Back to top

Arneson, David Lance (1947‒2009)

Creator: 
  • Cite
  • Share
  • Correct
  • Print
Original Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks

Copies of the original Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks printed by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) in 1974. Photograph by Flickr user Cory Doctorow, December 25, 2011. CC BY-SA2.0.

David Lance Arneson was a game designer from St. Paul who collaborated with Ernest Gary Gygax to publish the famous tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) in 1974. Although the D&D property changed hands in 1997, and the game’s mechanics have evolved, its core wouldn’t be what it is today without Dave Arneson.

Arneson was born on October 1, 1947, in Hennepin County. His parents bought him the Gettysburg board game in the early 1960s, and he became entranced with historical wargames.

While attending Highland Park Senior High School in St. Paul, Arneson joined the Midwest Military Simulation Association (MMSA). The MMSA’s members were high school and college-age wargame fans in the Twin Cities who gathered to play historical military simulation games. Some of them, including Arneson, were more interested in the game itself than in historical accuracy. This group, in Arneson’s parents’ basement, began playing individual character roles instead of controlling large armies.

Due to his interest in historical wargames, Arneson pursued a history degree at the University of Minnesota. He particularly liked the Napoleonic era. The organizer of the Lake Geneva Wargames Convention, Ernest Gary Gygax, also loved Napoleonic-era naval battles. When Arneson met Gygax at Gen Con (a tabletop games convention) in August 1969, Gygax gave him a draft of his medieval wargame, Chainmail.

Arneson brought Chainmail back to the Twin Cities and introduced it to his MMSA group. He modified the game to allow players to act as individual characters rather than large armies. These characters had backstories and motivations which the players would roleplay. To Arneson, what the characters did outside of combat was just as important as the combat itself. He also introduced fantasy creatures and magic, largely inspired by J. R. R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and Robert Howard's Conan the Barbarian series.

In 1971, after a year of playtesting (testing for design flaws) with his Twin Cities group, Arneson brought the game he now called Blackmoor back to Lake Geneva to introduce it to Gygax and his group of gamers. They loved the roleplaying Arneson had mixed with fantasy combat.

Over the next two years, Arneson and Gygax mailed their playtesting notes back and forth. It was difficult to iron out the Twin Cities group’s notes, since Arneson preferred improvisational rulings over codified rules. He found that these slowed down the game and the fun. Gygax compiled the original version of Dungeons & Dragons, and with financial help from his friend Don Kaye, he formed the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) in October 1973. Dave Arneson was not asked to join the company, in part because Gygax saw Arneson as a designer, not a businessman. Arneson received royalties from TSR until 1977.

In 1976, Arneson moved to Lake Geneva and briefly worked at TSR as a creative director. He was forced out of the company that same year, after he refused to lower his royalties. In 1977, TSR released a new version of D&D called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). Thematically it was the same game, but rules were now more codified and less freeform, as Gygax preferred. TSR refused to pay Arneson royalties for AD&D, citing significant differences from the original version.

Arneson didn’t pursue legal action until 1979. After helping found two companies, 4D Interactive Studios and Adventure Games, and publishing Adventures in Fantasy, Arneson sued TSR for royalties. The lawsuit was settled out of court on March 6, 1981. Neither party was allowed to discuss legally the terms of the settlement. It is public knowledge that Arneson was paid his royalties for AD&D and is credited in all editions of D&D as a co-creator.

In 1984, Arneson was elected into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Hall of Fame. Gygax contracted him to write adventures for TSR based on his original Blackmoor setting in 1986. During the 1990s, Arneson worked in California, using games to teach special-needs kids. In 2000, he moved to Florida and taught game design at Full Sail University. He later suffered a stroke and was diagnosed with cancer. He retired in 2008 and moved back to Minnesota to be with his family and old MMSA friends.

Arneson died on April 7, 2009, in St. Paul. The surviving members of his original Blackmoor playtesting group still get together every year to play the same characters they’ve portrayed for almost fifty years.

  • Cite
  • Share
  • Correct
  • Print
© Minnesota Historical Society
  • Bibliography
  • Related Resources

“40 Years of Dungeon!” YouTube video, 22:52. Posted by “David Megarry’s Dungeon!,” March 14, 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VQTubyznsA&list=WL&index=66

“BrigadeCon 2016: An Interview with David A. Wesley.” YouTube video, 1:52:10. Posted by “Earl Tea Grey TV,” October 29, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1SZJjZ-U9I&list=WL&index=66

“Dave Arneson.” Telegraph, April 12, 2009.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/5145584/Dave-Arneson.html

“Dave Arneson's World of Blackmoor.” YouTube video, 11:12. Posted by “David Megarry’s Dungeon!,” May 15, 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By9P8CZdtlQ&list=WL&index=66&t=0s

Horowitz, Etan. “D&D Co-creator Dave Arneson Retiring from Full Sail.” Orlando Sentinel, June 18, 2008.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080621171233/http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/etan_on_tech/2008/06/dd-co-creator-d.html

“An Interview with Dave Arneson.” Pegasus 1 (June 2004 reprint).
http://web.archive.org/web/20081118200234/http://www.judgesguild.net/guildhall/pegasus/pegasus_14/interview.shtml
“Lake Geneva Gaming Group?” OD&D discussion blog (with Rob Kuntz), July 19, 2000.
http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/4176

List of Winners - Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080828203905/http://www.originsgames.com/awards/1983/list-of-winners

Rausch, Allen. “Dave Arneson Interview.” GameSpy, August 2004.
http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/540/540395p1.html

“Role-playing Games Pioneer Dies.” BBC News, April 11, 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7994444.stm

Sacco, Ciro Allessandro. Interview with David Arneson. En World, July 2004.
https://web.archive.org/web/20031023164333/http://www.enworld.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=47&page=1

Wizards of the Coast. The History of TSR.
https://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wizards.com%2Fdnd%2FDnDArchives_History.asp&date=2008-10-04

Related Images

Original Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks
Original Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks
Dave Arneson receiving an ENnie award
Dave Arneson receiving an ENnie award
Dave Arneson referees a Blackmoor game
Dave Arneson referees a Blackmoor game

Turning Point

In 1970, Dave Arneson modifies Gary Gygax’s Chainmail with his group of playtesters in the Twin Cities. He creates Blackmoor, a precursor of Dungeons & Dragons that introduces “experience points” and “leveling” and emphasizes character personality—elements that revolutionize gaming.

Chronology

1947

Arneson is born in Hennepin County on October 1.

1965

Arneson graduates from Highland Park Senior High School in St. Paul and begins history studies at the University of Minnesota.

1969

In August, Arneson meets Gary Gygax at Gen Con in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

1970

Arneson modifies Gygax’s Chainmail with his group of playtesters in the Twin Cities and creates Blackmoor.

1971

Arneson returns to Lake Geneva and shows Blackmoor to Gygax’s group. They exchange notes and create the original Dungeons & Dragons.

1973

Gygax forms Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) but does not ask Arneson to join.

1974

The first edition of D&D is printed and sold in January.

1976

Arneson begins working at TSR in Lake Geneva. He is forced out and pursues a career as an independent game designer.

1977

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is released. TSR refuses to pay Arneson royalties for it.

1978

Arneson co-founds 4D Interactive Systems, one of the first video game production companies. 4D makes strategy games for early home systems like the Apple II, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, TRS-80, and the Commodore-PET.

1979

Arneson founds Adventure Games and publishes his idealized version of a fantasy role-playing game (RPG), Adventures in Fantasy, and sues TSR for royalties over AD&D.

1984

Arneson is elected to the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Hall of Fame.

2000

Arneson begins teaching computer programming and game design at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. He also works on advanced game design for Nintendo and Microsoft.

2008

Arneson retires from teaching and returns to Minnesota. In eight years of offering an automatic ‘A’ to any student who could beat him at Ensemble Studios’ popular strategy videogame, Age of Empires, nobody takes him up on the challenge.

2009

Arneson dies in St. Paul on April 7.