The first D&D players push back on the legend of Gary Gygax

[thewayne]

Very interesting article, and a lengthy one at that, interviewing Roy Kuntz. Roy was a teenager in Lake Geneva, literally living alone in the family house, and got involved with Gary, D&D, and TSR as he grew older. He saw it all happen from an inside perspective, and as the saying goes, "he alone is left to tell the tale" as Gary and Dave Arneson are now both dead.

And it is one heck of a tale!

If you're interested in table top role-playing games, this is pretty much a must-read.

https://kotaku.com/dungeons-deceptions-the-first-d-d-players-push-back-1837516834

Comments

[makovette]

that was interesting to read, TY for the link. EGG has a mixed reputation and frankly he earned it. It's sad he didn't team up w/Arneson and the others vs. going into red dragon avarice mode. D&D would have been a far far larger thing that it was if he had done so...

I still have my AD&D books from back in the day :D

[thewayne]

I’m glad you enjoyed it, I found it quite fascinating. Myself, a friend bought the original D&D back in the mid ‘70s and I got Tunnels & Trolls, and just preferred the latter, not just for its simplicity, but because I thought D&D was needlessly complicated. I actually have two of the three original D&D books! I’d really have something if I knew where the third was, but it’s probably lost.

I find it interesting to look at D&D and Tunnels & Trolls. I personally know pretty much everyone who was involved in T&T, and when they did the Deluxe T&T rewrite a couple of years ago, most everyone was involved. They even dragged Bear Peters out to either GenCon or Origins and had him running the game.

T&T will always be a distant second to D&D, but Flying Buffalo is still around whereas TSR is not. Whether or not that is significant, I do not know.

Currently I’m working on a Python program for generating T&T characters: it shouldn’t be difficult, but for some reason the math conversion for height and weight between the various races is proving to be a PITA. I don’t know why but I’m getting incorrect results trying to use modulo and remainder, very weird.