Dave Arneson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | David Lance Arneson October 1, 1947[1][2] Hennepin County, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | April 7, 2009 (aged 61) Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Occupation | Game designer |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Role-playing games |
| Spouse |
Frankie Ann Morneau (m. 1984) |
| Children | 1 |
David Lance Arneson (/ˈɑːrnɪsən/; October 1, 1947 – April 7, 2009) was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s.[3] Arneson's early work was fundamental to the role-playing game (RPG) genre, pioneering devices now considered to be archetypical, such as cooperative play to develop a storyline instead of individual competitive play to "win" and adventuring in dungeon, town, and wilderness settings as presented by a neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all characters aside from the player characters.[4]
Arneson discovered wargaming as a teenager in the 1960s, and he began combining these games with the concept of role-playing. He was a University of Minnesota student when he met Gygax at the Gen Con gaming convention in the late 1960s. In 1971, Arneson created the game and fictional world that became Blackmoor, writing his own rules and basing the setting on medieval fantasy elements. Arneson took the game to Gygax as the representative for game publisher Guidon Games, and the pair co-developed a set of rules that became Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). Gygax and Donald Kaye subsequently founded Tactical Studies Rules in 1973, which published Dungeons & Dragons the next year.
Arneson moved to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to work for TSR Hobbies in 1976, but left before the end of the year. In 1979 Arneson filed suit to retain credits and royalties on the game. He continued to work as an independent game designer, including work submitted to TSR in the 1980s, and continued to play games for his entire life. Arneson also did some work in computer programming, and he taught computer game design and game rules design at Full Sail University from the 1990s until shortly before his death in 2009.
- ^ "United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JTVK-MZN : accessed February 12, 2013), David Lance Arneson, April 7, 2009; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
- ^ Minnesota Department of Health. Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004.
- ^ Cook, Monte; Tweet, Jonathan; Williams, Skip (2000). Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook. Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast. p. 2.
Based on the original Dungeons & Dragons rules created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson
- ^ Lafarge, Paul (September 2006). "Destroy All Monsters: A journey deep into the cavern of Dungeons & Dragons, a utopian, profoundly dorky and influential game that, lacking clear winners or an end, may not be a game at all". The Believer. 4 (7). Archived from the original on September 20, 2008. Retrieved March 22, 2009.