Gary Gygax, RIP
Naturally, all of us — game world or social world folk, pen and paper or computer — owe a lot to him and Dave Arneson, for developing so many of the underpinnings of alternate worlds and roleplaying.
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Naturally, all of us — game world or social world folk, pen and paper or computer — owe a lot to him and Dave Arneson, for developing so many of the underpinnings of alternate worlds and roleplaying.
Comments are closed.
This was a real mind-blowing event… the number of lives he impacted is incredible, a huge majority of modern geeks can thank him for such a big part of what made us who we are.
Are you serious!?
He died!?
I’ll have to tell my family… My step-dad went and played grayhawk with him 3 years ago at his house.
Very hard to fully appreciate his impact on fantasy and gaming as so much of what we do can trace it’s roots back to Gary. Being a teen before it was cool to be a little socially maladjusted wasn’t easy. D&D is more than just the grandfather of our industry, it also made the world a better place for so many of us.
I would have liked to have met him to say thank’s for all the memories and fun his games and books brought me. R.I.P G.Gygax.
If I see one more seriously made allusion or metaphor to “missed savings roll”, “raise the dead”, “the original GM” and all that, I’m going to scream.
Tim, Could it be that those references are symbolic of the depth of his impact on those individuals. Do we cringe when we say that a mic has gone silent for a famous broadcaster? That was the last curtain call for a famous actor? What he did defined him and generations of role players after him. Those statements can be made in a manner that is reverential(sp?) and not demeaning. If their mocking him then sure, I agree with you but I can’t see that happening more than the latter which is probably a decent way to respect his impact on our lives. Given that DnD was one of the only games with an outright roll against death, the saving throw remarks are not out of context. His was just as unexpected as rolling a 1 on a D20 at the one time where you’ld be required to make the roll in a campaign.
Oh don’t get me wrong – you’re talking to someone who had an original set from ’75 or so. Someone who sees how deep the impact of his and others work was.
I think perhaps Gary Gygax has had more impact on my life than any other single individual, simply through the genre of games that he helped to usher in. I mean, I started playing D&D 22 years ago, when I was 10 years old. I’ve been playing fantasy role-playing games, first tabletop, then text, then graphical, then MUD, and then MMO-style ever since.
It felt really wierd today to see the news story saying he died.
RIP Gary.