""Bye Bye, Two Hour Wargames..." Well, Not Exactly..." Topic

Does that leave the new target clients wondering and asking what the "W" stands for?

Dan

It shouldn't. Thousands of D&D players never asked what "TSR" stood for, and would probably be aghast that they started life producing two of the best original wargames rule sets: Chainmail, and Tractic.

In fact, D&D started life as a short supplement for Chainmail that allowed you to refight things like ST. George & the Dragon, King Arthur & Merlin's adventures, etc.

I well remember being a teenager and playing with those first sets down to Salt lake City at John McEwan's house with the Wasatch Wargamers.

LOL, TSR – Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. I made all the changes in my copy of Chainmail from a memograph copy sent to me by Dave Arneson for his fantasy dream. I still have that along with the original set of Chainmail and the first edition of D&D (3 vol booklets). Chainmail is still a pretty good set of rules for knights. I painted my first set of 25mm minis of those knights. I think I still have some of them somewhere, lol. Thanks for bringing back memories that I thought were gone.

-a

In fact, D&D started life as a short supplement for Chainmail that allowed you to refight things like ST. George & the Dragon, King Arthur & Merlin's adventures, etc.

As a member of Arneson's group, I can attest that this, while the "official" (read Gygax/Blume) version, is utter nonsense.

rmaker,

I've read a couple of the D&D history books that have come out recently, is there a good one that covers the 'Arneson' side of the story?

Rich

Watch for the upcoming movie "Secrets of Blackmoor". Trailer here:

YouTube link

Also, Rob Kuntz is supposed to be writing a book, title and release date unknown.

You should know that John Peterson's book was funded by Gary's widow and follows the official line pretty closely.

Cool, thanks for the link.

The interplay between idea and execution is always an interesting story, at least when you're detached from the situation.

My first set of gaming rules, Chainmail. Played with N Gauge figures from the Soldier Factory. Now there's some trivia.

After playing sci-fi boardgames to death starting in 1975, mine was Starguard! back in 1976… been downhill in an trans-warp-drive-propelled toboggan ever since…

Keep thunderin' forward, Ed!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
silent-death.mx

Excellent "Wargaming" company and Ed Teixeira is one of the best!!

Not to derail the thread, but in answer to Rich's query re Dave Arneson – in the 80s I read an interview with him – seems he'd been running a wargaming campaign for his regular group, and one night they turned up and he had a castle set up that their troops could enter and explore – that was was the beginning of D&D, and his long-running Blackmoor campaign.