Editing Greyhawk (section)

===Early development===
In the late 1960s, [[Gary Gygax]], a [[military history]] buff and [[pulp magazine|pulp]] [[fantasy]] fan, was a central, founding figure in the [[Castle & Crusade Society]]. The C&C Society, as it was known, served enthusiasts of miniature wargaming in the Middle Ages and published an occasional newsletter known as the ''Domesday Book''.<ref name="designers">{{Cite book|author=Shannon Appelcline|title=Designers & Dragons|publisher=Mongoose Publishing|year=2011| isbn= 978-1-907702-58-7}}</ref>{{rp|6}}

Following up on a promise he made in ''Domesday Book'' #5, Gygax presented the "Great Kingdom" map c. June 1971 in Domesday #9, to be used as a game setting for the Society. Members thereafter began claiming territories, including member [[Dave Arneson]], who was an officer of the organization, and frequent contributor to the newsletter.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Gygax | first = Gary | author-link = Gary Gygax | title = The Great Kingdom | journal = Domesday Book | issue = 9 | pages = 11–12 | publisher = Castle & Crusade Society | date = June 1971}}</ref> Arneson claimed a territory he named [[Blackmoor (campaign setting)|Blackmoor]], a setting he had already begun developing in his home campaign, and Gygax reserved for himself a territory on lake Nyr Div.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Gygax | first1 = Gary | author-link1 = Gary Gygax | last2 = Arneson | first2 = Dave | title=Dungeons & Dragons Vol. 1 | date=1974 | page=6 | quote=''...From the map of the "land" of the "Great Kingdom" and environs &mdash; the territory of the C & C Society &mdash; Dave local'ed (I nice bog wherein to nest the wierd enclave of "Blackmoor"...''}}</ref>

In addition to historically-based medieval wargaming, both Gygax and Arneson were enthusiasts of adding fantasy elements to their games.<ref>Gygax: "As the members began to get tired of medieval games, and I wasn't, I decided to add fantasy elements to the mix, such as a dragon that had a fire-breath weapon, a 'hero' that was worth four normal warriors, a wizard who could cast fireballs (the range and hit diameter of a large catapult) and lightning bolts (the range and hit area of a cannon), and so forth. I converted a plastic stegosaurus into a pretty fair dragon, as there were no models of them around in those days".{{cite web | title = Industry Insights: The RPGnet Interviews - Interview with Gary Gygax, part 1 of 3 | publisher = RPGNet | date = 2001-05-01 | url = http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/lynch01may01.html | access-date = 2009-03-22}}</ref><ref>Gygax: "The reception of fantasy elements in the medieval tabletop wargame was incredibly enthusiastic by about 90% of the old group. Lee Tucker dismissed it, and me. Mike Reese and Jeff Perren were not captivated by giants hurling boulders and dragons breathing fire and lightning bolts, nor did wizards with spells, heroes and superheroes with magic armor and swords prove compelling to them".{{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part IX, Page 41) | publisher = EN World | date = 2005-07-03 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/125997-gary-gygax-q-part-ix-41.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121004180218/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/125997-gary-gygax-q-part-ix-41.html | archive-date = 2012-10-04 | url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>Gygax: "I would use my point buys to take a superhero in magic armor, with a magic sword, backed up by a wizard with fireball spells. The superhero would assail the mass of enemy troops, and when they gathered round to attack him the wizard would drop a fireball on the lot. The superhero was very likely to come out unscathed, much to the fury of my opponents".{{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part III, Page 2) | publisher = EN World | date = 2003-04-06 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/46861-q-gary-gygax-pt-3-a-2.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121004180330/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/46861-q-gary-gygax-pt-3-a-2.html | archive-date = 2012-10-04 | url-status = dead}}</ref> To this end, Gygax created a fantasy supplement for the ''[[Chainmail (game)|Chainmail]]'' ruleset for medieval miniatures that he was co-writing with [[Jeff Perren]]. Released in the late spring of 1971, this booklet included rules for fantasy monsters, wizards and magical weapons.<ref>{{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part X, Page 23) | publisher = EN World | date = 2006-07-02 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/161566-gary-gygax-q-part-x-23.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110615024410/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/161566-gary-gygax-q-part-x-23.html | archive-date = 2011-06-15 | url-status = dead}}</ref>

Around the same time, in Minneapolis–St. Paul, [[Dave Arneson]], impressed by the "[[Braunstein (wargame)|Braunstein]]" [[role-playing game|role-playing]] games of fellow wargamer [[David Wesely]], developed the Barony of Blackmoor as a setting for Braunstein style games.<ref>{{cite book | last = Schick | first = Lawrence | title = Heroic Worlds: a History and Guide to Role-Playing Games | publisher = Prometheus Books | year = 1991 | pages = 17–18}}</ref> Arneson based his game around the village, castle and dungeons of Blackmoor. The castle itself was represented on the table by an actual plastic kit model of a medieval castle.<ref>Arneson: "See, I had this neat German plastic kit [of a castle]. Oddly enough, even though it was actually a German kit, years later I learned that it was actually a model of a castle in Sicily. But when I started, I was thinking German".{{cite journal | last = Jones | first = Jeremy L.C. | title = Interview with Dave Arneson | journal = Kobold Quarterly | issue = 9 | date = April 2009 | url = http://www.koboldquarterly.com/k/article460.php | access-date = 2009-04-13 | url-status = usurped | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090413202657/http://www.koboldquarterly.com/k/article460.php | archive-date = 2009-04-13}}</ref> Arneson informed the players that instead of controlling regiments, they would each take one individual character into the castle of the Barony of Blackmoor to explore its dangerous dungeons.<ref>Arneson: "[The concept of a fantasy campaign] just grew and shortly [the plastic castle] was too small for the scale I wanted. But it was a neat kit and I didn't want to abandon it, so the only way to go was down [into the dungeons]. All this happened a few weeks before the first adventurers caught sight of it".{{cite journal | last = Jones | first = Jeremy L.C. | title = Interview with Dave Arneson | journal = Kobold Quarterly | issue = 9 | date = April 2009 | url = http://www.koboldquarterly.com/k/article460.php | access-date = 2009-04-13 | url-status = usurped | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090413202657/http://www.koboldquarterly.com/k/article460.php | archive-date = 2009-04-13}}</ref> Arneson drew from numerous sources but quickly incorporated the fantasy supplement of Chainmail into his games.<ref>Gygax: "Dave Arneson and I met at a [[Gen Con]] here in Lake Geneva around 1968, and with Mike Carr we authored the ''Don't Give Up the Ship'' naval miniatures rules for the ''Great Age of Sail'' around 1971-2".{{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part X, Page 23) | publisher = EN World | date = 2006-07-02 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/161566-gary-gygax-q-part-x-23.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110615024410/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/161566-gary-gygax-q-part-x-23.html | archive-date = 2011-06-15 | url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Arneson | first = Dave | title = My Life and Role-Playing | journal =[[Different Worlds]] | issue = 3 | pages = 6–8 | publisher = [[Chaosium]] | date = June–July 1979}}</ref>

After about a year and half of play, Arneson (Blackmoor) and fellow gamer [[David Megarry]] ([[Dungeon!]] boardgame) traveled to Lake Geneva in November or December 1972 to pitch their respective games to Gygax, who at that time was a representative of the [[Guidon Games]] company. Gygax was immediately intrigued by the concept of individual characters exploring a dungeon setting.<ref>Arneson: "We were in correspondence with the group from Lake Geneva through the Napoleonic Campaigns at that time, so we mentioned that we were doing fantasy stuff on alternate weekends and they became very interested in it". {{Cite journal|title=Interview with Dave Arneson |journal=[[Pegasus (game magazine)|Pegasus]] |issue=1 |date=April–May 1981 |url=http://www.judgesguild.net/guildhall/pegasus/pegasus_01/interview.shtml |publisher=Judges Guild |access-date=2009-03-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090321222949/http://www.judgesguild.net/guildhall/pegasus/pegasus_01/interview.shtml |archive-date=2009-03-21}}</ref><ref>Gygax: "Dave was running a man-to-man (1 figure = one person) Chainmail fantasy campaign around then, and he... came down from the Twin Cities to see us, the gaming group, in Lake Geneva in the late autumn of 1972. Arneson brought some of his campaign material with him..."{{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part X, Page 23) | publisher = EN World | date = 2006-07-02 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/161566-gary-gygax-q-part-x-23.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110615024410/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/161566-gary-gygax-q-part-x-23.html | archive-date = 2011-06-15 | url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>Gygax: "I was as much taken with the prototype of the D&D game as anyone..."{{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part VI, Page 2) | publisher = EN World | date = 2004-02-11 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/76849-gary-gygax-q-part-vi-2.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121004180519/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/76849-gary-gygax-q-part-vi-2.html | archive-date = 2012-10-04 | url-status = dead}}</ref> He and Arneson agreed to co-develop a set of rules, and Gygax quickly developed a castle and dungeon of his own, "Castle Greyhawk", set within his portion of the Great Kingdom map.<ref>Gygax: "Credit Dave Arneson and Dave Megary (designer of the Dungeon! boardgame) with my concentrating on subterranean settings for the D&D game. The contained adventuring environment was perfect for establishing fixed encounters before a game session, and for developing progressively more hazardous ones as the PCs grew in their capacity to manage them".{{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part IV, Page 1) | publisher = EN World | date = 2006-06-27 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/161566-gary-gygax-q-part-x-19.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110615024821/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/161566-gary-gygax-q-part-x-19.html | archive-date = 2011-06-15 | url-status = dead}}</ref><ref name=witwer />{{rp|98}} Castle Greyhawk is sometimes considered the first dungeon in ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and pioneered the roots of the mega-dungeon format of gaming.<ref name="auto"/>

Two of his children, Ernie and Elise, were the first players,<ref>Gygax: "It was in the late fall of 1972 when I completed a map of some castle ruins, noted ways down to the dungeon level (singular), and invited my 11-year-old son Ernie and nine-year-old daughter Elise to create characters and adventure. This they did, and around 9 PM ... they had to come back from such imaginary derring-do, put their index card character sheets aside, and get ready for bed. They had had a marvelous time and wanted to keep playing". {{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part IV, Page 1) | publisher = EN World | date = 2003-07-22 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/57832-gary-gygax-q-part-iv.html | access-date = 2010-03-16 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110614222529/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/57832-gary-gygax-q-part-iv.html | archive-date = 2011-06-14 | url-status = dead}}</ref> and during their first session, as [[Tenser]] and [[Ahlissa]],<ref name="witwer">{{cite book | last = Witwer | first = Michael | title = Empire of the Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | date = 2015 | location = New York | isbn = 978-1-63286-279-2}}</ref>{{rp|99}} they fought and destroyed the first monsters of the Greyhawk dungeon; Gygax recalled them as being either giant centipedes<ref>Q: "What was the first ever monster killed by a PC in D&D?" Gygax: "A giant centipede, with the 1st level PCs played by my son Ernie (fighter) and daughter Elise (cleric)". {{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part IX, Page 65) | publisher = EN World | date = 2005-08-19 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/125997-gary-gygax-q-part-ix-65.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110614222645/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/125997-gary-gygax-q-part-ix-65.html | archive-date = 2011-06-14 | url-status = dead}}</ref> or a nest of scorpions.<ref>Gygax: "The monsters first encountered, by son Ernie's and daughter Elise's characters, were a nest of scorpions in some rubble in the very first room of the dungeon they entered. The glint of coins was mentioned to lure the incautious hand into attack proximity, but Elise's PC used a dagger to poke around, and the scorpions were spotted. Eventually one managed to sting, but the poison saving throw was made". {{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part V, Page 7) | publisher = EN World | date = 2004-01-28 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/71486-gary-gygax-q-part-v-7.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110614222728/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/71486-gary-gygax-q-part-v-7.html | archive-date = 2011-06-14 | url-status = dead}}</ref> During the same session, Ernie and Elise also found the first treasure, a chest of 3,000 copper coins which was too heavy to carry, much to the children's chagrin.<ref>Gygax: "They next encountered and defeated a gang of kobolds with a chest of 3,000 copper pieces. Needless to say, they weren't pleased with the treasure". {{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part V, Page 7) | publisher = EN World | date = 2004-01-28 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/71486-gary-gygax-q-part-v-7.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110614222728/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/71486-gary-gygax-q-part-v-7.html | archive-date = 2011-06-14 | url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>Gygax: "Later in the long session of exploration, the two intrepid adventurers came upon the lair of several kobolds, slew two and the rest fled. They found an iron chest filled with coins...several thousand copper pieces--that was too heavy to move. A big disappointment". {{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part IX, Page 65) | publisher = EN World | date = 2003-07-22 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/125997-gary-gygax-q-part-ix-65.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110614222645/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/125997-gary-gygax-q-part-ix-65.html | archive-date = 2011-06-14 | url-status = dead}}</ref> After his children had gone to bed, Gygax immediately began working on a second level for the dungeon.<ref>Gygax: "After they went upstairs I stayed in my study and went to work on a second dungeon level".{{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part IV, Page 1) | publisher = EN World | date = 2005-08-19 | url = http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/forum/archive-threads/57832-gary-gygax-q-part-iv.html#post1022839 | access-date = 2009-03-15}}{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> At the next play session, Ernie and Elise were joined by Gygax's friends: [[Don Kaye]], [[Robert J. Kuntz|Rob Kuntz]], and [[Terry Kuntz]].<ref>Gygax: "In a couple of days time Don Kaye (Murlynd), Rob (Robilar, Otto) and Terry (Terik) Kuntz joined the gang". {{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part I, Page 8) | publisher = EN World | date = 2006-08-06 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/22566-q-gary-gygax-part-i-8.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110615030234/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/22566-q-gary-gygax-part-i-8.html | archive-date = 2011-06-15 | url-status = dead}}</ref>

About a month after his first session, Gygax created the nearby city of Greyhawk, where the players' characters could sell their treasure and find a place to rest.<ref>Gygax: "The castle and dungeons came about a month before the first, one-page map of the City of Greyhawk".{{cite web | title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part XI, Page 21) | publisher = EN World | date = 2002-09-06 | url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/167680-gary-gygax-q-part-xi-21.html | access-date = 2009-03-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110615024838/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/167680-gary-gygax-q-part-xi-21.html | archive-date = 2011-06-15 | url-status = dead}}</ref>