Dave Arneson Death Confirmed

[Lonely Tylenol]

Terrible news. Now that both Gygax and Arneson are gone, it really is the end of an era. It's been a bad couple of years for losing our heroes.

 

[Brian Compton]

Another sad day for the hobby, and not long after the one year anniversary of Gary's death. Dave always seemed to me the Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko to Gary's Stan Lee: just as important in the history of the game, but not as well known. Sadly, there is nothing (yet) on the Wizards site acknowledging this, while Gary had a big intro page recognition. I hope this will change soon.

I never got to play in "Blackmoor," but I have never heard a negative word about the setting. Thank you, Dave, for all you put into this game of ours; many lives would be less rich without the friends and memories we've made because of your work.

 

[Clefton Twain]

Goodbye, Dave.

--CT

 

[BOZ]

Sad, this time for real.

Please help me keep an eye on his Wikipedia article. When Gary died, some newspapers were lifting bits from his Wikipedia article, and in some cases quite liberally; last thing we want is misinformation spread that way.

(Note; the article is temporarily protected from new and unregistered users, so you would have to be established, or find someone like me who is.)

 

[Belorin]

My condolences to his family and friends.
Another bright light in the darkness goes out.
The gods are getting ready for one monster of a Game.

Bel

 

[JohnRTroy]

Dave always seemed to me the Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko to Gary's Stan Lee: just as important in the history of the game, but not as well known. Sadly, there is nothing (yet) on the Wizards site acknowledging this, while Gary had a big intro page recognition. I hope this will change soon.

I would say Arneson is more like Steve Ditko to Gygax's Stan Lee, mainly because his output in the hobby hasn't been as huge, and Gary's remembered not just because of D&D, but for Advanced D&D, Greyhawk, numerous modules etc. So I doubt he'll ever have the same mainstream coverage as EGG did.

The Ditko analogy is also appropriate because Dave tended to stay behind the scenes, valuing privacy, etc.

I never got any of the "White Box" D&D stuff, but I remember enjoying the Blackmoor revival in the late 80s from the DA series.

 

[JeffB]

FYI-

Dave was legally allowed to post Supp II: Blackmoor on his webpage for free download- His website went down about a month ago because of financial issues I guess, but I found the link to the Blackmoor PDF HERE.

The undersea creatures were Steve Marsh's work, but the majority is Arneson's. Enjoy!


PS- check out the original ideas/description of the Sahaugin-markedly different from the version that ended up in the AD&D Monster Manual.

 

[freyar]

Thanks for inspiring all of us.

To Morrus and the admins/mods: would it be possible and appropriate to send a poster like MichaelMorris did for Gary Gygax?

 

[El Mahdi]

Rest Well, Dave.

You will be missed.

I don't think the impact of what you and Gary created could ever fully be measured. You've left the world a much more beautiful, interesting, and imaginative place.

Job well done, Sir! Job well done!

 

[Wombat]

Hey Dave,

I only met you once. It was at the Dunfey Hotel near SF International Airport for an early DunDraCon (about 1980). We had a great talk about GMing and gaming in general.

All I can say is that you were a very cool guy, you were generous with advice, you knew how to laugh, you gave me a mimeographed set of rules for playtest, a set of rules that never got published (no title, and they were admittedly a bit of a mess), but most of all you gave me D&D and rpgs in general.

Thanks for giving me a hobby that I have enjoyed for over 30 years.

Pax tecum