We're sad to report today that Dungeons&Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson passed away last night. Along with Gary Gygax, who died just over a year ago, Arneson created a style of fantasy role-playing that has to some degree inspired all games in the RPG genre. His contributions to the golden age of gaming of the past few decades and the present will be remembered.

For the second time in just over a year, the dice are silent in the gaming world. News has reached us that Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away last night at the age of 61.

While not as famous as Gary Gygax, who passed away in March of last year, Arneson was a driving force behind D&D's creation and his contribution to the world of adventure gaming should not be underestimated. It was Arneson's spark that transformed Gygax's game Chainmail into the first edition of D&D, and begat everything that followed.

Read more here.

Thank you Dave (and Gary) for giving rise to a game that has both revolutionized and in some ways given birth to rpg gaming both electronic, and on papper, respectively.  May you find Gary in an adventure-filled reality that you both help to craft in ours.

Let us all bow our heads in honor of Dave Arneson in a moment of silence.

long live Dungeons and Dragons and the games it inspired

Thanks Dave and Gary

recent interview with Dave Arneson
www.koboldquarterly.com/k/article460.php

 Gamers around the world have lost another great pioneer in the world of gaming.

RIP

Thank you Dave and Gary for sharing your imagnation with us.  You two did what many could only dream of while giving us much to dream about.

Sad..I've always loved the classic and advanced D&D. I feel even more saddend when I look at how Wizards of the Coast is slowly killing it.

Sigh...... "failure to save" against corporate jackassery.

HERE, HERE!!! 

 And there goes traditional role-playing games.

May Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax rest in peace.

The world morns the passing of the orginators of the RPG genre. If it werent for the colaberation of Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax I doubt I would come to love the Fantasy book Genre or the CRPG game genre like I do now.

Originally posted by Szark

We're sad to report today that Dungeons&Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson passed away last night. Along with Gary Gygax, who died just over a year ago, Arneson created a style of fantasy role-playing that has to some degree inspired all games in the RPG genre. His contributions to the golden age of gaming of the past few decades and the present will be remembered.

For the second time in just over a year, the dice are silent in the gaming world. News has reached us that Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away last night at the age of 61.

While not as famous as Gary Gygax, who passed away in March of last year, Arneson was a driving force behind D&D's creation and his contribution to the world of adventure gaming should not be underestimated. It was Arneson's spark that transformed Gygax's game Chainmail into the first edition of D&D, and begat everything that followed.

Read more here.

That has to 'some degree' inspired? To 'some degree'? How about if it wasn't for the creation of D&D, there might not be countless RPG's and MMORPG's with endless versions of Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings, oh my! D&D is the backbone of it all. If it had not been invented by them, it may not have been invented at all. I'm not ruling it out because it may be said that it was bound to happen, what with the Lord of the Rings and all, but the possibility that none of us would be playing endless D&D clones to this day exists if it had not been for this random meeting of the minds.

R.I.P.

Here lies the end of my childhood. All my good memories as a teenager, are of playing AD&D.

Both Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson passed away in around a year . Both of creators... If not them, there wouldn't be RPG games as we know them now. They've infulenced the whole fantasy and sc-fi culture of the world, and that's something HUGE.

Both Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, however, may still be heard in some way. They are narrators (dungeons masters) for 2 quests in D&D Online. Gary Gygax narrates the quest in Delera's Tomb, and Dave somewhere else, but I haven't got there yet.

There's also a "shrine" and tombstone for Gary in D&D Online. I think that Dave will get himself some memorial too, knowing how Turbine loves D&D.

I must admit that hearing Gary in Delera's Tomb for the first time was really special for me. I know from forums that Dave's narration didn't come out as good as Gary's, but the heck... This is memorial, this is tribute for them, this is to show them praise respect. Kind of "a thank you" to them.

This is a somber day indeed. Hearing this sad news brings me back to my teenage years playing D&D. My friends and I were never nerdy enough to dress in character or anything, but I distinctly remember playing in my friends apartment. We would play by candle light, burn incense, drink a few beers, smoke a few bongs, kill a few Hellhounds...ahh the nostalgia.

It's been many years since than, I definitely can't remember the titles of the stories we played. I do remember one thing about messing with something/someone you think is weaker than you - DON'T FUCK WITH THE SQUIRRELS!!

Thanks for the adventures Dave and Gary. I couldn't have done it without ya. I hope your next journey is your greatest one yet. R.I.P.

Guess he missed the saving throw... ;)  (sorry, had to say it)

but seriously, 

Thanks Dave and Gary, for the many, many hours of enjoyment.

May your steel stay sharp, and your mugs always be full!

We truly are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, for he was one of those great men who laid the foundation of what we play today. That imaginative leap into the dark gave us the baton of RPG which we carry to this day.

A sad day.

Vaya con Dios amigo!!! Thank you for creating such a wonderful door to enter many worlds to which we could only take a glimpse thru a small window in our imagination.

Indeed it is a sad loss, but the flag must be grabbed and kept waving and pushing forward!!

Save versus heart disease at -20.

Seriously though. I was an avid role-play gamer back in the day. D&D afforded my friends and I a life time of adventures and fellowship. It was more than a game it was a social phenomena not to mention it produced college level critical reading skills and team work in very young people. Where would think tanks be today with out the skills developed in RPG sessions? I wish I could think that "young" again. You guys still remember that crazy hermit that lived in the woods in Keep on the Borderlands? We always bit off more than we could chew back then. :)

God's speed Dave and thank you...

Tilimitrus Sand, 17th level Bard-dual wield +5 Scimitars of Sharpness.

Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax were as innovative in the role playing world as Tolkein was to the fantasy literature world.

I started in 1976 or so with a boxed set and punch out chits for dice that wasn't even invented yet. I played D&D with them at several Conventions back in the day and it was definately "Role-Playing" heaven. I had gamed with both of them over the years and when Gary's divorce ruined him I was devistated as well. With the cease of TSR and the entrance of WotC it had been all down hill with "role playing" and the "Big" companies policies ruined the genre. Now I am very saddened by Daves passing and give him bright blessings and may he be in the Summer lands and enjoy the gaming friends he made while alive.

Earl Lothar Loc'Nar

Rest Well, Thanks for all you did for us.

My sincere respect to those genius who truly fabricated the very stuff that is used to fuel today's RPGs and MMOs. May the memory of their deeds never fade among us mortals.