About a month ago one of the researchers, who helped vet all the historical accuracy during the making of the film, Secrets of Blackmoor, dumped a huge trove of scans in one of our email discussions.

He had discovered that all the documentary evidence used in the Arneson Lawsuit vs. Gygax and TSR existed in the National Archive and was available at a minimal cost of $ .80 per sheet to anyone requesting it.

He knew he was sitting on a valuable collection of scans. Since he wasn't sure what to do with it, he decided to just go public and let everyone know where it was and what it was.

In with this collection are a lot of documents which WOTC was going to publish in a book and which they plan to charge $100.00 for. Since it is in the National Archive it's basically public domain at this point.

I posted some scans yesterday to show it exists. But I was not aware it was already being hosted on numerous sites as a free download.

At this point it is spreading like wild fire. Although I believe it was first revealed on the ODD74 forum, which would provide the greatest context for the documents, it is now being hosted on Ruins of Murkhill as well.

To me it is fascinating because I had never gotten to see a copy of the Guidon manuscript. That draft is what Greg Svenson used when he created Tonisborg dungeon.

What I find even more exciting is that now we have a set of rules that can be used to decode Tonisborg to an even greater degree. And one of the things about Tonisborg that people commented on was the size of a room which contains Wyverns. Well, if you read the guidon manuscript Gygax describes Wyverns as being small dragon like creatures with two legs and wings. Now I understand why Greg would put a lot of wyverns in a 10 foot by 10 foot room.

Another aspect of the manuscript which I find validates all of my own work, is the amount of credit Gygax gives to Arneson. He essentially says Arneson invented Role Playing, at least that is what I infer from the forward.

This is the discussion on Ruins of Murkhill where you can download the entire trove for yourself:
https://ruinsofmurkhill.proboards.com/board/501/court-case-arneson-gygax-tsr

Of course, this also puts into question what will happen in regard to the publication of WOTCs new book since many of the most heavy hitting artifacts are contained within the trove discovered by Michael Calleia.

Ciao, Griff

Fascinating.

This is a huge find on many levels.

Here is a direct download link:
https://ws.onehub.com/folders/uh3vxwq1

I'm curious to see a deep analysis by someone more knowledgeable of D&D history than me. Looks very interesting.

Downloaded, going to read through it to see if there's anything interesting...

Quote from: Brad on February 25, 2024, 08:51:04 PM
Downloaded, going to read through it to see if there's anything interesting...

I'd be interested in seeing your CliffsNotes.

Sounds like the wyverns in that dungeon were about the size of pseudo-dragons (Which were little dragon-like creatures with stinger tails).

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on February 26, 2024, 05:09:19 AM
Sounds like the wyverns in that dungeon were about the size of pseudo-dragons (Which were little dragon-like creatures with stinger tails).

Maybe Pern dragon sized? Those apparently were not exactly big?

The Were-Wyverns in the TSR Wyvern's Spur novel are not very big either. Larger than a human by far. But nowhere near dragon scale.

It's an amazing trove of items. The letters from Gygax are interesting and show a time when Dave and Gary were buddies which is nice for a change.

Although I have some of the interviews in my files already, I read one and it suddenly dawned on me I need to redate some artifacts I have by back dating them.

Tons to unpack on those papers.

shamefully stolen

Quote
Book 1 Organization

Introducton: This is where Gary editorializes and tells neat stories as much as his little heart desires and if he wants to use the extra pages.
A rule book is a rule book not a novel.

If only more publishers actually followed this damn guideline....

Quote from: THE_Leopold on February 26, 2024, 07:24:09 PM
shamefully stolen

Quote
Book 1 Organization

Introducton: This is where Gary editorializes and tells neat stories as much as his little heart desires and if he wants to use the extra pages.
A rule book is a rule book not a novel.

If only more publishers actually followed this damn guideline....

The amount of bloody World Of Darkness books that are 80 pages of schoolgirl squiggles and bad fan fiction before you see an actual rule, sheesh!

Quote from: Grognard GM on February 25, 2024, 11:05:32 PM
I'd be interested in seeing your CliffsNotes.

Well, IANAL so this is a slough...but after about 160 pages in, I've discovered Arneson was allegedly owed additional TSR stock in lieu of royalties for Blackmoor, and after AD&D was published he thought they were derivative works and thus subject to royalties per the agreement he had with TSR. He was also fired for not signing away his royalty claims (in his words); sounds like TSR was trying to treat him like a regular employee and say anything he produced while working there was 100% TSR property. That's a typical relationship for IP claims, but only AFTER someone creates stuff at a company...I get the impression TSR was trying change the terms of their working relationship with Arneson because it meant less money for the higher ups. There's a letter from Gygax to Arneson that talks about some sci-fi oriented RPG and offers information, and seems like it was written by a drinking buddy and business partner, not corp-to-employee.

Just from reading this, I get the distinct impression TSR fucked Arneson over pretty badly, but it didn't have much to do with Gygax at all.

Well in the end didnt TSR oust Gygax too?  When creatives get into business with "good businessmen" it always tends to go south for the creatives.

I'd honestly rather have 100% control over a tiny project I created, that make bank from investment and end up pushed out.

Time and again creatives seek investment, grow massively, then get pushed out or shunted to a perfunctory position, while the thing they they created is altered beyond recognition then burned to the ground.

Went through a few more pages, apparently Arneson did the following D&D illustrations:

hydra
lizard
giant beetle
purple worm

So at least he wasn't responsible for the worst art in there...

Also depositions by the Blumes, can an actual lawyer please read this crap? All I can pick out is they claim TSR didn't do business in Minnesota, which somehow implies Arneson wasn't legally able to sue them? Also, they state specifically 5% royalties for LBBs, even though there is an agreement for 10%, the same one that MAR Barker got. Starting to seem more and more like they were fucking shysters.