Happy Founder’s Day: The Birth of D&D

Couchpotato

Couchpotato

Part-Time News-bot
Supporter
Joined
October 1, 2010
Messages
36,350
Location
Spudlandia
Four days ago was the birthday of the late Gary Gygax, and to honor him Wizards of the Coast shared a new retrospective about him , Dave Arneson, and the Birth of D&D.

Link - https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/281-happy-founders-day-gary-gygax-dave-arneson-and-the
Happy Birthday, Gary Gygax! To many, Gygax is the father of roleplaying games. Many wargamers came before him, and many joined him on this effort, but Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson’s joint creation of Dungeons & Dragons gave birth to the RPG genre.

On this day, we celebrate the birth of the founder of our hobby, and look back at the story of its creation. Where did D&D come from? What inspired Gygax and Arneson to create this game that has become not just a hobby but a lifestyle for so many people? Could they have possibly anticipated the success of the fifth edition of their game, or that it would ever become a mainstream sensation that attracts not just Hollywood actors, but millions upon millions of normal people like you and me to play this game, and even broadcast their gameplay online for others’ enjoyment?

This is the story of the creation of D&D. It is the story of telling stories. And it is the story of creating storytellers.
Click to expand...
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,350
Location
Spudlandia
the lawsuit over AD&D (and a second lawsuit over the AD&D Monster Manual II) ended the partnership between Gygax and Arneson for good.
Click to expand...

Not true. When Gygax briefly wrestled control of the company back he reconciled with Arneson and published a lot of his remaining Blackmoor material.

The article perpetuates the myth that E. Gary invented the RPG when its own article clearly reminds readers it was Arneson. Dave approached Gary about helping with balance issues and Gary's force of personality, as he says, ran Dave out. Dave continued to perpetuate himself as the Grandfather of role playing and citing alternative forks in history in college classes, where Gary took a grander vision of children playing pretend all with an effort to either receive credit or dismiss the credit of the other.

I hadn't heard of Dave Wesely’s Braunstein so I am really curious about his role in the development of RPG's.

I'm also curious about Dave's other lawsuits. It sounds like he had more against TSR et al after he was out the second time.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
5,215
Location
The Uncanny Valley
Lucky Day said:
The article perpetuates the myth that E. Gary invented the RPG when its own article clearly reminds readers it was Arneson.
Click to expand...
Our hobby has two daddies.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,253
Location
Kansas City
I was fortunate to meet Gygax and a few of his friends back in the day, they were pretty nice to a guy from rural South Carolina that just wanted to hang out and play some games. We were up all night playing, oddly enough, not a role playing game but Axis and Allies. =p

I've always thought it was a collaboration, and that's exactly how it was explained to me back in the day. I have heard many different theories since that time, but hearing from the people involved was enough proof for me.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,979
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom