Yipes, first Gygax and now Arneson. Well these days had to come eventually....sigh' RIP

Thank you, Dave, for all that you have given to the world. I am new to D&D, but, I have been playing various RPGs that you and Gary helped directly create or inspire. You will be missed.

First Gary Gygax, now Dave Arneson! this sucks!!!!

R.I.P. Mr. Arneson - you will be missed.

I bought a copy of chainmail when it came out. I have my blue box copy of D&D. I have played every campaign and edition. Loved some more than others. This game is as much a part of my life as my children and grandchildren are. I have to give credit to the game for teaching me social skills, that I didn't have in jr.high, confidence as a public speaker, being a game master is just that, and may other positive things. Not to mentions the many friends I have made and have because of the game. If not for the great gife Dave and Gray gave the world I know that my life would be much poorer. I had the honor of meeting Dave once and he was a kind and generous person. The legacy that he helped create will live on for generations to come. I can only hope that he had at least a little understanding of how greatly he touched so many lives. I say thank you so much for all that you have given me. Your name and the gifts you gave will be remembered for a very very long time.

He failed his saving throw.

Power Word: Sad

RIP, Dave.

And, thank you.

You'll be missed and I'm still to this day honored that I got to spend time with you as a student at Full Sail a few years ago. May you rest in peace!

My condolences go out to Mr. Arneson's family. Along with Gary Gygax, he was a childhood hero. His creativity fostered mine.
He will be missed.

My deepest condolences to his family.

I've been table-top gaming for almost twenty years, and have had the pleasure of reading both Gygax & Arneson's works. Because of their creations and efforts, we have table-top, computer, and live-action role-playing games today. Without their efforts, I believe that the entire gaming industry (including the board game & CCG markets) would be vastly different (if they existed at all).

I'll be buying a drink tonight and raising it in your honor, sir. I choose not to mourn your death, but to celebrate your life and the lives of all those you touched through your works.

I'm deeply saddened by this news. I began playing D&D back when Greyhawk was the just-released new expansion to the original three booklets, and when a copy of Chainmail was essential for playing D&D. It brought me *many* hours of pleasure, and established friendships that have lasted for more than thirty years. Thank you, Dave. You will be missed here. I hope you're in an afterlife where you can always roll double zero when you want it.

mis condolencias a toda la familia del señor Dave Arneson, quien sera recordado por siempre entre los jugadores Argentinos de D&D. Es una pena no poder ir a rendirle los honores personalmente a tan gran figura quien en su labor unio a todo el mundo en la gran coltura de los juegos de rol.

R.I.P. Rest in peace
Q.E.P.D que en paz descanse.

I'm deeply, deeply ashamed that I had to wait for him to die before I knew about his life. RIP Dave, we owe you so very, very much.

He gave me friends I would have never have spoken with.

He gave me insight into good men.

HE has given me the chance to watch boys grow, change, become men and hold onto a bond that would have never existed.

If he did not give me these things, his game did. It is a debt I could never pay, and pray his reward is great.

SGT Kane. Camp Liberty, Iraq

Same here.
Sigh.
I didn´t even know who gary was untill he died.

I must be the worst gamer ever :(

Now nothing stands in the way of Wizards raping the vulture-picked bones of TSR's majestic legacy... I weep.

Lichdom awaits.

RIP Dave. D&D was a focus of many hours of liesure and entertainment. I am truly grateful for that.

"He failed his saving throw"
Even gods fail when they roll a "1"
Gods speed Dave, and thank you and yours for the adventures.

D&D is finally dead, first Gary than D&D with 4th ed. and now Dave... Sad times for gaming.

Thanks, Dave, for helping to invent table-top RPing and inspiring others who grew up on D&D and letting their imaginations run wild. It was innovative, brilliant and you left a mark on the world that people enjoyed.

Not all of us get to be important, powerful or heroic in real life but you gave even the meekest and most awkward of us a chance to shine. Even if it was only through a D20 and a character sheet.

Thanks for the great times and the much needed self-esteem in high school, Dave.

R.I.P. Father of RPGs. We gamers will never forget the great gift you and EGG gave us.

The Creators are dead.

Long Live the Creators!!

Rats. Everyone cool is dead.

I loot the corpse.

...

What? Like he wouldn't have done the same?

Thank you, Dave, for all the fun I have had and am still having with gaming. RIP

That settles it. I'm joing a 1st edition game tonight! The (other) King is Dead. Long Live the King!

Few people can claim that they have an huge impact on the culture of the entire world - Dave could do so and it will go on and on and on.

RIP Dave. You were a true gentleman...

===

(aside: @article author: Apologies for not saying so sooner, but please credit your sources as misinterpreting Wikipedia - for when Dave left TSR, for example - is kinda lame)

I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I war 12 years old, that was 28 years ago.
I played through High School, when it was "Evil" and "Satanic". It gave me a place to belong, where smart, intelligent, creative and imaginative were not dirty words. It taught me teamwork, leadership, honor and integrity. Gary and Dave were there, in spirit, showing me the way.
I played throughout the US Army during some of the military's most trying times in the first gulf war. I made friends that i would have never made before, finding a common group of friends that crossed all social line, ranks and sexes. It solidified my soul in dark times. Gary and Dave were there reminding me that I can be strong and honorable at the same time. That some have to lead.
I played for years after leaving the military, eventually playing games at RPGA groups and various Con's. I moved into the field of Software development professionally, after spending hours of learning to write programs to automate random weather generation (off of the old revised second editions, the ones with the orange covers) and random wilderness encounters. lol, I even met my wife playing DnD!! Gary and Dave were there, smiling as they reminded me, to the victor, goes the spoils!
I now play with at least 3 differing groups every month (yes, at 40 I play at least 3 times a month).
This game has shaped my life, my morals, and my work. I can NEVER express the depth of my admiration, respect or what I owe to the two most impressive men in my life. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The world is truly a sadder place without them, dull, gray and lifeless. Its' creative soul has been dimmed. Woe to the survivors that face the cannibalistic cabal that is Wizards of the Coast. Doom has come upon us, and it is them.

Dave, I don't know what you had in mind when you sat down with Gary and created the Blackmoor campaign and the Dungeons & Dragons game. I doubt you could have forseen how far it would come and how much the game would grow.

I have built friendships through the game you created and through the countless other RPGs that have been spawned by your ideas. Through these games, I learned confidence and self esteem, I learned teamwork and trust, I learned how to follow and how to lead.

Now, I am teaching my children to play. You may have shuffled off this mortal coil, but your legacy lives on. You continue to touch lives.

Why, why, why! Because it's all logic and reason now. Science, progress, laws of hydraulics, laws of social dynamics, laws of this, that, and the other. No place for three-legged cyclops in the South Seas. No place for cucumber trees and oceans of wine. No place for me. Now that I am 59 I begin to understand the great Baron Munchausen,and why he welcomed death.

check http://yourtvonline.com

In the names of the Gods of light, I thank Sir David for giving me life. Many are we who exist only because of his pen. I live in a hard world, where tribes of vile orcs loot and burn, where demons foul listen for their names, where undead haunt the night. But we few heroes exist to fight evil, defend the weak, and put right great wrongs. My world is harsh, but without Sir David, my world would be more than harsh-- it would be nothing. Sir David, those such as I salute you.

Thanks Dave for being my friend , you will be missed .My deepest condolences go out to Dave's family

i am new to d and d but have loved role playing games all my life im am sad to say but both of the original rpg creators are dead i hope that the are are eternally rembered as the fathers of rpgs and modern gaming

Thanks for the game Mr.Arneson.
Mexican rol players honors the Creator.

Who will stop the marketing madness in D&D 4E now??

Fellows, pray silence.

*stands, head bowed*

Another veteran has fallen. Another defender of True D&D has passed beyond the veils and gone to his eternal reward.

Let us remember him with pride. Let us remember him with honour.

Above all, let us remember him with love, for truly he was a unique man, with an exceptional vision.

Raise a glass, a tankard, a skin... raise them with me now, and honour this man.

Let us hear no more of this wailing and gnashing of teeth at the decay of his vision. Let us hear no more cries that his creation has died. Let us here no more of this crying of woes to the skies.

There may come a time when his vision will fail, but that is not now.

There may come a day when the last of the gamers who still support the ideals for which he stood will fall, but that day is not here.

There may come a dawn when there is naught left but the virtual, and pen and paper, and yes, even dice, may lie scattered and forgotten, and the gaming tables will echo with forgotten tales before falling silent and empty.

But that is not this dawn.

This dawn, this day, his vision still stands, for whilst there are still gamers who support his ideals, children who yearn to be taught the ways of pen and paper, and good friends willing to brave all to make it to the gaming table for yet one more round of role-play, his vision lives still.

His ideas are with us still, in the minds of the timid child who finds courage and self-confidence through his role-play; in the hearts of the parents who delight in gaming with their children; in the souls of those old friends who still get together after so many years for one more night of playing.

So raise your drinks my friends, and toast this man, his vision, his work, and his life. Truly, he was an inspiration to us all.

Fare thee well Master Arneson.... Dave... You shall be missed, but never forgotten.

I was once instructed by a fellow who astutely pointed out that the really big breakthroughs come at the intersection of different sciences. When I was told this, I did not give it the thought it deserved to validate the quality of this observation. Since that time I have come to appreciate this keen insight as I share it with you now.

Breakthroughs happen by accident, and once such accident has had profound effects on all of us.

It happened many years ago, in fact back in 1972 or so when a very small company in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin added a unique “supplement” to a set of rules for medieval combat called “Chainmail”.

This supplement added the possibility for recreating fantasy combat based upon the literary work “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien. This “afterthought” rules addendum provoked such a positive response that shortly thereafter the two founders Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson of this small company “Tactical Studies Rules” created a new product.

In 1974 three booklets were published that expanded upon this original idea, and “Dungeons and Dragons” was born.

The phenomenon of this work is extremely important to understand. Initially the idea was to add a fantasy element to an existing methodology for recreation of historical battles or in this case, battles that only were the results of fantasy literature.

This work bridged two different worlds. It brought together, military simulation with storytelling. Not just any storytelling, fantasy/mythological storytelling. It was a bridge between the world of literature and mathematics. Rule sets evolved, and in the next 20 years an explosion of expression of this hybrid form of literature evolved and was accelerated by the advancement of technology.

Much of what we do in gaming today, every time we pick up a game and become a "character" is in fact a direct result of what happened in this little out of the way town in the early 1970's and the heated discussions between Dave Arnson and Gary Gygax.

I met Dave twice in my life, both times at San Francisco Gaming Conventions. We had a few short conversations of which I remember little other than he seemed like a very nice guy, and easy to be around. I remember that he laughed often.

Thanks Dave for sticking to your guns. You will be missed.

Sincerely,

Saxondragon

Henceforth shall each convocation of the gaming group be called together in remembrance of St. Gygax and St. Arneson, our intercessors with the dice gods.

Thank you, Dave. Your spark of genius altered literally millions of lives, including mine.

He made us all heroes.

I want to thank all of you for the kind words about my good friend Dave Arneson.

Having read a lot of web comments in the last few days, I keep seeing one thing that bothers me, so I'm going to try to correct it:
D&D was not descended from Chainmail, though a lot of the obit writers think it was.
The sequence is:
1) After a few years of running multiplayer historical role playing campaigns, Dave starts up Blackmoor his medieval, fantasy RPG in MAY 1971.
2) When his players complain that the hand-to-hand combat rules he is using are poor, he grabs a copy of Chainmail - which has no fantasy suppliment at that time
3) At Gencon, in AUG 1971, he shows Blackmoor to Gary. Gary starts up Greyhawk
and they start exchanging ideas on how to improve the campaigns.
4) In 1972 Gary adds the Fantasy suppliment to Chainmail, making it a lot more useful in the two campaigns.
5) David R. Megarry, a player in Blackmoor, invents the boardgame DUNGEON. He cannot find a publisher for it, but plays it with Arneson, who he credits for inspiration. At the same time, Arneson credits Megarry for having identified the unique possibilities in the dungeon crawl as a game mechanism
that he had not. The Dungeon becomes the dominant place to play the game.
6) Arneson and Gygax create the D&D rules
and look for a publisher
7) Gygax risks everything he owns to start G&K Enterprises, with his friend Don Kaye. G&K products are called Tactical Studies Rules, and include a new game - D&D
8) Don dies, and G&K becomes TSR, Inc.
9) TSR publishes Greyhawk and Blackmoor as campaign supplimetnts to D&D
10) TSR publishes DUNGEON
A lot of people get confused because the publication dates of these D&D ancestors after the date for D&D; but those are just the order they were published in, not the order they were invented in.

I will be at the viewing (on the 20th) and the funeral (on the 21st) and I hope to see all of you there.
When I visited Dave in the hospital the Saturday night before he died, he said he wanted us to all have a good time seeing him off. So folks, if you can get here, come on up, be polite, say good bye, and be happy.

-Dave Wesely

Having read a lot of web comments in the last few days, I keep seeing one thing that bothers me, so I'm going to try to correct it:The Styles and Tips of Your Own Asian Interior Decorating

Sad times that we lose both founders of the hobby we love so much. But if we truly want to honour thier memory, and I do, then don't let the world stop us from continuing where they left off. Play the games, write the stories, build the worlds and sing the songs of heroes past and present. In this way their legacy continues into the future.

I owe a lot personally to both Mr Gygax and Mr Arneson, and whilst I never had the honour of meeting either of them, I'd like to think that I knew them in some small way through thier work. D&D kept me from sinking down into the abyss during tough times. Mr Arnesons work in the establishment of campaign worlds both inspired and gave me the tools to build my own, and a lot of the writing therein saved me from going under. Each time that world sees game time now it is, in its own way, a small tribute to Mr Arneson.

My sincerest condolences to the family. RIP Dave. May you continue to create worlds forever.

Dave, Gary, you will both be missed. I am a young game, but I am a gamer. I have enjoyed playing Dungeons & Dragons with my friends for several years. Without you many of my fondest memories would not be. The dice will be silent in my home for some time, but in my heart they will always roll. Thank you.

Sad days these days, as a lot of players, DnD gave me a lot of fond memories.They gave me help beyond recognition.
You will be missed, but never forgotten

No matter how many Role playing Games I have played over the last 30 years, I always came back to D&D for the enjoyment it gave me. While Advanced became my favourite edition with my Caotic Good Paladin class that I played, I have played and enjoyed all versions with friends and others that were to become my friends.
I can't thank Dave enough for giving me a wonderful life both in and out of the fantasy realm. He will be thought of with kindness now and in future days.

the coolest part about people like Arneson and Gygax.. is that they would probably get a kick out of people making saving-throw and lich jokes about their deaths.

At very least, like that one guy said.. makes ya think about all that time we spent reading what were essentially their words. From DM guides to Player Handbooks.. it's neat how people's passions and dreams get passed on to those who did not really know them. Influence is a crazy thing, like that.

He will be missed by many who knew him. In my eyes if it was not for him D&D would never have been. Gary who was more famous, helped tweek Dave's idea.

Though it don't really matter, just wish he would get the credit he deserves from all of us gamers.

Both are going to be missed.

I've played RPGs since some 25-30 years (memory hazy...). Through them, I meet the people I call friends, I honed the skills that later helped me find a job, I found the woman I married. In short, Dave's creation shaped what's my whole life.

I also knew people that I got to help, whose lives would be worse hadn't we meet thanks to a game, and whose well-being is now part of my life. Dave's creation shaped my life and the life of my loved ones.

I have no doubt I'm not alone. Many others have tales like mine. Dave, you gave us not "a fantasy world", you gave us "THE world". The REAL one.

I rise my lichdoom jokes to him.

I have been playing D&D since I was 8 years old... I wasn't very good in the begining but I got better. I am 14 now and I feel I owe it to one of the greatest influences of my life. If I was in a deep spot in my day, I would reflect on what I have done in my adventures. It helped me so much... I guess you could say in very short terms is:

Dave I love you as one of my greatest insparations.

Forever yours in the afterlife,

Jake the Bold

Jeez, 4th Edition killed Gygax and now Arneson couldn't take it anymore. I hate 4e even more now.

Long live Arenson-Gygaxian D&D! Down with WotC!

As I think about the campaign I will soon play, albiet over instant messangers due to distance issues (I still play in close contact, hardcore Pen and Paper style too!) I know, because of these Great People it is possible.

All the joy, the excitement. All the happiness.
All of it.
All of it because of them.

Bless both of you.
May your legacies live on for all time.
May there be a joyus afterlife for you both.
I wish you as much happiness and utter glee as you have brought me.

Rest In Peace.

You have to imagine. How amazing one of their sessions must have been.

As I am about to start playing a new campaign (albiet over instant messangers due to distance issues. Hey, I still play close contact Pen and Paper too!) I think about what this Great Person has given us.

Both you and Gygax must have worked so hard. And we thank you for it.

We owe you all the exicetment and fun that comes out of D.n.D. This makes us all hope that there is an afterlife, and it is awesome enough to credit you.

Rest in Peace.

We've got to imagine how awesome their sessions must have been.

Ah, almost a doublepost! It said it didn't upload yesterday!

Rest in Peace.

Thanks for helping to create my favorite game, Rest well