Thank you, Gary
I hope you’ll indulge me for a momentary break in the current story to pay my respect to Gary Gygax Day.
I owe a lot to Gary, Dave, and all of the original players who forged Dungeons & Dragons. I know I am not alone when I say that I would not be the person I am today if not for Dungeons & Dragons. At 10-years old, I played my first game of D&D sitting on the front steps of my elementary school and the experience sparked a love for D&D (and all RPGs) that has burned for 20 years.
I was fortunate enough to meet Gary years ago (and along with my friend Rob, give him the first in a series of annual GenCon Greyhawk t-shirts). He was kind. He shook our hands, thanked us for the shirt, and shared a gamer story. It wasn’t until 2008, after he was gone, did I really start to think about what his work meant to people, our culture. Gary and the original crew didn’t just create a game, they left behind a legacy that directly affected me from the moment I set eyes upon it.
Gary’s legacy took my imagination to places it had never been before. Gary’s legacy taught me to dream of brave heroes, monsters, magic, and fantastic locations. Gary’s legacy took a shy, chubby kid and molded him into the man I am today. I will never forget that.
So today, if you are into RPGs, take a moment to remember Gary and roll a d20 in his memory. I think he would dig that.
Thank you, Gary.
This was classy and the man deserves that. Nicely done.
Well done. I never got to meet Gary myself, but I’m thankful for what he and Dave created, and all the wonderful things that their creation spawned.
man, its been 12 years since I truly began to follow the ways of D&D, and it seems like such a short time filled with eons of adventures.
I really have thank my aunt to really give me that taste of that wonderful drug and my friends for drawing their swords, bows and readying their spells and marching along side me.
I was never privileged enough to meet one as great as Gygax himself, but I really wish I could have heard some of his stories in person.
Even someone like me with my own renown reputation of being unlucky can roll a 20 for Gygax
I feel fortunate that I actually got a chance to play Gary’s Lejendary Adventure game at a con with Gary himself as the Lejend Master.
I rolled a 6 on my honorary d20 roll. Here’s to all the failed checks that resulted in hilarity. Couldn’t’ve done it without you, EGG.
Well done. Rolling on my d20 to save versus getting maudlin…
Agree, with the article. D&D was one of the best things that I discovered in my youth. Also I think video games owe’s him thanks too: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-07-27-gary-gygax-the-father-of-games-design
Well done, man. Well done.
I was lucky to meet him as well, at a con where he was doing beta testing for Dangerous Journeys. Super nice guy that seemed to genuinely care about gamers and what they had to say.
My usual weekend gamer group got a dark chocolate cake with quick-drying fudge poured over it in honor of Gygax’s birthday. The bakers put Hershey’s kisses on top…which we removed and put minis and d20s in the holes left behind. It says Happy Birthday Gygax. Next year is going to be an even bigger party, because it will be his 75th birthday.
Rolled a 2. 🙂
What a wonderful post. I often wonder how many millions of lives he touched, directly and indirectly. Regardless of the number, in his own way he changed the world for the better.
I will celebrate by taking my 11-year-old to play D&D (classic blue-book, the way I learned it).
Well said.
I’m a newbie to this site, but reading through the archives has been pretty fun…
It’s been many years since I pulled out my old dice. We used to play D&D and Middle Earth during the lunch hour at high school. Man, some of the best times I can remember… Of course, moving, working and general life conspires against you, and new friends who are completely clueless about table-top gaming… but, I still have the dice.
I’ll forever be a fantasy gamer.
Thanks for writing this post. My siblings and I really enjoy reading and sharing great stories about our Dad. We hold an annual convention in Lake Geneva in March to celebrate his life and works. It is called Gary Con.(www.garycon.com). Great Old School Gaming Goodness. Game on!
I will celebrate by remembering Dave Arneson, a mentor and friend, and a legend in his field, who Gygax and his friends mercilessly screwed. To this day, WotC is promoting a reprint of the original books, donating the profits to Gygax’ memorial, with only Gygax listed as the author. It is shameful revisionist history and it denied a good and brilliant man the credit and fortune his talents deserved. Where is the memorial to Dave Arneson? Where’s his damn statue?
Actually, that is my question to you; Where is Dave Arneson’s statue?
As a person who loves and respects him isn’t it your responsibility to organize such a thing if you truly believe it to be necessary?
After all, whom do you think is organizing the memorial for Gary Gygax? I’ll tell you. It’s the people who love and respect him.
Just some food for thought.
Only got love for Dave, but my history is limited to what’s on Wikipedia: didn’t Dave leave TSR to be independent before 1e? And did the AD&d books ever have his name on them? (my google image search can’t find a pic, but I might not be looking hard enough). Arneson is the Steve Wozniak of d&d–it would never have happened without him (he was the soul of rpg, the judge seemed pretty sure gygax would have just made a single-unit co-op war game) but it couldn’t have gone anywhere without his partner, “the face” of the company.
I’m down with the idea of a arneson statue, just as much as I am with a gygax icon. Someone kickstarter this!
Want some reasons to not be down with a Gygax statue as well as an Arneson one? How about all the cocaine he did, and the fact that he cheated on his wife… The mother of his *five children*… But hey, at least he named a forgettable Drow city after his kids, instead of being a decent human being or father.
Oh yeah, let’s add how the FBI called him ‘eccentric and *dangerous*’ in a report about him. Or the fact that he was a libertarian.
Or just the plain fact that he was the worst kind of Brett in every imaginable way, and if not for Arneson and many other people pushing away from his neckbeard-y bullshit, we’d still be dealing with the ‘no girls club’, Tomb of Horrors PC-murder, story trampling type of D&D he wanted the game to be.
Many a night I played D &D in college. Thanks for your game and all the games that followed. Fine us Fingers forever.
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