RPGs Turn 50 - Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary

[Zed Duke of Banville]

In late January 1974, the original Dungeons & Dragons rule booklets were published, founding a new type of game. Although the original rules did not use the term "role-playing", they did repeatedly use the word role in describing the player-character's class (with the options of fighting-man, magic-user, or cleric) and race (human, dwarf, elf, or hobbit halfling), and similarly used the word role in regard to the characters or monsters controlled by the referee (the term Dungeon Master would eventually be introduced in the preface to Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry in 1976).

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Dave Wesely (born 1945) began wargaming in 1958 and ran a wargaming club while attending Hamlin University, located in Minnesota's capital St. Paul, from which he graduated in 1967. Although he left the Minneapolis / St. Paul metropolitan area for graduate school, Wesely would return during holidays and summers, until being called up to active military duty in late 1970. Reducing the scale of normal miniatures wargames, he developed a game called Braunstein (probably first played at the end of 1968), in which each player controlled a single character in a fictional Prussian town during the Napoleonic Wars, while a referee controlled everyone else including the French invaders. Wesely ran several variants of the Braunstein scenario for his old crowd in Minneapolis / St. Paul, and the underlying concept would continue to be utilized by others in his absence. At the beginning of 1971, Duane Jenkins (1948-2016) devised a Brownstone game, with an Old West setting, that did not consist of one-off scenarios but instead continued indefinitely, for session after session, with each player generally continuing to play the same character until that character perished or otherwise departed the game.

Wargaming in Dave Wesely's basement, 1966:

 

[std::namespace]

wargaming in 1958 and ran a wargaming club while attending Hamlin University, located in Minnesota's capital St. Paul, from which he graduated in 1967. Although he left the Minneapolis / St. Paul metropolitan area for graduate school

proof yet again that college will turn you into a full blown faggot

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

Wargaming in Dave Wesely's basement, 1966:

For what it's worth, it's infinitely better than the previous wargaming room I played in.

 

[Tweed]

Dave Wesely (born 1945) began wargaming in 1958 and ran a wargaming club while attending Hamlin University, located in Minnesota's capital St. Paul, from which he graduated in 1967. Although he left the Minneapolis / St. Paul metropolitan area for graduate school, Wesely would return during holidays and summers, until being called up to active military duty in late 1970. Reducing the scale of normal miniatures wargames, he developed a game called Braunstein (probably first played at the end of 1968), in which each player controlled a single character in a fictional Prussian town during the Napoleonic Wars, while a referee controlled everyone else including the French invaders. Wesely ran several variants of the Braunstein scenario for his old crowd in Minneapolis / St. Paul, and the underlying concept would continue to be utilized by others in his absence. At the beginning of 1971, Duane Jenkins (1948-2016) devised a Brownstone game, with an Old West setting, that did not consist of one-off scenarios but instead continued indefinitely, for session after session, with each player generally continuing to play the same character until that character perished or otherwise departed the game.

Wargaming in Dave Wesely's basement, 1966:

Back when nerds looked like nerds.

 

[JamesDixon]

I highly recommend you watch the documentary The Secrets of Blackmoor.

https://www.secretsofblackmoor.com/

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Gary Gygax (1938-2008), a wargaming enthusiast residing in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, started an annual Lake Geneva Wargames Convention in 1968, founded the Castle & Crusade Society as a subgroup of the International Federation of Wargaming, began hosting weekly meetings of the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association in 1970, and edited the Castle & Crusade Society's fanzine The Domesday Book. Jeff Perren (born 1947) and Gygax developed the LGTSA Medieval Miniature Rules that was published in The Domesday Book in 1970, and the following year revised these rules into the Chainmail Rules for Medieval Miniatures, published by Guidon Games. Aside from the rules aimed at simulating historical warfare, Chainmail contained a "fantasy supplement" with various fantastical units, powerful monsters that were represented individually, and even powerful fighters and wizards, the latter featuring spells such as cloudkill and phantasmal force. It also included brief rules for "man-to-man combat", where each figure represented a single person, rather than the usual mass combat where each figure represented 20 members of its unit. Chainmail's fantasy supplement proved particularly popular, as it connected with the growing fandom for fantasy literature. TSR acquired from Guidon Games in 1974 the rights to Chainmail (also Don't Give Up the Ship and Tractics) and would publish a third edition of the rules in 1975.

Gary Gygax addressing the first GenCon:

 

[Tweed]

I'm more curious about the guy willing to take on Alfred E. Neuman shittalkers.

 

[Crispy]

I still own these, all in mint condition.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Dave Arneson (1947-2009) was a wargaming enthusiast attending the University of Minnesota from which he graduated in 1971. Particularly interested in naval warfare, he designed a game called Don't Give Up the Ship with Gary Gygax, whom Arneson had met at the second GenCon in 1969. As a member of the same wargaming circles as Dave Wesely, Arneson took part in many Napoleonic-era wargames, including Wesely's Braunstein scenarios, followed by playing the character El Pauncho in Duane Jenkins' Brownstone game. Even before Brownstone, Arneson had been running a Napoleonic campaign of indefinite duration in which each player controlled a "personality", which in turn acted as the leader of a country. April 1971 saw the launch of a new fantasy campaign in a setting called Blackmoor, in homage to Braunstein and Brownstone, borrowing from numerous fantasy sources and making use of the new Chainmail Rules for Medieval Miniatures. Before long, character progression was added to the game, so that the individual character controlled by a player would become more powerful over time due to increases in various character stats. Moreover, by early 1972, Arneson had developed the Blackmoor Dungeons, which the player-controlled characters explored as a party rather than relying on military units and mass combat. The players were so taken with this dungeon-exploration experience that they neglected the military-strategic aspect, which would be largely dropped in favor of what was effectively a new type of game.

 

[Deimos]

Now that's a room of some prestigious gentlemen

 

[Crispy]

This guy really belongs among them:

 

[RPK]

I highly recommend you watch the documentary The Secrets of Blackmoor.

https://www.secretsofblackmoor.com/

Seconded. watched it a couple years ago. really good.

 

[JamesDixon]

I highly recommend you watch the documentary The Secrets of Blackmoor.

https://www.secretsofblackmoor.com/

Seconded. watched it a couple years ago. really good.

I talk to Griff Morgan, the guy that did the documentary, on Twatter almost every day. He's a really good guy and fun to discuss the history of the game.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

As Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign continued, it came to the attention of Gary Gygax by late 1972, as did Dave Megarry's spin-off boardgame that would eventually be published under the name "Dungeon!". Near the beginning of 1973, Arneson and Megarry traveled to Lake Geneva, where Arneson ran Gygax and other players through a Blackmoor adventure, while Megarry had the locals playtest his prototype boardgame. In April, Gygax proposed that Arneson collaborate in turning his new type of game into a commercial product, Arneson sent Gygax 20 pages of notes on the rules, and Gygax developed this into a 100-page draft of a rulebook, which would be further revised by both the authors. Gygax at first thought this new game would be published by Guidon Games, the publisher of his miniatures rules, but that company was failing after an ill-conceived relocation from Indiana to Maine. Instead, Gygax conceived of founding his own company, on the model of Guidon Games which had a miniatures rules business and a hobby shop, that combined for enough revenue to employ a few people. Tactical Studies Rules was founded in September 1973 by Gary Gygax and his childhood friend, Don Kaye, though strictly as a hobbyist venture at first, with most of its planned content consisting of the sort of miniatures rules Gygax had been designing in previous years. While Gygax had greater expectations about Dungeons & Dragons (and Megarry's boardgame), it still received an initial printing of just one-thousand copies, the typical number of a hobbyist miniatures rulebook that would be considered a success if it sold out, much less ever received a second printing. Brian Blume had joined TSR in January 1974 as an equal partner, in return for a much-needed infusion of cash, and following the untimely death of Don Kaye in January 1975, Gygax & Blume would run the company. Although initial sales of D&D were slow, a second printing of about one-thousand copies was funded in December 1974, followed by a third printing of more than two-thousand copies in June 1975. At this time, both Gary Gygax and Brian Blume quit their jobs to become TSR's first full-time employees.

 

[Monk]

Also, according to the docu, they were inspired by miniature wargaming in terms of two things: they had to come up with better mechanics to determine unit performance (starting with the 19th-century book that simulates wars), which led to the use of quantified attributes for characters, and they needed referees for wargames to see if they could come up with more realism via fog-of-war, which led to the dungeon master in role-playing.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The rules for original Dungeons & Dragons didn't end with the three booklets but rather continued in 1975 and 1976 with Supplement I: Greyhawk by Gary Gygax, Supplement II: Blackmoor by Dave Arneson, and Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume (also Supplement IV: Gods, Demigods, and Heroes by Rob Kuntz and Jim Ward, though this was a compendium of stats for deities rather than rules as such). TSR also published Dave Megarry's Dungeon! boardgame in July 1975, as well as continuing to publish various miniatures wargames and a few other items. Arneson joined TSR as employee #5 near the end of 1975, as the company swelled to 11 employees by November 1976, including its first staff illustrator David C. Sutherland III, the brothers Terry and Rob Kuntz (the latter having become co-DM in Gygax's Greyhawk campaign), Dave Megarry, Avalon Hill executive Neil Topolnicki, and Gygax's oldest son Ernie (the other two were Tim Kask and Mike Carr). An unsuccessful attempt on November 3 by some of the employees to convince Gygax and Blume to allow a third person on TSR's board resulted in considerable acrimony, with Dave Megarry resigning the next day, followed by Rob Kuntz and Dave Arneson (amid allegations of various mistreatment) later that month, and then by Terry Kuntz and Neil Topolnicki in early 1977. Kevin Blume, a brother of Brian Blume, was quickly hired to replace Megarry as treasurer, and both Gary Gygax and Kevin Blume soon added their wives to the company. In better news, TSR launched Dragon Magazine (initially called "The Dragon") in June 1976 as a replacement for The Strategic Review newsletter, Metamorphosis Alpha by Jim Ward was published by TSR as the first science-fiction RPG, TSR granted a license to The Judges Guild to publish D&D products, and sales of D&D continued to increase exponentially.

Gary Gygax at Origins II (Avalon Hill's annual convention) in 1976:

Dave Sutherland drawing of TSR's first headquarters:

Dave Sutherland caricatures of TSR employees:

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The most important output from TSR in 1977 was the publication of new rulebooks. Eric J. Holmes created a 48-page rulebook that would generally be referred to as "Basic D&D" or Holmes "Blue Book" D&D; it included the framework for playing D&D, but due to brevity had rules only the first few character levels, with similarly low-level monsters, spells, and treasures. Meanwhile, Gary Gygax was hard at work on a version he termed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, with rules divided between three hardcover books: a Monster Manual released near the end of 1977, a Players Handbook released in mid-1978, and a Dungeon Masters Guide in mid-1979 that completed the core AD&D rules, which combined for about 470 pages. Although TSR settled a threatened lawsuit over its use of Tolkien Middle Earth intellectual property, it then faced a lawsuit from Dave Arneson over denial of royalties for both "Basic D&D" and AD&D, among other things. Belatedly realizing the demand for adventure modules, Gary Gygax in 1978 converted three related tournament adventures into the first AD&D modules (the G series focused on hill giants, frost giants, and fire giants), and tied that into the first original adventure modules, which saw the player-characters descend into the depths of the earth to defeat a drow conspiracy in another trilogy (the D series). Gygax also wrote T1 The Village of Hommlet (in which Gygax parodied Arneson and Megarry as the evil traders Rannos Davl and Gremag) and S1 The Tomb of Horrors, while the first modules written by others were Lawrence Schick's S2 White Plume Mountain and Mike Carr's B1 In Search of the Unknown, for Holmes D&D. Other products published by TSR included the new Gamma World RPG, by Jim Ward and Gary 'Jake' Jaquet, in 1978, while Dragon Magazine sold well enough to become a monthly that same year. With sales continue to exponentially double, while the company expanded sustainably, the future seemed bright for TSR, but there would be an abrupt shock when a pseudo-news story broke nationally in September 1979.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

On September 7 1979, the Associated Press suddenly took national notice of a university student who had been missing since August 15. Although he was located just seven days later, this disappearance was erroneously linked by the press to Dungeons & Dragons, bringing it attention from multitudes who had never taken notice of the burgeoning RPG hobby, and propelling sales of D&D/AD&D. This led Gary Gygax, Brian Blume, and Kevin Blume all to assume that TSR revenues would continue multiplying similarly in future years, when all it did was propel D&D/AD&D closer to market saturation which was more or less reached in 1982, and Gygax also dreamed of establishing D&D as a broader cultural artifact beyond RPGs. In the meantime, TSR made ill-considered acquisitions including SPI (the wargames company, where the design staff promptly departed for Avalon Hill) and Greenfield Needlewomen (a manufacturer of needlework kits), bloated the amount of personnel in the core business, engaged in certain shady practices, and wasted money on charities and extravagances. Near the end of 1982, TSR had secured a $10.8 million loan from American National Bank, which began calling the shots in June 1983, by which time TSR's financial situation had become precarious. The first mass layoffs cut almost 60 employees from the approximately 400 at TSR, while the company was reorganized with Gygax now leading the TSR Media division from Hollywood, where he had been seeking a D&D film. Over the period from September 1979 to June 1983, TSR published Deities & Demigods (renamed Legends & Lore in 1983), the Fiend Folio, about 30 adventure modules, the World of Greyhawk folio (the first campaign setting material, but quite brief), and a new version of non-advanced D&D by Tom Moldvay and David Cook that built upon original and Holmes D&D with a Basic Set and Expert Set (hence "B/X D&D"). TSR also established a British subsidiary, licensed Mattel to create D&D electronic games, published the Top Secret espionage RPG by Merle Rasmussen, established the Role-Playing Gamer's Association, began publishing choose-your-own-adventure books, and released the Star Frontiers science-fiction RPG.

 

[Crispy]

Gygax parodied Arneson and Megarry as the evil traders Rannos Davl and Gremag

WHAT?

I honestly did not know this. Wow.

 

[std::namespace]

TSR made ill-considered acquisitions including SPI (the wargames company, where the design staff promptly departed for Avalon Hill)

ha ha, get fucked pedo kykax

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Gygax parodied Arneson and Megarry as the evil traders Rannos Davl and Gremag

WHAT?

I honestly did not know this. Wow.

From the original (mono-color) version of adventure module T1 The Village of Hommlet:

13. WOODEN BUILDING WITH SHUTTERS AND MANY WINDOWS
Outside the door a shield and lantern are suspended from chains; the shield is painted to show a sword and a cheese. This is the local trader, a merchant providing the needs of villagers, travellers, and adventurers alike. It is run by Rannos Davl (10th level thief - S 8, I 14, W 9, D 18, C 15, Ch 7 - +1 magic leather armor, +1 dagger, +1 ring of protection, +2 short sword under the counter, medallion vs crystal balls and ESP under his jerkin, 48 hit points); who is best described as slow, fat, clumsy, and placid. His partner is Gremag (7th level assassin - S 15, I 12, W 7, D 16, C 16, Ch 14 - +2 chain shirt, dagger of venom, disappearance dust sufficient for 3 uses in pouch; 39 hit points), a tall and thin individual, with sharp features and protruding eyes. Gremag tends to dither and fuss at Rannos Davl and customers alike. The whole front building is filled with various goods, and the barn has animals, saddles, and the like available to any willing to pay the price. (The place is covered on cf separate map as is the inn). Both traders claim disinterest in all alignments, proclaiming that they happily deal with anyone who is a paylng customer. Rannos Davl is chaotic evil and highly suspicious. Gremag is as evil and even more chaotic. Both are servants of the Temple of Elemental Evil, report activity in Hommlet to a brigand courier, and aid any and all other evil creatures who come in Temple service.

This was followed by information about hireable mercenaries (a groom and a man-at-arms) who are actually evil spies for Rannos Davl and Gremag. The 1981 version of T1 with a new color cover contained the exact same information, although TSR on March 6 of that year had reached a legal settlement with Dave Arneson over royalties. Even the 1985 supermodule T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil merely rearranged this information:

Interestingly, the description of Rannos Davl as "who is best described as slow, fat, clumsy, and placid" was cut to the nonsensical "who is bed", which might have been an intentional deletion of an aspersion, though it might merely have been one of many editing errors (entry 12, visible in the image above, contains the broken sentence "They are friendly and have nothing of interest to", which in the previous versions of module T1 ended with "adventurers.").

 

[Häyhä]

These are interesting RPG history pieces to read, thanks for posting them Zed Duke of Banville !

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

1982 marked a turning point in the artwork appearing in D&D/AD&D products, as TSR added four professional artists to its staff, who would dominate D&D art until two of them left TSR in 1989. Up to that point, TSR relied on contributions from talented amateurs, some of whom developed their own, idiosyncratic styles:

• Greg Bell produced most of the illustrations for original D&D's three booklets and first two supplements
• David C. Sutherland III became TSR's first staff artist in 1976 and remained at TSR until the end in 1997, overseeing cartography for most of that time; before the shift, he created the covers for two of AD&D's three core rulebooks, the largest portion of illustrations in the AD&D Monster Manual, and many more for adventure modules and other products
• David A. Trampier created many iconic illustrations in the AD&D Monster Manual and did the cover of AD&D's Players Handbook, among other things (also the Wormy comic series in Dragon magazine, until he abandoned his artwork entirely in 1988)
• Tom Wham drew cartoonish illustrations for various board games published by TSR, but some of his illustrations and humorous comics also appeared in early D&D/AD&D products
• Erol Otus established an inimitable, decidedly weird style, and not too long after departing TSR ventured into computer games such as Starflight 2 and Star Control II
• Other stalwarts of early D&D/AD&D include Bill Willingham, Jim Roslof, and Jeff Dee

Greg Bell's drawing of a Lizardman became a TSR logo for several years

David Sutherland's A Paladin in Hell illustration from the AD&D Players Handbook

David Trampier's AD&D Monster Manual illustration of player-characters and the goal of adventuring

Erol Otus' illustration of judgement in the Egyptian afterlife for AD&D's Deities & Demigods (later Legends & Lore) book, and his color illustration for the 1982 "Days of the Dragon" calendar

Tom Wham cartoon of an adventuring party from (later printings of?) the original D&D rule booklets

Jim Roslof illustration of Thor fighting Jormungandr, from AD&D's Deities & Demigods (later Legends & Lore) book

David C. Sutherland III

David A. Trampier

Erol Otus

Jeff Dee

Jim Roslof

 

[S.torch]

Will you talk about old D&D settings and Hickman's Dragonlance inclusion?