David R. Megarry is a

game designer Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

most notable for the board game ''

Dungeon! ''Dungeon!'' is an adventure board game designed by David R. Megarry and first released by TSR, Inc. in 1975. Additional contributions through multiple editions were made by Gary Gygax, Steve Winter, Jeff Grubb, Chris Dupuis and Michael Gray ( ...

''.

Career

Early gaming and Blackmoor

David Megarry was a member of the

Midwest Military Simulation Association The Midwest Military Simulation Association (MMSA) is a group of wargamers and military figurine collectors active during the late 1960s and 1970s. History When wargaming was in its heyday and role-playing games were first developed, the group live ...

(MMSA), along with others including

Dave Arneson David Lance Arneson (; October 1, 1947 – April 7, 2009) was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), ''Dungeons & Dragons'', with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s. Arneson's fundamental ...

David Wesely David Wesely (born 1945) is an American wargaming, wargamer, board game designer, and video game developer. Wesely's developments, inspired by ''Kriegsspiel'' wargames, were important and influential in the early history of role-playing games. ...

, Ken Fletcher,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and Richard Snider. Megarry was also a member the original

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...

Blackmoor group run by Dave Arneson. Megarry has brought to light Blackmoor gaming materials used in the early days of the game. These include regional maps, dungeon maps, and character matrices. The Blackmoor character matrices start in 1971, and cover approximately 20 characters played over time. The various attributes include Brains, Leadership, Courage, Health, Woodcraft, Horsemanship, Sailing, etc. They also include some history about each character, including the character's death. Megarry has described the character sheets as a "moving history."

Development of ''Dungeon!''

In October of 1972 David Megarry designed a board game (which would ultimately be called ''

'') with the desire to capture his experience as a player in

's Blackmoor dungeon without the need of a game referee. Megarry hoped to relieve pressure on Arneson who complained of being overwhelmed as the only game master in the popular campaign. Megarry took the underworld component of Blackmoor and turned it into a dungeon exploration board game with randomly-selected monsters and treasure. The earliest prototype dungeon board was preserved by Megarry, but the instructions are missing. The earliest complete version of this game was called ''The Dungeons of Pasha Cada.'' ''The Dungeons of Pasha Cada'' was preserved by a friend who received a hand-made copy in 1973. This version of the game includes 30 monsters, and the player characters are the standard Hero, Superhero, Wizard, and Elf. Historians have linked the ''Dungeon!'' combat results table to ''Table T'', in

Charles Totten Charles Adiel Lewis Totten (February 3, 1851 – April 12, 1908) was an American military officer, a professor of military tactics, a prolific writer, and an early advocate of British Israelism. Early life Charles Totten was born in New London, ...

's 1880 book on military wargaming, ''

Strategos ''Strategos'' (), also known by its Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized form ''strategus'', is a Greek language, Greek term to mean 'military General officer, general'. In the Hellenistic world and in the Byzantine Empire, the term was also use ...

'', which was widely read and used by MMSA members. ''Table T'' was commonly implemented in Twin Cities Strategos-based games such as ''Strategos N''.

Publication of ''Dungeon!''

After developing the game, Megarry contacted

Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known as Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. It remained family owne ...

to see if they had interest in the game, but received a rejection letter. Also in 1972,

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax creat ...

expressed an interest in Blackmoor and the dungeon board game, and invited Arneson and Megarry to

Lake Geneva Lake Geneva is a deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France. It is one of the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lakes in Western Europe and the largest on the course of the Rhône. Sixty percent () ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, to demonstrate their games. Dave Arneson and Dave Megarry traveled to Lake Geneva to meet with

, to provide a demonstration of their games. While meeting at Gygax's house, Dave Arneson ran the Lake Geneva gamers through their first session of Blackmoor. Rob Kuntz describes Dave Arneson as the referee, and the Lake Geneva players as being Gary Gygax, Ernie Gygax, Terry Kuntz, and himself. Kuntz describes Dave Megarry as the de facto leader of the group, as he understood the Blackmoor game and campaign world. After Megarry showed his board game to Gygax, they continued to correspond about it. In 1973 they presented ''The Dungeons of Pasha Cada'' to various manufacturers, including

Don Lowry Don Lowry is a wargamer, businessman, illustrator, and game designer who is best known as the publisher of '' Chainmail'' and the editor of ''Panzerfaust Magazine''. Lowry was active in the International Federation of Wargaming in the late 1960s ...

of Guidon Games. Lowry was concerned that the dungeon maps would be too expensive to print. The game would eventually be published by TSR Hobbies as ''Dungeon!'' in 1975.

Work at TSR

Dave Megarry was hired by TSR in 1975, the same year they published his ''Dungeon!'' board game. Megarry called Bill Owen of

Judges Guild Judges Guild is a game publisher that has been active since 1976. The company created and sold many role-playing game supplements, periodicals and related materials. During the late 1970s and early 1980s the company was one of the leading publish ...

to negotiate a formal license from September 4 – November 22, 1976; this agreement required Judges Guild to pay a royalty to TSR for the right to place text on the cover of most products saying "Approved for use with Dungeons & Dragons". Arneson left TSR in 1976 due to creative differences, and Megarry left around the same time.

Influence

Knucklebones Knucklebones, also known as scatter jacks, snobs, astragaloi (''singular'': astragalus), tali, dibs, fivestones, jacks, jackstones, or jinks, among many other names, is a game of Fine motor skill, dexterity played with a number of small objects ...

'' magazine identified Megarry's ''Dungeon!'' as the first game in the genre of

adventure board game An adventure board game is a board game in which a player plays as a unique individual character that improves through gameplay. This improvement is commonly reflected in terms of increasing character attributes, but also in receiving new abiliti ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Megarry, David American game designers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)