D&D: The Story of How it All Began

This blog post is a long and rambling story of how Dungeons & Dragons, and by extension, the whole milieu of roleplaying games, came to be. In my reading of early publications on the subject and research of facts, figures, and related goings-on (which hasn’t been that much, honestly), it’s been fascinating to discover how the more things change, the more they stay the same. In other words, problems and triumphs that we deal with at the table today also inspired the game in its infancy. It’s fascinating to learn how one thing can lead to another, and how the hard work of a few individuals with lots of passion can have a huge effect on the whole world. 

The story of roleplaying games is like a watershed, a history of many rivers, each starting in a different place, winding their way through time and over land, crossing one tributary here, and diverging into multiple rills there, and emptying out into the vast ocean that is popular sci-fi and fantasy fiction of the new millennium. Right from theatre, through books, films, and the new trends in video games, all have some source way up in the mountains of the past. Roleplaying games is one of those rivers, with a surprisingly long history.

Believe it or not, the river’s source is in Prussia all the way back in 1780, where a fellow by the name of Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig, a mathematics and science professor at the military academy of Braunschweig, created a game of war based on chess. While chess had always been considered a game that mimicked war - a metaphor for battle and strategy - he felt his game would more accurately represent the real thing, and was inspired to create it through his work teaching young entrants to the military academy of the military science of the day. Hellwig’s wargame was played on a grid much larger than the eight-by-eight chess board, and each square represented a different kind of terrain. Different units occupied the squares and could move a finite number of squares each turn depending on the type of unit. It was refined and republished in 1803, and inspired a number of imitators.

One such imitator was Robert Louis Stevenson. You know him as the author of Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but he, as Lloyd Osborne said, “never outgrew his love of childish things” and poured as much thought and planning into his 1881 wargame as he must have for each of his masterpiece novels. Writing in Scribner’s Magazine in 1898, Osborne tells of how the attic in Stevenson’s house was entirely dedicated to his wargame, and how they would spend inordinate amounts of time playing the game, with narrative descriptions of the battles entered into a journal of Stevenson’s. Osbourne described Stevenson’s wargame as “...an intricate “kriegspiel”, involving rules innumerable, prolonged arithmetical calculations, constant measuring with foot-rules, and the throwing of dice…”  Sound familiar!? Like I said, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Over the next century-and-a-half, Hellwig’s and Stevenson’s wargame evolved into what is now known as contemporary tabletop games, tabletop wargames, or simply miniatures, and they bear a striking resemblance to the originals, which dice rolling and foot-rules and everything. Popular science fiction titles of the last decade or two, like Heavy Gear, Warhammer 40k (various titles), Star Wars Miniatures Game (various titles), BattleTech, and Infinity, have all cashed in on the genre. There are also modern wargame versions that are themed historically, and miniatures categorized into different eras are sold for each. What war might you like to reenact? The Napoleonic wars? Greeks vs. Romans? The Battle of Hastings? You can find them all online.

But what truly popularized wargaming in North America didn’t come until post-WWII. They were two pseudo-throwback board-wargames developed in 1952 and 1957, respectively by American Charles S. Roberts entitled Tactics, and by Frenchman Albert Lamorisse entitled Risk, the most well-known board-wargame. Back then, the simplicity and speed of game setup made board wargaming accessible, not to mention the good ol’ factory mass production that made it cheap and plentiful. A real recipe for popularity. While board-wargames are no longer the top-tier type, they do persist to this day, with Risk releasing a number of pop-culture versions in recent years like Risk: Rick and Morty and Risk: Game of Thrones, but they have largely flowed down different rivers. I think they’re considered too simplistic for serious gamers, the kind of thing kids play. 

Here in the 50’s, we see the rivers criss-crossing. Where it began as a simple grid boardgame in chess, then became extremely complex in its attempt at verisimilitude in Stevenson’s game, now it’s back to simpler board versions featuring grids or what amounts to grids (specific locations contiguous with other specific locations, as in a map with territories). I liken Risk to the modern day subculture of gaming with what I jokingly refer to as ‘D&D Syndrome,’ that is, no matter how many great board wargames are published, there will only ever be one title recognizable to the vast majority of the uninitiated population. Now, I wonder if there’s a videogame that has that honour? It could be in any genre... Super Mario, perhaps? At least Risk got its name from good advertising and genuine appeal, whereas Dungeons & Dragons seems to have garnered its fame, or infame, from negative press largely coming out of conservative christian groups opposed to its magical witchcraft elements and associations with kids’ fantasies, one instance of which allegedly caused a suicide.

But let’s paddle another river before we sail too far down this one and wind up in a really long blog post about something entirely different than the title let on. Let’s talk fiction.

Elements of fantasy within storytelling, just like the origins of chess, are old and obscured by the mists of time. The mythologies of ancient world cultures are the most salient origins. Gods with powers beyond those of mortals, fantastic beasts, incredible locales, magical items, heroes and their muses… it’s all there! And it’s all very, very ancient. But when we start to talk about specific narrative stories that were written down and published and read by an audience abstracted from the circumstance which gave rise to the story, we travel forward in time to the Romantic era of Literature in the late 19th century. Now, I didn’t do all that much research into the history of fiction - that would have been a long-ass research project - but there are a few older examples worth noting for their influence on contemporary fantasy fiction. 

• The Brothers Grimm were collectors of “old wives’ tales” and folk tales from the German countryside, with many of their collected stories still household titles to this day, over 200 years later: Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Little Red Riding Hood. Many stories feature fantastical elements, creations of the imaginations (and fears) of the simple country folk: dangerous creatures, animals that could talk, and magic spells.
• A number of authors at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. First Edgar Allan Poe, Gertrude Barrows Bennett, Robert W. Chambers, Henry Rider Haggar, and, Abraham Merritt; later Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian), H. P. Lovecraft (The Call of Cthulhu), Fletcher Pratt (Well of the Unicorn), L Sprague de Camp (Land of Unreason), and Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser), among others. And let’s not forget J. R. R. Tolkien!
• I could go on, but as this is a history of roleplaying games, the logical cut-off is the late 60’s when the predecessors of modern rolepaying games began. Moorcock, I know you exist! Read on!

    The early 1900’s and the pulp era following it was fertile ground, to say the least. Despite instances of archetypes appearing in earlier source material, like the Greek myths and medieval folk song, I believe that the characters, like Conan the Barbarian, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Solomon Kane, Gandalf and Aragorn; the settings, like Middle Earth, Lankhmar, the Cthulhu Mythos; and the incredible stories of epic journeys, daring adventure, and dangerous exploits were truly conceived in the minds of the authors of this era. But what’s more is how they were all put together in one place, and offered to the world as a choose-your-own-adventure in the next era!

    Heading down that river are the Two Pioneers, the Two Creators, the two central figures of roleplaying game history: Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. You probably already know them as the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, the original, and the most well-known roleplaying game of all time, so you know where this tributary of history empties out. Rather than give this complex story as a narrative, I’ll instead put the salient events in the lives of each co-creator and in the development of Dungeons & Dragons in a timeline.

• 1938 - Gary Gygax is born. Gary was into card games and chess as a kid, and was introduced to the fantasy and science fiction genres by his father when he was given pulp novels of the era. He lists his influences as authors already mentioned in this article, as well as Poul Anderson, Michael Moorcock, and Jack Vance.
• 1947 - Dave Arneson is born. 
• 1953 - Gygax gets into miniature wargaming with his friend Don Kaye and they immediately begin to experiment with their own rules. He’s also described as having a voracious appetite for the pulp authors such as Robert E Howard, Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber.
• 1960 - Arneson is given Gettysburg, a new board wargame by Avalon Hill, not long after board wargames became popular, and loves it. Gygax was also introduced to the game around the same time, possibly closer to its publication in 1958. Gygax became obsessed with it, playing marathon matches at least once per week, and investing in blank hex maps to customize his terrains.
• 1960-66
  • Gygax continues to be very interested in wargaming, despite various upheaving life circumstances like getting married, having children, moving back to Chicago, and then moving back to Lake Geneva.
  • Arneson joins the Midwest Military Simulation Association and games with David Wesley in his ‘Braunstein’ game. Here, Arneson begins to shift the focus of wargaming to non-combat objectives, moving towards the individual play and varied challenges of later RPGs.
• 1967 - Gygax co-founds the International Federation of Wargamers with Bill Speer and Scott Duncan. Later, Arneson becomes a member.
• 1968 - Gygax rents a hall in Lake Geneva and hosts the first official GenCon.
• 1969 - Arneson meets Gygax for the first time at the second annual GenCon.
• 1970 - Arneson creates the timeless and fantastic Blackmoor setting as an alternative to what was typical for the Braunstein games. Blackmoor is considered to be the first ever roleplaying game. Meanwhile, Gygax creates a military miniatures society called the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association with Don Kaye, Mike Reese, and Leon Tucker. Later that year he also co-founds the Castles and Crusades Society as a chapter of the IFW. Gygax also loses his job, cannot make ends meet designing games for commercial sale so begins cobbling shoes in his basement.
• 1971
  • Gygax publishes Chainmail with Jeff Perren in the Castles and Crusades fanzine The Domesday Book. It’s a set of rules for wargaming medieval wars. In addition to it, Gygax publishes a fantasy supplement, drawing heavily on Tolkien. Gygax does find work, after all, with Guidon Games doing editorial work and produces Alexander the Great and Dunkirk: The Battle of France, and is then hired to write a “wargame with miniatures” game by the same company, as well as a new edition of Chainmail. Furthermore, Gygax partners again with Reese and Leon to create Tractics (another set of wargaming rules) utilizing a coffee can roller with 20 numbered poker chips attached to the side. Later, this would be the 20-sided die used in Dungeons & Dragons.
  • Arneson is inspired by Chainmail, but feels something is lacking after adopting some of its rules to his Blackmoor campaign. He begins developing his own mix of rules.
• 1972 - Arneson visits Lake Geneva in November of 1972 and includes Gygax in a session of Blackmoor. Gygax is inspired and sees the potential of role playing games as Arneson has developed them. Gygax creates a 50-page set of rules after only two weeks and creates a new campaign setting called Greyhawk. Arneson and Gygax collaborate by phone and mail, combining their settings into the “Great Kingdom”. 
• 1973 - Gygax and Arneson begin to realize they have diverging visions for the game. Gygax expands his rules, especially for magic use, into a 150-page rulebook. Gygax resigns Guidon Games and founds Tactical Studies Rules with Kaye and, after finding a $2000 dollar investment from friend Brian Blume, publishes 1000 copies of Dungeons & Dragons boxed set. The 1000 copies sell out within a year.
• And the rest is history!

I hope you enjoyed reading that story as much as I enjoyed writing it. It’s certainly an interesting intersection of board game evolution with fantasy story telling. It’s good to know your roots! A whole other book, let alone another article, could be written on how D&D then influenced the rest of roleplaying, boardgame and videogame history. It’s such a cornerstone! I hope the Fiction Life you lead is as rich and interesting as this, and I hope you gained some new perspectives on that life. Until next time!