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Rob Kuntz Recounts The Origins Of D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="Rob Kuntz" data-source="post: 7803153" data-attributes="member: 7015759"><p>Well, his system Mechanics were different than Gary's OD&D mechanics. Recall, if you have followed, that upon seeing his notes in late '72, those that I read as well, that Gary said that they had to be rewritten. What that turned out as is actually Gary applying his preferred mechanics and changing up some of Dave's as well. That split the two into separate mechanical realms, kinda like the difference between AD&D and 3E mechanics today.</p><p></p><p>Arneson was admittedly a poor typist. He was not bad at generating and organizing ideas--he created the architecture and implemented his own mechanics to play the Blackmoor RPG for 1.5 years and then demo it for us. But he was not a final finisher. However, back to the "pile" of notes, of course with two separate system mechanic views they would appear to be incongruous as the published form was set in stone and orbiting Gary's building mechanics, so many of Arneson's original ways and design attitudes were not compatible with that now budding direction. As such they would not make sense, but asking Arneson about them would have, and to my knowledge that was not done, Tim Kask just considered most of it garbage and used what was there that he would not otherwise follow up on with Arneson to ascertain their previous uses by Arneson,</p><p></p><p>Arneson was not hired, btw, as a designer. His official title was "Research Director". What this meant as described is that he was supposed to continue sourcing games and talent, especially from the Minnesota pool. So, perhaps Gary did not see him as a finisher; I am waiting on some old correspondence which might shed some light on that and his previous dealings with Dave (via Don't Give Up The Ship, Arneson, Gygax and Carr, Guidon Games). Might he have fit into a role as a growing designer, a finisher, if he had been promoted as such rather than closeted to non-design duties? Hard to tell. Probably a lot of ideas, some rough, some needing editing, but considering the leaps he had attained already, perhaps not a bad bet rather than having one's obvious talent neutered considering all of that, especially by an editor who appears today to have had a bias against Arneson, as well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rob Kuntz, post: 7803153, member: 7015759"] Well, his system Mechanics were different than Gary's OD&D mechanics. Recall, if you have followed, that upon seeing his notes in late '72, those that I read as well, that Gary said that they had to be rewritten. What that turned out as is actually Gary applying his preferred mechanics and changing up some of Dave's as well. That split the two into separate mechanical realms, kinda like the difference between AD&D and 3E mechanics today. Arneson was admittedly a poor typist. He was not bad at generating and organizing ideas--he created the architecture and implemented his own mechanics to play the Blackmoor RPG for 1.5 years and then demo it for us. But he was not a final finisher. However, back to the "pile" of notes, of course with two separate system mechanic views they would appear to be incongruous as the published form was set in stone and orbiting Gary's building mechanics, so many of Arneson's original ways and design attitudes were not compatible with that now budding direction. As such they would not make sense, but asking Arneson about them would have, and to my knowledge that was not done, Tim Kask just considered most of it garbage and used what was there that he would not otherwise follow up on with Arneson to ascertain their previous uses by Arneson, Arneson was not hired, btw, as a designer. His official title was "Research Director". What this meant as described is that he was supposed to continue sourcing games and talent, especially from the Minnesota pool. So, perhaps Gary did not see him as a finisher; I am waiting on some old correspondence which might shed some light on that and his previous dealings with Dave (via Don't Give Up The Ship, Arneson, Gygax and Carr, Guidon Games). Might he have fit into a role as a growing designer, a finisher, if he had been promoted as such rather than closeted to non-design duties? Hard to tell. Probably a lot of ideas, some rough, some needing editing, but considering the leaps he had attained already, perhaps not a bad bet rather than having one's obvious talent neutered considering all of that, especially by an editor who appears today to have had a bias against Arneson, as well. [/QUOTE]
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