Dave Arneson, who is kinda like the Pete Best of D&D, has succumbed to the big C. Gary Gygax is the name people associate with the genesis of D&D, and it's true that he invented many of the mechanics associated with the published version of the game, but Dave is the originator of the entire dungeon adventure concept, as well as the adventuring party format (players controlling individual characters as opposed to units or armies). He was running adventurers in his Castle Blackmoor dungeons as early as 1970, and as late as this year, making his campaign the longest-running by several years (just approaching 40!).

Dave was never very interested in the commercial aspects of the game, or the conglomeration of more and more complex rules - he felt that the published rules should be loose guidelines, and customized to suit each referee's individual campaign. The Blackmoor supplement for original D&D contained very little of his work; the Judges Guild "First Fantasy Campaign" supplement, however, is an amazing snapshot of the game at its birth, and still revelant (and useful) to GMs today.

Dave and Gary had a falling out pretty early on, both over financial matters and over the direction the game was taking (with Gary advocating a "tournament-legal" comprehensive rules approach, resulting in what became Advanced Dungeons & Dragons), and Dave was pretty reclusive for most of the heady 80's heyday of AD&D, quietly running his home campaign and working in educational games. Several supplements based on his work have been published, including an updated Blackmoor campaign guide.

If you've ever played any sort of RPG, whether pen-and-paper or electronic, or for that matter if you've played nearly any video game at all (the mechanics of which have nearly ALL evolved in a straight line from pen-and-paper RPGs), you've enjoyed some of Arneson's work (or an evolution of it). RIP, Dave.

RIP nerd guru.

...he is survived by his wife Kr...aeoridafdsrppssssssssssssssssssssssh, yeah right

jk, RIP

RIP.

We shall have a toast in his name next D&D Gathering (if any, at all)

he actually did have a wife and a daughter and i'm a jerk

YOU BIG MEANIE LOL

he failed his saving throw

awe

RIP

=(

He's getting beat up for his lunch money in Heaven now.

Let mortal heroes sing his fame.

Hahahaha.

yeah we definitely have to play in his honor now. hopefully he doesn't regenerate as a 20th level Lich.

In for a toast to Mr. Arneson the next time around. I didn't know anything about him and it seems I can trace much of the games I enjoy back to him, western RPGs in particular.

I need to give you guys copies of Age of Wonders so we can all play online.

Seriously, it is an event.


http://www.826nyc.org/DnD/