As some of you may be aware, in 2012 there was
a kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary on the history of Dungeons and Dragons and its influences on popular culture. The funding was a success, and work on the project continues in earnest.
I am posting this thread because I believe some of you have squirreled away original materials or know of such materials that would be of interest to this project. I am not speaking of published materials like rule books and modules, but the daily life history of gaming. Images, audio and video that was captured by your or your parents of key events in gaming history or simply play sessions of old, and I believe you want to share them.
Specifically, we are searching most for pictures/film of:
- young Gary, Dave, the Blume Brothers, Don Kaye, et al
- early TSR
- Lake Geneva in the 70's and 80's
- Anything from the "Satanic Panic" era
While the above are things we are definitely on the lookout for we are also interested in materials dealing with gaming from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Did your father wargame in Minneapolis in the 60s? Did you attend gaming conventions in the late 70's? Interview the local church for a school project when the moral panic started in the early 80's? If you feel it may be important enough to warrant screen time I would love to see it and talk to you about it.
If you posses any of the above you can start talking with me about in this thread, through our email for discussing materials,
dungeonarchives@gmail.com, or you can simply send it to us
via this drop box account.
If you do send files through the drop box be sure to include your contact information and whatever you know about the files you are uploading.
Why should I help you? It sounds like I am just doing your job for you!This is just one part of finding materials for use in a documentary. While the producers and director are out conducting interviews with people I am digging through their old boxes of stuff, visiting news film archives, scanning through microfilm, contacting librarians, archivists, reporters and museums to get tiny clues to where a treasure may be hidden. Some great materials are hiding in the closets of gamers who were not major players in the industry and the only way I can find them is to ask a broad audience. I also need to track down those who own the intellectual property(IP) we wish to use, which can be a lengthy and drawn out process.
I see why you are asking us, but I still don't see why I should help?This is an opportunity to get your own gaming history into the gaming historical record! If that isn't incentive enough, we will be paying (licensing) material owners for the material if it is used in the documentary. I don't have an exact figure to give you right now, and it will be modest, but we want to make sure people are appropriately compensated for their IP and assistance.
I found this great picture of Gary Gygax from the 70s on some website and uploaded it to you, isn't that great?Yes and no. I love to find materials, but we also will only use material we can license. If you own the IP to the material, meaning you took the picture or film, or you inherited the IP (likely because one of your parents created the image/film) we can license it from you. If you found something great elsewhere but it is not yours, I would love to hear about it but then I also need to try and find who owns the IP and license it from them.
I have some really great items but I don't have a scanner/it's on old VHS tapes!No problem! Write me and describe what you have. Take a cell phone picture or video if you can. I will help you digitize it on your own or I will do the digitization if you are willing to mail it and we believe we may want to use it in the film.
What is the best thing you have found so far?Unfortunately, I cannot discuss much of what I have found so far. I can say that I have found some very cool materials that have probably not been seen by others in decades. I also get to do things like go through papers of gaming icons. For instance, in December I was able to meet up with Margaret Weis and go through her papers with her. If you check out her facebook page from 1/15 and 1/16/2013 she posted images of two of the items we found and I digitized.
What else can you tell me about the documentary?I am happy to answer those questions I can in this thread or via email sent to
dungeonarchives@gmail.com. However, there are a few other resources you can check out:
The film's website:
http://dndadoc.com/The film's
facebook pageAn interview with the producers and director
The completed
kickstarter pageWhere can I send things or discuss materials again?
dungeonarchives@gmail.comhttp://tinyurl.com/a7sk846
