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While writing my book, Slaying the Dragon , I discovered a number of fascinating historical documents hidden from public view until now.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.

 

[Alzrius]

And if I'm going to play a game of Axis & Allies, someone has to play Axis, and it could be me. Without that side, it's just Allies & Allies, which isn't a great wargame.

Well, if you simplify it somewhat, it can be. Just ask Tewligan:

Once a year, I pay a homeless guy $10 to wear a T-shirt with the words "metric system" written on the front. I then chase him up and down the street, beating him furiously with a wiffle bat labelled "The Hard Yard". I top off my celebration of the imperial system's superiority by sitting down to a dinner of a foot-long hot dog and a gallon of milk.

 

[billd91]

When I was a graduate student, people would find out one of my areas of research was prohibition and they would assume I was a teetotaler myself. It was bizarre going to social situations where the alcohol was flowing and nobody would offer me a drink for fear of offending me. I also had a friend who was a graduate student in anthropology studying white supremacist. She was frequently told she shouldn't be studying "those people" or shockingly asked why she would study them.

You get the same sort of thing when studying insurgent groups like the IRA or INLA in Northern Ireland. When you explain why they do something and how some of the things they do follow from their past experiences, you get accused of "justifying" them.

 

[billd91]

Well, if you simplify it somewhat, it can be. Just ask Tewligan:

Jesus Christ! You been remembering that reference since 2002?!?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The ideas that interest in WWII wargames and history can make someone a pro-nazi it really wild to me. Back in my wargaming days, I played German forces plenty of time at the tactical, operational and strategic levels. I've read books by Guderian and Von Manstein. I've always been a nazi hater. The same is true of all the people that were in gaming circle.

Not at all. But that's the point. There are plenty of people, like you, who might play as the German side, or read certain books, and still despise Nazis. But there were also people that got really into it and begin to confuse their love of games with their love of what lies behind it.

And I think, as @billd91 correctly notes, that because a lot of wargaming communities don't do a good job at grappling with the historical horrors ("it's just a game"), it becomes easier for someone to "hide in plain sight."

More simply- in most social circles, if you spend a lot of time talking about how cool Germany was in WW2, there'd be a lot more questions.

 

[Alzrius]

Jesus Christ! You been remembering that reference since 2002?!?

Stuff that makes me laugh tends to stick out in my mind, even decades later.

 

[Parmandur]

Arneson was finishing up his history degree at the University of Minnesota when MAR Barker became chair of the Department of South Asian studies. They likely bonded over history and fantasy literature. I don't know how close the two were. I don't know if MAR Barker would have been comfortable sharing his neo-nazi sympathies with the son of decorated WWII marine who actually fought actual Nazis. Unless evidence surfaces to show that Arneson was aware of MAR Barker's support for neo-nazism and looked the other way, I'm not willing to tar and feather him postmortem.

Absolutely true. But I was responding to "well, it could be worse, he could have been a Nazi like M.A.R. Barker" and that is, like, the worst bright side I could imagine, especially considthst they were friends.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Stuff that makes me laugh tends to stick out in my mind, even decades later.

Wait ... that was decades ago?

Oh ...

 

[Nikosandros]

I dunno, I'm not really convinced. IMO, you don't became a Nazi by playing the Axis in wargames and you don't became a Stalinist by watching Socialist Realism movies or paintings. But I get that some games might gloss over the problematic issues and that some environments can foster a pre-existing predisposition.

 

[MGibster]

A lot of people gloss over the moral implications of the German war machine when looking at it, playing it via war games, or even being fascinated/impressed by some aspects of it - like the training of officers that valued taking initiative, etc. Because it was very good at what it was designed to do - it's just that a significant portion of what it was designed to do was in service of a racist, colonialist government bent on carving out living space from points east by obliterating most of the resident population.

We tend to gloss over the unpleasant aspects of combat in almost every game. I can't remember the last time I was playing Warhammer 40k and my Imperial Knight accidentally fired its plasma cannon into a home obliterating both it and the family sheltering within. In D&D, I don't know if I've ever had an orc crying for his mother as he lay dying in the mud while trying to hold his guts in with his bare hands. And for most war games, I don't really get into the moral implications of the regime my forces are serving. I'll play the Confederates, the Nazis, the Soviets, the Imperium of Man, or the Institute and it doesn't bother me in the least. Heck, in fantasy games where I'm the good guy, I certainly don't worry about little things like representation in government or rock the boat politically because I'm upset I didn't get to elect the king or the archduke.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

It's a mess, to be sure. Writing is a skill, one that needs to be developed for specific forms. A person can be great at writing 500-page novels but terrible at a four verse poem. Same goes for writing professionally. I would imagine that in Arneson's head his letter came across very differently than how it looks to us (and presumably, how it looked to Adkison).

Yeah. You don't talk trash about your former employer when applying for a job, even if everyone knows they were a dumpster fire (which TSR indisputably was). It's like ranting about your ex on the first date... except this is the cover letter, so it's like ranting about your ex in the process of asking for the first date.

(Edit: Just realized Arneson wasn't merely talking trash about TSR--as you note, that "lowly" was directed at his supposed future employer, i.e., Wizards! Dave, man, what were you thinking?)

I just looked at about 20 applications for a position, and nary a cover letter between them.

I dont think employers, or recruiters even want prospective employees even submitting cover letters anymore. I stopped once applying for a job transitioned to all online applications. All the filter software just made it that much harder to get passed them if you submitted a cover letter.