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

 

[Dausuul]

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.

Exactly. He got the education and he learned from it.

Nobody's an angel, and nobody said Adkison was a model CEO--he clearly was far from it! But he built a thriving company that he sold to Hasbro of his own free will, rather than having it wrenched from his hands on the point of collapse.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Facebook comment thread is interesting, in light of someone on another thread saying we've never really had Arneson's Blackmoor. Based on the Facebook screenshot, it sounds like the Zeitgeist/Goodman version is Arneson's Blackmoor and it was just ... OK.

That said, I can't help but feel sorry for him. Even if he didn't belong on the team, it has to have quite understandably chafed at him his whole life to be overshadowed the way he was.

 

[Jaeger]

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.

Exactly. He got the education and he learned from it.

By all means, please link to the relevant quotes where he Apologizes, and then repudiates his previous statement:

"I still don't think what we did was wrong. But society does, unfortunately."

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Honestly, this entire thread is, at best, not great for Arneson or Adkison. At worst, Arneson sounds clueless and delusional and Adkison sounds like someone who doesn’t understand why it’s completely inappropriate for someone in a position of power to put their employees in that sort of situation. I’m amazed that sexual assault and/or sexual harassment claims didn’t happen during that time.

 

[Jaeger]

That said, I can't help but feel sorry for him. Even if he didn't belong on the team, it has to have quite understandably chafed at him his whole life to be overshadowed the way he was.

There is some sympathy to be had for him. As my impression is only superficial due to knowing about him only through books and documentaries:

He had the lightning in a bottle idea, but seemed to lack the wherewithal to communicate it beyond his group of friends. It seems that Gygax was the needed translator to bring his creation to a wider audience. What is really sad is as Rob Kuntz pointed out on other threads; like Gygax he got six figure royalty checks for B/X for many years in the early 80's. It seems he was unable to hold onto his wealth as well.

Both he and Gygax should have at least lived comfortably later in life...

 

[Alzrius]

Honestly, this entire thread is, at best, not great for Arneson or Adkison.

There's a saying that comes to mind about how great men (that is, men who accomplish notable deeds) are rarely good men.

 

[Alzrius]

There is some sympathy to be had for him. As my impression is only superficial due to knowing about him only through books and documentaries:

He had the lightning in a bottle idea, but seemed to lack the wherewithal to communicate it beyond his group of friends. It seems that Gygax was the needed translator to bring his creation to a wider audience. What is really sad is as Rob Kuntz pointed out on other threads; like Gygax he got six figure royalty checks for B/X for many years in the early 80's. It seems he was unable to hold onto his wealth as well.

Both he and Gygax should have at least lived comfortably later in life...

I'm currently reading Flint Dille's autobiography The Gamesmaster: Almost Famous in the Geek '80s. He and Gary became friends in 1982, right when Gary was setting up shop in southern California to try and turn TSR properties into multimedia franchises. While I'm not done with the book yet, Dille does a good job painting a picture of what was, by all accounts, the most wild and profligate chapter of Gary's career, with fascinating vignette after fascinating vignette.

There's also a few interesting bits of obscure D&D lore in there as well. For instance, the very first tale of Gord the Rogue was published in Dragon #100, "At Moonset Blackcat Comes." In the story, Gord has a barbarian friend named Chert, who's noted for his 6'6" frame and unruly hair. In point of fact, "chert" is (geologically speaking) a grade of flint, and Flint Dille is 6'5" and self-admittedly hated combing his hair.

Little things like that which would otherwise be lost to history are absolute catnip to D&D aficionados like me, and I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys such tidbits.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What is really sad is as Rob Kuntz pointed out on other threads; like Gygax he got six figure royalty checks for B/X for many years in the early 80's. It seems he was unable to hold onto his wealth as well.

Both he and Gygax should have at least lived comfortably later in life...

My brother is a fancy finance guy, with a fancy finance education and career. His advice, whenever there's a big windfall, is to run, not walk, to a lawyer to set up a trust that will pay you a good wage on an annual basis, after some one-time spending first. Very few people can be trusted with sudden wealth, as has been illustrated by too many lottery winners.

 

[Dausuul]

By all means, please link to the relevant quotes where he Apologizes, and then repudiates his previous statement:

"I still don't think what we did was wrong. But society does, unfortunately."

What he learned was, you can't run a company like that. And so he stopped running it like that.

If somebody quits doing a bad and destructive thing, they have learned--even if they learned at sword's point, so to speak, and the lesson was "You will get beat down if you do this, so don't." I'll take a guy who changes his ways without changing his beliefs, over a guy who changes his beliefs but not his ways.

 

[Jaeger]

What he learned was, you can't run a company like that. And so he stopped running it like that.

If somebody quits doing a bad and destructive thing, they have learned--even if they learned at sword's point, so to speak, and the lesson was "You will get beat down if you do this, so don't." I'll take a guy who changes his ways without changing his beliefs, over a guy who changes his beliefs but not his ways.

So that's a solid No then on any link to relevant quotes where he Apologizes, and then repudiates his previous statement: "I still don't think what we did was wrong. But society does, unfortunately."

Got it.

 

[Mull Ponders]

Now I have to read the Flint Dille book.

 

[darjr]

Now I have to read the Flint Dille book.

As do I!

 

[Dausuul]

So that's a solid No then on any link to relevant quotes where he Apologizes, and then repudiates his previous statement: "I still don't think what we did was wrong. But society does, unfortunately."

Got it.

Of course it's a no. I never said he apologized for or repudiated anything. I only said that he learned. Which he clearly did.

He didn't learn (at least not by 2001) why the thing he was doing was wrong... but he did learn not to do it. And unlike Gygax and Arneson, he learned it before crashing his company or getting himself thrown out of it.

 

[Fifth Element]

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.

So Arneson wasn't out of touch, he was actually so far ahead that no one could even recognize the genius of his ramblings? Okay.

 

[darjr]

I would now like to also credit Dave Arneson now.

I am usually the “ideas are a dime a dozen, it’s execution and luck that matters” but in this case Daves idea transcends that. Execution and luck still mattered a great deal, credit to Gary and TSR and all the players, but Daves idea was great.

 

[Iosue]

So Arneson wasn't out of touch, he was actually so far ahead that no one could even recognize the genius of his ramblings? Okay.

It's not that. It's that Arneson was essentially suggesting leveraging the IP of TSR's worlds, and Riggs, rather uncharitably IMO, interprets that as meaning to flood the market with world-specific product like TSR did.

In fact, it seems to me that most of Arneson's letter are contemporary "observations" that are very similar to the conclusions the Riggs made in his book years after the fact. Yet Riggs downplays all of them to play up the genius of Adkison/Dancey/Stevens, who happen to be the subjects of his next book.

Arneson was a poor writer. This letter in particular strikes me as the typical kind of correspondence he would have with other wargames-hobbyists-turned-game-publishers, rather than a formal business letter that I guess Riggs thought he should have written. But he seems to have had a good understanding of the game industry and the issues with TSR. I'm not saying that Adkison should have hired him, but this article seems like meanspirited nitpicking to promote Riggs' next book. I liked Slaying the Dragon, but this is just distasteful. If the next book is more in this vein, I'll just pass on it.

 

[Fifth Element]

Yet Riggs downplays all of them to play up the genius of Adkison/Dancey/Stevens, who happen to be the subjects of his next book.

From what I've read of Riggs, he uses an very biased voice in his writings. Which doesn't make him wrong. But since we can read the letter ourselves, we don't have to rely on Riggs' interpretation.

There's nothing insightful there. Nothing that a first-year business student couldn't write in response to a case study, except that the grammar and spelling would be better.

 

[Parmandur]

It's not that. It's that Arneson was essentially suggesting leveraging the IP of TSR's worlds, and Riggs, rather uncharitably IMO, interprets that as meaning to flood the market with world-specific product like TSR did.

In fact, it seems to me that most of Arneson's letter are contemporary "observations" that are very similar to the conclusions the Riggs made in his book years after the fact. Yet Riggs downplays all of them to play up the genius of Adkison/Dancey/Stevens, who happen to be the subjects of his next book.

Arneson was a poor writer. This letter in particular strikes me as the typical kind of correspondence he would have with other wargames-hobbyists-turned-game-publishers, rather than a formal business letter that I guess Riggs thought he should have written. But he seems to have had a good understanding of the game industry and the issues with TSR. I'm not saying that Adkison should have hired him, but this article seems like meanspirited nitpicking to promote Riggs' next book. I liked Slaying the Dragon, but this is just distasteful. If the next book is more in this vein, I'll just pass on it.

This is pretty much just how Riggs writes.

 

[Saracenus]

@darjr thank you for the link, it was both interesting and... sad. Even sadder was my inability to avoid J. LaNasa's posting as TSR Con... Why can't I have something related to D&D where he does pop up like the delusional gopher that he is...

 

[ENWorldUser]

Creative types are notoriously bad with spelling/grammar so I wouldn't hold that against him. Editors might..

No way could he have been a senior manager.
Back then WotC required even the current ex-TSR staff to move to Washington to keep their jobs.
At best, he could've been a consultant on something but probably had too many years out of the game. But even EGG contributed articles to Dragon.