In 1972 a gaming session that would go down in history ended up launching not one game but three. All three of those games would in turn contribute to three different styles of play that are an integral part of how Dungeons & Dragons is played today.
[h=3]When Gygax Met Arneson and Megarry[/h]It all started in Gary Gygax's basement. This was before Dungeons & Dragons existed, but after the creation of Chainmail. Brad King and John Borland set up the scene in Dungeons & Dreamers:
In Gygax's basement was the legendary sand table set up to demonstrate Chainmail and its fantasy supplement. Of course, Chainmail was just one of the games played at Gygax's house. It had several different components, and each of the visitors brought a piece of what would become D&D with them. These elements are recognizable to players today, but back then it wasn't clear how the different styles of play would gel. Jon Peterson attributes this to the game's success in Playing at the World:
And it all started with Chainmail.
[h=3]Chainmail: The Combat Wargame[/h]Articles post-2016 about the subject of Chainmail's history now must include an important footnote provided by Jon Peterson:
Witwer explains in Empire of Imagination the evolution of Chainmail post Patt:
Chainmail and its Fantasy Supplement includes numerous D&D innovations: 1:1 figure scale; armor categories (later armor classes), and weapon categories; elves, dwarves, and halflings (hobbits); fighters; wizards and their spells: phantasmal force, fireball and lightning bolt, and the alignments of law and chaos.
Chainmail's importance goes beyond its codification of fantasy rules that would pave the way for D&D. It was the first success for Gygax's nascent game company. This level of achievement made Gygax, in his own eyes, a professional. We get some insight to just how Gygax views publication in his book, Master of the Game:
Chainmail would eventually morph into Dungeons & Dragons, but not without a lot of help from some diverse other styles of play.
[h=3]DUNGEON! The Dungeon Exploration Game[/h]King and Borland characterize Megarry's game in Dungeons & Dreamers:
Michael Witwer argues that Dungeons & Dragons actually took its inspiration from an additional Dave in Empire of Imagination:
Wesley's Braunstein inspired Arneson's Blackmoor, which in turn inspired Megarry to create DUNGEON! It was originally based off of The Dungeons of Pasha Kada. Peterson explains:
DUNGEON! turned dungeon exploration into a competitive board game:
DUNGEON!'s legacy to D&D codified the mapping, grid-based concept of exploration:
Arneson took the Gygaxian one-miniature-to-one-figure scale and moved it to the dungeon, but without the baggage of potential mass combat. It was Arneson who brought characters to life with free-form role-play and more attributes to describe each character. Peterson explained the innovations Arneson's Blackmoor contributed to D&D:
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, and communicator. You can follow him at Patreon.
[h=3]When Gygax Met Arneson and Megarry[/h]It all started in Gary Gygax's basement. This was before Dungeons & Dragons existed, but after the creation of Chainmail. Brad King and John Borland set up the scene in Dungeons & Dreamers:
On a cool fall afternoon in 1972, a trio of Minnesotans pulled into Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, a picturesque lakeside town about an hour north of Chicago. They puttered through the four-block downtown, pulling into a driveway just a few streets outside the tiny main street. Two of them, Dave Arneson and Dave Megarry, anxiously rechecked their bags as they emerged from their car. They’d driven across the state in part to show off games they’d made. If they’d forgotten anything, it was too late to go back, but they wanted to make sure all their materials were in order.
In Gygax's basement was the legendary sand table set up to demonstrate Chainmail and its fantasy supplement. Of course, Chainmail was just one of the games played at Gygax's house. It had several different components, and each of the visitors brought a piece of what would become D&D with them. These elements are recognizable to players today, but back then it wasn't clear how the different styles of play would gel. Jon Peterson attributes this to the game's success in Playing at the World:
Another key ingredient in Dungeons & Dragons is dramatic pacing, achieved by transitioning between three different game modes: a mode of exploration, a mode of combat and a mode of logistics. Time flows differently in each of these modes, and by rationing the modes carefully a referee guides the players through satisfying cycles of tension, catharsis and banality that mimic the ebb and flow of powerful events. Although these mechanisms have partial antecedents in the history of wargaming, they appear in Dungeons & Dragons in an attractive and unobvious form, and more importantly they appear together.
And it all started with Chainmail.
[h=3]Chainmail: The Combat Wargame[/h]Articles post-2016 about the subject of Chainmail's history now must include an important footnote provided by Jon Peterson:
Chainmail itself drew on a two-page set of rules developed for a late 1970 game run by the New England Wargamers Association (NEWA), which were designed by one Leonard Patt. Patt’s system shows us the first fantasy game with heroes, dragons, orcs, ents, and wizards who cast fireballs at enemies, though his contribution today goes entirely unacknowledged.
Witwer explains in Empire of Imagination the evolution of Chainmail post Patt:
At over sixty pages, Chainmail was a much expanded and refined version of Gary and Perren’s previous rules set. It provided for greater detail in all aspects of combat and it fundamentally changed some of the miniature pieces’ function, from a multi-entity unit to an individual— a hero. In this respect, the game was cutting edge, as most war or miniatures games of the time recognized the pieces only as groups or battalions, but rarely individuals. This, paired with specific rules that provided the option of using a variety of different weapons and armor, made the game truly unique and gave it a level of individuality and personalization that had rarely been seen. It was a distinct detour in rule-setting for re-creating historical medieval battles. But it was the booklet’s last section that got the attention of many of its earliest users. The Fantasy Supplement, comprising the last fourteen pages of Chainmail, invited users to “refight the epic struggles related by J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, and other fantasy writers; or you can devise your own world.” 7 The supplement provided a very loose framework to introduce magic and Tolkienesque creatures to the Chainmail rules structure. The Chainmail rules set, and its Fantasy Supplement in particular, would prove to be not only popular but foundationally critical to the future development of Dungeons & Dragons.
Chainmail and its Fantasy Supplement includes numerous D&D innovations: 1:1 figure scale; armor categories (later armor classes), and weapon categories; elves, dwarves, and halflings (hobbits); fighters; wizards and their spells: phantasmal force, fireball and lightning bolt, and the alignments of law and chaos.
Chainmail's importance goes beyond its codification of fantasy rules that would pave the way for D&D. It was the first success for Gygax's nascent game company. This level of achievement made Gygax, in his own eyes, a professional. We get some insight to just how Gygax views publication in his book, Master of the Game:
It should be evident that the degree of involvement and mastery developed give a greater reward to the Game Master than to any of the player participants. At the extreme end of that scale of degrees lies the achievement of having a published work, and who but a Master Game Master can have such material published? Commercial publication, of course, is the pinnacle of such success.
Chainmail would eventually morph into Dungeons & Dragons, but not without a lot of help from some diverse other styles of play.
[h=3]DUNGEON! The Dungeon Exploration Game[/h]King and Borland characterize Megarry's game in Dungeons & Dreamers:
They tried Megarry’s game first. The players traversed a board made of graph paper, running into monsters and fighting them with magic spells. “I said, ‘Wow, this is a great adaptation.’ It was Chainmail in a dungeon,” Gygax remembered later.
Michael Witwer argues that Dungeons & Dragons actually took its inspiration from an additional Dave in Empire of Imagination:
In fact, it had been the ideas of three Twin City Daves that had made this work possible: Dave Arneson with Blackmoor, Dave Wesely with his Braunstein campaign, and Dave Megarry, who had inspired Arneson with his dungeon-themed board game, appropriately called DUNGEON!— a game also played with Gary’s group during their November weekend visit to Lake Geneva.
Wesley's Braunstein inspired Arneson's Blackmoor, which in turn inspired Megarry to create DUNGEON! It was originally based off of The Dungeons of Pasha Kada. Peterson explains:
This fragmentation of the Blackmoor campaign even resulted in the invention of an entirely separate and novel game: the underworld component alone inspired “The Dungeons of Pasha Cada” by David R. Megarry ( who played the King of Prussia in the Strategic Campaign), a boardgame which isolates the dungeon exploration mode of Blackmoor. Megarry’s game had a simple victory condition— the accumulation of a certain amount of gold. Players accrued gold from treasure hoards defended by randomly-selected monsters (drawn from decks of cards), with more fearsome adversaries and larger potential rewards lurking in the deepest levels. Each player took on a simple character and made an independent expedition to the dungeon; the first character to reach a preordained revenue target won.
DUNGEON! turned dungeon exploration into a competitive board game:
DUNGEON! combined the dungeon exploration mechanic with the familiarity of a parlor board game and the simplicity of an eight-page rulebook. No longer does a referee carefully guard the secret plans to the dungeon— the dungeon is clearly printed on the board for everyone to see, and no referee governs play. Two ordinary six-sided dice resolve all combat. It is furthermore a competitive game, with concrete victory conditions. Players take turns moving their pieces (Elves, Heroes, Super-heroes or Wizards) through the dungeon attempting to accumulate treasure. The first to acquire a set total of gold pieces wins, but this total varies with the power of the piece, so Elves and Heroes require less than Super-heroes to win, and Wizards need the most of all. As players explore the dungeon and enter rooms, they encounter random monsters who guard random prizes, both drawn like the Community Chest in Monopoly from card decks. The dungeon has six levels, and the farther one descends, the greater the dangers and rewards: the “monster” and “prize” cards are coded by level.
DUNGEON!'s legacy to D&D codified the mapping, grid-based concept of exploration:
The idea that denizens of the dungeon were under referee control, and that player characters had an incentive to slay those antagonists, certainly informed the concept of a collaborative party that appears in Dungeons & Dragons.
[h=3]Blackmoor: The Logistics of Role-Playing [/h]King and Borland pick up the thread:
Arneson went next. A heavyset, spectacled young man a few years younger than Gygax, with a big, mischievous smile, he launched them into something very different. The players had to make characters and give them attributes that would determine how strong or smart they were. Those attributes would help them when they attacked monsters or tried to figure out puzzles in the game. Once the characters were created, the game would begin. The players would act out the characters’ roles as they wandered through the swamps of the haunted Castle Blackmoor, doing their best to stay alive. Arneson would play the godlike role of game master, telling the story of what was happening to the characters at any given moment and letting them decide as a group what to do next.
Arneson took the Gygaxian one-miniature-to-one-figure scale and moved it to the dungeon, but without the baggage of potential mass combat. It was Arneson who brought characters to life with free-form role-play and more attributes to describe each character. Peterson explained the innovations Arneson's Blackmoor contributed to D&D:
Two things particularly captured Gygax’s imagination during that initial exposure: “the idea of measured progression (experience points) and the addition of games taking place in a dungeon maze.” He was also struck by the manner in which Arneson had expanded character descriptions (presumably the abilities grouped under “personality”), the availability of diverse equipment that characters could purchase and the addition of new monsters.
[h=3]AD&Ding it All Up[/h]From Gygax's Chainmail we got much of the structure of D&D -- spells, weapons, and archetypes. From Megarry's DUNGEON! we got dungeon mastering and adventuring parties. And from Arneson's Blackmoor we got levels, individual attributes, experience points, and free-form role-play and dungeon exploration (replicated in turn by Megarry for DUNGEON!). Adding up these three games and their contributors creates a compelling vision of what D&D would become. As Patt's contribution shows, D&D was actually a team effort of several contributors that turned it into the game we know and love today.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, and communicator. You can follow him at Patreon.
