TSR was created with the express purpose of publishing Dungeons & Dragons, the industry-defining RPG. Naturally, their first game was nothing like it.
The story of Dungeons & Dragons is in many ways the story of wargaming in North America. As the hobby spread its wings from the early days of the 1960s and sparked a love of battle and recreation in gamers throughout the midwest, and in particular the areas in and around Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, so too did the appetite of these gamers grow--whetted not just for new ways of making little plastic soldiers fight one another, but for experiencing a world as one of them.
Now you could say that D&D begins with Braunsteins, a wargame that involved specific characters that weren't necessarily involved in a fight--you might have the town priest who is looking to keep the civilians safe as fighting breaks out, or a student revolutionary leader whose sole task is to distribute propaganda and revolutionary leaflets throughout the zone. And sure, it's here that Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, the creators of Dungeons & Dragons met and first realized what sort of magic they'd stumbled into here, if only they could point a...
Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]