Dave Arneson passes away at 61

Though some sites posted news of this prematurely, it is now confirmed: Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away today after a long battle with cancer. Arneson was the creator of Blackmoor, a game of medieval miniatures exploring creature-filled dungeons, which had profound influence on the original D&D game, and later became a D&D setting. Ever since a series of lawsuits he filed against Gary Gygax and TSR back in the early ’80s, Arneson was given royalties and proper credit as a “co-creator” of D&D.

I met Dave Arneson when he was part of a panel on game design at DragonCon in 2000, while he was working at Full Sail University as a professor of computer game design. Dave was a fun guy with a big heart. Our thoughts are with his family.

Thanks for everything, Dave.