A Brief History of Role Playing Games

Of Brownsteins and Midgard,
Diplomacy and the War of Empires

By Victor Raymond
Illustrated by Lew Hartman

A question often asked about role-playing games is, "Was there anything before Dungeons & Dragons?" And the answer is, "Of course." The primary difference between D&D and its predecessors was that D&D was that it was intended as a role-playing game, with an emphasis on individual character development. Prior games had role-playing elements, but always within the context of a larger tactical or strategic simulation.

Even so, it is hard to imagine games that do not have some element of role-playing to them. As Steve Jackson has pointed out, "Monopoly is pure role-playing. It lets you do on the game board all the heartless things you'll probably never d6 in real life. That's why it's fun."

The realization that almost any game can have a role-playing element to it was independently reached in several places and at several times. In Britain and later in America, there were grand strategy campaigns based on a loosely developed medieval/fantasy setting, called Midgard. And Diplomacy games almost always had some role-playing involved, especially as there were (and still are) Diplomacy 'zines that serve the play-by-mail part of the hobby.

And there were yet other campaign games with role-playing elements, notably War of the Empires and Starweb, both play-by-mail games with science fiction setfings. Most of these campaign games were started in the '60s and early '70s, and some survive to this day, albeit somewhat changed.

It was, however, in the context of miniatures gaming that role-playing was further developed. Dave Wesley, one of the active members of the MMSA, refereed a number of battles informally referred to as "Brownsteins" due to the fictional setting of a town somewhere in early 19th Century Germany. Previous games also had role- playing elements, primarily with players having personal missions for the commanding officers of the units involved in the battle. Almost all of the participants recalled having an incredibly good time playing various roles within the context of the miniatures games, and this was part and parcel of what led to D&D.

Some of these experiences were shared With other gamers through dub newsletters and gatherings, particularly game conventions. GenCon was one such, CITEX was another, and the number of smaller gatherings far too many to detail. Through GenCon, gamers from around the Midwest gathered to play miniatures and board wargames. The stage was set for the collaboration that led to Dungeons & Dragons.

It is at this point that the record becomes somewhat murky. Partly because people didn't recognize at the time the significance of what they were doing (how could they?), partly due to conflicts between authors that emerged later, and finally because of the messy nature of the creative process.

In any case, Arneson notes that:

    "...I had spent the previous day watching about five monster movies on Creature Feature weekend (Ch.5), reading a Conan book (I cannot recall which one but I always thought they were much the same), and stuffing myself with popcom, doodling on a piece of graph paper. I was also quite tired of my Nappy [Napoleonic] campaign with all its rigid rules, etc., and was perhaps rebelling against it, too (in fact I'm sure I was!)."

Arneson then set out to develop a new campaign, in which players could either take on the role of heroes and Wizards delving into the depths of Blackmoor Castle, or the monstrous denizens that lurked there. Using the Chainmail rules (including the fantasy supplement) for combat, and adding his own creative twists, including rewards for the players' characters for gaining treasure and killing monsters, Arneson's Blackmoor campaign was very popular with the MMSA gamers in the Twin Cities.

By late '72 or early '73, word about what was going on in St. Paul reached Lake Geneva. Taking advantage of his existing hobby and business relationship with Arneson, Gary Gygax invited him down to Lake Geneva to give the players there a taste of Blackmoor Castle and its depths. Shortly afterwards, Gygax and Arneson began a correspondence which involved re-working Arneson's original rules, going from a dozen or so pages to well over 100.

At roughly the same time, Donald Kaye and Gay Gygax decided to form a new company, called Tactical Studies Rules. One intended role for the new company was to acquire the titles of the Guidon Games fine, and it seemed only logical for it to also produce the game that Arneson and Gygax had been developing.

It is at this point that some disagreement emerged between Gygax and Arneson. Gygax felt that the new rules were really his, and that the creative work done by Arneson was minor in comparison. Arneson, however, felt that it was more a collaborative effort -- something that later had to be resolved by legal means, and in Arneson's favor.

But at the time -- the summer of 1973 -- the fact that TSR was a company jointly controlled by Gygax resulted in the game going to the press when Gygax felt it was ready.

A Brief History of Role Playing Games Part 1: RPGs to 1976

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