2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day Four

Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary continues as I think about Dave Arneson and his creativity and serendipitous creation. I have read and I urge you also to read Dave Arneson's True Genius by Robert J. Kuntz. BTW you can be pro-Dave Arneson and NOT BE anti-Gygax and this book should reinforce that. Given some of the tell all type "books" that have been published over the last several years a bit of truth telling about real human beings in this should not be taken as anti-Gygax. Both Dave and Gary were just as human as anyone of us. (And no I am not talking about Playing at the World as a tell all type either.)

Again it would be a mistake to believe that I am in any way anti-Gygax, I am not, I am both a Gygax fan and an Arneson fan. I just think we should give credit where credit is due. I will also note that I am a big OD&D fan, and I am quite happy with the way that Gygax wrote down D&D, truth be told I prefer some of his mechanics to those of Arneson, though I would love to have access to all the stuff that Arneson carried around in his head. Also those that want to use this book to assume/claim that Kuntz has become anti-Gygax are misunderstanding both the book and Kuntz himself. Recognizing the flaws and human failings of your friends does not mean you love them any less.

So with that said, here is the review of this book that I posted on Goodreads back on May 12th, 2017. (Halenar Frosthelm's Reviews > Dave Arneson's True Genius).

I do have a few thoughts about "Dave Arneson's True Genius" by robkuntz. I received my copy promptly after ordering and have now read it several times in and around all the real life health issues with my wife. I found it to be an enjoyable and informative read. It confirmed many things that I long believed to be true. It also made me think about a lot of things. It also gave me more insight into things I never knew or suspected and it also presented corrections for long held statements by others in the community who lack any first hand knowledge. Right now it is hard to gather my thoughts into any orderly arrangement for presentation.

Bitd when I started playing OD&D in 1975 the 3LBBs stated clearly that the authors were Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, in the "Forward" it clearly states that Dave Arneson developed and created ideas for a exciting and more complex game and eventually at some later date Gygax was introduced to it. So we understood from the beginning that Dave Arneson created the game that eventually became D&D. We also understood that Gary Gygax was the one who was the primary writer of the written word that we held in our hands. We assumed based on the evidence of the document itself, that Arneson had created the game and that to some extent what we were playing was the Gygax interpretation of what Arneson created.

Reading this book it became clear what we long believed was indeed true, the concept (conceptual engine) of D&D was all Arneson, but the mechanics used in D&D were largely the preferences of Gygax. Meaning of course what we always suspected was true and that Arneson must have used mechanics to some degree (perhaps more than we understand) that were quite a bit different from the D&D we played. In the FFC (First Fantasy Campaign) we get a glimpse of differing mechanics and in AiF (Adventures in Fantasy), both by Arneson, we get further glimpses of some of the directions that Arneson went. Arneson likely tried and discard or tried and developed and extended thousands of ideas throughout his life that would have filled up dozens of idea supplements that we would all like to mine and sift. Shame that there were not many Blackmoor Grimoires as there were Arduin Grimoires - no censorship by some unimaginative editor, just print it all.

As the book confirms, Arneson never had a cut and dried - frozen in amber game. I have read elsewhere about Gygax receiving notes from Arneson and having trouble working with them (Arneson carried so much of the game in his head and unfortunately was not great at recording things as they changed). This must have been the point that Gygax started inserting his own mechanics (we can speculate that email might have reduced the degree to which this happened had it been around, but we will never know). Although not part of this book, we also know from Tim Kask’s own writing that he received a "basket" of Arneson's notes and because they had a lot of different ways of doing things that were not compatible, instead of printing it all as rule alternates and giving us all a glimpse of how mutable the system and sub-systems were, he pretty much threw most of it out and filled the Blackmoor supplement out with things that were not Arneson's. We now have a view into knowing that much the same thing must have happened with OD&D. It makes one wonder if we are missing 10-12 pages (or more) of alternate rules direct from Arneson in OD&D itself.

I always wondered why Arneson had reportedly quit TSR bitd, so it was sad to learn that Gygax had marginalized Arneson's input from the moment that Arneson moved to Lake Geneva and then ultimately forced him out. Sad, but unfortunately understandable. What was really odd was the treatment of Rob himself. Here is a guy who was mentored and befriended by Gygax, was made a Co-DM of Greyhawk and contributed ideas to OD&D, was co-author of two of the four supplements and contributed to the others and yet Gygax consigned him to shipping and order fulfillment instead of in the design and creation end of things. Makes you wonder what was going on it Gygax's head at the time.

It puts the lie to long held and long championed claims and proclamations by those who were not there and yet they claim to be the keepers (and gatekeepers) of the old school style of play. But none of what they preach is the way that Arneson played or reffed and is not what Arneson first unveiled for Gary, Rob and a few others. In addition, Gygax never even played the way these people falsely claim is the correct way to play.

This book should be an eyeopener to all and I have only scratched the surface. You really need to read it, because I can only tell you how it is impacting me and your deserve to experience it firsthand.

★ Dave Arneson's True Genius ★

Now looking back at this review from two and a half years or so later, I have a few additional thoughts to add.

One, please do not take this as me dogging Tim Kask, I believe that virtually any editor would have done exactly what he did in editing the Blackmoor Supplement. That said we are really fortunate that the First Fantasy Campaign by Arneson had little if any editing.There is much virtue in a creative person's unedited ideas, especially when it comes to RPGs.

Two, as many have pointed out this book can be a very difficult read as much of it is in highly technical language and Kuntz's complex style. This book was written as an academic piece and as a precursor to later books to be written the explore things in much greater depth.

Three, also as I said many prat about their self-proclaimed ONE TRUE WAY, but oddly enough, they do not play the game like Arneson, Gygax, Kuntz or any of their associates played and (for those still around) do play the game(s). My advice, forget about finding a ONE TRUE WAY, forget about finding a mythical UR GAME and do this:

Go read some great old fantasy and some pulp literature, let it inspire you with ideas and then pick up the original three little brown books of OD&D and let it take you where it will. Be certain that if you steal ideas from everywhere and make the game your own your are doing it as was intended.

More on this subject tomorrow, please tune in then!