I stumbled across this blog article while wandering across the electroscapes of the net: Dave Who? Arneson Gameday Celebrates Other D&D Creator. For those of you who have never heard of Dave Arneson, he's rather like the Edward de Vere of the early tabletop role-playing gaming movement. Dave's role in the history of gaming is captured by the following excerpt from my (ancient) thesis prospectus..
All role-playing games are creative collages or bricolage [18]. Dungeons and Dragons was creatively constructed from three major sources: war gaming generally, which the co-creators Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax were quite familiar with (Fine 1983: 13-14) [19], a specific type of war game called Chainmail which Gary Gygax helped to create – which was in many ways similar to the original Dungeons & Dragons [20], and an Avalon Hill Gaming Company board game/RPG-prototype called Outdoor Survival. The influence of this game is most interesting; nowhere have I seen Outdoor Survival mentioned in the literature’s treatment of the history of role-playing games, and I would not have stumbled across its role were it not for a trip through the web in search of early versions of D & D.
Outdoor Survival was first published in 1972 – two years before D & D’s debut in 1974 – and “Men and Magic,” one of the three rule books to come with the first printing of D & D, cites Outdoor Survival as a required game supplement [21] useful for its detailed hex-terrain maps [22]. Consider that the playing pieces of Outdoor Survival were meant to represent individual people with distinct skills. Arneson and Gygax necessarily had to employ a focus on the individual (unlike the focus of war gaming, which at the time was on units – collections of individuals) if they were to have a game where people could imagine being someone else, a character exploring and overcoming dangerous environments. Outdoor Survival’s somewhat open-ended game play, in which players pitted hikers and hunters (different types of proto-characters you might say) against a harsh textual environment using a variety of scenarios [23] embodies many aspects of tabletop role-playing. Outdoor Survival even featured a type of “hit point” system (a quantitative measure of a character’s life – a universal characteristic of later RPGs), based on wounds suffered and resources acquired, which affected the movement rates of the “lost” proto-characters (they were not the detailed individuals seen in later D & D but they did have their own skills and abilities). Thus, the existence of Outdoor Survival may have had a profound impact on the formation of D & D.
War games and the Chainmail rules provided D & D with a referee (called the Dungeon Master or DM) as well as metal miniatures (which are fun to use), along with a series of rules or game mechanics oriented around these miniatures. The movement of characters and the ranges of in-game magical effects, for example, were given in inches on the tabletop, not just in “actual” fantasy-world-level length units. This practice persisted into later editions of D & D, until being temporarily abandoned in the second edition of the game. The most recent corporation to own the rights to D & D, Hasbro, has re-integrated and revived the role of miniatures once more as a gaming aid (or profit making strategy): while it is possible to play D & D 3.5 edition without miniatures and a large, dry erase marker grid-mat it is currently neither aesthetically (thus culturally) pleasing or easy to do so. In the current thesis project I should not ignore the role of economics on the structures of tabletop role-playing, as it has shaped the practice throughout its history.
We might even include the use of finite game turns simulating larger chunks of real-world time – particularly relevant to combat rules – as a carry over from war gaming, but I am not sure how else the progenitors of D & D would have transfigured battle into a manageable game event. But aside form these speculations, there were some specific human interactions which facilitated the masterwork that was to be D & D which the following text lays out…
“Kuntz (1977: 51) suggests the creation of D & D was a multistage process. If we exclude the discovery of role-playing, characteristic of children’s games (playing sheriff or photographer or soldier), then fantasy role-playing gaming was created recently. Dave Arneson, one of the D & D co-authors, credits his original insight to a war gamer in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area in 1968:
I would have to give a lot of the credit to another local gamer, Dave Wesley. He was the first one to input role-playing…the first game that stands out in my mind is little medieval games, a very dull period of war games. He had a dull set of rules and after our second game, we were bored. To spice it up, Dave, who had been doing the set-ups and refereeing [for miniature battles], gave each of us a little personal goal in the battle. [personal interview]
Players were motivated to change as a result of frustration with the inadequacy of a well-established system of play (“normal gaming”). Arneson continues:
Well, that kind of got us all thinking about “wasn’t that neat,” and we did a couple of other games with various people. “Let’s have a big medieval campaign with half a dozen different people playing with little powers with fifty or sixty men, and then you’re king or the knight or whatever.” And it developed from there. That got us into role-playing. As far as the fantasy part, I was the first one to come up with a violation of the basic concept of warfare of the period. We were fighting an ancient game. Very dull again. And I’d given the defending brigands a Druid high priest, and in the middle of the battle, the dull battle, the Roman war elephant charged the Britains and looked like he was going to trample half their army flat, the druidic high priest waved his hands and pointed this funny little box out of one hand and turned the elephant into so much barbeque meat. This upset all of the participants in game a great deal and the fellow playing the Druidic high priest was, well, he was laughing his head off in a corner. That was absolutely the only thing in the game that was out of the ordinary, but they weren’t expecting it and it was of course, Star Trek was then playing, firing a phaser was adding science fiction to an Ancient game". (Fine 1983: 13-14)
Arneson was bored with the game, and although he had thought of the possibility before the game began, his decision was not premeditated. He continued with minor variations, but the first game in which fantasy was dominant occurred in 1970 or 1971 when Arneson organized the Blackmoor dungeon campaign, which he claims was a fantasy role-playing game as we know it today:
All the fellows had come over for a traditional Napoleonic battle, and saw the table with this huge keep or castle on it. [They] wondered where this had come from in the plains of Poland or wherever we were playing at the time, and they shortly found out that they were going to go down in the deep, dark, dank dungeon [personal interview; for more details see Arneson 1979]
Arneson and E. Gary Gygax at that time were members of the Castles and Crusades society, an informal organization whose members shared an interest in medieval warfare. During the early 1970s Gygax and Arneson corresponded and both play-tested what was to become the rules for Dungeons and Dragons, which included innovations from both men. D & D appeared commercially in 1974, published by Gygax’s gaming company, TSR Hobbies, Inc.” (Fine 1983: 13-14) [24]
That the first (recorded and recognized) deviation from war gaming involved a Star Trek phaser is a wonderful example of how innovations are constructed out of existing languacultural [25] constructs. The history of role-playing games are intimately associated with works of science-fantasy fiction. I am reminded of the music video of The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins as performed by Leonard Nemoy, in which the groovy dancers – with Vulcan ears – perform the hobbit dance [26]. There was something going on in American cultural history that fit with science-fantasy, Star Trek, Tolkien, and war gaming in such a way as to allow a Druid to melt an Oliphant [27], which the following text nicely captures…
[18]: A full discussion of bricolage appears in the theory section of this prospectus. The web site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricolage explains that...
Bricolage, from the French bricoler "to tinker" or "to fiddle", is that language's equivalent of the English phrase "do-it-yourself". In art, bricolage is a technique where works are constructed from various materials available or on hand, and is seen as a characteristic of postmodern works. These materials may be mass-produced or "junk". See also: Merz, polystylism, collage. In biology the biologist François Jacob uses the term bricolage to describe the apparently cobbled-together character of much biological structure, and views it as a consequence of the evolutionary history of the organism. (Molino 2000, p.169) In cultural studies bricolage is used to mean the processes by which people acquire objects from across social divisions to create new cultural identities. In particular, it is a feature of subcultures such as the punk movement. Here, objects that posess one meaning (or no meaning) in the dominant culture are acquired and given a new, often subversive meaning. For example, the safety pin became a form of decoration in punk culture. [back up]
[19]: Fine explains that “Arneson and E. Gary Gygax at that time were members of the Castles and Crusades society, an informal organization whose members shared an interest in medieval warfare.” (1983: 14). [back up]
[20]: Before the rules for D & D were play tested, Gygax co-authored Chainmail: Rules for medieval miniatures, which was first published in 1971. While there is some disagreement over the impact this had on D & D, Gygax at least emphasizes its importance. Consider the following excerpt…
“Chainmail. The progenitor of Dungeons & Dragons. Ostensibly a straight-wargaming rulebook for miniatures, its "Fantasy Supplement" sparked a phenomenon Whether the "Fantasy Supplement" to Chainmail formed the basis of D&D is a matter of some disagreement between D & D's co-creators, Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax. Arneson claims in Heroic Worlds that the influence of Chainmail in the development of the Original D & D rules was in the Combat Matrix only (i.e., giving RPG characters and monsters "hard statistics"). According to Arneson, Chainmail bears little resemblance to D&D whatsoever; "not a hit point, character class, level, or armor class" anywhere. Furthermore, Arneson states that a series of naval combat scenarios, "The Braunsteins", were the critical foundation of his Blackmoor campaign, and later, D & D. Gygax disagrees. In Best of Dragon Volume 1, he notes: "...when the whole appeared in Chainmail, Dave (Arneson) began using the fantasy rules for his campaign and he reported a number of these actions to the C & C Society by way of articles. I thought that this usage was quite interesting and a few months later when Dave came to visit me we played a game of his amended Chainmail fantasy campaign. A few weeks after his visit, I received 18 or so handwritten pages of rules and notes pertaining to his campaign and I immediately began work on a brand new manuscript. About three weeks later, I had some 100 typewritten pages, and we began serious play testing... Dungeons & Dragons had been born." Gygax quickly goes on to say that Arneson was only given co-authorship of D&D for his "valuable idea kernels", and that D&D bears little resemblance to the Blackmoor campaign. Further, as contributor Bruce Robertson notes, "I don't see how you can argue that D&D doesn't draw heavily on Chainmail... 'fireball', 'lightning bolt', 'conjure elemental', 'phantasmal force', and all the core monsters are in the 1971 edition -- along with an armor sequence that exactly matches the one in D&D." The argument between Gygax and Arneson, we believe, stems from a lawsuit Arneson brought against TSR in 1979, demanding royalties from the AD&D line of products. Arneson was listed as the co-author of the Original D&D rules, and as such, he believed he was owed a portion of the proceeds from all things derived from that work. It was certainly not advantageous for Arneson to claim inspiration from Chainmail, a product authored by Gygax! The outcome of that lawsuit was never made public, but rumor has it that Arneson received a lump sum in exchange for ceasing legal action. Regardless to the degree Chainmail guided Arneson in his campaign, the influence of this little yellow booklet on the eventual development of D&D is undeniable.”
This text derives from http://www.acaeum.com/DDIndexes/SetPages/Chainmail.html (a valid link in 2005) And has been stylistically edited to accommodate this format (without changing its meaning). I was unable to locate any mention of Chainmail’s influence in the academic literature, although Fine discusses a lawsuit and rift between Arneson and Gygax (Fine 1983: 255, endnote 11) that the author of the web-text above cites as the reason why Arneson refutes the influence of Chainmail. In the mythology of the “gaming community” (or rather the collective consciousness of people who are experienced role players – such as I), it is widely known/suspected that Chainmail was the “grandfather” of D & D. [back up]
[21]: I do not have access to this rare text; see the source of these insights, http://www.acaeum.com/DDIndexes/MiscPages/OutSurvival.html (a valid link in 2005) for a more complete description. Yes, drawing on the web for insight is problematic, but that acaeum.com is devoted to documenting the history and value of gaming accessories (as opposed to random banter) adds to its credibility. I trust its content. The author of this site also explains that: “The other rumor I've heard about Outdoor Survival is that it remained in print as long as it did because the original Dungeons and Dragons rules suggested using an Outdoor Survival board as a campaign map.” Apparently, unless players wanted to use the “optional” combat rules of this edition of D & D they would also need Chainmail to play. [back up]
[22]: Most of the Avalon Hill war games used what are referred to as hex maps, which are simply maps divided into adjacent hexagonal divisions. See http://mywebpages.comcast.net/thinlines/hexmaps/ for some examples… [back up]
[23]: http://www.gameroom.com/gamebits/RULES/Outdoor_Survival_Rules.html (a valid link in 2005) explains that…
“OUTDOOR SURVIVAL is a simulation of the essential conditions for staying alive when unprotected man is beset by his environment. It recreates real world conditions of the wilderness, and places trained and untrained people in emergency situations. The players have varying abilities to make the necessary decisions for survival. This is done through a number of scenario situations of increasing complexity, which state the abilities of the Player(s) to survive, and their objectives.
Each scenario contains a “To Win” section explaining the goal of that particular game. These may be solo (for one person) or competitive (for more than one player). Each turn in the game represents one day; each hexagon on the mapboard represents a width of five kilometers (three miles).
OUTDOOR SURVIVAL is actually five different games. LOST is the “basic” game in which you must get out of the wilderness before lack of food and water ends your survival ability. In SURVIVAL you must get across a large wilderness area before your opponent. In SEARCH you must find someone who’s lost before the other search parties do. In RESCUE you must not only find the lost party, but by using your survival skills, get them out of the wilderness. In PURSUE you must, as the escapee, get out of the wilderness into a neutral country or, as the pursuer capture the escapee. Or, in an adaptation of this scenario, one or more players can take the part of hunters while one player assumes the role of their quarry.” [back up]
