More Research-- D&D and its Spin-offs

Once Dungeons & Dragons had become relatively popular, it was only natural that other companies would publish their own spin-offs and versions of the game. Today's post is a look at some of these, with most of the information from the History of Roleplaying, Part II article referenced last time.

• Tunnels and Trolls (St. Andre, 1975): Created by Ken St Andre, T&T is very similar to its counterpart D&D, but the most interesting point between the two games are their differences. T&T's rules relied on 6-sided dice rolls for just about everthing, whereas in D&D, there are all different shapes of dice, from 4 sides up to 20-sided. T&T's combat and spell tables were well presented and clear for players to understand. The final difference between the two games is that Tunnels and Trolls was built to be fun. It was supposed to be silly and the writing was full of jokes. Enemies were giant squirrels instead of fierce dragons or other mythical creatures.

• Chivalry and Sorcery (Fantasy Games Unlimited, 1976): While T&T was all fun and games, Chivalry and Sorcery got down to business about being historically accurate, much more so than D&D. The rules and style of the game intend to recreate late 12th century France, not as just a setting, but as a society. Players must find their character a place in a complete feudal system including nobles, serfs, and the widespread power of the Catholic church. C&S did away with much of what D&D had established as RPG canon. Instead of dungeon battles, C&S used overland quests, and the enemies were Vikings and Picts instead of mythical creatures. Players could use magic, but their characters needed to study to learn more. C&S tried to do too much to be realistic. Besides having complex rules and tables, Cleric characters had to preach sermons, knights had to earn money from quests to buy swords and armor, and magic users had to collect ingredients, study spells and perform rituals! All of this took time away from adventures (and fun!).
• Empire of the Petal Throne (M.A.R. Barker, 1975): Barker created a fantasy world called Tekumel, including a complete language for its main country, but, lacking talent in writing, had nothing to do with either. Twenty years after Barker abandoned Tekumel, he discovered D&D, using the world of Tekumel as his game setting. Petal Throne's detail and descriptions were laid out precisely for players since Barker knew exactly what the world looked like. The world of Tekumel was not based on a Westernized, medieval world, but rather Barker's own experiences in India and Asia. One of the biggest problems with Petal Throne was that it wsa so specific. It was said that only Barker himself could successfully run a Petal Throne campaign. Players had to know Tekumel before they could role play well in the strange setting, so the game often confused players.

Each of these games did help the RPG industry, borrowing ideas from one another to enrich players' experiences, although none stayed as popular as D&D.

Research Findings, Part 2-Fantasy Wargames to D&D

I left off last in my research findings telling how the release of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy revolutionized the traditional, historical wargaming format and changed it into a fantasy genre. The next step in the evolution of fantasy war games into true role playing games is credited to two men: Ernest "Gary" Gygax and David Arneson. Referring back to Steve Darlington's article "RPG History Part One", Gary Gygax and some of his friends in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin had created a war game that "gave an accurate model of most aspects of medieval warfare". The game was called Chainmail, and was published by Tactical Studies Rules, or TSR, which was Gygax's company, and later versions of Chainmail include rules about giants, trolls, dragons, and magic spells.

While Chainmail wasn't a role playing game at the time, big changes were on the way for Gygax. Gygax was a member of a local medieval warfare enthusiasts' group called The Castles and Crusades Society while he was writing the rules for Chainmail. David Arneson, another member of this group was experimenting with role palying concepts in 1968. Arneson assigned roles and responsibilities to the members of the warfare group while they acted out battles, and the players had to stay in their role of the king, or the knight. This idea interested Gygax and together he collaborated with Arneson in the early 1970s to modify the Chainmail game system into a true role playing game. Later versions of the modified Chainmail rules became the earliest versions of Dungeons and Dragons.

Unfortunately, all was not magical and perfect with Gygax and Arneson's business partnership. According to Darlington's article, Arneson left TSR less than a year after Dungeons and Dragons was realeased. TSR continued to prosper and publish the game, but did not pay Arneson the royalties he was legally entitled to. Gary Gygax is thought of as the sole founder of role playing games, but Arneson has been forgotten.

Dungeons and Dragons got off to a slow start. In "A History of Role-Playing Part II", Gygax is quoted as saying that the public's opinion of the game was "not a hot reception". It took over a year for the first thousand copies of the D&D system rules to sell out, however the second thousand copies sold out in under six months. By 1979, D&D was selling 7000 copies a month.

D&D received criticism for being too complicated or too simple. The game rules written for the players belonging to Gygax and Arneson's gaming circles, so the rules and styles were unfamiliar to beginner players. The rulebooks for early D&D rely on the players already having extensive knowledge of the Chainmail combat rules. Spells were vague and combat statistics tables were difficult to interpret. This forced players to create their own rules and work around the vague or complex parts of the game. It was the idea and potential of the game that kept people playing.