"Prior to the character selection by players it is necessary for the referee to roll
three six-sided dice in order to rate each as to various abilities, and thus aid them
in selecting a role."
That's right, Gary expected the DM (referee in those days) to roll ability scores for the players, which probably seems wrong to our modern sensibilities. It's the player's character for Pete's sake; they should roll their own abilities. We happen to agree and, luckily for subsequent generations, so did most everyone else - and right away! But this early way of thinking wasn't limited to ability scores. It was implied (when not outright mandated) that the DM should roll dice for the players in many other areas as well.
In these modern times we have all sorts of ideas about player agency and what people should be able to do in a game. And we’re not being unreasonable here. If Joe’s the one creating Borg, then Joe should roll for Borg’s abilities. And when Borg swings his trusty battleaxe, Joe should be the one rolling. Otherwise Joe's just a spectator who maybe gets to tell the DM he’s opening a door or swinging said weapon. But when the rubber meets the proverbial road and it’s time to physically act, he’s as inert as a rock and all the action is done behind a figurative curtain. It didn't take long for folks to reject this approach.
So here’s at least one instance where the hobby took off not because of its founder's assumptions but despite them. And it bears examining why things began this way and why they eventually (hell, almost immediately) changed. Here's our take...
Fantasy role-playing evolved from historical wargaming, and history imposed some serious constraints on player agency. William, Duke of Normandy couldn't build catapults for the Battle of Hastings because that's not how history says it happened. Ditto for Roman chariots or Greek fire. Players understood this and accepted the need to color in the lines for the sake of historical accuracy. In short, wargamers were conditioned to limited agency within a narrow scope. What forces they played, how they deployed, was all imposed by someone else; in this case, history itself, and no one expected anything more at the time.
Even David Wesely, founding father of the hobby and creator of Braunstein (precursor to Blackmoor) created and assigned characters to his players. The idea that anyone could or should expect more wasn't on the table. But the seeds were planted...
Enter Blackmoor. It wasn't a historical setting, so there was no official word on what was done and how it eventually turned out. More than ever, players were writing history as they went along; and since they were playing individual characters in a realm of pure fantasy, coloring outside the lines was finally an option. But the impositions of wargaming persisted because the games were still seen as wargames - old habits and all that jazz.
And so Gygax wanted DMs to roll ability scores, among other things. But it couldn't possibly last. Once people started running individual characters they named, nurtured, and started to identify with, everything changed. And then the non-wargamers arrived with expectations of greater agency for the reasons we all agree on, and this quickly ushered in a new age. Oh, and we're sure most DMs didn't want to roll for everything.
Sure, the hobby was born from specific rules, created by specific people with specific assumptions about how things would work. But they couldn't have anticipated the power of legions of others, laboring in isolation from one another and shaping the industry through their expectations and experiences of what actually worked at the table. In this way, gaming was a free-market economy full of entrepreneurs. A system where the so-called market decided best practice. It's a tradition that continues to this day to the good of all...
Enter Blackmoor. It wasn't a historical setting, so there was no official word on what was done and how it eventually turned out. More than ever, players were writing history as they went along; and since they were playing individual characters in a realm of pure fantasy, coloring outside the lines was finally an option. But the impositions of wargaming persisted because the games were still seen as wargames - old habits and all that jazz.
And so Gygax wanted DMs to roll ability scores, among other things. But it couldn't possibly last. Once people started running individual characters they named, nurtured, and started to identify with, everything changed. And then the non-wargamers arrived with expectations of greater agency for the reasons we all agree on, and this quickly ushered in a new age. Oh, and we're sure most DMs didn't want to roll for everything.
Sure, the hobby was born from specific rules, created by specific people with specific assumptions about how things would work. But they couldn't have anticipated the power of legions of others, laboring in isolation from one another and shaping the industry through their expectations and experiences of what actually worked at the table. In this way, gaming was a free-market economy full of entrepreneurs. A system where the so-called market decided best practice. It's a tradition that continues to this day to the good of all...