What were Gygax & Arneson & pals looking at for early D&D?

[OgreBattle]

And their playtester pals and freelancers too, lets just gather all the info online here


This article:
https://kotaku.com/dungeons-deceptions- ... 1837516834

-Mentions playing Afrika Korps
-Mentions Dave Arneson had Rules Referees to handle rules lawyering
- "Braunstein" a game I hadn't heard of before, 60's RPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braunstei ... ying_games

"Wesely's Braunstein drew inspiration from Diplomacy, a game requiring players to negotiate in between turns.[citation needed] The idea of a referee was derived from Strategos: The American Game of War (1880), by Charles Totten.[1] Totten's book also inspired Wesely with the idea of having a game master who invented the scenario for the evening's battle.[1] Wesely discovered the idea of "n-player" strategy games from The Compleat Strategist (1954) by J.D. Williams.[1] Wesely also read and cited as influential, Conflict and Defense: A General Theory (1962), by Kenneth E. Boulding."

That's cool, sounds like it began as a person scale 'Model UN' kind of game
You know, I never hear "Model UN" brought up as a role playing game, but it's possibly the first one I played in elementary or middle school.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_Uni ... ns#History

Various threads on Ultraman monsters as early D&D, it's confirmed by the artist but not sure which monster is which
https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-ult ... rs.672346/

Tim Kask of Dragon magazine says he was given the miniature that became the Bullete by Gary:
https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/view ... st#p774183


This page has Ultraman monsters including the bulette inspiration:
https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-ult ... rs.672346/

I found the ultraman kaiju name before but forgot it, it's a quadraped and the back opens into a fin for something.


Someone mentions "slimes were based on a Japanese monster movie", I think they mean The Green Slime" (?????3? ????? (Ganm? Daisan G?: Uch? Daisakusen, 1969) which was a Toho Hollywood joint production with space slime that turns into... pretty much a D&D roper!
https://twitter.com/HokutoAndy/status/1 ... 7915507713



I'll add to this when I find other articles.