Comments on: RIP, D&D Co-Creator Dave Arneson

By: T.B. Falsename

T.B. Falsename — Sat, 02 May 2009 22:21:36 +0000

Ken, aim for more than 62.

I owe so much of what makes me me to Gygax, Arneson, Steve Jackson (GW/FF Steve, not GURPS Steve), Ian Livingston, Dave Morriss and Oliver Johnson, and Ken St. Andre…and I still have most of the books and boxed sets which I started off with.

By: Ken St. Andre

Ken St. Andre — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:31:12 +0000

1. 61 is too young to die. I’m gonna hold out until I’m at least 62.
2. If Gygax had stuck to WWII miniatures, Dave still would have invented fantasy role-playing.
3. Big game conventions are gonna be a lot duller now that Dave is gone. Hey, Lou Zocchi and Rick Loomis are still around.

By: Klaus

Klaus — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:44:04 +0000

Hmm… he looks sorta like a dwarf or a gnome. Where are the clerics when you need them? :’(

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:48:38 +0000

Wow. I knew that I knew people who knew him, but I hadn’t really realized that that was because he lived right here in St. Paul.

By: Jazmeister

Jazmeister — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:47:09 +0000

More people I’ll never get to thank. Makes you want to write a huge list of your heroes and meet them before they are brutally snatched by the Sky Wizard.

By: Lukasz

Lukasz — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:38:13 +0000

Sad news. for us of course.

For him not so much. Both of them are probably playing a game with Jesus, Muhammad and Elvis.

By: Rei Onryou

Rei Onryou — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:20:04 +0000

Never played the tabletop games, but I am more than aware of the affect D&D had on modern gaming and RPGs. Anything Black Isle churned out in the D&D universe I lapped up. I came to love THAC0. I finally got a boxed copy of Planescape: Torment and it will be played in the memory of Arneson and Gygax.

By: Acosta

Acosta — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:08:00 +0000

R.I.P. is hard seeing the ones you owe so much for their talent and creativity. Being in a small village, playing rpgs was not a option, but I had the books and fantasized with it, creating adventures and trying to set solo adventures (is hard).

*throws a D20 honouring Arneson*

By: danielcardigan

danielcardigan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:49:38 +0000

Oh, and T&T was published by Flying Buffalo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Buffalo

who also ran (run?) Starweb, which was the longest running play by mail game at one time, and probably still is, cos PBM has to be dead by now. Starweb got totally ripped off by Mike Singleton when he designed Starnet for Micronet, which was the computer bit of PRESTEL back in the day.

Mike Singleton went on to write “Lords of Midnight”.

What ever happened to Chris Bourne from Micronet? Drop me a PM on the board if you know. That guy was righteous.

By: danielcardigan

danielcardigan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:40:43 +0000

Novotny says: “I was a Tunnels and Trolls player”

Wow! Me too, back in the 80s. Never mind stultifying, I plain couldn’t afford the D&D rule books. I even had the spin off Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes.

A few years back I discovered that Ken St Andre was not only very much alive but had a website (which I can’t find anymore, but he still has a wikipedia entry that lists another members only website). I was pretty drunk at the time and an overload of nostalgia about how good it was to be a teenager (I aint going back!) prompted me to look him up. He had a contact email so I basically sent him my life story of what it was to be fifteen in the early 80s and how much I’d gotten from T&T at the time. Got back a really classy reply from him too.

D&D was never a big thing for me but the relatively recent death of Gygax and Arneson just now still feels like a kick in the gut.

Oh, Ken St Andre was a designer on Wasteland and Mercenaries… was written by Mike Stackpole, who’s probably more well known for a very well received series of Battletech books. See? (makes interlocking fingers gesture…)

By: Dizet Sma

Dizet Sma — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:12:58 +0000

Blax, don’t you mean AD&D is the reason, etc.?

And you’re right, D&D has no needs to die.

By: Dizet Sma

Dizet Sma — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:06:03 +0000

Man, along with policemen looking younger, this news makes me feel very old, and very sad.