Robert J. Kuntz Interview For Lucca

Here are the interview links from the excellent online 'zine,  Isola Illyon, and as conducted by Luca Scelza.

ENGLISH VERSION

ITALIAN VERSION

The Noblest RPGer of Them All

Dave and me at GENCON 2004

I have noted some things a little here or there about my book that I am finishing.  But the most important thing about it, I feel, is that it will set a new standard, a new view, about what David L. Arneson's concept accomplished, the very range and dimension of what he intuitively leveraged to produce the first role playing game.  When I began researching the book over 7 years ago I concluded from the very beginning that it would be dedicated to Dave.

His birthday is October 1; and sadly there is not much to be seen proliferating about the 'net or elsewhere regarding the man, the designer, the educator, that brilliant "kid" from the Twin Cities.
A search on his name produces almost as many hits referencing his passing many years ago as it does his accomplishments.

That will soon change...

Extracted from my book's--A New Ethos in Game Design--concluding paragraph of the chapter, "What Arneson Knew":

In summary there are few game designers who through the generation of ideas, to their modeling, then to their extended uses, who can rightly claim through such an intertwined process to have created a playable game let alone to have been one of the primary people in generating an industry from doing so.  There is no doubt in my mind that if the intuitive Arneson--the man who was known to walk into convention halls filled with tables of miniatures and therein exclaim, “Oh boy!  Toys!”--had ever lost his “child within” prior to Blackmoor’s advent that there would be no hobby or industry today as we now know it. (Copyright 2013-2015 Robert J. Kuntz. All Rights Reserved)

LUCCA Special Releases: Covers for CotSK, 1 and 2

Amos Pons of Mondiversi in Torino sent the covers for Cairn of the Skeleton King to be released at the LUCCA Comics and Games Convention.  The second is the limited edition of 50 copies being offered to the Italian market.  Enjoy!

Cover art by Jim Holloway

Front cover art by Emanuele Manfredi

Courtesy of my Better Half...

MAN

BOBBO's 60th Level Party

As arranged by the god of electrons...


BOBBO: "My dear designers and die-hards, Book-bounds and Shadybucks, Grubbers for recognition, Clubbers, GMO corn-sowers, Pocket Bulgers, Seekers of Garlands Galore and Loud Louts."

[No one laughs and Bobbo waves to same.]

BOBBO: "Today is my 60th birthday!"

[Silence; and Bobbo waves to same.]

BOBBO: "Alas, 60 years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable folklore." "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

BOBBO [after a short pause to light a cig]:  "I am going now, far over the expanse of yore, exchanging the known for its perkier side, and straight into the bosom of the past to begin a new future!"

[Most of the party-goers have dissolved by now, leaving only the designers and die-hards from the original list. There is an audible CLICK! and the page resets upon a You-Tube video showcasing the next sexy sensation.  An audible sigh of relief is heard from the exited party-goers.]

BOBBO proceeds EAST…

My Wikipedia Bio-Catastrophe, Lucca Update

Herein Started My Publishing Career in 1973

As I have mentioned in interviews, in person and in various other modes of communications, my "bio"
on Wikipedia is a...  Well, I am more concerned with what it--and what others related to D&D history and designers in general--IS NOT:  In my case, it is an abomination, strewn with errors, assumptions, quotes from sources which were never verified through me, etc.

Take for instance the opening paragraph.  I mark the parts that have issues in red, which is, almost the entire paragraph:

Rob Kuntz was born September 23, 1955 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.^[2] His older brother is Terry Kuntz. Kuntz learned about miniature wargames at age 13 while skimming through an issue ofPlayboy; he saw a game called Dogfight listed in a section describing party gifts for Christmas. Kuntz began playing boardgames, miniatures and play-by-mail games.^[2] Kuntz met Gary Gygax in 1968.^[3]:240 In 1972, at age 17 Kuntz lived just a few blocks away from Gygax, and got to play in the second-ever game of Dungeons & Dragons set in the World of Greyhawk, taking on the role of a fighter named Robilar.^[3]:240 In 1973, Kuntz began running his own "Castle El Raja Key" campaign for Gygax.^[3]:7 His campaign world was known as Kalibruhn.^[3]:240 By 1974, the group of D&Dplayers sometimes included over 20 people, so Kuntz became the co-dungeon-master, allowing each dungeon master to referee groups of only a dozen players.^[3]:7 Kuntz brought in some elements of his campaign into Greyhawk, and some levels of El Raja Key were incorporated directly into Castle Greyhawk.^[3]:7

I could, right now, correct the many things I've noted that plague this paragraph and, concerning the entire article as published, which sunders it from my own reality. But I am leaving that for post-move overseas and for the new firm that my wife and I will be forming.  More on that post LUCCA.

In other news: I am assured to be attending LUCCA due to Italy's open border with France, so even if I do not acquire a visa my passport allows me entry.  Meraviglioso!

I will be participating in group seminars, DMing many sessions of CotSK and doing some other fine stuff as arranged by LUCCA and Amos Pons.  I am getting revved up for it and just may provide a surprise or two for my sponsors or for stragglers who are wanting some extra classic gaming.

Nathalie is also very excited, for she has never attended such an event, though she observed a small convention of RPGers playing in Manchester, UK many, many years ago.  Being the XTRA-Imaginative sort, she has fallen right in like I did at first and will no doubt be conquering the play of it with great leaps and bounds.

I've already designed a multi-mapped starter environ for her to test the waters with comprised of a small outdoor ensemble and a 2-level abandoned manor house...  As she is way into architecture of all types I thought that a once well-appointed manor was in order.

Ciao!

Minor Update: CotSK in Italian

Mondiversi of Turin, Italy, operated by Amos Pons, will be releasing Cairn of the Skeleton King in Italian for their RPG market at the upcoming Lucca show I am scheduled to appear at.

Besides doing a full-fledged reprint and translation Amos has also ordered an additional limited run of 60 copies with a different cover (ten of these have been set aside for me, the author), these for the Italian RPG collector's community.

This whole effort by Amos and myself is a reintroduction of classic gaming in the Italian hobby which, as far as I can tell, does not have its own, country-produced, RPG platform, as was the case (in the past) with the French, etc.

Here's the cover art for the limited run copies...

Lucca Confirmation Announcement

Well, for good or ill, I have been listed as a guest at the upcoming Lucca Comic and Games Fest in late October:  NEWS LINK.

I say "ill" only because I have yet to be issued the French visa I applied for, which would also let me cross into Italy for the show.  I am expecting word on this in about a week.

Hopefully when the dust settles from this activity I will find myself not only attending the show but relocating overseas where I will join my better half, which is truly the better half of the news that is unfolding.

I will make announcements regarding all of these important events for Nathalie and myself when those in control give us the green light.

Fingers Crossed...

The Lost, Lost City of the Elders (AKA 1+1 ≠ 2)

The Lost, Lost City of the Elders (AKA 1+1 ≠ 2)

Why oh why do people continue to speculate upon something I created so many years ago for personal play?  I mean.  I still live as an author, then should not such speculation upon its eventual publication, if at all, be considered my province?  Is this the price creators and their creations “pay” for not serving up the goods, the objects in whatever appropriate or inappropriate fashion as deduced by consumers?  Is this trammeling of mere mentions of it in passing, some play sessions of it at conventions, seed enough to disgorge a faintly guessed at simulacra in order to placate or otherwise assuage an emptiness felt only by those who believe they deserve such satiation, even at the cost of exacting payment from the work itself, and thereby making the creator’s charge a mere mockery of object-driven minds, an anecdote whipped on by the unsatisfied needs of the hack or, worse, the addict?

Peace I say!  No bequeathal has been made, no sacrifice offered, in all, that was not my own and of my sweat.  No counterfeit that, no matter the gauge one might attempt to refit such history with in order to watch the resulting illusion bounce to and fro.  And to what end?  A name.  That is all it would be.  Just a name.  It would lack the very substance that I clothed it in, would mock the nurturing that I sustained it with, and thus would be meritless except for what could be derived from a name.

Faint recompense even for the greedy, or for each self-appointed steward of the "Cult of the Entitled."

Would we now turn over stones just to smash them?  Is this what history, whether that be Greyhawk’s, or my own, deserves?  Such a footnote would read more like a tombstone inscription:  “Here stands defaced that which still lives...”

Peace I say again!  Scratching errantly at the past only dirties and bloodies one’s hands...  Patience in the future, whatever the outcome, cleanses them with dignity...