Was Kotaku Wrong to Rehash Arneson vs. Gygax Debate?

Two days ago Cecilia D'Anastasio  published an article called Dungeons & Deceptions: The First D&D Players Push Back On The Legend Of Gary Gygax at a website called Kotaku. While I found the article to be well researched and making some very interesting points, some of Gary's family members and fans have reacted strongly against the article while others feel like this is stirring up old bygones that should have been left alone. Others again point to the fact that D'Anastasio wrote an article on Gary's Widow Gail Gygax earlier this year which many saw as rather one-sided.

Gary Gygax passed away in 2008 at 69 and Dave Arneson passed in 2009 at 61. While the two had a falling out early in their careers, both men apparently moved on long before they died. Is the "who did more, Dave or Gary" discussion really worth dragging up or is it just something D&D fans who love drama use to entertain themselves while getting in pointless fights over it on forums and social media platforms?

I have tended to stay away from this debate myself. Although my work has always focused on Blackmoor and Dave Arneson, I have always seen myself as a fan of both D&D creators. I have never had any interest in the drama beyond learning the basic facts of what happened.

The problem, however, is that by leaving this discussion alone, we risk forgetting half of the story. The story that is most often forgotten is the story about Dave Arneson and the Minnesota Gamers. The Kotaku article is correct in saying that some misconceptions about the history of the hobby are being perpetuated by books and articles that have been published on the subject over the years. Several documentaries are in the works and with only one notable exception, these appear to focus on the importance of Gary Gygax.

The topic that even the best works on D&D History get wrong is on the importance of Chainmail in the development of D&D. The Kotaku article correctly identifies how by describing Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign as simply a Chainmail Game, the real significance of Arneson's contributions to D&D are lost. I have talked about this problem back in 2016 on this blog.

I think the best part of the Kotaku article is where it describes Dave and Gary's contributions to the creation of D&D this way:

To be sure, there would be no Dungeons & Dragons without Gary Gygax. Chainmail is a clear influence for D&D’s famous combat rules, and Gygax’s particular tastes in literature and voracious reading habit helped populate D&D’s world with monsters, gods, and legendary beasts. Gygax saw the potential in Blackmoor, or the aspects of Chainmail it happened to bring out, and moved quickly and purposefully enough to put the idea into a publishable format. But what gets lost is that neither would there be D&D without Dave Arneson. And indeed, the things that D&D fans love the most about the game—the things that distinguish “role-playing” from “fantasy wargaming”—were Arneson’s vision.

By simply choosing to avoid these discussions, I think we risk overlooking the importance of powerful ideas and concepts that are still found at the core of the hobby today. Some of these ideas are the very things Dave passed onto the hobby, in part drawn from his friend David Wesely's Braunstein games and other ideas brought in by their fellow gamers in Minnesota.

More importantly to new generations of D&D fans, I think there is much more to learn from David Arneson and his friends. Because Arneson left TSR (or was forced to leave) so early, many of the ideas and concepts that Dave Arneson's Gaming Group experimented with in the late 60s and onwards never made it into D&D. Perhaps learning more about Dave Arneson and his friends and what they did in gaming can inspire young gamers today to take the hobby to new places in the future!

In the last decades I have been researching the story of Dave Arneson and his friends, not because I love to dig up dirt or because I want to hurt the legacy of Gary Gygax. I don't like hurting anyone's feelings. I have been doing this because I am interested in truth. There are many people out there telling Gary's story, so it is only fair that some are telling Dave's as well. Perhaps the Kotaku article could have been written in a more moderate fashion and avoided some characteristics, a few quotes and its provocative heading. But at least it is another voice telling Dave's story. Its not like our corner is that crowded.





-Havard

Arneson's 1970 Medieval Braunstein

Dave Wesely's Braunstein games were among the first to introduce roleplaying methods into the wargaming hobby. Dave Arneson and Dave Wesely belonged to the same group and Blackmoor is said to have started out as a Medieval Braunstein run by Arneson.

Dave Arneson had played in the original Braunstein Game, another Braunstein game (Brainstein 4) set in a Central American Republic (where he won). In yesterday's Q&A session, Jon Peterson revealed some more details on another Braunstein Game set in the Old West:

"Well, don't sell short Duane Jenkin's "Brownstone," the pre-D&D Western RPG were Arneson played the evil bandit "El Pauncho," and Dave Fant was the lawman "Marshall Fant." All of these activities informed the development of role-playing and the idea of simulating people."

In Blackmoor, Dave Wesely played the treacherous "Weasel", David Fant controlled Blackmoor and Duane Jenkins eventually became a Vampire Knight. I originally believed that Blackmoor was Dave Arneson's first medieval Braunstein. However, in his History of D&D in 12 Treasures Video, Peterson mentions several medieval Braunsteins run by Arneson. The first such game was run as early as 1970.

Dave Arneson Started Experimenting with a Medieval Braunstein as early as 1970 Jon Peterson says.

Peterson describes how this game dealt with a battle between one player controlling a defending Castle and two players controlling an invading army. In addition there are other players controlling rebellious peasants, a band of vikings looking for plunder and two mercenary bands.

Arneson's Medieval Braunstein featured invading forces attacking a Castle. Sounds familiar FFC readers?

Peasant Forces also took part in the battle.

Although Peterson makes it clear that this is a different game than Blackmoor, it is hard not to notice the Blackmoor-like elements. A Castle being invaded by attacking forces sounds like it comes straight out of the First Fantasy Campaign (FFC). The FFC also has peasant rebellions, of course. And Vikings, though they were later referred to as Skandaharians, as more layers of mythology were added to those. Summing up things, it would, in my opinion, be difficult to argue that the 1970 Medieval Braunstein was anything but a first step towards Blackmoor.

Its a bit difficult to read...does this one say Rescue Forces?

Image Source: Beowulf, by Marcgabbana



-Havard

Dave Arneson The Player

While Dave Arneson may have been the first Dungeon Master, he also enjoyed being on the other side of the DM's screen. As with most roleplayers, he started out as a player.

A formative moment in the life of young Dave Arneson was when his parents got him Avalon Hill's Gettysburg War Game, in the early 1960s. A few years later (1965?), he joined the Midwest Military Simulation Association which used to meet at Greg Scott's house. When the group became too big, the younger and more war game interested of the group, Including David A. Wesely, Dan Nicholson and Pete Gaylord split from the rest and began meeting at Arneson's house instead. 

So what was Arneson like as a player? Michael Mornard describes him like this:

"And yeah, Dave is a SUPER bad-ass player. You'd never know it talking to him out of context. Sweetest guy in the world. And then at the gaming table, he suddenly eats your spleen."

One of the more epic moments in Dave's career as a player was in David Wesely's Braunstein 4: Banana Republic, as Wesely recalls:

"He lied, swindled, improvised, and played his character to the hilt. He came to the game with fake CIA ID he’d mocked up, so when another player “captured” and searched him he could whip them out. Other players were still moving pieces around the board and issuing orders like a wargame while Dave Arneson was running circles around them and changing the whole scenario. He was winning the game entirely by roleplaying.

You may think of Dave Arneson as one of the godfathers of GMing, but even before that he was the godfather of players. He was, literally, the proto-player."

Over at the Comeback Inn Forum, Jeff Berry fondly remembers Dave playing Captain Harchar in Professor Phil Barker's Tekumel games:

"He was just one heck of a lot of fun; like a lot of his friends, he was very fast on his feet and very, very smart. He threw himself into any role that he took... Dave's showing up out at Phil's was always a good indicator that it was going to be a good night; we'd just hang on to the roller coaster, and watch the fun unfold."

If you have been asking yourself where Dave Arneson got all his ideas and creativity from then perhaps this is could be the answer. Creativty comes from passion, and we know that one of Dave's true passions was games, whether running them as a judge or DM, or enjoying them as a player.





Image source.

-Havard

Major Wesely at GenCon2010

I just found this information from the Ars Ludi site that Major David A. Wesely will be running a Braunstein game at GenCon this year.  Braunstein was the predecessor of Blackmoor. Wesely was also one of the original Blackmoor players and the inspiration for the character mentioned as "the Weasel" in the First Fantasy Campaign.

I am frustrated that I wont be able to go to GenCon this year, but that is one of the downsides to living in Europe (which I am otherwise pretty happy about). If any of the readers of this blog are going, make sure not to miss this event and send me reports, please! :)

(Picture nicked from ars ludi)








-Havard