The Roots of Original D&D - What Was the Castle & Crusade Society and who was Tony Bath?

 "ONCE UPON A TIME, long, long ago there was a little group known as the Castle & Crusade Society."

This is the very first sentence in the Foreword of the first Dungeons & Dragons book "Men & Magic", published in 1974. The foreword goes on to inform us that it was the Castle & Crusade Society's fantasy rules, which "brought about much of the current interest in fantasy wargaming."

The Roots of Original Dungeons & Dragons

What Was the Castle & Crusade Society?

The Castle & Crusade society was a group of medieval miniature wargamers formed by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz in 1970.

Gary and one of the society's members Jeff Peren designed a set of medieval wargaming rules known as the "Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association Medieval Miniature Rules", which were originally published in C&C's very own fanzine known as "The Domesday Book". These rules were later revised, expanded and published as "Chainmail" by Guidon Games in 1971.

Chainmail had a fantasy supplement in the back so wargamers could fight miniature fantasy battles. So, coming back to the foreward in Men & Magic. It is the Chainmail fantasy supplement that is being referred to when the "Castle & Crusade fantasy rules" are mentioned.

This information won't be new to the passionate OD&D fan. But what kind of light can knowledge of the Castle & Crusade Society shed on our understanding of OD&D? It's certainly not a new concept to think of D&D as being born out of the wargaming community. But I think one thing that is very overlooked when attempting to interpret OD&D rules is the importance of understanding 70's miniature wargaming. A good understanding of this type of wargaming is vital when attempting to reconstruct the original D&D game with any authenticity. Figuring out exactly what the Castle & Crusades Society was is a massive help when trying to do this.

Some players largely ignore the Chainmail rules when attempting to play OD&D. I think this is detrimental enough to understanding and reconstructing the OD&D game, but I'll go one further... if you are not a wargamer then referencing Chainmail alone is not enough! You have to consider that Chainmail was written by wargamers, for wargamers. Many of its concepts are presented with a certain amount of vagueness because it's presumed the reader has a good knowledge of wargaming. So to truly grasp Chainmail, we want to know what influences were at play in the C&C society when these rules were written. The C&C fanzine "Domesday" sheds a lot of light on this.

Chainmail is made up of several systems: a mass combat system for 1:20 scale combat, a man-to-man system for 1:1 scale combat, medieval jousting rules and finally the fantasy supplement. Each of these systems is an evolution of previous wargaming rules.

The mass combat system was heavily inspired by the wargaming rules of Tony Bath - an influential wargamer from the UK who designed a set of ancient wargaming rules, which were later published by Donald Featherston in his book "Wargames". The man-to-man system were derived from an earlier contribution published anonymously in Domesday #7. The jousting rules were originally played by post within the C&C society and were also published in Domesday #6 and #13. Finally, the fantasy supplement was also influenced by Tony Bath rules and popular Sword & Sorcery fiction.

Who Was Tony Bath?

Tony Bath was a small quiet man who played his own rules at home. In the late 60's he created a postal wargaming campaign called the Legend of Hyboria. This campaign was rich in detail in a way that had not been seen before. Cities, economies, savage barbarians and knights. Tony Bath also wrote an article about adapting fantasy fiction into wargaming and recommended certain authors for inspiration that included Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fritz Lieber and Leigh Brackett. Sound familiar?

I think D&D owes more to Tony Bath than most people realise. He appears to be a very significant influence on both Gary Gygax and the C&C Society an influence that not only appears to have been forgotten, but one that if looked into offers many clues to better understanding D&D in its earliest inception.

If you're going to play OD&D I'd highly recommend reading Tony Bath's rules alongside Chainmail first. You'll be very surprised at the difference it makes to understanding the true relationship between Chainmail & OD&D.