Dave Arneson
11 04 2009
As you may have heard the second founding father of Dungeons and Dragons died on Tuesday.
Dave Arneson created D&D along with Gary Gygax (who sadly passed away last year) and was responsible for some of the touchstones of the game that persist today. Despite being employed by TSR briefly Dave left to pursue his own projects and had to fight a lengthy legal battle to be recognised as one of the creators of D&D. He continued to develop his own projects, and for a time worked as a lecturer for Full Sail University.
By all accounts Dave Arneson was a wonderful human being, a wonderful inventor of stories and an unsung hero of the RPG world. He will be missed by his loved ones and mourned by those who will now never have the chance to meet him.
You know recently I’ve been reading Ansel Adam’s autobiography and with Robert Anton Wilson, Gary Gygax and now Dave Arneson all gone I feel like all the wise old men are slowly dissappearing from this world. I suggest you learn what you can from the ones left before it’s too late to tell them how they touched your life.
A year ago my Grandad became very ill whilst on holiday, forcing him, my Nanan, Dad and Mum to stay with him at intensive care over Christmas. I’m told most people believed that he wasn’t going to pull through,but fortunately he recovered. He’s now very weak and has trouble walking but he still cuts my hair and breeds canaries in his back yard, and I now realise that in a few years he probably won’t be there anymore. I now treasure every minute I get to spend with him and absorb every tidbit of information he deigns to reveal. Even the slightly disturbing facts about where he used to hide his chewing gum.
I leave you with a quote from a man vastly more pithy than I:
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.
-Mark Twain
1 Comment to Dave Arneson
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Indeed sir, I very much regret not listening more to my Grandad (the one I can really remember) when he was around. I spent time with him and listened to the stories he chose to tell, but I never asked for more, when I think of him now I wish I had.
One of my greatest regrets in life is that I didn’t visit him in hospital. Neither the first time, when he got better and came home again, nor the second time- the last time -when he didn’t. It really is true, you only truly regret the things you didn’t do.
I spoke at his funeral, I can only hope he was listening…
I think you’re right my friend, we don’t appreciate our elders enough these days. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons everything seems to move from shit storm to turd tornado year after year.
Nice quote too dude :o)