Dave Arneson is the co-author of Dungeons and Dragons. He is currently working on an updated Blackmoor Dungeon for Mayfair Games Inc., titled Blackmoor Chronicles.
Castle Blackmoor, the dungeon in Dungeons and Dragons is not a static place. There are killer frogs, vampire rose bushes, phasers and spaceship-submarines. If this doesn't sound like a serious place to role-play, Dave Arneson won't mind. "We hope to have a lot of fun with Blackmoor Chronicles, and show what D & D originally was aimed at, which was to have a good time and not take itself so seriously."
The castle didn't start with vampire roses. It was supposed to give Arneson and the miniatures group he was running a change from their Napoleonic military campaign. He was sitting around... with nothing going on except the monster movie.... reading Conan and conceived the idea for the dungeon. I populated it and the next time the boys showed up for a military battle, they had a castle sitting in the middle of the board."
That was in the spring of 1971. I was a hard-core board gamer until about 1966, and then I got into miniatures. I fell in love with the little lead critters, and pretty much played with them ever since. I was responsible for refereeing a number of campaigns: that got me interested in being a campaign referee, doling out information to players on a limited basis, keeping all the great secrets for Myself as the great Gamemaster."
"My first contact with Gary Gygax was in 1970 when I went to a GenCon. I sold some little sailing ships that I had built by hand at the auction. I got a good reaction from a lot of people and Gary was one of them. And I just happened to have these rules ... So we sat down, went over the rules and fought a couple of little naval battles. I kept contact with Gary on and off then. We exchanged a lot of letters and phone calls on game ideas, military miniatures, naval rules, Dungeons and Dragons and so forth.
About 1973, TSR Inc. was formed as Tactical Studies Rules. It was the classic garage industry. It was pretty laid-back, happy-go-lucky, give and take, very much a shoestring operation. There wasn't a lot of capital. Gary's kids collated the games in the basement, Don (Kay) drove them over in his station wagon. The first big project they did was, in fact, Dungeons & Dragons.
I was with them part-time consulting and editing from 1974 when Brian Blume came on board until I moved to Lake Geneva to work for them in January, 1976.
I continued to work for them until November when I departed, at their request. "They (TSR) started making money and got very serious and very uptight about the whole situation. They were no longer easy- going and fun to be with. I think money was the underlying cause. After that, you're looking for rationalizations.
But Blackmoor castle has evolved and grown, just as Dungeons and Dragons has. "This fantasy campaign has gone on now for 12 years. For most of those years, I've taken it to conventions and played it with people all over the country. If anyone comes up with something unusual during the course of the dungeon adventure that would leave a lasting effect, I have no qualms about incorporating it.
When a wizard transformed a vampire into a rosebush, it seemed only logical to make it a vampire rosebush, and have them start growing all around the dungeon. I try to take things a step further and develop them into something useful-or at least humorous.
Since leaving TSR Inc., Arneson has continued his interest in both fantasy and miniatures. In fantasy, Arneson wrote for several years and saw the publication of First Fantasy Campaign by Judges' Guild in 1978, followed by Adventures in Fantasy by Excalibre Games Inc. In 1980, he started Adventure Games Inc., which published Harpoon I & II, Johnny Reb, Brigadeer and Resolution 502 miniatures rules. Adventure Games also produced board games including Rails Thru the Rockies and Pentantastar.
What Arneson was attempting to produce at Adventure Games Inc., "was quality, playable games at a reasonable price. But, I just didn't have a handle on the overhead when we started to develop the board games. Had I stuck to miniatures it would have been better."
The miniatures rules published by Adventure Games have garnered a reputation as being innovative and realistic. The Harpoon and Johnny Reb rules won Charles Roberts awards in the years they were released. The Harpoon rules were used by Tom Clancy, author of Red October, to help him achieve the sense of realism in the naval combat that occurs in the book. "Then, we branched out into Rails thru the Rockies and Pentantastar, where 95% of the cost is research and development. I made some wrong decisions with Adventure Games Inc., even knowing what I should be doing."
Arneson doesn't plan on abandoning the products though, especially the miniatures rules. "There are scenarios for Harpoon, Johnny Reb, and Brigadeer ready to go. As Rick Loomis at Flying Buffalo has the money from the sale of the rules, instead of paying Adventure Games Inc., he's going to print the scenarios." The miniatures rules and remaining board games are still available through Flying Buffalo.
Now that Adventure Games is no longer in business, Arneson is updating Blackmoor for Mayfair Games Inc. He's also talking to other companies about writing. A really enjoy writing so much more than managing a company. There's no fun in business management. I've been pre-empted to write fantasy, that's where the dollars are. Also, a lot of behind the scenes work for miniatures. "I do a lot of editing for Civil War scenarios, as well as checking research and development work for them."
"Where does Arneson think the gaming industry is going?" There's a lot of room for computer assistance for the referee. Miniatures are getting more popular now. And there's a lot of factors that were common in the first days of role-playing that are still there. I think they'll remain a part of the scene for the coming decades.
Arneson doesn't feel that industry newcomers can get the exposure they used to get, making it hard for innovation to surface. In order to keep interest going, the publishers are going to have to get a lot sharper. There's been a great tendency to market less than fully developed sets of rules. But there is a lot more maturity among the players, that will be reflected in new rules and other areas. There's more good stuff available now, and I think that quality will increase." A think there's a lot of fun out there, still to be had, playing fantasy role-playing games.
Daniel Greenberg has co-authored several Role-Aids modules by Mayfair Games, Inc., including Swordthrust and The Keep.
AD & D is a trademark of TSR Inc.
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© Copyright 2000 by Dana Lombardy.
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