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While writing my book, Slaying the Dragon , I discovered a number of fascinating historical documents hidden from public view until now.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

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Minor nitpick, but I believe Gary went to Hollywood in mid-late 1982. Looking back through Flint Dille's autobiographical book The Gamesmaster: Almost Famous in the Geek '80s, he says that he met Gary for the first time in Anaheim, CA at the end of May, 1982, and that "a few weeks later" Gary wrote him and said he was moving out to California and wanted to know if Dille was interested in writing movies with him. He also mentions joining Gary in looking to pick out the residence that would become the Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment Corporation, where Gary would live while he was out there.

Ugh. I meant to write 1983 in the parenthetical. My recollection was that he moved out in 1983, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

 

[darjr]

I do agree that his stature in the hobby before D&D was large. But it was a tiny hobby. Wouldn’t even fill my local convention. And it was growing hardly at all.

 

[darjr]

The interesting thing to me is if Dave never met Gary would Gary have made a D&D?

I think it’s possible but is it likely that he would have before someone else?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The interesting thing to me is if Dave never met Gary would Gary have made a D&D?

I think it’s possible but is it likely that he would have before someone else?

It's one of those unanswerable counterfactuals.

If I had to guess, I would say the following:

But for Gygax, Arneson would never have done anything with his idea.

However, Gygax wasn't even aware of how this type of game would really "work" until he saw it. Once he experienced it, it clicked (and he zeroed in on some of the key features immediately, such as the "zero-to-hero" aspect). So ... yeah, the first-to-market and evangelizing was key.

All that said, it is abundantly apparent that there were many other people doing similar things before Arneson, and if not D&D, something similar would likely have come along. Reading Elusive Shift really hammered home that the reason D&D took off (before Egbert) was because there was already a market for it- there were people that were thinking along similar lines. Sometime I wonder what might have happened if someone had commercialized a version of En Garde instead.

 

[Mercurius]

Hall of Fame — The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design

www.originsawards.net

Inducted 1980.

Ahh, I see. So the first RPG designer inducted As it should be.

The interesting thing to me is if Dave never met Gary would Gary have made a D&D?

I think it’s possible but is it likely that he would have before someone else?

That's the sort of thing we can never know. I tend to think, though, that good ideas find a way. RPGs would have happened, one way or the other, even if Gary and Dave ran off together to raise sheep in Nunavut in 1973.

More seriously, though, maybe an RPG historian can answer this question, but I can imagine that there were other groups of people doing similar things, in pockets here and there. When D&D came out in 1974, maybe they thought, "Hey, that's like our game of Beasts & Booty!"

EDIT: Snarf answered my question.

 

[Alzrius]

When D&D came out in 1974, maybe they thought, "Hey, that's like our game of Beasts & Booty!"

Just out of curiosity, where can I pick up a copy of Beasts & Booty today?

Asking for a friend.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Just out of curiosity, where can I pick up a copy of Beasts & Booty today?

Asking for a friend.

Game as old as time
Roll dice with some glee
Hanging with your friends
Until the evening ends
Unexpectedly

Just a little change
Small to say the least
Gygax never cared
Arneson? Not prepared ...

Booty and the Beast!

 

[Mercurius]

Just out of curiosity, where can I pick up a copy of Beasts & Booty today?

Asking for a friend.

Not that kind of booty ;-)

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

One of the big things that got me my job in IT was that I could actually write and document things. But heck, I still catch myself making typos here.

I agree. One thing has occurred to me. With people using computers, phones and computers to text, email, write documents etc., even with grammar and spell check I think people are likely to overlook the occasional typo, or poor sentence structure in a professional setting. Regardless there's no excuse for not knowing basic communication skills. I feel bad for people who went to school at any level during the pandemic as I'm assuming their education at the time was either sub-par or non-existent. Those 2-3 years could leave them lacking greatly in the fundamentals.

Funny thing is, there totally was a "Booty and the Beast." Illustrated by Erol Otus of all people:

Booty and the Beasts — A D&D Rarity | Noble Knight Gaming Hall

Peek inside the 1970s D&D rarity: Booty and the Beasts—a sort of whimsical, spiritual predecessor to the Monster Manuals we've come to love!

play.nobleknight.com

It looks like a copy of it will run you about $500.

Just out of curiosity, where can I pick up a copy of Beasts & Booty today?

Asking for a friend.

 

[Yaarel]

If Arneson wasnt the way he was, he would probably never be in a position to invent D&D.