Dave Arneson's Health Takes Final Turn • Page 3 • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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Dave Arneson's Health Takes Final Turn
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Invincible Overlord
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:20 am

Farewell Dave.

Another great legend to our game lost.

Alexander
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:19 am

Farewell Dave. Having interviewed you and Gary Gygax was truly a great honour.

JohnGaunt
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 11:01 pm

Order of the Stick has a tribute to Dave Arneson:

. . . http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0644.html

Xaxaxe
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 11:45 pm

Dork Tower:

http://www.dorktower.com/2009/04/08/dor ... anks-dave/

Alexander
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:26 am

Steve Jackson commented too:

"Dave Arneson, co-creator of the original Dungeons & Dragons, died on April 7.

Dave never did get as much attention as the other guy whose name was on the box, and he never will. Sometimes things just work out that way. But it was, from all accounts, Dave who had the original breakthrough idea "What if instead of commanding an army of miniatures, you were just playing a singlefigure . . . call him 'your character' . . . and that figure could try to do anything you could think of?"

I didn't know Dave as well as I would have liked to, but I never heard him say a grumpy word (an amazing thing, in this often-grumpy hobby), and I always enjoyed his company. He was one of the good guys.

Rick Loomis has written a short but heartfelt tribute to Dave ( http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/arneson.htm ) , and the current episode of Rich Burlew's Order of the Stick ( http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0644.html ) gives credit where credit is due".

I am a bit irritated by that "by all accounts" (Tim Kask for example seems to have a different view...) but everybody is entitled to his opinion.

Wandering Monster
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 9:14 am

Hey everyone,

News of Dave's passing hit the Associated Press, and is one of the lead stories on Yahoo this morning:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090410/ap_ ... ve_arneson

Best,
JohnH
aka Wandering Monster

P.S.: My condolences to his family, friends and fans -- we wouldn't be here in this place without you and Gary!

Wandering Monster
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 9:21 am

Hi everyone,

FYI, Wizards of the Coast also has a memorial, like they did with Gary last year:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/welcome

Best,
JohnH
aka Wandering Monster

bbarsh
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 9:48 am

The simple truth is that Arneson should be as big a name as Gygax. At the very least he is in my mind. Blackmoor is one of my favorite settings/adventures/supplement.

The most epic and largest adventure I ever put together has its roots in Blackmoor - and probably my favorite. That is how I will remember Arneson.

As a side note...these guys sure are departing young.

And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

Wandering Monster
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:00 am

bbarsh wrote:As a side note...these guys sure are departing young.

Well, at the risk of seeming stereotypical, most gaming people are not exactly noted for having healthy lifestyles...

Plus, these gentlemen grew up during an era when smoking was ubiquitous; even if they didn't partake themselves, they probably were constantly exposed to the stuff on a second-hand basis.

Best,
JohnH
aka Autloc

Xaxaxe
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:11 pm

Alexander1968 wrote:I am a bit irritated by that "by all accounts" ...

I can't speak for Steve, but I don't think there's anything to get upset about there. It seems to me he's saying, "I wasn't there; I don't know all of the details; but this is my understanding of the situation."

I don't see any intent to insult there.

Rakeesh sah Tarna
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:53 pm

Xaxaxe wrote:I can't speak for Steve, but I don't think there's anything to get upset about there. It seems to me he's saying, "I wasn't there; I don't know all of the details; but this is my understanding of the situation."

I don't see any intent to insult there.

agree + sensible caution. requires all what steve says as one clause to get closer not just first part as arneson not first 1:1 but was credit from wesely for tearing up rulebook + in direct line to d&d
wotc tribute does not have 'and' so claims arneson developed first 1:1 of any form

bombadil
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 9:58 pm

Thanks for the link.

Loved this:

Dave Arneson did.

And especially this:

He was, literally, the proto-player.

Let mirth prevail!

Alexander
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:26 am

Let me be clear on this: I'm not attempting to lessen the importance and the seminal role of Dave Arneson and I don't want to reduce in any way his importance. I agree to he should be remembered as the father of role playing along Gary Gygax. But in re reading SJ's comments, I was still irritated: Gary was much more fanous than Dave Arneson, but in my eyes deservedly so. He was cofounder of TSR, author of AD&D, it was at the helm of that amazing company till 1983 and then he was its most 'visible' person and involved in a lot of projects (such as the much maligned but nonetheless successful D&D cartoon). He was present and easily reached, considering his status, virtially until his death.. SJ's comments seemed to me a snide remark about Gary being somewhat undeservedly more famous than Dave Arneson and, I repeat, this was for me extremely unfair. That's all :wink:

killjoy32
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Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:10 am

i only just caught up on all this and am very sad to hear of it

my condolences to the family for sure

Are we nearly there yet?

Busman
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Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:23 pm

Alexander1968 wrote:Let me be clear on this: I'm not attempting to lessen the importance and the seminal role of Dave Arneson and I don't want to reduce in any way his importance. I agree to he should be remembered as the father of role playing along Gary Gygax. But in re reading SJ's comments, I was still irritated: Gary was much more fanous than Dave Arneson, but in my eyes deservedly so. He was cofounder of TSR, author of AD&D, it was at the helm of that amazing company till 1983 and then he was its most 'visible' person and involved in a lot of projects (such as the much maligned but nonetheless successful D&D cartoon). He was present and easily reached, considering his status, virtially until his death.. SJ's comments seemed to me a snide remark about Gary being somewhat undeservedly more famous than Dave Arneson and, I repeat, this was for me extremely unfair. That's all

Do you think this thread is the most appropriate place to airing this?

modheaven
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Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:12 pm

There was a really good book out there called Foods That Fight Cancer (it had 14 chapters, covering 14 different kinds of food). A lot of this info can be found in other places, but there it was put together in a very nice full-color package. In this world, we all should think about protecting ourselves. People didn't die of this sickness in such huge numbers 100, 200 years ago.

For health in general, if the average Acaeum member spent about a 1/10th of the effort that they spend on caring for their collections, in caring for themselves, this would equate to a lifetime of thousands of years, at the least!

* * * *

I had no idea of Dave's situation ... Gygax, Bledsaw, Arneson, all within a year. Who knows?

It's interesting that he spent so much time teaching game design: Too bad that he and Gary had to part ways. I wonder why he was never asked for help on later editions of the game. Our loss, I guess.

Well, I wish Dave the best for his Planescape campaign.

John Scott
(prespos)

modheaven7@gmail.com

benjoshua
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Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:28 pm

modheaven wrote: People didn't die of this sickness in such huge numbers 100, 200 years ago.

Part of that is because people usually died from other things at at even earlier age.

Truth is worth finding and life is too short to work for money.

JohnGaunt
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Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 12:36 am

benjoshua wrote:Part of that is because people usually died from other things at at even earlier age.

Damned giant frogs and crashed spaceships and the like . . .

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