Dave Arneson

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

Life

Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren developed 1971 Game chain mail. In this medieval conflict simulation, the players each control an army and fight for dominance in an area. Battles were recreated it with plastic figures. Arneson came up with the idea to let the soldiers in a commando raid to take a castle, where they had to disarm traps and open doors. So got any players to identify with his warriors. Since Chainmail this was not mature, it has been expanded, and things like hit points have been integrated. Initially it was given the title The Fantasy Game. But the name was not catchy enough, and Gygax ' wife came to the name Dungeons & Dragons.

David Arneson developed for his rounds from 1970 Blackmoor also the first game world for an RPG. Although in the TSR 's products provide a large number of references are included to Blackmoor and already the second module bore this title, it was not until 1986 with the DA1 -4 modules detailed descriptions have been published. In addition to fantasy elements Arensons world also contains a number of SF features.

Arneson left TSR in 1976 to work as an independent game developers. In 1979, he sued TSR on royalties to D & D and AD & D, and to be mentioned as author. The dispute was settled out of court in 1981. During the brief leadership of Gary Gygax TSR by Arneson returned to TSR and published the DA module series to Blackmoor. With the departure of Gygax the planned fifth 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 to specializing in multimedia professions Full Sail University.

2004 designed Arneson and Dustin Clingman is matched to the d20 System version of Blackmoor.

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

In response to the death of the company Blizzard Entertainment dedicated the published on April 14 Patch " Secrets of Ulduar " World of Warcraft official David Arneson.

Writings

  • Dungeons & Dragons ( 1974) ( with Gary Gygax )
  • Blackmoor (1975 )
  • Dungeon Master 's index ( 1977)
  • The First Fantasy Campaign ( 1977)
  • Adventures in Fantasy ( 1979) ( with Richard L. Snider )
  • Robert Asprin 's Thieves ' World ( 1981) ( co-authored )
  • City Book II - Port o ' Call ( 1984) ( co-authored )
  • Adventures in Blackmoor ( D & D Modules: DA1 ) ( 1986) ( with David J. Ritchie )
  • Temple of the Frog ( D & D Modules: DA2 ) ( 1986) ( with David J. Ritchie )
  • City of the Gods ( D & D Modules: DA3 ) ( 1987) ( with David J. Ritchie )
  • DNA / DOA ( 1989)
  • The Case of the Pacific Clipper (1991 )
  • The Haunted Lighthouse ( Dungeon Crawl Classics modules # 3.5 ) (2003 )
  • Dave Arneson 's Blackmoor (2004 ) (chief designer)
  • Player's Guide to Blackmoor (2006)
Saint Paul (Minnesota) Chainmail (game) TSR (company)
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