D&D General Dave Arneson’s Pitch for the future of TSR and D&D in ‘97 to Peter Adkison

Following his 1997 application for a job at WotC, D&D co-creator Dave Arneson wrote a second letter to WoTC founder Peter Adkison and made a pitch about how he'd run TSR and D&D.

D&D General - When D&D Co-Creator Dave Arneson Asked WotC For A Job!

Back in 1997, after WotC had purchased the failing TSR (and D&D), and just prior to the launch of D&D 3E, Dave Arneson -- who co-created D&D in the 1970s along with Gary Gygax -- wrote to WotC president Peter Adkison asking to be put in charge of TSR. Ben Riggs -- author of Slaying the...

www.enworld.org

Despite his excitement his plans seem underwhelming.

My heart already bleeds for Arneson. The man has never received his due as D&D’s co-creator. He never made CEO. He wasn’t on Futurama. TSR and Gary Gygax did him dirty. (This has been explored in my prior post and in Game Wizards by Jon Peterson.)

This letter is Arneson’s moment. If he wants to make D&D for a living again, he has to put points on the board, and he has to do it with this letter. Now. But he hasn’t even bothered to check his punctuation!

Six pages of his research and plans follow. Here’s a summary, but I’m pasting the letter below if you want to thrill to every misspelled word.

In the main, Arneson’s thoughts are nothing you wouldn’t have heard hanging around a game store in the spring of 1997. He said that all of TSR’s projects were “dead in the water,” which the whole world knew as the company hadn’t published anything for months.

See Ben Riggs article for the full letter and more of his observations.

Why D&D’s Co-Creator Didn’t Get Hired by Wizards of the Coast — Ben Riggs

Unfortunately Dave Arneson’s Plans for Dungeons & Dragons in 1997 Were Not Great

www.writerbenriggs.com

 

[darjr]

Is it OK to post that screenshot? All the comments are on apublic post, but I've erased the other names now.

It’s an iffy space for me. For instance I know of people who post public but have specific people blocked in Facebook. But I won’t judge. It is a public post.

Looks like my workaround for a link works! See my previous post.

 

[darjr]

Oh and there is much more to McCrackens post, if he’s anything he’s verbose.

 

[vecna00]

Oh and there is much more to McCrackens post, if he’s anything he’s verbose.

There's a lot to unpack with his comment.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh and there is much more to McCrackens post, if he’s anything he’s verbose.

Following the link, it reads like the rant of a jealous and bitter person, not really a full-on anecdote.

 

[doctorhook]

The Irony no one will actually realize.

5e took off because they discarded the ideas of Dancey and the old guard of WotC and their philosophy behind 3e, and actually utilized some of the ideas of Arneson (that he put in these letters, though they were arrived at by different means, the ideas are surprisingly similar) in the creation and continued production of 5e.

MODIFIED...obviously and of course, but still implemented (and still being implemented or advanced, as in the electronic measures) and it has been FAR more successful with the brand than Adkinson was (does that sound like bragging...naw...but probably not that humble either).

A LOT of online movement with the magazines, but ALSO other content (what...you think D&D ingratiating itself with things like online dramatic gaming sessions is just by coincidence???)

Cutting down on the worlds and production (so no big investments like 3e did with FR and a ton of books and such) and a slower pace focusing on the heart and core of D&D. Cutting down on staff and having a bigger picture of contract and managers rather than being completely in-house. Mixing in some D&D with Magic Worlds, and more importantly, experimenting and mixing MtG worlds with D&D. Etc..etc...etc.

Of course, there are some things tossed aside as well (The entire novel line for example), but that letter and the ideas are also for a generation ago when books were selling better.

And now that I said it, you can ignore this post and go back to your normal commenting...

I maintain that the D&D of the past six years has been successful despite 5E as much as because of it.

In my perception, the biggest drivers of the TTRPG hobby over that time have been streaming (esp. Critical Role, but many other shows and podcasts too), online play (technically possible in the past, but didn’t explode until Roll20), and then the pandemic shutdown (many people stuck indoors, alternative entertainment unavailable). Streaming and online play happened started taking off prior to 5E; 5E just happened to be the current D&D during this period. Pop culture is a factor too; Stranger Things elevated D&D’s footprint, but was totally independent of WotC and 5E.

 

[darjr]

Jolly Blackburn chimes in about Dave Arneson and it isn’t flattering either. Another who worked closely with Dave Arneson at an rpg company doesn’t have great praise either.

 

[Jaeger]

I can't speak to what McCracken says, mostly because I can't find the comment of his that you're referencing, but it's worth noting that John Tynes confirms that McCracken did interview for a job with WotC:

Those salon articles should see more circulation:

For all the Flack Arneson and especially Gygax get for their past actions - People forget that Peter Adkison was no angel:

Death to the Minotaur

How Wizards of the Coast sacrificed its geeky, Gothic, sex-for-all idealism for Pok

www.salon.com

"...We would build an alt-culture workplace of smart young people. We would destroy hierarchies by a resolute program of egalitarian consensus. We would earn fabulous paychecks and free dental treatments. We would encourage diversity in every form.
Best of all, though, we would naughty word like rabbits. On "Who Knew? Day" employees wore badges proclaiming their sexual orientation. Intimate relationships sprouted like mold on bread, cutting across departments and seniorities with the hierarchy-smashing fervor of our consensus-driven team meetings. Heedless of status, even peasants and princes coupled, and fell apart.
The example was set right at the top: Peter and his wife, also an employee, had an open marriage. Wizards was a big horny summer camp, and we were starring in the teen sex comedy of our fevered dreams. ...
Peter had another plan. He would rent a sizable ski lodge and charter a bus, and we'd all spend a weekend frolicking in the woods. About 30 of us went. We played games, ate junk food and drank heavily. And then, late at night, a bunch of us piled into a dark room and played Truth or Swill. ...
Basking in shoulder-to-shoulder solidarity with his employees, Peter Adkison rattled off his workplace sexual encounters, both actual and desired. He wasn't boasting, vain or predatory. He just loved all of us, from the depths of his innocent geek heart, and saw nothing wrong with talking about his corporate sex life."

Death to the Minotaur

After a disastrous corporate drinking game, Wizards of the Coast grows up -- and loses its soul. Second of two parts.

www.salon.com

"...
Peter believed he'd done no real wrong, since his participation was emblematic of the kind of geektopia he was trying to build. The other stone-faced managers thought he was a fool. Corey angrily promised to shun any future company social events, as he felt he no longer had permission to communicate with his co-workers on anything other than a purely professional level. I mostly kept quiet -- the whole ugly scene was just depressing.
After the meeting, the board of directors reprimanded Peter and docked him a month's salary.
We had failed to achieve consensus. Management believed Peter had jeopardized the entire company with his behavior, the very behavior that the rest of us at the party thought was helping to strengthen it. We had little conception of sexual harassment laws, hostile work environments and all the other issues of the modern workplace.
We thought we were building a postmodern workplace, a cheerful throwback to an imagined past where an intimate guild of valiant heroes and heroines worked hard, played hard and made history, to borrow a slogan from Jeff Bezos. But in short order, we were just another corporation. ...
Although Peter now acknowledges the strait-laced responsibility a CEO has to his or her shareholders, to some extent he mourns the "different sort of company" he says Wizards could have been. He looks back on the weekend of the Truth or Swill game wistfully. "I still don't think what we did was wrong. But society does, unfortunately." ... "

What's good for the goose...

 

[Parmandur]

Those salon articles should see more circulation:

For all the Flack Arneson and especially Gygax get for their past actions - People forget that Peter Adkison was no angel:

Death to the Minotaur

How Wizards of the Coast sacrificed its geeky, Gothic, sex-for-all idealism for Pok

www.salon.com

"...We would build an alt-culture workplace of smart young people. We would destroy hierarchies by a resolute program of egalitarian consensus. We would earn fabulous paychecks and free dental treatments. We would encourage diversity in every form.
Best of all, though, we would naughty word like rabbits. On "Who Knew? Day" employees wore badges proclaiming their sexual orientation. Intimate relationships sprouted like mold on bread, cutting across departments and seniorities with the hierarchy-smashing fervor of our consensus-driven team meetings. Heedless of status, even peasants and princes coupled, and fell apart.
The example was set right at the top: Peter and his wife, also an employee, had an open marriage. Wizards was a big horny summer camp, and we were starring in the teen sex comedy of our fevered dreams. ...
Peter had another plan. He would rent a sizable ski lodge and charter a bus, and we'd all spend a weekend frolicking in the woods. About 30 of us went. We played games, ate junk food and drank heavily. And then, late at night, a bunch of us piled into a dark room and played Truth or Swill. ...
Basking in shoulder-to-shoulder solidarity with his employees, Peter Adkison rattled off his workplace sexual encounters, both actual and desired. He wasn't boasting, vain or predatory. He just loved all of us, from the depths of his innocent geek heart, and saw nothing wrong with talking about his corporate sex life."

Death to the Minotaur

After a disastrous corporate drinking game, Wizards of the Coast grows up -- and loses its soul. Second of two parts.

www.salon.com

"...
Peter believed he'd done no real wrong, since his participation was emblematic of the kind of geektopia he was trying to build. The other stone-faced managers thought he was a fool. Corey angrily promised to shun any future company social events, as he felt he no longer had permission to communicate with his co-workers on anything other than a purely professional level. I mostly kept quiet -- the whole ugly scene was just depressing.
After the meeting, the board of directors reprimanded Peter and docked him a month's salary.
We had failed to achieve consensus. Management believed Peter had jeopardized the entire company with his behavior, the very behavior that the rest of us at the party thought was helping to strengthen it. We had little conception of sexual harassment laws, hostile work environments and all the other issues of the modern workplace.
We thought we were building a postmodern workplace, a cheerful throwback to an imagined past where an intimate guild of valiant heroes and heroines worked hard, played hard and made history, to borrow a slogan from Jeff Bezos. But in short order, we were just another corporation. ...
Although Peter now acknowledges the strait-laced responsibility a CEO has to his or her shareholders, to some extent he mourns the "different sort of company" he says Wizards could have been. He looks back on the weekend of the Truth or Swill game wistfully. "I still don't think what we did was wrong. But society does, unfortunately." ... "

What's good for the goose...

Well, that's all very problematic.

 

[doctorhook]

Those salon articles should see more circulation:

For all the Flack Arneson and especially Gygax get for their past actions - People forget that Peter Adkison was no angel:

Death to the Minotaur

How Wizards of the Coast sacrificed its geeky, Gothic, sex-for-all idealism for Pok

www.salon.com

"...We would build an alt-culture workplace of smart young people. We would destroy hierarchies by a resolute program of egalitarian consensus. We would earn fabulous paychecks and free dental treatments. We would encourage diversity in every form.
Best of all, though, we would naughty word like rabbits. On "Who Knew? Day" employees wore badges proclaiming their sexual orientation. Intimate relationships sprouted like mold on bread, cutting across departments and seniorities with the hierarchy-smashing fervor of our consensus-driven team meetings. Heedless of status, even peasants and princes coupled, and fell apart.
The example was set right at the top: Peter and his wife, also an employee, had an open marriage. Wizards was a big horny summer camp, and we were starring in the teen sex comedy of our fevered dreams. ...
Peter had another plan. He would rent a sizable ski lodge and charter a bus, and we'd all spend a weekend frolicking in the woods. About 30 of us went. We played games, ate junk food and drank heavily. And then, late at night, a bunch of us piled into a dark room and played Truth or Swill. ...
Basking in shoulder-to-shoulder solidarity with his employees, Peter Adkison rattled off his workplace sexual encounters, both actual and desired. He wasn't boasting, vain or predatory. He just loved all of us, from the depths of his innocent geek heart, and saw nothing wrong with talking about his corporate sex life."

Death to the Minotaur

After a disastrous corporate drinking game, Wizards of the Coast grows up -- and loses its soul. Second of two parts.

www.salon.com

"...
Peter believed he'd done no real wrong, since his participation was emblematic of the kind of geektopia he was trying to build. The other stone-faced managers thought he was a fool. Corey angrily promised to shun any future company social events, as he felt he no longer had permission to communicate with his co-workers on anything other than a purely professional level. I mostly kept quiet -- the whole ugly scene was just depressing.
After the meeting, the board of directors reprimanded Peter and docked him a month's salary.
We had failed to achieve consensus. Management believed Peter had jeopardized the entire company with his behavior, the very behavior that the rest of us at the party thought was helping to strengthen it. We had little conception of sexual harassment laws, hostile work environments and all the other issues of the modern workplace.
We thought we were building a postmodern workplace, a cheerful throwback to an imagined past where an intimate guild of valiant heroes and heroines worked hard, played hard and made history, to borrow a slogan from Jeff Bezos. But in short order, we were just another corporation. ...
Although Peter now acknowledges the strait-laced responsibility a CEO has to his or her shareholders, to some extent he mourns the "different sort of company" he says Wizards could have been. He looks back on the weekend of the Truth or Swill game wistfully. "I still don't think what we did was wrong. But society does, unfortunately." ... "

What's good for the goose...

This is shocking and fascinating

 

[billd91]

Those salon articles should see more circulation:

For all the Flack Arneson and especially Gygax get for their past actions - People forget that Peter Adkison was no angel:

I think it's less about being no angel and a lot more about being naive about the kinds of relationships a CEO can have with their employees without it being problematic. Fortunately, he apparently got the education he needed.