Game Historian: Gygax Swiped Fantasy Rules From a Forgotten 1970 Wargame (blogspot.com)

An anonymous reader writes: According to game historian Jon Peterson, Gary Gygax's Chainmail fantasy wargame (which became the basis for Dave Arneson's Blackmoor and later Dungeons & Dragons) borrowed heavily from an earlier set of rules published by Leonard Patt, a long-forgotten member of the New England Wargamers Association. Among the appropriations were rules for heroes and wizards including the iconic fireball spell, which ended up in everything from Magic: the Gathering to World of Warcraft, as well as monster rules for dragons, orcs, ents, and other Tolkien creations. Gygax had something of a reputation for borrowing things without giving proper credit, and this latest revelation shows how the open and collaborative environment of early gaming was quickly exploited for commercial purposes.

Comments

Re:We get it

[Princeofcups]

Gygax had something of a reputation for borrowing things without giving proper credit, and this latest revelation shows how the open and collaborative environment of early gaming was quickly exploited for commercial purposes.

We get it. Commercial is bad. Everything should be non-profit. We should all make the same wage. We should all have the same stuff.

That's not the issue. Gygax represented himself as the sole creator and writer of D&D. He removed Arneson from the credits in a typical Stalinistic purge. I remember meeting him when he was sitting behind the counter at the Dungeon hobby shop in Wisconsin, and he was a complete jerk. But when you are copyrighting everything that you can to lock in revenue, you just don't give anyone else credit. Bastard. Cashing in on other people's work. But hey, it happens in IT all the time.