shaped our hobby that we have lost in the last year or so is exceptionally painful - Gygax, Arneson, Eric Wujcik, Keith Herber, N Robin Crosby - hugely influential figures to whom the modern TTRPG owes its existence and form. So it leaves the challenge to us to keep playing, to find new gamers and new games, or new things in old games: because it seems to me the only decent response to the gifts they have given us is to try and pass them on.

Best wishes all,

Nick

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