Dave Arneson

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Dave Arneson

David Lance Arneson (born October 1, 1947 in Minnesota , † April 7, 2009 in St. Paul , Minnesota) was an American game designer. He is considered to be the inventor of the pen & paper role-playing game and developed Dungeons & Dragons together with Gary Gygax .

Life

Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren developed the game Chainmail in 1971 . In this medieval conflict simulation, players each control an army and fight for control of an area. Battles were re-enacted with plastic figures. Arneson had the idea to let the soldiers in a commando take a castle, where they had to defuse traps and open doors. In this way every player learned to identify with his warrior. Since Chainmail wasn't ready for this, it was expanded and things like hitpoints were incorporated. Initially, it was called The Fantasy Game. The name wasn't catchy enough, however, and Gygax's wife came up with the name Dungeons & Dragons .

David Arneson also developed the first game world for a role-playing game with Blackmoor for his game rounds from 1970 . Although the TSR products contain a large number of references to Blackmoor and the second module already bore this title, it was not until 1986 that more detailed descriptions of the DA1-4 modules were published. In addition to fantasy elements, Arneson's world also contains a number of SF characteristics.

Arneson left TSR in 1976 to work as an independent game developer. In 1979 he sued TSR for royalties to D&D and AD&D, as well as for being named as an author. The legal dispute was settled out of court in 1981. During the brief leadership of TSR by Gary Gygax, Arneson returned to TSR and published the DA module series on Blackmoor. With Gygax's departure, the planned 5th module (DA5) was no longer published. From the mid-1980s he worked as a teacher in California, from 1990 as a professor of computer game design at Full Sail University, which specializes in multimedia professions .

In 2004 Arneson and Dustin Clingman designed a version of Blackmoor adapted to the d20 system .

David Arneson died of cancer on April 7, 2009 at the age of 61.

In response to the death, the company Blizzard Entertainment officially dedicated the April 14 patch "Secrets of Ulduar" from World of Warcraft to David Arneson.

Fonts

  • Dungeons & Dragons (1974) (with Gary Gygax )
  • Blackmoor (1975)
  • Dungeonmaster's Index (1977)
  • The First Fantasy Campaign (1977)
  • Adventures in Fantasy (1979) (with Richard L. Snider)
  • Robert Asprin's Thieves' World (1981) (as co-author)
  • Citybook II - Port o 'Call (1984) (as 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 (1989)
  • The Case of the Pacific Clipper (1991)
  • The Haunted Lighthouse (Dungeon Crawl Classics Module # 3.5) (2003)
  • Dave Arneson's Blackmoor (2004) (chief designer)
  • Player's Guide to Blackmoor (2006)

supporting documents

  1. ^ Blizzard Entertainment (April 14, 2009). Blizzard Entertainment dedicates patch to David Arneson . Accessed April 15, 2009.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Arneson, Dave
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arneson, David Lance
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American game writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Minnesota
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 2009
Place of death St. Paul , Minnesota