[Calithena]

Role-playing was there from the very beginning, though it emerged partly by accident: Arneson thought a wargame would be cool where each player just controlled one figure (in 1972), and the players started role-playing their characters a lot spontaneously.

I got better role-playing out of Temple of the Frog back in '77 than I could ever have gotten out of most eighties and nineties modules. The thing is, you make your own story with the stuff that's provided; whereas a scripted plot just winds up being a big drag, at least for me. Yes, having NPC motives helps you do this, but that stuff is easier to make up (at least for me) than combat stats.

It is true that a lot of early D&D was played by wargamers, looked like a wargame, and added things primarily to support wargamers' concerns. But to say that role-playing came later, with 'AD&D' is a joke. I was there when AD&D came out, and role-playing was already well-established, and nobody took AD&D as something which was pushing people in a more 'roleplaying' or 'story-oriented' direction. I mean, nobody at all.