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 Dragon -- discovered Arneson's letter to Adkison while researching his history of D&D.

Newly Discovered Letters Reveal D&D's Co-Creator Asked to be put in Charge of D&D in 1997 and it Did Not Go Well — Ben Riggs

While writing my book, Slaying the Dragon , I discovered a number of fascinating historical documents hidden from public view until now. Over the coming months, I’m going to be sharing some of these captivating documents with you. The first is a 1997 letter from D&D co-creator Dave Ar

www.writerbenriggs.com

The letter was full of typos -- Arneson even got Adkison's name wrong! According to Riggs, Adkison did not reply, and Arneson wrote to him a second time.

 

[darjr]

Rob Kuntz is putting together something that is to be a detailed description of that first game with him and Dave and Gary.

 

[Blue]

You might be right, but I've always wondered how much Gygax was helped by a name that sounded like a D&D character.

Or is it the other way around? D&D character names sound like they do because his name was Gygax.

 

[darjr]

Oh, here it is!

The Game That Changed Everything

This monograph by Robert J. Kuntz is a 12 page, full color, glossy booklet, with full color art and figures. It lavishly recalls and details the event that led to the creation of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® in the early 1970s. In November, 1972 a meeting between two creative geniuses to play a simple...

www.tlbgames.com

 

[Rhineglade]

Geesh that is painful to read. The term "professional" has so many different levels it would seem. It's amazing how TSR went through so many grade school level dramas. They basically dug their own grave. It was the consumer that suffered the most.

 

[David Howery]

Retrospective: Adventures in Fantasy

Although his name will forever be linked with that of Gary Gygax as one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons , one must not forget that ...

grognardia.blogspot.com

okay, that game sounds.... not that good. Yeah, whatever EGG's faults, his idea of D&D was a better one...

 

[Alzrius]

And I think that there was a higher tolerance for people who ... admired (is that the preferred word) the Axis in WW2 among the wargaming set than there was in the general population.

Have you ever read Mark Barrowcliffe's The Elfish Gene? He mentions the following scenario from when he got into D&D back in the mid-70s:

On the night I discovered D&D, I was at the wargames club fighting the battle of Stalingrad. I was competing against a fourth-year, Kevin Gerling, who was being the Nazis.

Gerling was always the Nazis, for the very good reason that Gerling was a Nazi. This isn't some trendy lefty insult for someone whose politics are a little bit blue, it's an accurate and impartial description. In fact, it was Gerling's description. At fourteen years old he believed in the extermination of the Jews, thought the overwhelmingly white school should address its 'race problem' and had proposed, in a letter to the headmaster, that the older pupils should be allowed to wear SS insignia 'to encourage respect'.

The headmaster had responded, as he did to almost any pupil who came to his attention, by caning him – not for the suggestion but because Kevin had his top button undone when he was summoned to explain himself.

'Console yourself, you'd have got a lot worse if you'd turned up like that in front of Himmler,' said the head to the sobbing youth.

For what it's worth, by the end of the book, he says that Gerling had grown out of it, and was rather embarrassed to be reminded of how he'd acted when he was younger.

 

[Alzrius]

Oh, is this it? $15 for 12 pages.

The Game That Changed Everything

This monograph by Robert J. Kuntz is a 12 page, full color, glossy booklet, with full color art and figures. It lavishly recalls and details the event that led to the creation of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® in the early 1970s. In November, 1972 a meeting between two creative geniuses to play a simple...

www.tlbgames.com

Personally speaking, I found it worthwhile. I make sure to pick up a copy of everything that Rob Kuntz puts out with regard to the history of the hobby. His tribute to Don Kaye was very heartfelt, I thought.

Merlynd the Magician

by Robert J. Kuntz Published by Three Line Studio, December, 2019. 28 pages, book dimensions 8.5" x11", saddle-stitched, printed on 60# laser white smooth paper, 80# semi-gloss cover stock, full-color cover. Includes illustrations & maps. The Full Product Includes: Three (3) full color and...

www.tlbgames.com

 

[Von Ether]

Geesh that is painful to read. The term "professional" has so many different levels it would seem. It's amazing how TSR went through so many grade school level dramas. They basically dug their own grave. It was the consumer that suffered that most.

Sadly, it seems to be a mistake the industry keeps repeating to point that if someone says a product is "For gamers, by gamers," I see red flags, instead of a plucky startup.

 

[John R Davis]

Do we know the date in November 72 ( as that is a 50th anniversary to celebrate!)

 

[darjr]

Do we know the date in November 72 ( as that is a 50th anniversary to celebrate!)

I dunno, or from the date of first box set publication?

Oh you don’t mean D&D but the idea. OK