March 4, 2008 10:21 AM PST
Gary Gygax, 1938-2008: Rest in Peace, Dungeon Master
Posted by Will Greenwald
Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and one of the fathers of tabletop role playing games, died on Tuesday at the age of 69. He had suffered from heart problems.
The news was first announced on the message board of Troll Lord Games, the publisher of Gygax's most recent works. It has since been directly confirmed by the company, which will post an announcement on its web site later today.
Gygax was best known for helping create Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and pioneered tabletop role playing games. The first D&D rulebooks were released in 1974 by TSR, Inc, and since then produced three full-fledged sequels, numerous revisions and updates, and dozens upon dozens of additional rulebooks, settings, and campaigns. While Gygax hadn't had much direct involvement with D&D for many years, he developed and contributed to many role playing games, Troll Lord Games' Gary Gygax's Fantasy Worlds.
If not for his contributions, video games and geek culture would probably look much different than it does today. Beyond jokes about "d20s" and "saving throws," D&D's systems and mythos have spawned many excellent games, including Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment.
Dungeons & Dragons continues to develop. Since TSR was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, the game has seen even more expansions and updates. The company released Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition in 2000, and Dungeons & Dragons 4.0 is scheduled to ship in June. Though he didn't actively produce the latest editions of the game, neither they nor the countless video games, books, and other media that carry the D&D name would have been possible without him.
I (and many others) have to thank him for having a lot of fun.
RIP
"In view of the circumstances, Britannia waives the rules."
"All you have to do is to look at Northern Ireland, [...] to see how seriously the religious folks take "thou shall not kill. The more devout they are, the more they see murder as being negotiable." George Carlin
"We need to make gay people live in fear again! What ever happened to the traditional family values of persecution and lies?" - Darth Wong
"The closet got full and some homosexuals may have escaped onto the internet?"- Stormbringer
どうして？お前が夜に自身お触れるから。 Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil,
but a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow
was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now, the fool
seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku...
-Aku, Master of Masters, Deliverer of Darkness, Shogun of Sorrow
HAIL ZOR!WE'LL BLOW UP THE OCEAN!
Heros of Cybertron-HAB-Keeper of the Vicious pit of Allosauruses-King Leighton-I, United Kingdom of Zoria: SD.net World/Tsar Mikhail-I of the Red Tsardom: SD.net Kingdoms WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE ON EARTH, ALL EARTH BREAKS LOOSE ON HELL Terran Sphere The Art of Zor
SCRawl wrote:I guess we all eventually fail that saving throw.
CLASSIC!
RIP You made all our lives a little more enjoyable.
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
Hit it. Blank Yellow (NSFW)
I used to talk to him quite a bit over at Dragonsfoot. He had been in bad health on and off for a few years. It probably didn't help that T$R and Wankers of the Coast went out of their way to screw him every chance they got (imagine if George Lucas had somehow been screwed out of the rights to Star Wars and the new owners went out of their way to ruin every last vestige of what he created).
I don't consider the time I spent playing his games "misspent" at all. I enjoyed them immensely and made several lifelong friends because of them. I miss him already.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm breaking out my old books and dice for a weekend long tribute game with my friends, most of whom I met gaming.
Archaic` wrote:Always did think the rules for inescapable death did ruin some of the fun of the game.
RIP
Are you kidding? Fear of sudden death in Old School D&D was half the fun! Tomb of Horrors is the best adventure module ever.
It's the newer versions where everything is nerfed that takes away the fun.
Because Rock falls everyone dies is such a classic line
RIP Gary
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
He did have the best name for a fantasy game developer, though. Gygax sounded like it could have been a Barbarian's name. And seconding Asdeed, it's time for a tribute game.
"Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth." M.A.A.A
Thanks Gary, you and Greenwood, and Hargrave had a very strong influence on me. and I do morn your passing, despite the fact that I had met you in person once.....
The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin
As for a tribute game, I think 1st edition is required. The one where Elf is a class.
It is sad to see you go, Gary, though I imagine you haven't had much work since Dick Cheney took over the Vice Presidential Action Rangers. Something about him doesn't make me think he has preserving the well-being of the space-time continuum high on his list. Probably the opposite.
Elfdart wrote:I don't consider the time I spent playing his games "misspent" at all. I enjoyed them immensely and made several lifelong friends because of them. I miss him already.
Ah, but instead of playing D&D, you could have been engaging in "real man" activities, like street racing or getting into fistfights at bars.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Elfdart wrote:I don't consider the time I spent playing his games "misspent" at all. I enjoyed them immensely and made several lifelong friends because of them. I miss him already.
Ah, but instead of playing D&D, you could have been engaging in "real man" activities, like street racing or getting into fistfights at bars.
I should have spent more of my time on things like school. But that's easy to say now -- it was too damn much fun to not play AD&D.
73% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
Elfdart wrote:I don't consider the time I spent playing his games "misspent" at all. I enjoyed them immensely and made several lifelong friends because of them. I miss him already.
Ah, but instead of playing D&D, you could have been engaging in "real man" activities, like street racing or getting into fistfights at bars.
Who says I didn't? I could find time to be a juvenile delinquent when I wanted to.
I don't know where the stereotype of gamers being pencil-necked geeks or fat sissies with asthma came from. Most of the people I gamed with in junior high and high school were jocks, metal heads (before hair mousse), and guys who went on to become soldiers or Marines -or more than one category. I doubt anyone I gamed with got beat up or pushed around.
Elfdart wrote:I don't consider the time I spent playing his games "misspent" at all. I enjoyed them immensely and made several lifelong friends because of them. I miss him already.
Ah, but instead of playing D&D, you could have been engaging in "real man" activities, like street racing or getting into fistfights at bars.
Who says I didn't? I could find time to be a juvenile delinquent when I wanted to.
I know I did, but I wasn't a "hardcore" player like some. You can even add girls to the list, although not to many gamers I knew could even get into a bar.
I don't know where the stereotype of gamers being pencil-necked geeks or fat sissies with asthma came from. Most of the people I gamed with in junior high and high school were jocks, metal heads (before hair mousse), and guys who went on to become soldiers or Marines -or more than one category. I doubt anyone I gamed with got beat up or pushed around.
These are the types of players I knew as well. I didn't even see the steroetype until I went to a couple of comic book conventions.
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
Hit it. Blank Yellow (NSFW)
Oh, these jokes are going to just keep rolling. C'mon though, he at least deserves a 1d20 roll.
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
Hit it. Blank Yellow (NSFW)
Civil War Man wrote:As for a tribute game, I think 1st edition is required. The one where Elf is a class.
It is sad to see you go, Gary, though I imagine you haven't had much work since Dick Cheney took over the Vice Presidential Action Rangers. Something about him doesn't make me think he has preserving the well-being of the space-time continuum high on his list. Probably the opposite.
I've got a near mint edition copy of 1st Ed, even, so I'm good.
"Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth." M.A.A.A
Elfdart wrote:I don't consider the time I spent playing his games "misspent" at all. I enjoyed them immensely and made several lifelong friends because of them. I miss him already.
Ah, but instead of playing D&D, you could have been engaging in "real man" activities, like street racing or getting into fistfights at bars.
Who says I didn't? I could find time to be a juvenile delinquent when I wanted to.
I don't know where the stereotype of gamers being pencil-necked geeks or fat sissies with asthma came from. Most of the people I gamed with in junior high and high school were jocks, metal heads (before hair mousse), and guys who went on to become soldiers or Marines -or more than one category. I doubt anyone I gamed with got beat up or pushed around.
I don't know if I would equate people who don't street-race or get into bar fights with "pencil-necked geeks".
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
I may not have played the pencil and paper game, but I must say that the PC RPG games by Bioware and others were excellent.
RIP Gary.
STGOD: Byzantine Empire Your spirit, diseased as it is, refuses to allow you to give up, no matter what threats you face... and whatever wreckage you leave behind you.
Kreia
Mayabird is my girlfriend
Justice League:BotM:MM:SDnet City Watch:Cybertron's Finest "Well then, science is bullshit. "
-revprez, with yet another brilliant rebuttal.
