"Dave Arneson's True Genius" review

[Deleted]

Better late than never! My review of "Dave Arneson's True Genius" by Robert J. Kuntz is at
wmusswtwbf.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/review-dave-arnesons-true-genius-by-robert-j-kuntz/




(fixed the link --- Zenopus)

[talysman]

That link doesn't work, but I think I found you at:

wmusswtwbf.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/review-dave-arnesons-true-genius-by-robert-j-kuntz/

[DungeonDevil]

Great review! I guess I'll have to add that title to my lengthy TO-READ list which stretches unto the very craters of the moon!

[Falconer]

Thanks for the review, Michael. It was an interesting read. The one thing I will suggest is that OD&D still speaks to the young, as it did for your generation. Its readers who discover it today still may “grasp on an instinctual level the supremacy of the conceptual parts of the game over the mechanical.”

[Finarvyn]

I've heard that the book is a tough read because it is so heavy into jargon relating to gaming theory. How true is this?

[Deleted]

Read the review!

[muddy]

Is the book available on Amazon? I can't seem to find it.

"People would play a game or two and start running it on their own at home, or at science fiction conventions, or in college student unions, or in any venue where there was any interest in the fantastic. In those first few years the game spread like wildfire; people would see it and couldn’t wait to start exploring their own conceptual realms of imagination."

This is exactly what is was like when I started playing. Once a person had a small taste of the game, they wanted more and they weren't going to wait for the DM, they created their own dungeon and world then started their own game. I never thought modules were a terrible thing though, I always saw them as a diversion from the campaign, something different. The Giant modules were great fun and a nice change of pace because despite years of playing no party ever got that high level in my world, so for something different we rolled up some high level characters and played the modules for a weekend. Creating the dungeon and world were always the best part though, for me.

[flailsnail75]

I’m off to find a copy now.

[talysman]

Jan 24, 2019 19:49:09 GMT -6 muddy said:

Is the book available on Amazon? I can't seem to find it.

Looks like you have to buy from the publisher.

www.threelinestudio.com/store/dave-arneson-s-true-genius/

[Deleted]

I'm glad I've generated some interest.

I meant it when I said I had to read it three times, though. It's the hardest thing I've read since "Being as Communion" by Metropolitan John Zizioulas.

[tetramorph]

@gronanofsimmerya, you are a good writer.

It was a pleasure to read your review, and, judging from Kuntz' other writings, I think I will stick with your summary.

I'm glad to read that you've read Zizioulas!

Zizioulas has been very formative for me.

[bravewolf]

Gronan, that is a masterfully written review - stylistically, that is. I haven't read DATG yet, so I can't comment on how well your review represents the book.

Your blog post has accomplished one of its objectives: this youngish (began playing in 1983) gamer is going to buy and read DATG.

Thanks.

[tetramorph]

So here are my two favorite points:

Modules killed creativity as it played a part in a feedback loop that turned referees away from being creators to being consumers. Continuing in the culture that this feedback loop produced fundamentally changed the ethos of the game. This echoes an old point of Matt Finch's that you should sell things that aid creativity, rather than replace it.

At first, once people figured out what was going on, intuitively, they took it home and made up their own version.

That is 'original' D&D.

Fight on!

[Deleted]

Jan 25, 2019 11:50:12 GMT -6 tetramorph said:

@gronanofsimmerya, you are a good writer.

It was a pleasure to read your review, and, judging from Kuntz' other writings, I think I will stick with your summary.

I'm glad to read that you've read Zizioulas!

Zizioulas has been very formative for me.

"Being as Communion" was our foundation text in Systematic Theology at General Theological Seminary.

It is wonderful, and I want to read more of his books, but boy howdy, they are packed with meaning. I found I had to read each and every sentence with care, and think about it.

[clownboss]

Boy Gronan, you really know how to sell a book. I should check it out one day. It looks like it would answer, far, far more questions than I could ever imagine having.

[grodog]

If anyone attending GaryCon is interested in the book, Black Blade will have copies available at our booth.

@gronanofsimmerya I sent Rob the link to your review in my letter to him earlier in the week

Allan.

[Finarvyn]

Michael, I'm sorry that it took me so long to get around to reading your review. It is outstanding. A combination of the cost and jargon-intensity has kept me from buying and reading the book so far, but I really enjoyed your highlights.

Particularly your paragraph where you reference the original Star Wars and compare the emergence of D&D to that event. Anyone who was alive and aware of scifi at the time knows exactly what this means, as Star Wars just totally rocked all of our worlds. Anyone who is younger than this probably cannot conceptualize just what Star Wars did to all of us. D&D was exactly like that. For the first 15 or so years of my life a "game" had pretty clearly defined parameters, but D&D took that definition and turned it totally around. My son grew up on tabletop RPGs and computer games, so to him games were always like this and it's impossible to get him to really understand what life is like without that sort of thing. Getting gamers who grew up on 3E to understand the underlying beauty of OD&D is really hard, and a campaign without a module is totally alien to them.

Anyway, a great review. Still haven't bought the book, but leaning closer.

- - - - - - - - - -

EDIT: Bought it.

[Deleted]

Gronan,
I thought it was very good. Of course your review seemed to mirror my own perceptions about the book being really good, but also really hard to fully comprehend. It's not written for kids, that's for sure. I have sent Rob emails asking for clarifications on terms, only because it's a bit over my head sometimes.

I do think it is the first time someone has closely examined the conceptual methodology and implications of how Arneson designed his game. For this reason, I feel people will be citing it as a source in future publications and it will be a highly valued treatise for decades to come.

But back to your review, the minute I read it I found it be valuable as a way to approach the volume, so I posted it all over my social media. To have an original player, reviewing an original player's book, lends a level of understanding that no one else can provide. You give the book context that no one else can.

Really glad you did the review and thnk you. Griff

[Deleted]

Thanks, everybody!

[xerxez]

Very excellent writing and genuinely encouraging.

Thank you for taking the time and I now wish to read this book.

How different in concept it was at inception from what it mostly is now.

I make up games and worlds and sometimes rules for alternate (non D&D rpg games) to play with my friends but increasingly meet a different mindset, different from even how we played in the early 80s, even as latecomers and
when commercialization was full blown, as you say.

Perhaps I feel like we got to play in a manner closer to the games origins because we were young and didn’t grasp all the mechanics or were too lazy to employ them and so ended up playing old school by accident but we seldom had arguments and could stay up literally from dusk to dawn playing the game in a shed attic with sodas and munchies and feel spellbound.

Even the gameshops here run by old grognards seem to want tables driven by the new editions for reasons of money, which I understand but Ive tried to generate interest in OD&D and EPT a few times and the rage is buying stuff for 5E.

I only hope you are wrong about mechanics winning.

Jim Morrison said once while singing with John Lee Hooker “Money beats soul every time.”

Man I hope not!

[Zulgyan]

The commercialization of game may have decreased it's quality, but I think that thanks to it, D&D is at the forefront of the RPG hobby. Without commercialization another game would have taken the place D&D occupies right now. But that's just me doing hypothetical history.