Origins of Dungeons and Dragons Game
Was D&D based on military combat simulations by the U.S. Army? I heard that it was and wanted to see if anyone else had a link to an authoritative Internet source.
So far, all I have read is this summary which incorporates at least one biography:
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-tangled-cultural-roots-of-dungeons-dragons
I would be very interested in any help anyone can provide.
1 answer
The claim is not true. Dungeons and dragons is based on Chainmail, a medieval miniature fantasy wargame.
You will want to look at the books published by Jon Peterson, in particular "Playing at the world".
The same community of wargamers did play Diplomacy and many other wargames intensively, and connections to military use of wargames are certainly to be found, but "based on" is far, far too strong. Both board wargames and miniature wargames existed. You might look at "Avalon hill" as a major publisher in the small pond; they also published magazines "General" and "Wargamer's newsletter".
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