This year’s Arneson Memorial Gameday will be held from 9 am until 11 pm at the Brooklyn Strategist on 288 Atlantic Avenue. It’s open to everyone and admission is free, with a suggested $10 donation to juvenile diabetes research.
Each year since Dave Arneson passed away in 2009, fans have gathered to celebrate his memory by rolling dice, playing role-playing games, and having a great time. With your help as a participant and (we hope) a backer of our Kickstarter funding effort, we’re ready to expand the scope of the Third Annual NYC event and create stuff to appeal to a range of folks:
- Old-guard gamers have no doubt heard that Dave was a legendary gamemaster and referee. It wasn’t just players in his early ’70s Blackmoor campaign who got to experience this first-hand; the most sought reward in many convention charity auctions was a seat at his table. We’ve assembled NYC’s top RPG designers and GMs to carry on that tradition and conduct celebrity gaming sessions for our supporters.
- Newcomers to the tabletop might know that Arneson was the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, but do they understand just how awesome that is? We’re working with two local businesses that teach kids how to play role-playing games – the Brooklyn Strategist and Adventuring Parties LLC- to conduct day-long open gaming demos in the spirit of Dave’s work as a games educator in elementary schools and Full Sail University.
- Inheritors of Dave’s legacyare so widely dispersed in modern culture that they can be hard to see. We’ve invited a group of journalists, game theorists, and critical thinkers to conduct a panel discussion on Arneson’s influence and examine how his work has shaped the world we live in.
- People who aren’t in NYC – or in Minneapolis, where the annual David L. Arneson Memorial Maritime Miniatures Mayhem similarly keeps the flame alive – have missed out on previous Arneson Gamedays. This year, backers all across the world can check out video footage of the event, get copies of game books that were signed by their creators at the Gameday, and play in Google+ video sessions run by some of our celebrity GMs.
According to Dave’s daughter Malia Weinhagen, ”The biggest thing about my dad’s world is he wanted people to have fun in life. I think we get distracted by the everyday things you have to do in life and we forget to enjoy life and have fun. But my dad never did. He just wanted people to have fun.”
October 1, 2011 would have been Dave Arneson’s 64th birthday. We hope you’ll join us that day in celebrating his life and times by having fun at the Brooklyn Strategist from 9 am until 11 pm. All ages are welcome, and the event is free to the public. A $10 donation to juvenile diabetes research at the door is suggested, as this was the cause the Arneson family chose to support at his memorial service.
Click here to read about our celebrity GMs!
Click here to read about the panel discussion!
If you can support the event by becoming a backer of our Kickstarter effort, your contribution will help cover the costs of putting on this event, offering the donor rewards, and planning to keep make next year’s Gameday even better. In return, you’ll get cool rewards from the designers, gamemasters, and publishers who are joining forces to make this happen.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask by emailing Tavis – tavis@adventuringparties.com – or calling the Brooklyn Strategist, (646) 470-3556.
If you can make it out to Brooklyn, we hope we’ll see you for the Third Annual NYC Dave Arneson Memorial Gameday. And no matter what, we hope you’ll spend Saturday, October 1st playing games, having fun, and remembering Dave!