GameSpy: So once you and Gary had put the rules together, how did you get pulled into the idea that maybe there was a business in this?
Arneson: We didn't think that there was a business there. It was really Gary's friend, Don Kaye, who came up with the money to do the first printing of Dungeons & Dragons. We couldn't find anybody that would give us money. At that time I was a security guard who couldn't afford shoes, so neither one of us was willing to cashier.

Don bankrolled it and we thought, "Hey this is cool, we can move five hundred copies." Then we sold the five hundred copies in just a few months, which was amazing at that period. Usually, you had a game that sold a thousand copies and was regarded as being successful, and we did five hundred in three months. We reprinted again, I think we did a thousand on the second run, and that sold out in a couple months. Then we did two thousand and that sold out in a couple months until it became a hit.
GameSpy: Eventually, the game starts to take off and starts to turn into a real business that's going to move out of Gary's basement. What happened to drive you from the company?
Arneson: I can't talk about that.


GameSpy: OK. After you left the company, did you do any work with them afterwards?
Arneson: I think the next time any work with TSR was 1985. That was after Gary was able to become president after some sort of stockholders battle which I don't have any details on. One of the first things he did was approach me about doing a series of modules based on Blackmoor, and that seemed really exciting. He was president, I think, for three months when new people came in, and they suddenly weren't interested in working with me for various reasons. Again, I can't go into it, but that was it.
GameSpy: After 1985, with your lawsuit behind you and Gary no longer part of TSR, were you able to patch up your differences?
Arneson: We talk to each other. We don't hate each other. You know, we wish each other well, and he sent me get-well cards when I had my stroke and I sent him a get-well card when he had his stroke. [Laughs] We don't hang out with each other that often, though. We just kept going our own two separate ways.

Map of Blackmoor
GameSpy: When I recently spoke with him, I think he seemed very philosophical about everything that happened.
Arneson: That happens with these near-death experiences. Nothing like having a real adventure! [Laughs]
GameSpy: So what were you doing post 1985? Where did you go?
Arneson: I went into computers. I helped found a computer company in Minnesota which is still in business today. Then I got into computer programming, which I hated, and programmed a couple games. I did consulting and advisory work with computer companies, showing them how much money they could save by doing modules.

I got into education in the late '80s when I lived out in California. I did some work for some special education kids, and when I got back to Minnesota I picked up on that and did it some more. I would go to schools and talk about using role-playing for educational purposes -- which were pretty much ignored by most of the people involved, but that's the way it goes. Finally, I landed this really great job down here in Florida about twelve years ago.