Robert J. Kuntz's seminal work, Dave Arneson's True Genius, is loaded with primary information on what a Role Playing Game is, and more importantly, exposes it for what it can be.
By dissecting Dave Arneson's design thinking the author brings to the RPG and Game Design Industries a minute study that has ramifications for the future of Conceptual Games while securing
Arneson's legacy as the prime Architect of RPGs.
In it he atomizes from his day-one, hit-the-ground-running, perspective Arneson's shift and how it forever changed current design tenants of the day that Gygax and himself had become used to.
These standardized game philosophies were suddenly shredded and recast as a new whole upon these two LGTSA (Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association) members being exposed, in 1972, to Arneson's
new systems organization that he had invented for playing a "new game form."
Dave Arneson's True Genius consists of three interconnected essays that break down his historical leaps and describes their immediate and telling impacts. They further
detail, from a systems thinking perspective, the complex, open systems architecture he created as well as debunking the many outstanding myths of where RPGs are derived from.
Extensively footnoted and including many historical quotes by Gygax and Arneson that are put into their proper contextual time streams, DATG is a must for any RPG historian, the serious game
designer, and for DMs who aspire to increase the application ranges of this unique concept.
Available from Three Line Studio.
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