Gary Gygax has died March 5, 2008
Gary Gygax, ‘Father of D&D,’ Dies at 69:
Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, according to Stephen Chenault, CEO of Troll Lord Games.
Gygax designed the original D&D game with Dave Arneson in 1974, and went on to create the Dangerous Journeys and Lejendary Adventure RPGs, as well as a number of board games. He also wrote several fantasy novels.
The influence of D&D is huge, even for someone like me who has only played AD&D twice in his entire life.
Penny Arcade made a comic dedicated to Mr. Gygax.
I started playing the Basic rules set when I was in primary school (around age 11) and got the Expert rules for my 13th birthday. Since, I played 2nd Edition every weekend, with the same guys well into college (before everyone moved on and/or away). As Warren Spector laments, CRPG’s fail to gain that same flavour of gaming camaraderie that you had when you were sitting around a dining room table, with your character sheets, your bag of “lucky dice”, and your order-in pizza/chinese food.
Unfortunate that he died so young but him and his fellow conspirators (Cook, Gygax’s brother, et al) left their indelible imprint on my childhood.
He’s gonna roll a semi-elf next time…
See you.