Dave Arneson's Personal RPG Collection For Auction

frankthedm · May 5, 2012

jmucchiello said:
This has to be the most depressing news article I've read on this site in a couple years. The fact that the money is just going to some nobody's pocket... The fact that many of these items will most likely vanish into some "collector's" private stash... Ugh... Nothing about this article is good news.

You are free to bid in the auctions and endeavor put the items in a museum.

Nathal · May 5, 2012

Somebody should buy it and hand it over to the grognadia fellow...

Gentlegamer · May 5, 2012

Seriously, could we do a kickstarter to create a RPG Museum/Archive, with its first exhibit being Dave's collection?

Dice4Hire · May 5, 2012

Gentlegamer said:
Seriously, could we do a kickstarter to create a RPG Museum/Archive, with its first exhibit being Dave's collection?

Better hurry, the auctions start soon

If people are serious about this make a post and people choose which items to bid on, so people are not bidding against each other. Tehn at a later date the individual purchases can be reconstituted.

KesselZero · May 5, 2012

Prediction: locked briefcase auctions for more than anything else in the collection, turns out to be empty.

w_earle_wheeler · May 5, 2012

KesselZero said:
Prediction: locked briefcase auctions for more than anything else in the collection, turns out to be empty.

I bet it has a spring-loaded poison needle trap and contains 1d6 scrolls, 50% of which are cursed.

Mark CMG · May 5, 2012

It might gain more initial traction if it was a GenCon endeavor that was a traveling museum. This would allow it to be seen by a great number of people and draw some early revenue. Somewhere down the line, when it grows, it could seek a permanent location. I wonder what Peter Adkison would think of the idea.

Grumpy RPG Reviews · May 6, 2012

I would be very interested in reading correspondence between Gygax and Arneson.

grodog · May 6, 2012

jmucchiello said:
This has to be the most depressing news article I've read on this site in a couple years. The fact that the money is just going to some nobody's pocket... The fact that many of these items will most likely vanish into some "collector's" private stash... Ugh... Nothing about this article is good news.

Folks: there's actually a lot personal research time, collecting experience, and appreciation for this collection being brought to bear by both Michael Cox at the Dragon's Trove and Paul Stormberg at The Collector's Trove. Both a long-time gamers, with deep knowledge of and love for the hobby. Both have shelled out considerable time and effort and money to catalog and preserve this collection, in addition to auctioning off its contents. Paul has also stated publicly that he plans to share the proceeds from the auction with Dave's heirs:

The Collectors Trove said:
Now, The Collector’s Trove, in cooperation with Michael Cox of the The Dragon’s Trove, will seek to preserve the intellectual property of the collection while trying to carry out Dave’s wishes to have a portion of its value go to his heirs. Through a combined effort of scanning, documentation, and auctions it is hoped that we may achieve both goals. In the process Dave’s fans and collectors alike will have the opportunity to support this effort and have a chance to own a piece of gaming history. Likewise, the gaming community may yet get a chance to see Dave’s unpublished game designs come to fruition.

So, in short, Paul and Michael are not the bad guys you're looking for.

havard · May 6, 2012

I hope whoever wins out in this auction will be interested in talking about his purchases with other fans. I have a particular interest in those items that could be relevant for the Blackmoor setting.

Also, some of the manuscripts could be very revealing about key events in the history of our hobby.

-Havard