David Arneson Interview

Following up on yesterday’s interview with Gary Gygax, Computer Games Online has posted up an interview with the other half of the beginning of fantasy role-playing as we know it, David Arneson. Although not getting as much credit as Gygax, Arneson was extremely influential to Dungeons & Dragons, as his “dungeon crawl” wargame campaign set brought D&D much of its content. Here’s a quick excerpt from the interview:

What do you think of role-playing games for the computer? Do you think they have evolved significantly in the last twenty years?

Early role-playing games really were not much about role-playing. Just fighting with different characters that had different weapons. Lame. Today there is more online play. So how many MUD’S do you think are out there?

AI is still not up to replacing a referee in cartridges and consoles. But even these are, unfortunately, better that some referees. A referee can make or break any role-playing game experience. A good referee can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. A bad referee can wreck the best game or module ever printed.