MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Dave Arneson, one of the co-creators of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game and a pioneer of role-playing entertainment, died after a two-year battle with cancer, his family said Thursday. He was 61.
Arneson's daughter, Malia Weinhagen of Maplewood, said her father died peacefully Tuesday in hospice care in St. Paul.
Arneson and Gary Gygax developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys. It eventually was turned into video games, books and movies. Gygax died in March 2008.
''The biggest thing about my dad's world is he wanted people to have fun in life,'' Weinhagen said. ''I think we get distracted by the everyday things you have to do in life and we forget to enjoy life and have fun.
''But my dad never did,'' she said. ''He just wanted people to have fun.''
Dungeons & Dragons players create fictional characters and carry out their adventures with the help of complicated rules. The quintessential geek pastime, it spawned copycat games and later inspired a whole genre of computer games that's still growing in popularity. [...]
He kinda gets short shrift next to Gygax, who, let's face it, has the name for D&D, but both of them left an indelible mark on many of our childhoods.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2009, 09:39:47 PM by Heradel »
I
Twitter. I also occasionally blog on the Escape Pod blog, which if you're here you shouldn't have much trouble finding.
