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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tgmoore" data-source="post: 9658908" data-attributes="member: 6778703">It’s difficult to overstate how utterly novel role playing games were when they emerged in the 1970s. At a time when most games had fixed objectives, rigid rules, and clear winners or losers, Dungeons & Dragons introduced something radically different. A game where players assumed ongoing roles, told collaborative stories, explored imaginary worlds, and faced challenges not determined by a board or fixed system, but by a referee interpreting outcomes in real time. This was something new.Many of the concepts that are now foundational to modern video game; leveling up, inventories, experience points, character progression, open world exploration, even the idea of a continuing campaign were introduced to the broader public through tabletop RPGs, and D&D in particular. Today, we take these features for granted. In the 1970s, they were alien outside of a few small experimental gaming groups.The hobby did not spring out of nowhere. There were important precursors. Dave Wesely’s Braunstein introduced the idea of player roles beyond traditional wargames. Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor brought in persistent characters and dungeon exploration. M. A. R. Barker had created the richly detailed world of Tekumel. Ed Greenwood was already developing the Forgotten Realms privately. But none of these efforts reached a national or global audience.Gary Gygax’s contribution was not just in co-designing D&D. His real achievement was recognizing the potential of these scattered ideas, organizing and publishing them, and turning the entire concept into a product. He created a business. Through TSR, he brought role playing games into small town bookstores, hobby shops, and eventually into mainstream awareness. He gave the hobby a structure, a voice, and a market. Without that, the RPG hobby might have stayed confined to a few university gaming clubs and convention tables.This was before the internet. Before video games were in every home. In many parts of the country, D&D was the first exposure young people had to fantasy, to mythologies outside of what was taught in school, to the idea that they could create worlds of their own. For me, one of my favorite things about D&D was how it opened up new worlds to me. It inspired me to read new books (Appendix N) and learn more about ancient technology, history, theology, religion, mythology, etc was more than just a game. It was a new way to learn about the world.To paraphrase Dave Wesely, without Gary Gygax, RPGs might have remained something played by Arneson and his friends in the Twin Cities. That’s not a knock on Arneson or anyone else involved. It’s a recognition of what Gygax made possible.That said, it is also important not to conflate Gygax with every edition or evolution of D&D. He was one of several crucial figures in its origin, and many others helped shape and expand the game after it left his hands. But when people associate Gygax with D&D as a whole, they’re not wrong to see him as a defining force. He didn’t just help write the rules. He made sure the world heard about them.</blockquote>

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