David R. Megarry is a
game designer
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...
most notable for the board game ''
Dungeon!
''Dungeon!'' is an adventure board game designed by David R. Megarry and first released by TSR, Inc. in 1975. Additional contributions through multiple editions were made by Gary Gygax, Steve Winter, Jeff Grubb, Chris Dupuis and Michael Gray. ...
''.
Career
Early gaming and Blackmoor
Dave Megarry was a member of the
Midwest Military Simulation Association The Midwest Military Simulation Association (MMSA) is a group of wargamers and military figurine collectors active during the late 1960s and 1970s.
History
When wargaming was in its heyday and role-playing games were first developed, the group live ...
(MMSA), along with
Dave Arneson
David Lance Arneson (; October 1, 1947Minnesota Department of Health. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002'' atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. – April 7, 2009) was an American game designer best known ...
,
David Wesely
David Wesely (born 1945) is a wargamer, board game designer, and video game developer. Wesely's developments, inspired by ''Kriegsspiel'' wargames, were important and influential in the early history of role-playing games.
Early life and educ ...
, Ken Fletcher,
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
and
Richard Snider and others. Jon Peterson identifies Megarry as playing the King of Prussia in their Napoleonic wargames campaigns.
Megarry was also a member of Dave Arneson's original
Twin Cities
Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...
Blackmoor
Blackmore is a village in Essex, England.
Blackmore or Blackmoor may also refer to:
* Blackmore (name), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
* Blackmoor, Hampshire, a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England
...
group.
Megarry has brought to light Blackmoor gaming materials used in the early days of the game. These include regional maps, dungeon maps, and character matrices. The Blackmoor character matrices start in 1971, and cover approximately 20 characters played over time. The various attributes include Brains, Leadership, Courage, Health, Woodcraft, Horsemanship, Sailing, etc. They also include some history about each character, including the character's death. Megarry has described the character sheets as a "moving history."
Development of ''Dungeon!''
Megarry designed a board game (which would ultimately be called ''
Dungeon!
''Dungeon!'' is an adventure board game designed by David R. Megarry and first released by TSR, Inc. in 1975. Additional contributions through multiple editions were made by Gary Gygax, Steve Winter, Jeff Grubb, Chris Dupuis and Michael Gray. ...
'') where players explored a dungeon on a singular basis, a game that was inspired by
Braunstein playing sessions with Arneson.
Jon Peterson traces the development of ''Dungeon!'' to a short Blackmoor campaign hiatus in 1972, which resulted in other players running their own games, such as Greg Svenson, Pete Gaylord, and John Snider. Dave Megarry took the underworld component of Blackmoor and turned it into a dungeon exploration board game with randomly-selected monsters and treasure. One early version of this game was called ''The Dungeons of Pasha Cada.''
The earliest prototype dungeon board was preserved by Megarry, but the instructions are missing. The earliest complete version of ''The Dungeons of Pasha Cada'' was preserved by a friend who received a hand-made copy in 1973. This early version of the game includes 30 monsters, and the player characters are the standard Hero, Superhero, Wizard, and Elf.
Some sources link the ''Dungeon!'' combat results table to ''Table T'', in
Charles Totten's 1880 book on military wargaming, ''
Strategos
''Strategos'', plural ''strategoi'', Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized ''strategus'', ( el, στρατηγός, pl. στρατηγοί; Doric Greek: στραταγός, ''stratagos''; meaning "army leader") is used in Greek language, Greek to ...
'', which was widely read and used by MMSA members.
''Table T'' was commonly implemented in Twin Cities Strategos-based games such as ''Strategos N''.
Publication of ''Dungeon!''
After developing the game, Megarry contacted
Parker Brothers
Parker Brothers (known by Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products wer ...
to see if they had interest in the game, but received a rejection letter.
Also in 1972,
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson.
In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...
expressed an interest in Blackmoor and the dungeon board game, and invited Arneson and Megarry to
Lake Geneva
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, caption = Satellite image
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, location = Switzerland, France
, coords =
, lake_type = Glacial lak ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, to demonstrate their games. According to Jon Peterson, this was likely done with the understanding that this could lead to eventual publication by
Guidon Games
Guidon Games produced board games and rulebooks for wargaming with miniature wargaming, miniatures, and in doing so influenced Tactical Studies Rules (later TSR, Inc.), the publisher of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The ''Guidon Games'' publishing imp ...
.
In November 1972, Dave Arneson and Dave Megarry traveled to Lake Geneva to meet with
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson.
In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...
, to provide a demonstration of their games. While meeting at Gygax's house, Dave Arneson ran the Lake Geneva gamers through their first session of Blackmoor.
Rob Kuntz describes Dave Arneson as the referee, and the Lake Geneva players as being Gary Gygax, Ernie Gygax,
Terry Kuntz
Theron O. Kuntz (born December 25, 1953, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin) is a game designer who was an early associate of Gary Gygax and employee of TSR.
Biography
Kuntz was born in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin on December 25, 1953. His family moved to ...
, and himself. Kuntz describes Dave Megarry as the de facto leader of the group, as he understood the Blackmoor game and campaign world. In ''Wargaming'' magazine, Rob Kuntz wrote a short summary of their first Blackmoor session:
After Megarry showed his board game to Gygax, they continued to correspond about it. In 1973 they presented ''The Dungeons of Pasha Cada'' to various manufacturers, including
Don Lowry
Don Lowry is a wargamer, businessman, illustrator, and game designer who is best known as the publisher of ''Chainmail'' and the editor of ''Panzerfaust Magazine''.
Lowry was active in the International Federation of Wargaming in the late 1960s ...
of Guidon Games. Lowry was concerned that the dungeon maps would be too expensive to print.
The game would eventually be published by
TSR Hobbies as ''Dungeon!'' in 1975.
Work at TSR
Dave Megarry was hired by TSR in 1975, the same year they published his ''Dungeon!'' board game.
Megarry called Bill Owen of
Judges Guild
Judges Guild is a game publisher that has been active since 1976. The company created and sold many role-playing game supplements, periodicals and related materials, but became best known during the late 1970s and early 1980s as one of the leadin ...
to negotiate a formal license from September 4 – November 22, 1976; this agreement required Judges Guild to pay a royalty to TSR for the right to place text on the cover of most products saying "Approved for use with Dungeons & Dragons".
Arneson left TSR in 1976 over creative differences, and Megarry left around the same time.
Influence
''
Knucklebones
Knucklebones, also known as scatter jacks, snobs, astragalus, tali, dibs, fivestones, jacks, or jackstones, among many other names, is a game of dexterity played with a number of small objects that are thrown up, caught, and manipulated in var ...
'' magazine identified Megarry's ''Dungeon!'' as the first game in the genre of
adventure board game
An adventure board game is a board game in which a player plays as a unique individual character that improves through gameplay. This improvement is commonly reflected in terms of increasing character attributes, but also in receiving new abilitie ...
s.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Megarry, David
American game designers
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)