A statement on the game’s official Web site, wizards.com, said Arneson died Tuesday evening “after waging one final battle against cancer.”

Arneson “developed many of the fundamental ideas of role playing: that each player controls just one hero, that heroes gain power through adventures, and that personality is as important as combat prowess,” the statement said.

The game’s co-creator, Gary Gygax, died last year.

In 1974, Arneson and Gygax created “Dungeons & Dragons,” which allowed players to assume roles in a magical world. They could be fighters or wizards, elves or dwarfs.

“As characters journey through various lands, they search for hidden treasures while battling menacing monsters with their own brains and brawn,” a description on wizards.com says.

Some games would last days or weeks — or even longer. “Game campaigns are as limitless as the player’s imaginations,” wizards.com says.

What began as a hand-assembled print run of 1,000 games quickly sold out. Young people all over the world started buying up the game. By 1982, sales broke the $20 million mark.

Arneson filed a series of lawsuits against Gygax insisting he was not being given credit or proper royalties for his work creating the game. The suits were settled.

“Dungeons and Dragons” spawned video games, novels, a cartoon, and a movie. The franchise saw a surge this decade after “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” movies took off.

What a sad day for Nerds worldwide. They are probably crying like little babies in their parent’s basements. As someone who has never played Dungeons & Dragons before (sports are a better way to make friends if you ask me)…I had no idea that actual people invented it. I always thought that the game was found in some sort of ancient cave and created by a wizard’s nerd magic or something. I guess you learn something new everyday.

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