bolen said:
Hey Gary
Got a couple of questions for you
Howdy Bolen!
I am about to supply a couple of answers
1) are you going to gen con next month (hope so)
My son Alex is slated to be at GenCon with Troll lord Games, but I am attending only two events this year:
Lake Geneva Gaming Convention here at the end of this month.
Canadian National Gamine Expo in Toronto at the end of August.
2) I have been curious about this for a long time. (correct anything I get wrong please) D&D started out as a miniatures game which evolved from controling a group of soldiers on the battlefield to one person going into a dungeon (right?). At what point did it stop being a game of one player against another and evolve into Roleplaying where a DM controls the environment and creates a story. That would seem to be a huge leap and it could not have happened over night.
That's essentially correct, the game being
Chainmail using th "Man-to-Man" rules. What with command figures and the rules, individual figure play was not startling. When heroes, superheroes, and wizards were considered in the "Fantasy supplement," the concept of a player with but a single figure on the table born. I would use my point buys to take a superhero in magic armor, with a magic sword, backed up by a wizard with fireball spells. The superhero would assail the mass of enemy troops, and when they gathered round to attack him the wizard would drop a fireball on the lot. The superhero was very likely to come out unscathed, much to the fury of my opponents.
I personally would buy a book where you (and maybe some of the other originators of the RPG field) discussed how this evolution took place. (and even what you think of it today and where it should go tomorrow)
Well, with what's above, and what I ahve passed along regarding the initial and final drafts of the game that became D&D, the story is pretty well told.
Dave Arneson's focus on underground play, using maps, and his suggestion of having a Hero be able to work up to Superhero status were most helpful.
Dave Megary is generallly not sufficiently credited for inspiring things, for his DUNGEON! game, based on the CHAINMAIL work, predates D&D.
3) I heard that you were going to revise the canting crew by Troll Lord games. Is that true and if so can you give details?
No changes from me, but I believe that the Trolls plan to re-edit the work and add more illustration. There might be a few words added to the dictionary of Thieves' Cant, but as far as I know that's it. Only the Trolls know for sure
Cheers,
Gary