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 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 ...

best known for co-developing the first published

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...

(RPG), ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

'', 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 ...

, in the early 1970s. Arneson's early work was fundamental to the development of the genre, developing the concept of the RPG using devices now considered to be archetypical, such as adventuring in "dungeons" and using a neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all characters aside from the

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

s to develop the storyline. Arneson discovered wargaming as a teenager in the 1960s, and he began combining these games with the concept of

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...

. He was a

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

student when he met Gygax at the

Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playin ...

gaming convention in the late 1960s. In 1970 Arneson created the game and fictional world that became ''

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 ...

'', writing his own rules and basing the setting on

medieval fantasy Historical fantasy is a category of fantasy and genre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements (such as magic) into a more "realistic" narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy; those classed as Arthu ...

elements. Arneson showed the game to Gygax the following year, and the pair co-developed a set of rules that became ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Gygax subsequently founded TSR, Inc. to publish the game in 1974. Arneson worked briefly for the company. Arneson left TSR in 1976, and he filed suit in 1979 to retain credits and royalties on the game. He continued to work as an independent game designer, including work submitted to TSR in the 1980s, and continued to play games for his entire life. Arneson also did some work in computer programming, and he taught computer game design and game rules design at

Full Sail University Full Sail University is a private for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts. The school moved to Florida in 1980 and began ...

from the 1990s until shortly before his death in 2009.

Experience with miniature wargaming

Arneson's role-playing game design work grew from his interest in wargames. His parents bought him the

board wargame A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board, as opposed to being played on a computer or in a more free-form playing area as in miniatures games. The modern, commercial wargaming hobby (as distinct from military exercises, o ...

'' Gettysburg'' by

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company' ...

. After Arneson taught his friends how to play, the group began to design their own games, and tried out new ways to play existing games. Arneson was especially fond of naval wargames. Exposure to

influenced his later game designs. In college history classes he role-played historical events and preferred to deviate from recorded history in a manner similar to "what if" scenarios recreated in wargames. In the late 1960s Arneson joined 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), a group of miniature wargamers and military figurine collectors in the

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origin ...

St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

area that included among its ranks future game designer

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 educat ...

. Wesely asserts that it was during the ''

Braunstein Braunstein (german: brown stone) is a German surname. Notable people with the name include: * Alexander E. Braunstein (1902–1986), Soviet biochemist * Edward Braunstein (born 1981), American politician * Guy Braunstein (born 1971), Israeli-Americ ...

'' games he created and refereed, and in which other MMSA members participated, that Arneson helped develop the foundations of modern role-playing games on a 1:1 scale basis by focusing on non-combat objectives—a step away from wargaming towards the more individual play and varied challenges of later RPGs. Arneson was a participant in Wesely's wargame scenarios and, as Arneson continued to run his own scenarios, he eventually expanded them to include ideas from ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...

'' and ''

Dark Shadows ''Dark Shadows'' is an American gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinspo ...

''. Arneson took over the Braunsteins when Wesely was drafted into the Army, and he often ran them in different eras with different settings. Arneson had also become a member of the

International Federation of Wargamers The International Federation of Wargaming (IFW) was a wargaming club operated from 1967 to early 1970s. Formation Founded by Bill Speer, Gary Gygax, and Scott Duncan in 1967, it emerged as a successor to an earlier club called the United States C ...

by this time. In 1969 Arneson was a history student at the

and working part-time as a security guard. He attended the second

gaming convention A gaming convention is a gathering centered on role-playing games, collectible card games, miniatures wargames, board games, video games, or other types of games. These conventions are typically two or three days long, and often held at either a ...

in August 1969 (at which time wargaming was still the primary focus) and it was at this event that he met

, who had founded the

Castle & Crusade Society The Castle & Crusade Society was a chapter of the International Federation of Wargaming dedicated to medieval miniature wargaming. Formation It was formed by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz in 1970. Its starting membership included Gary Gygax, Rob Kunt ...

within the International Federation of Wargamers in the 1960s at

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Lake Geneva is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located in Walworth County and situated on Geneva Lake, it is home to an estimated 8,105 people as of 2019, up from 7,651 at the 2010 census. It is located about 40 miles southwest of Mil ...

. Arneson and Gygax also shared an interest in sailing ship games and they co-authored the '' Don't Give Up the Ship'' naval battle rules, serialized from June 1971 and later published as a single volume in 1972 by

Guidon Games Guidon Games produced board games and rulebooks for wargaming with miniatures, and in doing so influenced Tactical Studies Rules (later TSR, Inc.), the publisher of '' Dungeons & Dragons''. The ''Guidon Games'' publishing imprint was the prope ...

with a revised edition by TSR, Inc. in 1975.

Blackmoor

Following the departure of David Wesely to service in the Army Reserves in October 1970, Arneson and his fellow players in the

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 sta ...

began to imagine alternate settings for "Braunstein" games. Arneson developed a Braunstein in which his players played fantasy versions of themselves in the medieval Barony of Blackmoor, a land inhabited in part by fantastic monsters. As the game quickly grew and characters developed, Arneson devised scenarios where they would quest for magic and gold, escort caravans, lead armies for or against the forces of evil, and delve into the dungeons beneath Castle Blackmoor (which was represented by a Kibri kit model of Branzoll Castle). To explain his inspiration for the game, Arneson said: Arneson drew heavily upon the fantasy material in the ''

Chainmail Chain mail (properly called mail or maille but usually called chain mail or chainmail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common military use between the 3rd century BC and ...

'' rules, written by Gygax and Jeff Perren and published in the spring of 1971, but after a short and unsatisfactory trial of the Fantasy Combat table found therein, he developed his own mix of rules, including adapted elements from his revision of Civil War Ironclad game. The

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pl ...

would be recognizable to modern ''D&D'' players, featuring the use of

hit point Health is an attribute in a video game or tabletop game that determines the maximum amount of damage or loss of stamina that a character or object can take before dying or losing consciousness. In role-playing games, this typically takes the f ...

armor class Health is an attribute in a video game or tabletop game that determines the maximum amount of damage or loss of stamina that a character or object can take before dying or losing consciousness. In role-playing games, this typically takes the for ...

, character development, and

dungeon crawl A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a " dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video games a ...

s. This setting was fleshed out over time and continues to be played to the present day. Much of the fantasy medieval trope of ''D&D'', such as the concept of adventuring in "dungeons" originated with ''Blackmoor'', but it also incorporated time travel and science fiction elements. These are visible much later in the DA module series published by TSR (particularly ''City of the Gods''), but were also present from the early to mid-1970s in the original campaign and parallel and intertwined games run by

John Snider 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 * Second E ...

, whose ruleset developed from these adventures and was intended for publication by TSR from 1974 as the first science fiction RPG. Arneson described ''Blackmoor'' as "roleplaying in a non-traditional medieval setting. I have such things as steam power, gunpowder, and submarines in limited numbers. There was even a tank running around for a while. The emphasis is on the story and the roleplaying." Details of ''Blackmoor'' and the original campaign, established on the map of the

's "Great Kingdom", were first brought to print briefly in issue #13 of the ''Domesday Book'', the newsletter of the

in July 1972, and later in much-expanded form as ''

The First Fantasy Campaign ''The First Fantasy Campaign'' is a supplement for fantasy role-playing games written by Dave Arneson and published by Judges Guild in 1977. Description Dave Arneson created a new type of game in 1970, something he called "Blackmoor". After he d ...

'', published by

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 ...

in 1977. In November 1972, Dave Arneson and Dave Megarry traveled to Lake Geneva to meet with Gary Gygax, to provide a demonstration of ''Blackmoor'' and ''

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. ...

'' 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, 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:

''Dungeons & Dragons''

After playing in the ''Blackmoor'' game Arneson refereed, Gygax almost immediately began a similar campaign of his own, which he called " Greyhawk", and asked Arneson for a draft of his playing-rules. The two then collaborated by phone and mail, and playtesting was carried out by their various groups and other contacts. Gygax and Arneson wanted to have the game published, but

and

rejected it. Arneson could not afford to invest in the venture. Gygax felt that there was a need to publish the game as soon as possible, since similar projects were being planned elsewhere, so rules were hastily put together, and Arneson's own final draft was never used. Despite all this,

Brian Blume Brian John Blume (January 12, 1950 – March 27, 2020) was an American game designer and writer, principally known as a former business partner of Gary Gygax at TSR, Inc., original publishers of the fantasy role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragon ...

eventually provided the funding required to publish the original ''Dungeons & Dragons'' set in 1974, with the initial print run of 1,000 selling out within a year and sales increasing rapidly in subsequent years. Further rules and a sample dungeon from Arneson's original campaign (the first published RPG scenario in a professional publication) were released in 1975 in the ''

'' supplement for ''D&D'', named after the campaign-setting. ''Blackmoor'' included new classes for

monks A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedic ...

and

assassins An assassin is a person who commits targeted murder. Assassin may also refer to: Origin of term * Someone belonging to the medieval Persian Ismaili order of Assassins Animals and insects * Assassin bugs, a genus in the family ''Reduviid ...

, more monsters, and "The Temple of the Frog", the first published RPG adventure for other people to run. Arneson formally joined TSR as their Director of Research at the beginning of 1976, but left at the end of the year to pursue a career as an independent game-designer.

After TSR

In 1977, despite the fact that he was no longer at TSR, Arneson published ''Dungeonmaster's Index'', a 38-page booklet that indexed all of TSR's ''D&D'' properties to that point in time. TSR had agreed to pay Arneson royalties on all ''D&D'' products, but when the company came out with ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' (''AD&D'') in 1977, it claimed that ''AD&D'' was a significantly different product and so did not pay him royalties for it. In response, Arneson filed the first of five lawsuits against Gygax and TSR in 1979. In March 1981, as part of a confidential agreement, Arneson and Gygax resolved the suits out of court by agreeing that they would both be credited as "co-creators" on the packaging of ''D&D'' products from that point on, and Arneson would receive a 2.5% royalty on all ''AD&D'' products. This provided him with a comfortable six-figure annual income for the next twenty years. This did not end the lingering tensions between them.

Continuation of Blackmoor

Arneson wrote up the Blackmoor setting for

in ''

'' (1977). In 1979 Arneson and Richard L. Snider, an original ''Blackmoor'' player, co-authored '' Adventures in Fantasy'', a role-playing game that attempted to recapture the "original spirit of the Role Playing Fantasy Game" that Arneson had envisioned in the early 1970s, instead of what ''D&D'' had become. In the early 1980s he established his own game company,

Adventure Games An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

– staffed largely by Arneson's friends, most of whom were also members of a Civil War reenactment group – that produced the

miniatures game Miniatures games are a form of tabletop game which prominently features the use of miniature models or figures. War games One of the oldest and most popular miniatures game genres is that of war games, where figures are arranged into competing ...

s ''Harpoon'' (1981) and ''

Johnny Reb Johnny Reb is the national personification of the common soldier of the Confederacy. During the American Civil War and afterwards, Johnny Reb and his Union counterpart Billy Yank were used in speech and literature to symbolize the common sol ...

'' (1983), as well as a new edition of his own ''Adventures in Fantasy'' role-playing game (1981). The company also put out about a half-dozen

Tékumel ''Tékumel'' is a fantasy world created by American linguist and writer M. A. R. Barker over the course of several decades from around 1940. In this imaginary world, huge, tradition-bound empires with medieval levels of technology vie for control ...

related books, due to Arneson's friendship with

M. A. R. Barker Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker (born Phillip Barker, November 3, 1929 – March 16, 2012) was an American linguist who was professor of Urdu and South Asian Studies and created one of the first roleplaying games, ''Empire of the Petal Throne' ...

. Adventure Games was profitable, but Arneson found the workload to be excessive and finally sold the company to

Flying Buffalo Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a game company with a line of role playing games, card games, and other gaming materials. The company's founder, Rick Loomis, began game publishing with ''Nuclear Destruction'', a play-by-mail game which started the pr ...

. (Alternative URL

) Flying Buffalo picked up the rights to Adventure Games in 1985; because Arneson owned a portion of Flying Buffalo, he let them take care of the rest of the company's stock and IP when he shut the company down. While Gary Gygax was president of TSR in the mid-1980s, he and Arneson reconnected, and Arneson briefly relinked ''Blackmoor'' to ''D&D'' with the DA module series, "DA" (Dave Arneson) series of modules set in Blackmoor (1986–1987). The four modules, three of which were written by Arneson, detailed Arneson's campaign setting for the first time. When Gygax was forced out of TSR, Arneson's projects were dropped from the company before a planned fifth module could be published. Gygax and Arneson again went their separate ways. In 1986 Arneson wrote a new ''D&D'' module set in Blackmoor called "The Garbage Pits of Despair", which was published in two parts in ''

Different Worlds ''Different Worlds'' was an American role-playing games magazine published from 1979 to 1987. Scope ''Different Worlds'' published support articles, scenarios, and variants for various role-playing games including ''Dungeons & Dragons'', ''Rune ...

'' magazine issues #42 and #43. Arneson and Dustin Clingman founded Zeitgeist Games to produce an updated d20 System version of the ''Blackmoor'' setting.

Goodman Games Goodman Games is an American game publisher best known for the ''Dungeon Crawl Classics'' series of adventure modules and role-playing game, the ''Dragonmech'' role-playing game, and the ''Etherscope'' role-playing games. The company produced l ...

published and distributed ''Dave Arneson's Blackmoor'' in 2004, and Goodman produced a few more Blackmoor products in the next year. Code Monkey Publishing released ''Dave Arneson's Blackmoor: The First Campaign'' (2009) for 4th edition ''D&D''.

Computer programming and education

In 1988 Arneson stated his belief that RPGs, whether paper or computer, were still "hack and slash" and did not teach novices how to play, and that games like '' Ultima IV'' "have stood pretty much alone as quirks instead of trend setters" as others did not follow their innovations. He hoped that computer RPGs would teach newcomers how to role play while offering interesting campaigns and said that SSI's Gold Box games did not innovate on the genre as much as he had hoped. Arneson stepped into the computer industry and founded 4D Interactive Systems, a computer company in Minnesota that has since dissolved. He also did some computer programming and worked on several games. He eventually found himself consulting with computer companies. Arneson wrote the 1989 adventure '' DNA / DOA'', the first adventure published for the

FASA Fasa ( fa, فسا, Fasā, also Romanized as Fassa) is a city and capital of Fasa County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 110,825, in 33,379 families. Fasa is the fourth most populous city of the province. The city date ...

fantasy/cyberpunk game ''

Shadowrun ''Shadowrun'' is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game set in an alternate future in which cybernetics, magic in fiction, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime fiction, crime, with ...

'', which was released the same year. Living in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in the late 1980s, Arneson had a chance to work with

special education Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

children. Upon returning to Minnesota, he pursued teaching and began speaking at schools about educational uses of role-playing and using multi-sided dice to teach math. In the 1990s he began working at Full Sail, a private university that teaches multimedia subjects, and continued there as an instructor of computer game design until 2008. At Full Sail University he taught the class "Rules of the Game", a class in which students learned how to accurately document and create rule sets for games that were balanced between mental challenges for the players and "physical" ones for the characters. He retired from the position on June 19, 2008.

Other RPG involvements

Arneson continued to play games his entire life, including ''D&D'' and military miniature games, and regularly attended an annual meeting to play the original ''Blackmoor'' in Minnesota. Arneson wrote for ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly throug ...

'' magazine in the 1980s and early 1990s. He wrote columns on his opinion of the

genre and reviews of computer games such as ''

Romance of the Three Kingdoms ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' () is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 184 AD ...

'' (1985), ''

Zork Zero ''Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz'' is an interactive fiction computer game, written by Steve Meretzky over nearly 18 months and published by Infocom in 1988. Although it is the ninth and last ''Zork'' game released by Infocom before the company ...

'' (1988), '' Citadel: Adventure of the Crystal Keep'' (1989), ''

Uncharted Waters ''Uncharted Waters'' (originally released as , "Great Age of Sailing") is a Japanese video game series produced by Koei under its " Rekoeition" brand. It is a simulation and role-playing video game series dealing with sailing and trading, themed a ...

'' (1990), and '' Renegade Legion: Interceptor'' (1990). During the 1990s, he was invited to Brazil by Devir, a game publisher. He became friends with the owner of the publishing company and he gave him his D&D woodgrain box and some of his books as a gift. In 1997, after

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidia ...

purchased TSR,

Peter Adkison Peter D. Adkison is an American game designer and businessman who is the founder and first CEO of Wizards of the Coast (1993–2001). During Adkison's tenure, Wizards of the Coast rose to the status of a major publisher in the hobby game indust ...

paid Arneson an undisclosed sum to free up ''D&D'' from royalties owed to Arneson; this allowed Wizards to retitle ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' to simply ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Around 2000, Arneson was working with

videographer Videography is the process of capturing moving images on electronic media (e.g., videotape, direct to disk recording, or solid state storage) and even streaming media. The term includes methods of video production and post-production. It ...

John Kentner on ''Dragons in the Basement'' (unreleased), a video documentary on the early history of role-playing games. Arneson describes the documentary: "Basically it is a series of interviews with original players ('How did ''D&D'' affect your life?') and original RPG designers like Marc Miller (''Traveller'') and M.A.R. Barker (''

Empire of the Petal Throne ''Empire of the Petal Throne'' is a fantasy role-playing game designed by M. A. R. Barker, based on his Tékumel fictional universe. It was self-published in 1974, then published by TSR, Inc. in 1975. It was one of the first tabletop role-pl ...

'')." He also made a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

in the ''

'' movie as one of many mages throwing fireballs at a

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted a ...

, although the scene was deleted from the completed movie.

Personal life

Arneson married Frankie Ann Morneau in 1984; they had one daughter, Malia, and two grandchildren. Arneson died on April 7, 2009, after battling cancer for two years. According to his daughter, Malia Weinhagen, "The biggest thing about my dad's world is he wanted people to have fun in life."

Honors and tributes

Arneson received numerous industry awards for his part in creating ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and other role-playing games. In 1984 he was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design's Hall of Fame (also known as the

Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame The Charles S. Roberts Awards Hall of Fame, formally known as the Clausewitz Award Hall of Fame, is named after legendary military writer Carl von Clausewitz. The recipients of this award have made an important contribution and left their mark on t ...

) and in 1999 was named by ''

Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...

'' magazine as one of ''The Millennium's Most Influential Persons'', "at least in the realm of adventure gaming". He was honored as a "famous game designer" by being featured on the king of hearts in Flying Buffalo's 2008 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck. Three days after his death,

temporarily replaced the front page of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' section of their web site with a tribute to Arneson. Other tributes in the gaming world included ''

Order of the Stick ''The Order of the Stick'' (''OOTS'') is a comedic webcomic that satirizes tabletop role-playing games and medieval fantasy. The comic is written and drawn by Rich Burlew, who illustrates the comic in a stick figure style. Taking place in a mag ...

'' #644, and ''

Dork Tower ''Dork Tower'' is an online comic created, written and drawn by John Kovalic. It chronicles the lives of a group of geeks living in the fictional town of Mud Bay, Wisconsin. Mud Bay's design is strongly influenced by the author's home town of M ...

'' for April 8, 2009. Video game publisher

Activision Blizzard Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Viven ...

posted a tribute to Arneson on their website and on April 14, 2009, released patch 3.1 of the online role-playing game ''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...

'', ''The Secrets of Ulduar'', dedicated to Arneson. Turbine's '' Dungeons and Dragons Online'' added an in-game memorial altar to Arneson in the Ruins of Threnal location in the game. They also created an in-game item named the "Mantle of the Worldshaper" that is a reward for finishing the Threnal quest chain that is narrated by Arneson himself. The Mantle's description reads: "A comforting and inspiring presence surrounds you as you hold this cloak. Arcane runes run along the edges of the fine cape, and masterfully drawn on the silken lining is an incredibly detailed map of a place named 'Blackmoor'." On October 30, 2010,

dedicated the student game development studio space as "Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Studios" in Arneson's honor. Since the release of the history of Braunstein in 2008 and ''Playing at the World'' in 2012, a scholarly work by Jon Petersen, the role of Dave Wesely and Dave Arneson was restored in the broad conversation on the origins of the tabletop role-playing games. Robert Kuntz published ''Dave Arneson's True Genius'' in 2017 and gave interviews to Kotaku to detail how the gameplay of the current tabletop role-playing games was designed by Arneson. In 2019, the documentary ''The Secrets of Blackmoor'' presented interviews of the first players of Dave Arneson and acknowledged his innovations.

Partial bibliography

Source: * ''

Don't Give Up the Ship! ''Don't Give Up the Ship'' is a set of rules for conducting Napoleonic era naval wargames. The game was published by Guidon Games in 1972 and republished by TSR, Inc. in 1975. The game was developed as a collaboration between Dave Arneson, Gary ...

'' (1972) (with

and Mike Carr) * ''

'' (1974) (with Gary Gygax) * ''

'' (1975) * ''Dungeonmaster's Index'' (1977) * ''

'' (1977) * ''Adventures in Fantasy'' (1979) (with Richard L. Snider) * '' Robert Asprin's Thieves' World'' (1981) (co-author) * ''Citybook II – Port o' Call'' (1984) (co-author) * '' Adventures in Blackmoor (D&D Module:DA1)'' (1986) (with David J. Ritchie) * '' Temple of the Frog (D&D Module:DA2)'' (1986) (with David J. Ritchie) * '' City of the Gods (D&D Module:DA3)'' (1987) (with David J. Ritchie) * '' DNA/DOA'' (''

'' module 1) (1989) * ''The Case of the Pacific Clipper'' (1991) * ''The Haunted Lighthouse ( Dungeon Crawl Classics Module #3.5)'' (2003) * ''Dave Arneson's Blackmoor'' (2004) (lead designer) * ''Player's Guide to Blackmoor'' (2006)

References

External links

* of Dave Arneson. *
Dave Arneson Interview
by at ''Digital Entertainment News''. *

by Andrew S. Bub at ''GameSpy'', August 11, 2002. *
Slice of SciFi #151: Interview with "Dungeons & Dragons" co-creator Dave Arneson
by ''Farpoint Media'', February 8, 2008. *Jeremy L.C. Jones
"If Their Hearts Are Pure: A Conversation with Dave Arneson"
Kobold Quarterly no.9, 2009-04-11. Retrieved on 2009-05-03. Arneson's last known interview. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arneson, Dave 1947 births 2009 deaths American game designers Deaths from cancer in Minnesota Dungeons & Dragons game designers People from Hennepin County, Minnesota People from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni