TSR and Dungeons & Dragons – A 1973 Retrospective

Kent David Kelly, a veteran writer and RPG designer, has this project known as Castle Oldskull where he sells various tabletop RPG supplements. The website for that project has a blog packed to the brim with insightful articles covering the origins of tabletop RPGs and Dungeons & Dragons in particular.

Once you’re done here, feel free to explore that place at your leisure. But first, you might want to check out a five-part series of articles that builds a detailed timeline for 1973 in the context of Gary Gygax and TSR – Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V.

Here’s an excerpt from the first part to get you started:

February 1973: Changeling Earth, aka Ardneh’s World, by Fred Saberhagen, is published. (Possible inspirations for D&D include Orcus, extra-planar monsters, arch-mages, and the ethos of lawful evil.)

February 1973: Tolkien: A Look Behind the Lord of the Rings is published (Lin Carter, Ballantine). Perhaps noteworthy because we know that Gary prided himself on prowling the bookstores and reading all new major fantasy releases, and he was particularly focused on the Ballantine imprint and the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. Carter discusses Tolkien in the context of the history of fantastical literature, which makes Gary’s later insistence that in creating Dungeons & Dragons he drew upon Tolkien’s sources (the Elder Edda etc.) – and many other sources – rather than Tolkien proper quite a bit more interesting.

February 13, 1973: In continuing correspondence, Gary reassures Arneson that his (Gary’s) ascent in Guidon Games will mean that the current payment issues – Dave Arneson and David Megarry have not been paid by Lowry for their creative contributions – will cease. Arneson would likely be somewhat encouraged by this news.

Mid- or Late February 1973: Arneson and Megarry make it down to Lake Geneva for a weekend of dungeon gaming. First Megarry demonstrates his prototype boardgame, The Dungeons of Pasha Cada. Arneson then demonstrates his refereed blind game of dungeon exploration, as a representative play mode from the Twin Cities Blackmoor campaign. Gary will be deeply inspired to pursue publication (and his own co-authorship) of both games with Arneson and Megarry.