Chainmail (game)

Chainmail

Rules for medieval miniatures
Cover for the first edition of Chainmail (1971). Artwork by Don Lowry
Designer(s)	Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren
Illustrator(s)	Don Lowry
Publisher(s)	Guidon Games TSR, Inc.
Years active	1971-1985
Players	2 - 10
Age range	12 and up
Playing time	six hours

Chainmail is a medieval miniature wargame created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Gygax developed the core medieval system of the game by expanding on rules authored by his fellow Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) member Perren, a hobby-shop owner with whom he had become friendly. Guidon Games released the first edition of Chainmail in 1971 as its first miniature wargame and one of its three debut products.Chainmail was the first game designed by Gygax that was available for sale as a professional product. It included a heavily Tolkien-influenced "Fantasy Supplement", which made Chainmail the first commercially available set of rules for fantasy wargaming, though it follows many hobbyist efforts from the previous decade.Dungeons & Dragons began as a Chainmail variant, and Chainmail pioneered many concepts later used in Dungeons & Dragons, including armor class and levels, as well as various spells, monsters and magical powers.

Gary Gygax's personal interest in medieval wargaming rules was sparked after witnessing a game of the Siege of Bodenburg, at the first Lake Geneva Wargames Convention (Gen Con) in 1968. Bodenburg was serialized in the wargaming magazine Strategy & Tactics the previous year, and required various 40 mm Elastolin miniatures, including a large castle setpiece. Gygax first inquired publicly about purchasing these figures early in 1969. Gygax furthermore began work on a medieval board wargame called Arsouf, based on the Battle of Arsuf, which he serialized in Panzerfaust between April and July 1969 (later, the game was repackaged under the title Crusader). Moreover, Gygax wrote a series of articles about ancient and medieval wargaming in the International Wargamer starting in October 1969 in which he repeatedly acknowledged his appreciation for Tony Bath's medieval wargaming rules. Eventually, his interest drove Gygax to form the Castle & Crusade Society of the International Federation of Wargaming as a Society dedicated particularly to the exploration of the medieval wargames setting.