When did Blackmoor evolve into what is now known as an RPG?

We know D&D style role playing was invented by Dave Arneson.

In fact, all the methods used by most of these kinds of games made since then are the Arneson methods of play; which come straight out of Blackmoor and are codified in the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

There is too much evidence which supports this fact for any plausible denial I can think of.

What is not known is when Arneson switches from the Braunstein format for play which can be found in Wesely's games, to the open format which Blackmoor uses. Rob Kuntz describes the process in his book, Dave Arneson's True Genius.

https://www.tlbgames.com/products/dave-arnesons-true-genius?variant=31355395768377

Dan Boggs and I spent some time on the phone discussing the difficulty of dating early Blackmoor a few months ago.

Here, Is a blog post by Dan with some interesting proposals for dating early Blackmoor sessions:

http://boggswood.blogspot.com/2025/06/mapping-oldest-dungeon-crawl-session.html 

And here:

boggswood.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-first-dungeon-crawl-in-history.html

What Dan has presented is very reasonable, but he is being cautious. 

Certitude is something which is best avoided. Plenty of historians have published facts which within months were disproven by other newer facts. Thus you need to apply your own doubt if you see a historian stating something as fact without the use of cautious language such as: It is possible that, or it would appear, If you do not believe me, we can discuss the dinosaurs are lizards theory. 

The more I find, the more I lean toward an earlier dating. I think the letter to Kuntz, with the later published Blackmoor and Environs outline and map, is material Arneson wrote up for his players. My perspective is that this sat for some months before being sent to Rob Kuntz. I also point to the dating Dan talks about regarding Bill Hoyt as a planned player in the game.

I think the campaign outline comes from around the fall of 1970. It is hard to prove with absolute certainty aside from some inference of such. Just as I still feel the demo game in Lake Geneva more likely occured in 1972. Or rather, it is as possible as other theories.

Remember, the Medieval Battle Notes by Arneson most likely come from late 1969 to early 1970. My reasoning is that there are no gamers from the Excelsior Gamer Group, Robert Meyer, the Fant brothers, Svenson, and a couple others.

The Medieval Battle notes game is more likely using an adaptation of Strategos-A (Ancient), rather than Chainmail. It also relies heavily on the roleplayed war game style they had already developed along with Braunstein within the Blackmoor Bunch.

Greg Svenson still claims his first dungeon adventure is during xmas break of 1970/71. He links it to his age and having just gotten a drivers license.
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I am not going to argue with Dan on his dates, I am merely pondering all of it. Because I cannot be too sure either.

I realize this is a quick and short post, thus a lot of background is needed to follow some of the ideas presented.

If you are interested in learning more RPG History, Dann Boggs will be conducting a seminar at Arnecon this year, more info here:
https://tabletop.events/conventions/arnecon-3/schedule/26

Thanks, Griff