Would D&D or RPGs have been invented without Gygax or Arneson?

[johnsemlak]

When I studied history in college I was taught to be cautious in asking 'what if...' questions, as it's not really history, but here goes...

Let's just suppose that Gygax and Arneson didn't exist. Would D&D or a related RPG have been created? Were RPGs an inevitable step in gaming evolution? Were there factors at the time (1970's) that made RPGs a natural step from wargaming?

 

[Frostmarrow]

In 1980 I was unaware of Gygax and Arneson yet me and my brother used to over-develop boardgames to a point not far from RPGs. I'm not special - my guess is that most of the people here have a similar story. Therefore I think RPGs still would have been invented but it might not have become so widespread without Gygax and Arneson.

 

[Dirigible]

Would the aeroplane have been invented without the Wrights? Yes.

Would the atom have been split wihtout Rutherford? Yes.

Would the Allies have won WWII if those evil lizard aliens hadn't landed? Yes.

 

[MonsterMash]

Undoubtedly yes RPGs would have been created. Miniatures gamers were already doing games with one mini = one real person and independently of Gygax and Arneson they were starting to add rules that defined the characteristics.

Would they have been as successful? Very tricky question.

 

[Ottergame]

I doubt little would be different today, though obviously D&D would not be where it is today.

TSR did a lot to discourage other gaming companies from devolping competeing RPG systems in the early 80's, so without THAT RPG gaming might be more popular and mainstream, who knows?

 

[diaglo]

Let's just suppose that Gygax and Arneson didn't exist. Would D&D or a related RPG have been created? Were RPGs an inevitable step in gaming evolution? Were there factors at the time (1970's) that made RPGs a natural step from wargaming?

books on fantasy had existed for years. the Hobbit for example was written before WWII.

Alice in Wonderland, too.

flash forward a few more years...to the 60's.

if we look at the politics of the time....and the wars...particularly the Cold War...you will see there was much activity by strategy minded individuals. wargamers in particular.

"i want to be the soviets" "i want to be the US"

and who gets to drop the first nuke.

and then you have the 70's.


and then the 80's

"Shall we play a game?"

from Joshua

 

[Stalker0]

yeah it probably would have come about. Although games would probably look very different today without gygax.... and as others have said their success would probably be different

 

[am181d]

There are certain very specific ideas that may never have been developed without these guys. Polyhedron dice, for instance. Gygax just happened to see these at some point and think, "Hey, these would be good for my game." Since the last time 20-sided dice were popular was apparently 2000+ years ago, I can't imagine someone else just stumbling onto that...

 

[Arnwyn]

In 1980 I was unaware of Gygax and Arneson yet me and my brother used to over-develop boardgames to a point not far from RPGs.

Yeppers - that's exactly the same thing that happened with a friend and I. We had never heard of D&D, but we did the same thing with boardgames (and a "maze" we did for a Grade 7 art project).

 

[Henry]

According to sources I've seen based on similar threads on rpg.net and Dragonsfoot, then it's likely Marc Miller would be hailed as the father of Roleplaying Games, and the gaming scene would be very different.

Truth is, there's no way to know for sure what the RPG scene would look like without Gygax and Arneson, and their interactions in the 70's and 80's, but it would likely exist.