Table Of ContentPLAYING at the WORLD
Unreason Press, Box 90656, San Diego, CA 92109 © 2012 by Unreason
Press LLC All rights reserved. Published 2012. Printed in the United States of
America 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN: 978-0615642048 (cloth)
Figure 8 appears by permission of Don Perrin. Figure 15 appears courtesy of
Robert E. Howard Properties. Figure 23 appears by special permission of the
City of Bayeux. Figure 25 is © The Trustees of the British Museum. Figure 26
appears courtesy of the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Figure 37
appears by permission of John Curry. Figure 38 appears by permission of Getty
Images, Time & Life Pictures, Leonard McCombe. Figure 42 appears by
permission of Mike Mornard. Figure 49 appears by permission of the Gygax
Estate. Figure 52 appears by permission of the Philip A. Harrington Estate.
Figure 54 appears courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. Figure 57
appears by permission of Caliver Books. Figure 64 appears by permission of
Flying Buffalo;; Tunnels & Trolls is a
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Figure 24 is ©1973 Conan Properties International LLC. CONAN and
related logos, names, characters and distinctive likeness thereof are trademarks
and copyrights of Conan Properties International LLC. All rights reserved.
Figures 18, 22 and 59 appear by permission of Marvel Worldwide. Doctor
Strange, the Mighty Thor and all other Marvel characters: TM & ©2012 Marvel
Entertainment, LLC and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved.
Figures 20 and 47 appear courtesy of the British Library. © The British Library
Board, Ashley 2468, f.1;; Harley 3244, f.59.
Figure 29 appears courtesy of the House of Hohenzollern, HRH Georg Friedrich
Prince of Prussia, SPSG. Photographer: Roman März.
Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards LLC, a division of the
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Back cover: Detail of Beschreibung und Regeln eines neuen Krieges-Spiels zum
Nutzen und Vergnügen, besonders aber zum Gebrauche in Militairschulen
(1797)
CONTENTS
Figures
...............................................................................................................................................
viii Introduction
.......................................................................................................................................
xi Acknowledgments
........................................................................................................................... xxi
Chapter One: A Prelude to Adventure (1964
1974).................................................................... 1
1.1 The Rise of Wargaming
Clubs............................................................................................... 5
1.2 Miniature Wargaming
........................................................................................................... 14
1.3 The Medieval Setting
............................................................................................................ 20
1.4 The Castle & Crusade Society
............................................................................................. 27
1.5 Amateur Attempts and Guidon
Games............................................................................. 34
1.6 Chainmail and Fantasy
Wargaming...................................................................................... 41
.................................................................................... 47
1.8 The Fall of the IFW
.............................................................................................................. 53
1.9 The Return of the Referee
................................................................................................... 58
1.10 Blackmoor
............................................................................................................................ 64
1.11 The Fantasy Game
.............................................................................................................. 72
1.12 Startled by the
New............................................................................................................. 79
Chapter Two: Setting The Medieval Fantasy Genre
............................................................... 81
2.1 The Evolution of Fantasy
.................................................................................................... 83 2.1.1 Fantasy
as Popular Adventure Fiction ....................................................................... 84
......................................................................... 90 2.1.3 Fantasy after the
Pulps................................................................................................100
2.2 War and its Opponents
......................................................................................................109
2.3 The Influence of Tolkien
...................................................................................................116
2.4 The Visitation Theme
.........................................................................................................121
2.5 On Dungeons and On Dragons
.......................................................................................128 2.5.1 Mazes with
Monsters ..................................................................................................129
2.5.2 Draco HorribilIs
..............................................................................................................134
2.6 Fantastic People and Creatures
.........................................................................................140
2.7 Classes
...................................................................................................................................157
2.7.1 Fighting-men
................................................................................................................158 2.7.2
Magic-users
...................................................................................................................162
2.7.3 Clerics
............................................................................................................................172
vi
2.8 Alignment and Parties
........................................................................................................ 179 2.9
Economics and
Equipment............................................................................................... 187
2.9.1 Conventional
Equipment........................................................................................... 192 2.9.2
Magic
Items.................................................................................................................. 194
2.10 Beyond Dungeons and Beyond Dragons
..................................................................... 200 Chapter Three: System The
Rules of the Game.................................................................... 203 3.1 A History
of Wargames .....................................................................................................
204 3.1.1 Games of War Before
1780....................................................................................... 205 3.1.2 The
Brunswick Gamers (1780 1811) ...................................................................... 212
3.1.3 Reiswitz, Father and Son (1811 1824)
.................................................................... 221 3.1.4 The Kriegsspiel Vogue
(1824 1881)........................................................................ 237 3.1.5 Toy
Soldiery (1881 1914) ..........................................................................................
251 3.1.6 Wargaming and the World Wars (1914 1945)
....................................................... 270 3.1.7 The Civilian Revolution (1945
1968) ...................................................................... 283 3.2 System in Dungeons
& Dragons........................................................................................... 303 3.2.1
The Instruments of
Play............................................................................................. 304 3.2.2
Avoiding Death: Hit Points, Armor Class and Saving Throws ...........................
320 3.2.3 Stratified
Progression.................................................................................................. 341
3.2.4. Individuation, Personality and Requisites
.............................................................. 359 Chapter Four: Character Roles and
Immersion .................................................................... 373 4.1 Coalitions at
RAND and in Diplomacy ............................................................................. 376
.................................................................................. 386
................................................................................................................... 387
4.2.2 The Mariposan Empire
.............................................................................................. 391 4.3
Personalities by
Post........................................................................................................... 400 4.4
Improvisation and
Anachronism...................................................................................... 413 4.5
Hyboria and the Campaign as Story
................................................................................ 425 4.5.1 Dramatizing
Games .................................................................................................... 427
4.5.2 Characters Run Amok
................................................................................................ 433 4.6 The
Midgard Phenomenon
............................................................................................... 441 4.6.1 Midgard
in the United Kingdom .............................................................................. 445
4.6.2 Midgard II and Beyond
.............................................................................................. 449 4.7 Characters
and Role-Playing ............................................................................................. 455
Chapter Five: The Dawn of Role-Playing (1974 1977)
.......................................................... 459
vii
5.1 Finding an Audience
...........................................................................................................459
5.2 Selling the Story
...................................................................................................................464
5.3 Converting the Wargamers
................................................................................................474
5.4 Dungeons & Dragons in Los Angeles Fandom
..................................................................487
5.5 The Seeds of Success
..........................................................................................................494
5.6 Alarming
Excursions...........................................................................................................509
5.7 The Summer Conventions of 1975
..................................................................................522
5.8 The Bully Pulpit of Lake
Geneva......................................................................................535
5.9 Canonicity and Control
......................................................................................................550 5.9.1 The
Copyright on Dungeons &
Dragons.....................................................................551 5.9.2 License to
Compete.....................................................................................................557
5.9.3 Parting of the Ways
.....................................................................................................571
5.10 D&D among the
RPGs....................................................................................................573
Epilogue: Role-Playing and
Reality..............................................................................................595 Popular
Magic.............................................................................................................................597
Programmable
Dungeons.........................................................................................................605
The First Virtual
Worlds...........................................................................................................616
Selected
Bibliography.....................................................................................................................633
Game Zine
Index.......................................................................................................................633
Other Game Zines
Mentioned............................................................................................638 SF
Zines.......................................................................................................................................639
Distributions
..........................................................................................................................639
FanZines
.................................................................................................................................640
Game
Citations...........................................................................................................................641
Fiction..........................................................................................................................................646
Prozines...................................................................................................................................647
Books.......................................................................................................................................647
Comic
Books..........................................................................................................................651
Further
Reading..........................................................................................................................651
Index.................................................................................................................................................659
viii
FIGURES
Figure 1: Dungeons & Dragons, first
edition......................................................................................1 Figure 2: Tactics
(1954) board, with pieces ......................................................................................3
Figure 3: Gygax's First "Opponents Wanted" Advertisement
....................................................9
......................................................................12 Figure 5: Wargaming in
Wesely's basement..................................................................................19 Figure
6: Elastolin castle from The Siege of Bodenburg
...................................................................21 Figure 7: Map of the Great
Kingdom [DB:#9] ...........................................................................31 Figure 8:
Don Lowry (R) in
1973...................................................................................................36 Figure 9:
First edition
Chainmail......................................................................................................41
Figure 10: International Wargamer, featuring Don't Give up the ship
...............................................51 Figure 11: Strategos N
(1970)............................................................................................................59
Figure 12: Arneson's map of Blackmoor [DB:#12]
....................................................................66 Figure 13: TSR's Gygyax/Kaye
"GK" Logo ................................................................................80 Figure 14:
Pulps (L to R) from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s
......................................................91 Figure 15: Howard (R) enacting "Spear &
Fang" ........................................................................94 Figure 16: Arkham and
Gnome editions of Leiber and Howard........................................... 102 Figure
17: Ace Books editions of the Lord of the Rings
............................................................. 106 Figure 18: Panel from Strange Tales
#167 that inspired the D&D cover .............................. 109 Figure 19: Bill Speer
(2nd from L) and Scott Duncan (R) [AHG:v4n3]............................... 110 Figure
20: Dragon from a medieval bestiary (MS Harley
3244)............................................. 137 Figure 21: Manticore from Topsell
(1607)................................................................................. 154 Figure 22:
Lightning bolts cast by Thor (Journey into Mystery #93)
......................................... 168 Figure 23: Bishop Odo in the Bayeux Tapestry,
eleventh century ........................................ 174 Figure 24: A life-stealing mirror,
from Conan the Barbarian #25 ............................................. 199 Figure 25: A
Roman icosahedral die, first century CE.............................................................
206 Figure 26: Weickhmann's four-and six-player Königs-spiel boards
......................................... 211 Figure 27: Pieces from Hellwig's 1803
Kriegsspiel ...................................................................... 215 Figure 28:
Venturini's Wargame Map
(1797)............................................................................. 219 Figure 29: Reiswitz
Taktisches Kriegs-Spiel (1812).................................................................. 225
Figure 30: Illustration of two die faces, from Reiswitz's Anleitung (1824)
............................ 236 Figure 31: Combat table from Baring's translation of
Tschischwitz ..................................... 242 Figure 32: Heinrichsen flats, early
twentieth century ............................................................... 253 Figure 33: Map
from Stevenson's campaign.............................................................................. 258
Figure 34: A Britains 4.7 Naval
gun............................................................................................ 262 Figure 35:
Early players in Little
Wars......................................................................................... 266 Figure 36:
Bel Geddes playing his wargame
.............................................................................. 278 Figure 37: A female
gamer in Pratt's rulebook.......................................................................... 282
Figure 38: Hexagonal wargame board at
RAND...................................................................... 286 Figure 39: The Tactics
Combat Results Table ............................................................................ 288
Figure 40: Game Pieces from Tactics (L) and Tactics II (R)
...................................................... 290 Figure 41: Jack Scruby (L) and Homer
Delabar (R)................................................................. 295 Figure 42: Dungeon
map from Greyhawk, drawn by Mornard ............................................. 305
Figure 43: Polyhedral dice from the Basic
Set............................................................................. 312 Figure 44: Chainmail
"Man-to-Man Melee Table"..................................................................... 326
ix
Figure 45: Blackmoor "Wizard Gaylord" Character Sheet
......................................................367 Figure 46: Diplomacy board
(1959)................................................................................................384 Figure
47: Map of Angria by Branwell
Brontë...........................................................................389
.......................................397 Figure 49: Postal Diplomacy propaganda by
Gygax [LD:#12]..................................................406 Figure 50: In-character
Napoleonic Campaign letter from Gygax.........................................410 Figure
51: Illustration by Bobek of Diplomacy participants [LD:#3]
......................................413 Figure 52: Tony Bath
.....................................................................................................................426
Figure 53: Four game newsletters, from Coventry, Midgard, Hyboria and
Ruritania.........437 Figure 54: Minneapa #42 cover
.....................................................................................................462 Figure 55:
Early TSR
flyer.............................................................................................................465
Figure 56: Gygax at GenCon VII
(1974)....................................................................................475 Figure 57:
MiniFigs "Mythical Earth" series
..............................................................................476 Figure 58: TSR Royalty
Agreement (1975) with Gygax and Arneson ...................................497 Figure
59: Doctor Strange casts "Mirror Image"
......................................................................504 Figure 60: Early Alarums &
Excursions........................................................................................511 Figure
61: Gygax (top center) running D&D at Origins I
(1975)..........................................528 Figure 62: The Horticultural Hall, Lake
Geneva.......................................................................531 Figure 63: The four
Dungeons & Dragons supplements .............................................................545
Figure 64: Advertisement for Tunnels & Trolls as an
RPG.......................................................556 Figure 65: Gygax D&D tutorial at
Origins II (1976) ...............................................................563 Figure 66:
Metamorphosis Alpha marketed as an
