A History of D&D In 12 Treasures

[@milesward9154]

As an historian trained in archival administration, I have two thoughts. 1) an excellent presentation! and 2) why aren't you wearing gloves?!?

[@John190assman]

I get it.

[@favoritehope7148]

You don't wear gloves to handle antique paperwork, unless it's so old (Roman times) that it's just falling apart at the touch and then you don't handle it either with or without gloves. The oils in your skin, assuming you've washed and dried your hands properly, aren't going to hurt the paper but you're far more likely to damage the paper with the loss of feeling you'll have in your fingers by wearing gloves.

[@billowen3488]

From Tractics to D&D, Kingmaker, Invasion America, Barbarian Kings, Hitlers War etc., Bob, the guys and I always had a lot of fun. Whether or not we were gilding the lily (or dice).

[@jonpeterson7219]

See Bill, you found your way into this video!

[@billowen3488]

Jon Peterson Yes, but I should have said 'guilding the lily'; I'm slipping.

[@WASD20]

Awesome video. Currently reading your book and teaching high school students about D&D. Good stuff :)

[@VMSelvaggio]

Hello WASD20! I too teach a World Building for Writing or Games course online to 13-18 year olds!

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Indeed!

[@tedhankle2238]

This really helps with knowing how it was created. i am a big fan of dnd and this helped me appreciate the game even more

[@roachbaitfnv2591]

Started playing back in 1980, first (unofficial) module I ever saw/played in, was "Citadel of Thunder"...using the Blackmoor & "first edition" AD&D rules combined, (our DM even used his PC for a random number generator) it was the first game I'd ever been in, and I was "hooked, lined, and sinkered..." Went to GenCon in the late 90's and actually met Mr. Gygax, which was pretty damn cool...best game...ever...

[@quantus5875]

Started playing OD&D back in 77. First adventure we were 1st level characters and ran into a troll in the woods. Only half of us lived to tell the tale, including my thief who quickly realized the only way to survive was to run away. Had a friend at school who DMed City State which was pretty cool, and then switched over to Holmes Basic later in 77. First official TSR module I ever played was B1 In Search of the Unknown in 78. That's when I started DMing. Wish I'd met Gygax -- never did -- he's one of my TTRPG heroes -- we owe it all to him and Arneson!

[@ClassicRollPlayer]

Please start a museum for these artifacts and I will be there to give you my money! ... great stuff!

[@Hedgehobbit]

Saw this at 11:09: "Walled towns will have all standard items for sale, some unusual ones, and a dragon market in which to sell your catch." A dragon market! D&D was so much more fun back then..

[@00iCon]

A what?

[@TheBlackLantern34]

I mean, you could have a dragon market in a modern game. Theres literally nothing stopping you.

[@robertphillips3845]

Drag In....

[@swirvinbirds1971]

They had actual rules for subdual. Basically it was doing non-lethal damage equal the creatures HP... I.e. like hitting with the flat side of the blade.

[@Hedgehobbit]

@@swirvinbirds1971 In Dave Arenson's original rules, not only could you subdue dragons, but there was a chance that the dragons would try to subdue a PC and take him back to the dragon's lair. Seems more fair that way.

[@davidmoseley1082]

Love your historically unbiased retelling of the story of the start of dnd as well as your attention to detail

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Really good video!

[@uzi75020]

Excellent history. I had forgotten having to color in half of my 20-sider that I got with my original (1978-ish) set until you mentioned it!

[@MrCharbs]

Thanks for your fantastic contributions Jon. I was fortunate to have played Empire of the Petal Throne with Mr. Bill Hoyt - the DM-style has since been unmatched. A treasure indeed!

[@quantus5875]

Wow!! I don't think I've ever met someone who played Petal Throne. Nice! I bought a digital copy years back and have read some of the rules out of curiosity.

[@mmornard]

The moral of the story, ladies and germs, is NEVER THROW AWAY ANYTHING.

[@theguy3851]

Another man's trash is another's treasure..

[@BenA718]

The 13th Treasure is Jon Peterson! Thanks for all your tireless efforts in providing a true scholarly documentation of the history of D&D! Playing At The World is one of my favorite books!

[@Powerslave214]

Excellent video. I look forward to seeing any other videos as well!

[@JeremiahMcCoy]

I am completely jealous of your collection, and deeply impressed with your scholarship. This was excellent. I will need to go buy your book now.

[@adangelo]

im way late to the party but omg what a solid piece of history, what a great way to introduce folks to the basics of the game.

[@thekhan517]

I was a tabletop warrior from 1979 till almost the turn of the century. Lots of good info here I never knew. Thanks.

[@kellyscout-vw4mz]

1🇺🇸🌈🎄📚🥷🏽🏈 THE EVOLUTION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST...

[@rudlintheelf8228]

One question remains: How did you get all those relics?????

[@One_Eyed_Man_]

No doubt he found them deep within the dungeons of e-bay.

[@Jlerpy]

I like to think that he engaged in a riddle contest for them.

[@quantus5875]

They might be just copies, except for the OD&D set he shows at the end. As a historian he probably has all kinds of friends that gave him access to their archives. Great video!!

[@TheShootist]

I had my mimeographed copy (pirated) of the basic set, circa 1975.

[@GuyFullerton1]

Thanks for posting this, Jon!

[@GrumpyOldGuyPlaysGames]

The draft rules of D&D should be in the Library of Congress. Seriously. That is a document of major and important cultural significance.

[@h.s.lafever3277]

wow, impressive collection, i tip my hat to you Sir! respect! grognards forever!

[@pledgestone]

Great video. I was obsessed with D&D for most of my childhood.

[@CelestianGC]

Wow, thanks for that bit of history of D&D. Great stuff!

[@theknightofbadassness301]

Why have you only made one video! That was really good.

[@RobertGoodin]

Fascinating and welcome upload. thanks for this history of a great game. look forward to more .

[@Rodrigo_Vega]

I was expecting to see some of the first "miniatures". Among them some very iconic monster designs, like the bulette, the rust monster and others were really just weird chinese "dinosaur" toys. Still the information here was great!

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

An amaizing video I always come back to watch it again!

[@TimDreadPirateRiley]

Enjoyed the video very much. Great to see the zine style of that age represented in the treasures.

[@bobmac31]

Oh, a suggestion from a fellow historian--I'd invest in some archival quality storage folders, et al. Paper tends to rot, bugs love it.

[@jonpeterson7219]

It took me some small courage to unbag these items for this video, but I wanted to have the immediacy of just seeing them in my hands.

[@bobmac31]

No worries. I just know from experience how fragile the stuff is. Are you planning to one day donate the papers? Really important primary source documents in game history--and again, outstanding work on the book. Really a top tier historical study; loved the notes.Jon Peterson

[@jonpeterson7219]

Oh, yes, definitely, this is all going to a museum. I've already put the Dalluhn Manuscript in the National Museum of Play, and I've begun some talks about where the treasures shown here might reside, so they can be accessible to scholars and the public.

[@AnneTrent]

Highly worth showing to your D&D players! :)

[@TheSandTable]

This shit blows my mind. The historical detail...! Wow.

[@SeveredBooks]

Great work here, Jon. Thank you!

[@toddwhite5359]

Just stumbled across this, well done! Loved it!!

[@stevenkreft4326]

So where was Gary's game store? Is there any significant places or things in Lake Geneva that would be a touchstone to the game? I live in WI would love to set foot in the stores they walked in.

[@Tyrant1717]

Really well done. I enjoyed this immensely.

[@CameronLaRue]

What a wonderful video. Thank you so much!

[@raharuaharu5646]

Very interesting material! Thanks!

[@AdlerMow]

I really hope you scan all this treasure and release the pdfs, so this is open and preserved for future generations! I'm also interested in know about the original Arneson rules for Blackmoor, because by the sheet it seams it was a kind of D20 system, skill + 1d20 than compare to enemy kind of system!

[@jessicamurray9592]

I love this! thank you, just finished reading Ready Player One, made me want to read it again...

[@And-mag]

Fantastic. Thanks!

[@johnclark8893]

Truly inspiring.

[@DarcyPerry]

Well researched and entertaining.

[@Seth9809]

I am so glad this was recommended to me.

[@timothydobbins9844]

Incredible. Thank you for this.

[@EldradWolfsbane]

MORE videos! Your book totally rocks!

[@SoraKirin]

My god those belong in the Smithsonian or something.

[@VMSelvaggio]

Very Insightful! Thanks for this!

[@drfoxcourt]

What about Chainmail?I thought the first D&D games were played backed up by Chainmail rules for combat.

[@Dracobyte]

Excellent video, my friend!

[@n.ludemann9199]

Wow :) That proto-Greyhawk map is amazing :)

[@dreammirrorbrony1240]

Did the first publication produced in 1974 come with mud die? When I got my magenta box set in 1981, it came with a full set of grey, very light plastic dice. I used a crayon to color in the numbers, but I am not sure if these are "mud dice". I am interested in finding an orginal pair somewhere but am researching first.

[@paulcoy9060]

8:30 Those dice are nice and clean. Mine are ... not so good looking. Lots of use. But I don't want to try to file them down or use a razor to make the edges crisp again, because I don't want to damage them. Guess I'll have to use some of the other 8,000 dice in my collection.

[@jwraper1498]

Very insightful and informational!

[@jamesw24]

Great video, well done. All my gaming geek friends love it.

[@AndyAction]

Sincere thanks for this - my inner grognard is doing backflips! -=A

[@elmotickleme3501]

great voice! great sound quality!

[@bobmac31]

Very cool, and loved the book.

[@CaptCook999]

I don't recall if I have saved any of the maps that I drew for dungeons. Being that I was usually the Thief in the group, I always got the job of drawing the maps. And as for 20 sided dice, we would just use a d6 as a control die for high and low.

[@EnergyCuddles]

You have a very pleasant voice, Jon. :)

[@InfiniteRolePlay]

Its facinating to learn that the original creators of D&D and basicaly the inspiration for all following RPG's started as wargamers. It sounds like D&D was simply built on a wargame & fleshed out . . why today are so many RPG games geared away from tactical combat? Or maybe I should say . . . while wargames evolved past pen and paper to incorperate miniatures and terrain, Why is that evolution moving so slowly for RPG's?? It's only my opinion either way I really REALLY enjoyed this vid

[@dd3a]

Oil poo Oki inn in Oki k I ilkmtolk

[@vesavius]

Infinite RolePlay I guess because tactical mini driven play is only one option for the evolution of RPGs.

[@RussellFlowers]

Great stuff!

[@jonothanthrace1530]

This video is very interesting, especially because it answers a question I'd had recently: How good was Gary's handwriting?

[@sergeantchannelclicker8060]

amazing video, well done.

[@MemphiStig]

That's very cool stuff, most of which I didn't know existed. I never colored in the dice like that tho, not the whole faces, just the numbers. Well, you'd color the face with the crayon then wipe off the surface, and the number would stay colored. Crayons aren't exactly the most durable coloring when you handle them all the time.

[@RJThompson]

Very nice!

[@paulwolfe7072]

Jeez. My wife says I'm obsessed with this game. I got nothing on this guy. Very cool artifacts.

[@RJThompson]

He is the author of the book "Playing at the World."

[@amysrevenge]

Interesting and cool

[@theneutralgood]

Excellent!

[@justinw947]

great video man

[@Bukhar]

Cool Video! Thank you so much. :)

[@stanleyteriaca2184]

Wow. Any artifacts of Champions RPG you have? Or know of? (What will be known as the Hero System and Hero Games)

[@JonsDDVlog]

Mr. Peterson, hello. I'm a blogger on KZbin. Is there any chance I could use some of this video in an episode of mine? I won't use your voice and I will probably only use several seconds of a small section around the 4m 24s. If possible, I would also like show still images of some of the artifacts that you show here (primarily the Blackmoor character sheet and perhaps one or two others). I will, of course, give you credit. The channel I do is Jon's D&D Vlog. I would include the URL for my blog here, but for some reason, KZbin is not allowing me to. Thank you.

[@powerLuser]

This is so cool! I've actually been wondering, and I apologize if this has already been addressed in your book (I haven't read it... yet), why's it called the Dalluhn Manuscript?

[@jonpeterson7219]

Since I hadn't seen the Dalluhn Manuscript before my book came out, it's quite fair to ask here. The document is named in honor of Keith Dalluhn, who recovered it from an old box in M.A.R. Barker's garage. He had the foresight to see that it apparently preserved an early D&D system, and refused to take no for an answer even when faced with widespread skepticism. Keith was one of a few people who approached me about it after PatW came out, and after I wrote my initial analysis, he was kind enough to let me shepherd it going forward. Mike Mornard's recent recovery of Gygax's working draft of D&D has pretty spectacularly vindicated Keith's stubbornness about the importance of his find.

[@powerLuser]

Jon Peterson Ah, that was one of my theories. To think how easily the world could've never known about this information... Mr. Dalluhn deserves a medal or something As an aside - doesn't _Dalluhn's Dungeon_ sound like a great game name? I'd be very tempted to use that if nobody else does first (though only with Mr. Dalluhn's permission, of course)

[@flowthrake]

Excellent loot/info here, Jon. Your hat is very crypto-religious.

[@jonpeterson7219]

I take that as a compliment.

[@flowthrake]

Allen Shock It's a feast of information presented in an objective, straight-forward manner. Definitely the most thorough book on the subject written at this point.

[@paulcoy9060]

7:45 The wizard Gaylord has a rank of "7", when describing his "Sex" .... What? And he also has a 7 in "cerbadility"? What the hell is that? Did he mean Credibility ? And the front page, for a Wizard, he sure has a hell of a lot of weapon proficiencies.

[@on_certainty]

INCREDIBLE

[@claytonian]

so did Gary create the Egg of Coot? I always figured Arneson made it up as a homage to E.G. Gygax.

[@jonpeterson7219]

No, Dave created the Egg of Coot, and specified most of that northern area.

[@mmornard]

And GARY WAS NOT THE EGG OF COOT. I have this from Dave himself. However, since the real "EGG" is still alive I don't feel free to name him.

[@wjrasmussen666]

E Gary Gygax wasn't the egg of coot. ::wink::

[@Jader7777]

I don't want to be 'that guy' but where did you get all this information from? And those sheets- they're not original right? Trying to go backwards with D&D is really difficult. Before first edition things get really hazy.

[@webrik33]

Yes those sheets are originals. There is a seller on ebay user id...the collectors trove. He has sold many many many original manuscripts (pre-pub, and play test copies), artwork, and many many other rare items for many of the TSR creators, staff, artists. Such as Gygax, Arneson, Kuntz, Darlene, Blume?, and many many others

[@Jader7777]

Amazing commitment.

[@Mister_Peppers]

Very cool.

[@RolandsSavvins]

Pure treasures.

[@toddbloodshed9028]

Great video! Really interesting insight to one of the greatest games of all time. Random question were the first set of rules every republished? I would love to run original dnd some time.. cheers!

[@themonarch8251]

Impressive.

[@magicguycouldbe]

How did you get all of that? I assume it's all just copies of them...

[@donkeypoo99]

how did you get your hands on these?

[@learningdm851]

Magnifying glass OED

[@thomasbenn30]

This is dead awesome!

[@ChurchillGeoff]

probably an ancestor that doesn't come through war-gaming would be the Bronte sisters who engaged in collaborative storytelling

[@Jlerpy]

7:41- what on Earth is "Cerbadility" meant to be?

[@Nephilim2038]

Jlerpy it measures how cerbadle a character is.

[@TheValarClan]

Braunstein is Role-playing. NOT wargaming. More then one army in the 'background' But each player was a individual with different goals. They know the threat of war on 3 or more sides.... No actual armies involved. And NOT proto roleplaying.

[@asafoetidajones8181]

Such a crucial set of rare insights into the history of the hobby, and choosy beggar commenters just picking on the hat and mannerisms.

[@erho2967]

Wrap that stuff in plastic!

[@Gl1tchyV00d00]

You need to scan these documents and post them on internet archive. Otherwise you're just flexing your private collection.

[@plutoplatters]

It's wonderful how the keyboards have continued on making our Pioneers of today !!

[@sargondp69]

Lies! All Lies! Al Gore invented D&D. 'Sex 7, Woodsmanship 7'. 7 is the number of perfection. Yep, that is a bunch of middle aged men roleplaying alright. One might, perhaps have, construct a campaign based on some of the fantasy mirrors of these artifact.

[@EmptyGlass99]

FYI - "Domesday" is pronounced "Dooms-day"

[@raymondlugo9960]

I was researching this stuff a couple of years ago and eventually figured that out. Bit it's not obvious at first that it's Doomsday spelled wrong.

[@jadams8938]

WHY IS DUDE NOT WEARING LATEX GLOVES? These documents need to be properly archived, not bandied about with his grubby little pedantic fingers.

[@jonpeterson7219]

If you saw the places that I rescued some of these things from, you would not begrudge me handling them for purposes of demonstration. Trust me, they are well cared for.

[@porckhop]

Elephant anus brought me here XD

[@13thBear]

That was mildly interesting and entertaining, but I don't quite grasp the practicality of knowing this background info for D & D. I mean--I enjoy the game atmosphere and all, but I don't get the necessity of knowing who did what, when. Then again--I'm mainly a wargamer, not an rpg'er.

[@rudlintheelf8228]

It is, quite simply, that it's interesting to see the origins of this fantastic game (for some, at least).

[@raymondlugo9960]

@@rudlintheelf8228 yeah. I was interested in knowing how the game developed into Basic and Advanced. If you look at the older material, you can figure out that Greyhawk was developed from these earlier war games. If you go back farther you can find connections to a Middle-Earth war game. But the evolution isn't quite linear. Some of Blackmoor was being developed at the same time so there's a lot of overlap with what made it into D&D of 1974.

[@mrv4953]

SPEAK UP!!!!!

[@brothaman4578]

Why hasn't anyone in your life told you not to wear a ballsack as headware?

[@Taricus]

congratulations... you just won at stalking?

[@plutoplatters]

this is for those of whom had no dad around to pass on the art of fishing !!