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Dave Arneson Talks About Helping Create D&D

Posted by chrisd on from the plus-one-pepperspray dept.

Warrior-GS writes "GameSpy has an interview with Dave Arneson, the lesser known co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons with Gary Gygax. He is at Gen Con in Milwaukee. Also on hand to talk was Sandy Petersen, the creator of Call of Cthulhu. He is working at Ensemble Studios on Age of Mythology. Both interviews are very informative."

10 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Yeehoghu hits! by Bilestoad · · Score: 3, Funny

    The thing about D&D that always bothered me was the Deities and Demigods manual. How do you go about assigning AC and HP to gods?

    Can you imagine the arguments? Who's tougher out of Zeus and Odin? Heimdallr and Vulcan? No big problem in Nethack where you have just one pantheon but in a system where imagination sets the rules you could have them meeting.

    (and there were plenty in that book who were neither Deities nor Demigods, like Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, but that probably doesn't matter)

    1. Re:Yeehoghu hits! by bughunter · · Score: 5, Funny
      I'm stronger than Loki!

      I will never be able to forget the time I moved to Ventura Co. CA and joined a gaming group made up predominantly of sailors from Pt. Mugu NAS. They had all served together on a carrier and played a lot of D&D for R&R. That much seemed reasonable...

      Until they explained that if, after you kill your foe, you eat his/her/its brain then you gain all of his/her/its hit points, experience points, spells, special abilities, exceptional stats, and whatnot.

      Ooooh.... Kay.

      Then I played a game in their campaign, which had basically degenerated into a series of raids on the seats of various pantheons to eat as many god brains as possible. Of course, all the regulars in the group were 100th level F/T/C/MUs with thousands of hitpoints and every special ability and spell and psionic talent in the books. The only thing that saved my character from being brain sucked by these PC mindflaying ghouls was that they made me roll up my character at first level with zero experience points.

      I tell ya, it sure was a great education in munchkinism.

      --
      I can see the fnords!
  2. Snippet by Alien54 · · Score: 4, Funny
    Sounds like my kind of guy:

    Dave Arneson: Yeah. We created the Continental Congress and because I knew things the teacher didn't share with the students we ended up not having the Continental Congress, Delaware rejoined the Empire and New York and New Hampshire were at war. Anyway, (laughs) I was accused by my professor of perverting his exercises... and well, it was true I did, and he was mad at me. The same thing happened with the French Revolution, and he accused me of introducing these random events that were of no historical interest at all.

    There is a certain puckish commonality that I see here with a number of creative types.

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  3. Re:Legends Speak! by Riskable · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's always cool to hear that these designers are still kicking.

    You crack me up! So I guess old game developers never die. At least, if they had the foresight to up up down down left right left right A B select start at the beginning of their careers.

    Yes, it's nice to hear that they're still kicking, but I'd like to see that they can punch too. Maybe still be able to pull of that Hadu-Ken energy burst combo.

    --
    -Riskable
    "Those who choose proprietary software will pay for their decision!"
  4. Tales of the Plush Cthulhu by nucal · · Score: 3, Funny

    There's also a version of Cthulhu for nursery schoolers.

  5. all in the name by Kraft · · Score: 4, Funny

    I started out with D&D and I know two people were credited, but with a name like "Gary Gygax", how can anyone be expected to remember the other dude Arneson, ... something Arneson...?

    Gary Gygax... it's all the way up there with Wolf Blitzer and Rocco Siegfredi.

    --

    -Kraft
    Live and let live
  6. Deities and Demigods was great by tmark · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Deities and Demigos manual was one of the coolest books they put out, for sheer enjoyment's sake. I remember being a kid and browsing that book and the Monster Manual OVER AND OVER again, even though I had read every entry probably hundreds of time. It was also great because it probably had the largest number of Jeff Dee illustrations, who was by far my favorite D & D illustrator. I sthink I might have even had a crush on some of the goddesses he drew in that book...

  7. Re:Legends Speak! by SN74S181 · · Score: 2, Funny

    These are game designers.

    Not electronic game designers. There's no cursor buttons nor an A or a B button.

    I guess you can do whatever silly things you want with your dice though.

  8. Re:Legends Speak! by Riskable · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh! You're right! Damn, I guess old pen & paper RPG developers never die... They just whip out the 1D20 and reroll every once in a while.

    --
    -Riskable
    "Those who choose proprietary software will pay for their decision!"
  9. DM's Guide cover art by samf · · Score: 3, Funny
    [...]followed by the billygoat on the front of the Monster Manual, and that HORRIBLE illustration on the cover of the DM's Guide[...]

    <sarcasm>

    What? Are you kidding? That cover art of which you speak (especially the DM's Guide) gave the television media some of the images they needed to show the viewers how utterly satanic those games were!

    I still remember the sound bites on the Oklahoma City TV stations; the voice-overs, and the camera slowly zooming on Mr. Giant Devil on the cover...

    </sarcasm>