Comment by wolverine876 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wolverine876 | Hacker News Reader

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Gygax had a habit of erasing some other major influences from history, including co-developer of D&D Dave Arneson, and JRR Tolkien's works.

Regarding Arneson, you can find documentaries online and books. Here are some other sources:

Rules for Middle Earth by Leonard Patt (~late 1970): https://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-precursor-t...

Tolkien was reportedly mentioned in versions of Chainmail (Gygax's precursor to D&D) and OD&D (the rare, staple-bound ~prototype/MVP version predating the breakthrough editions, Basic and Advanced D&D), but after an IP dispute the Tolkien references were removed and Gygax repeatedly disclaimed any interest in or influence by Tolkien, despite obvious similarities. There are also articles Gygax wrote for late-1960s fanzine, Thangorodrim, where he openly adopts Tolkien material: https://archive.org/search.php?query=thangorodrim

It's a common trend among such creators. It's like Marvel. Stan Lee (and these days, Disney/Marvel) would like to have you believe that everything sprang from the mind of Lee, purposely ignoring people like Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. And speaking of Disney, Walt Disney himself downplayed the importance of people like Ub Iwerks, who were instrumental to the creation of Mickey Mouse.

> Disney/Marvel

There are no doubt teenagers who think Thor, Loki, Snow White etc. were all thought up by Disney/Marvel. Disney has been laundering (and copyrighting) folk history for a century now, and Marvel mythology for a little less time.

> Disney has been laundering (and copyrighting) folk history for a century now, and Marvel mythology for a little less time.

Almost every fiction ever written does that. It makes better stories, arguably: 1) Those stories persisted across eons for a reason, and 2) it anchors the new story in something people already have an understanding of.

I think not. It's one thing to adapt/re-boot something and quite another to try and re-write history via shitty contracts to try and make yourself the sole creator (Disney, Marvel/Stan Lee).

Credit used to be given, now it is stolen.

Gygax/TSR went so far as to claim that Advanced D&D was a different game from D&D to not have to pay Dave Arneson royalties on any of the releases. Arneson sued TSR multiple times and they settled out of court, granting him royalties on AD&D: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Arneson#After_TSR

There is also some evidence of Tony Bath's and Hyboria influence moving strict Wargames rules towards a more role played experience.

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