Thread by @Grummz

DnD creators, Gygax and others, are erased and slandered at the same time.

WoTC and Hasbro just released the new Players Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, as well at the 40th Anniversary "Making of DnD" book whose foreward slams the original creators and attempts to distance themselves.

I spoke with one of the original creators, Rob Kuntz @threelinestudio , about the problem.

🧵

One of the main issues, cited Rob, the last surviving member of the OG crew, were the "DnD Historians" who write books and articles about the hobby and are left-leaning and continually slam the "problematic" creators and early books.

The problem? Not once did they ever reach out or ask to interview Rob or many other original creators.

Rob met Gary Gygax when he was a teenager, and joined the company soon after. He co-authored "Deities & Demigods with Jim Ward (whom I had the pleasure of playing in his recreation of the Greyhawk campaign. He is greatly missed.). Rob also assisted Gygax with the creation of the Greyhawk campaign setting.

Rob was so upset by the foreward in "Making of DnD" that he posted a rebuttal on his X account.

(con't)

There are a few big lies in the Forward to the official WotC DnD history book:

- DnD promoted slavery.

- DnD made evil dragons female to be misogynistic.

- DnD culturally appropriated Deities and made players fight them in an act of (deliberate) disrespect.

These claims were "backed up" by DnD "historian" @BenRiggs_ in his viral thread attacking OG DnD creators, and were echo'd and amplified by others, widely spreading the lie.

The first claim is largely based on the module "Slave Pits of the Undercity", but one glance at the cover shows that the players are fighting AGAINST slavers and called them "the forces of evil."

But that didn't stop Ben or the Foreward from claiming that DnD was "making light" of slavery in his foaming attack thread.

(con't)

The claim about deliberately making Chaotic dragons "female" to be "sexist" in fact shows that the cultural insensitivity is not from the original authors, but out of pure cultural ignorance by these modern day DnD authors and "historians".

Rob explained that Tiamat (the Queen of chaotic dragons) from Dieties and Demigods, which was blasted as "sexist" is actually canonically female and that there was no sexism present, it was simply accurate. Hailing from ancient Mesopotamian culture, Tiamat is also referred to in the original myths as the "primordial goddess of the ocean" representing chaos.

Rob wrote the book, so he should know, but again, that did not stop DnD "historians" from completely getting it wrong and lying again.

(con't)

The final big lie in the DnD anniversary Foreward is that Deities and Demigods was culturally appropriating, and that players were expected to kill these Gods in some kind of insensitive and offensive manner.

First of all, Cultural Appropriation is a myth, perpetuated by predominantly white authors on "behalf" of the supposed offended cultures who, in fact, have mostly no issues with this in their native countries.

But Rob explained that these myths and gods were painstakingly researched, in an age before the Internet, with many trips to the library, and with great care.

"Nobody was killing gods, you were supposed to be champions of the different gods. They set this up as a false narrative....You have to include HP and AC (for them) in case someone brings the battle to the God, like God vs God. Gods fought each other, they are always trying to kill each other (in myths)."

(con't)

The other claims about DnD being against including women, are debunked by Rob, and Gary's own comments need to be viewed in light of the times. It was the 70's, and the media was hyping up feminism, especially radical feminism hateful towards men. They even had a big network game show at the time "Battle of the Sexes" and everyone had an opinion.

While Gary was definitely against radical feminism, he was inclusive as far as DnD and his company was concerned.

Rob explained:

"This thing starts from a niche of a niche, wargaming. When its niche, it started with men, women were not excluded, but they didn't want to play, they excluded themselves. We were thrilled when women wanted to play."

In fact, it was a challenge to get women to play:

"Gary was not against women playing either. These women were not interested in little toy cannons and shooting toothpicks. They thought it was amusing that their men were playing these things. "

Rob said that they were very grateful for a woman, Lee Gold, for promoting DnD in the early days and getting the attention of more female gamers:

"they claim there is no women activity, but it was the Science fiction fantasy fandom and her articles were a big part of that. wargamers were only 10,000 people."

Lee Gold founded and editing "Alarums and Excursions" which was one of the first amateur press associations dedicated to role-playing games and was fully supported by Gary's company, TSR.

The lie told by DnD "historians" also erases the contributions of women like Lee Gold, and others who participated in, worked at TSR, and helped make DnD a success.

"He hired women all over the place at TSR, even his wife worked there. Mary Dale as gamer during the playtest. 2/3 artist who did illustrations for the box set were women. One was Gygax's sister and Cookie Cory."

A quick search also shows notable early DnD women such as Laura Hickman (illustrator) and Jean Wells (designer) who worked on White Plume Mountain as editor and wrote for the Sage Advice Column in Dragon Magazine.

(con't)

It's clear from talking to Rob Kuntz, and playing with Jim Ward in his campaign, that early DnD was male dominated not because of exclusion, but because women simply didn't want to play these "toy games."

But Rob, Gary and the other DnD creators bucked wanted women in gaming, wanted them in their sessions, and hired many of them to help promote and create the original game.

The slander and lies out there are simply that, and it is intolerable that WoTC and Hasbro are deliberately spreading these lies in their official books.

If you look at the current roster (some laid off already), you can see that the current creators of DnD have an agenda and false narrative that they wish to promote.

Don't let them. DnD was ALWAYS inclusive, and the original creators should be applauded for their work, not memory holed.

"bucked the trend, and wanted"