DAVE ARNESONDave Arneson, who died on 7 April, 2009, co-created what is arguably the most influential game of modern times.Along with Gary Gygax, who died the previous year, he conceived Dungeons & Dragons, the fantasy role-playing game that would not only spawn generations of similar games but also founded an entire sub-culture.Mr Arneson was credited with the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the game, combining his expertise in war games with Gygax’s Chainmail game in 1971 to form the first D&D campaign.Together they published the first Dungeons & Dragons rule book in 1974, thus beginning a phenomenon that has attracted millions of players and earned an estimated billion dollars.David Lance Arneson was born on 1 October, 1947, in Minnesota. He was a student of history at the University of Minnesota and began playing role-playing and war games with other students.He first collaborated with Gary Gygax (who was already influential within gaming circles as the founder of Gen Con, first held in his basement at Lake Geneva) on the naval war game called Don't Give up the Ship! (1971).But it was Arneson’s Blackmoor that eventually evolved into Dungeons & Dragons, fusing elements of ‘skirmish’ war games (in which players control individual figures rather than units), Gygax and Jeff Perren’s medieval Chainmail game, and the stories of their favourite fantasy authors.Dungeons & Dragons, originally published as 16-page booklets of rules by which to adapt existing games, was revolutionary for several reasons. It introduced the idea of developing characters who would gain experience and skills over the course of one or several games. It also took the focus away from vast battlefields to underground spaces home to magic, monsters and treasure, thus putting the focus on the imagination of the players.Mr Arneson was only briefly involved with Gygax’s TSR firm and in fact later sued the company for royalties owing from future editions of D&D. After splitting with TSR in the mid 1970s he continued to publish fantasy games and became involved in computer games in the ’80s.In the ’90s he began teaching at Full Sail University, a multimedia institution in Florida, and was a professor of computer game design until 2008. He occasionally wrote new D&D campaigns and appeared as an extra in the Dungeons & Dragons film (2008). He remained an enthusiastic game player throughout his life.He married Frankie Ann Morneau in 1984 and they had one daughter, Malia, and two grandchildren. He died after a battle with cancer aged 61.
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