Gary Gygax, 1938-2008

Raesene · Post by **Raesene** » 2008-03-05 02:55am

Order of the Stick tribute

link

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2008-03-05 03:14am

Its probably been about 20 years since I played that stuff. Fun memories.

KlavoHunter · Post by **KlavoHunter** » 2008-03-05 04:49am

The man is gone, but his work lives on. RIP.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2008-03-05 07:40am

My RPG junkie status led me to a venue I could happily socialize in without fear, express my wierdness regularly, and even found me the most wonderful and caring woman in my life. I have no idea how my life would have turned out if I hadn't found the old boxed set in my older cousin's closet when he let me rifle through his stuff one summer, but I think I am happier for it.

Rest in peace, Mr. Gygax, because if you have to fail your saving throw vs. Death, sixty nine years is still a good run. Your work and the fun and chaos it created lives on in a thousand ways.

Post by **Kuja** » 2008-03-05 11:53am

Death - the ultimate aggro wipe.

Now I'm extremely irritated that I'm going to miss D&D this week.

RIP sir.

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2008-03-05 01:44pm

RIP Mr. Gygax, hopefully the angels will drop some good loot for you.

Jade Falcon · Post by **Jade Falcon** » 2008-03-05 02:15pm

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2008-03-05 05:11pm

Darth Wong wrote:I don't know if I would equate people who don't street-race or get into bar fights with "pencil-necked geeks".

Of course not, but the stereotype still exists about gamers whether it's based in reality or not.

havokeff wrote: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 had an awesome fake ID when I was 14. Good enough to fool cops and bouncers alike.

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.

But those are comic book fans and Trekkies.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-03-06 12:01pm

Tomb of Horrors, 3.5 edition. I'm running this as a tribute. Rest in peace, Gary Gygax. Many characters shall soon join you.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2008-03-06 12:23pm

Damn, what a thing to see... Rest in Peace mr Gygax, and if you do come back as an undead to haunt the fatcats of WOTC, then get good stats in your re-incarnation.
D&D Almost let me gain some friends when I was younger, and it certainly helped me push my cocoon at least...

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2008-03-06 01:01pm

DEATH wrote:Damn, what a thing to see... Rest in Peace mr Gygax, and if you do come back as an undead to haunt the fatcats of WOTC, then get good stats in your re-incarnation.
D&D Almost let me gain some friends when I was younger, and it certainly helped me push my cocoon at least...

makes me want to play daggerfalls just to imagine Gary's ghost howling for vengence while rattling chains and draining levels of those folks at WotC....

of course being the original DM we would have to create a Gamer-Lich for him....

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2008-03-07 02:31am

Rogue 9 wrote:Tomb of Horrors, 3.5 edition. I'm running this as a tribute. Rest in peace, Gary Gygax. Many characters shall soon join you.

Why would they need to "convert" it? So many of the encounters are of the "SPLAT! YOU DIE HORRIBLY!" variety, it seems unnecessary.

To this day I regret not using my best PC to go through Acerarak's tomb, but used one of my character's henchmen instead. I was very lucky in that I had just seen Raiders of the Lost Ark the day before we played and was super paranoid about traps. Out of 8 PCs and 4 henchmen, three survived (2 PCs, one NPC) and one of those was mine.

A while back, I asked Gygax a question about the Command spell. It's a 1st level spell that allows the caster to essentially Jedi Mind Trick another character into obeying a one-word command ("run" or "jump" or any number of other commands). When I was 11-12ish my snot-nosed juvenile delinquent mind came up with an idea to use the spell to take out two NPCs instead of one. The one-word command?

FUCK!

Naturally my DM didn't allow it (my PC was going to use it on a group of bandits -taking out two while the rest of the party killed the rest). So I asked E.G.G. about it and his response was that in fact I was right, though it would probably only last a round or two until the second NPC fought off the first's advances. Not that it mattered, since this was years later, but it brought back fond memories and amused Gary and the others.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2008-03-07 07:21am

XKCD posted its own tribute:

Shrykull · Post by **Shrykull** » 2008-03-12 10:42pm

Zor wrote:He should have had another decade or two on him.

RIP.

Zor

That's what I wondered. His only real obvious problems were he was overweight and geriatric, but I thought he'd probably live another 10 years or so. So, it was a heart attack do we know for sure?

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2008-03-13 02:52am

He said he was suffering from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. I can't remember if it was on Dragonsfoot or ENWorld, but he talked about his health being dire a couple of years ago, and that since there was no cure for his problem, the Grim Reaper could collect him at any time. The doctors gave him six months, but he lasted 3-4 years, IIRC.