Halenar Frosthelm's Reviews > Dave Arneson's True Genius

OK, this is my third attempt to add a review. :)

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.