David Wesely

Dave Wesely was born in 1945.{{cite book |last=Pappe |first=Gero |date=2011 |title=P & P-Rollenspiel: Der kollektive Zugang zu utopischen Weltentwurfen und Individuellen Phantasiekonstrukten |language=German |location=Berlin |publisher=Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH |page=233 |isbn=978-3-8325-2777-8}}

Wesely studied physics at Hamline University, in Saint Paul, Minnesota.{{cite book | first=David M. | last=Ewalt | authorlink= David M. Ewalt | year=2013 | title= Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It | publisher=Scribner | pages=57–58 | isbn=978-1-4516-4052-6 }}

File:Strategos 1880 Table T.png (1880), Table T, used for combat resolution]]

In 1967, Wesely rediscovered the 19th-century professional wargame Strategos, by Charles A. L. Totten, at the University of Minnesota library. An avid hobby wargamer and reader of wargaming literature, Wesely seized upon these rules and incorporated their principles into the miniature wargames played by the Midwest Military Simulation Association (MMSA). These included the role of the referee, and the principle of free kriegsspiel that players could attempt anything, although not always successfully, and that the referee should be able to make judgements to cover anything not ordinarily covered by the rules.{{cite book|last=Peterson|first=Jon|title=Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games|publisher=Unreason Press|date=2012|edition=2nd|chapter=1.9. The Return of the Referee}} Totten's Strategos became the cornerstone text for the Twin Cities gamers.{{cite book|last1=Harrigan|first1=Pat|last2=Kirschenbaum|first2=Matthew G.|title=Zones of Control: Perspectives on Wargaming|chapter=A Game Out of All Proportions|publisher=MIT Press|date=2016}}

The incorporation of Totten's Strategos into MMSA wargaming culminated with the 1968 development of Strategos N, a compact set of Napoleonic wargaming rules devised by Wesely and other MMSA members. Dave Wesely developed Strategos N as the first MMSA Strategos variant for the first time in 1968. It was later self-published in 1970, and again in 1984.{{cite web| last=Peterson| first=Jon| website=Playing at the World| title=Strategos in the Twin Cities| url=https://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2013/01/strategos-in-twin-cities.html |date=21 January 2013| accessdate=2 February 2020}}

Dave Wesely developed Strategos C for wargames set during the American Civil War, and it circulated in draft form in 1969, acting as a precursor to Valley Forge (1976).

The concept of the referee in Totten's Strategos led to Dave Wesely expanding upon these ideas to create the Braunstein games, which were influential in the early history of role-playing games.{{cite book| last=Laycock| first=Joseph P.| title=Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds| publisher=University of California Press| date=2015| pages=35–37}} This development of the role of the referee became a catalyst for the evolution of role-playing games.{{cite book| last1=Zegal| first1=José| last2=Deterding| first2=Sebastian| title=Role-playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations| publisher=Routledge| date=2018| chapter=Precursors}}

In a 1981 interview published in Pegasus magazine, Dave Arneson described Wesely's Braunstein as a game in which each player had a "role" that they were playing.{{cite magazine |author= |editor1-last=Reagan |editor1-first=Mike |editor2-last=Kahn |editor2-first=Harold |title=An Interview With Dave Arneson |magazine=Pegasus Magazine |issue=1 |location=Decatur, IL |publisher=Judges Guild |date=April 1981}} He also described his Blackmoor game as a variation of Dave Wesely's earlier Braunstein, based on Wesely's ideas about role-playing, but set in a fantasy world. Jon Peterson cites Arneson's Blackmoor as being the most significant precursor to Dungeons & Dragons.

Wesely created the wargame Valley Forge, which was published by TSR Hobbies in 1976. Dave Arneson wrote an introduction for the game. Peterson describes Valley Forge as an adaptation of Strategos N to the American Revolutionary War.{{cite book|last=Peterson|first=Jon|title=Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games|publisher=Unreason Press|date=2012|edition=2nd|chapter=5.9.3. Parting of the Ways}}

Wesely designed video games for Discovery Games, including Winged Samurai,{{cite journal|last=Johnson |first=Forrest |date=November 1980 |title=Capsule Reviews|journal=The Space Gamer|publisher=Steve Jackson Games|issue=33|pages=36–37}} and Chennault's Flying Tigers.

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Category:1945 births

Category:Living people

Category:American board game designers

Category:American role-playing designers

Category:American video game designers