RIP: Gary Gygax, co-creater of D&D

[TinyRedLeaf]

Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax dies

ABS-CBN (4 Mar 08) - Gary Gygax, co-creator of the iconic Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game and considered the father of modern role-playing gaming, died in his home Tuesday, his wife said.

Gygax had been suffering from a number of health problems including an incurable heart aneurism, Gail Gygax said. He was 69.

First published in 1974, the Dungeons & Dragons game, in which players create magical and heroic characters and guide them through a series of adventures, soon became a cultural phenomenon. There was no game board in this interactive, imaginative adventure: just paper, pen, the dungeon master's rule book and a set of multisided dice.

D&D spawned a booming industry and has inspired a generation of writers, video game designers and filmmakers. Gygax's cult hero status among self-proclaimed geeks is so intense that one fan even named a strain of bacteria after him.

The popularity of Dungeons and Dragons faded in the 1990s as the video games boom began, but Gygax's influence in the gaming world continued through his columns and the more than 80 games, game products, and books he created.

To be sure, Dungeons & Dragons has been both a blessing and a curse for me. Curse, because of the countless hours I've lost to D&D and d20 RPGs, both on tabletop and computers. Blessing, because it had all been so damned fun.

If it hadn't been for D&D, I doubt if Tolkienesque elves, dwarves and halflings would be as commonplace as they are today.

Rest in peace, Gary Gygax. Thanks for the ride!

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Rest in peace, Gary Gygax. Thanks for the ride!

What he said.

Mind you, I was never a fan of the pen and paper version of D&D, and it wasn't until I played the Baldur's Gate and Ice Wind Dale games, that I finally started to like the D&D universe.

[grey_moon]

Very sad to hear that. D&D was one of the most important escapes in my childhood

[tripperazn]

Originally Posted by Daniel E.

Mind you, I was never a fan of the pen and paper version of D&D, and it wasn't until I played the Baldur's Gate and Ice Wind Dale games, that I finally started to like the D&D universe.

Seconded.

Those games were so epic I still get the urge to play them these days.

[Irenicus]

R.I.P. He lived a long life. I was never a fan of tabletop RPG's, but D&D CRPG's are the best, and he started it all.

Originally Posted by tripperazn

Those games were so epic I still get the urge to play them these days.

Those games are so epic I'm still playing them from time to time these days.

Sadly, with Bioware moving on, there doesn't seem to be much life in D&D-based PC RPG's anymore...

[Vexx]

I remember playing D&D in college in the late 70s. I ended up actually dropping my prior wargaming hobby because the combination of game mechanics and collaborative storytelling were just perfectly synch'd with my other hobbies at the time.
Spent most of the 80s working on NASA and Air Force projects and there were always plenty of D&D fans around to form groups with.

The RPGs were cool, NWN had its moments, but nothing was quite as fun as a tabletop session (see Dorktower and KODT for many silly examples). I had high hopes for MMOs... but the "vast untuned masses" just don't get the idea (or more pathetically, they poke fun at anyone who *plays* their character). Whatever....

Currently, at my house --- recently we've been playing the game "Kobolds Ate My Baby" where you're playing *as* kobolds (character creation is very brief since the average lifespan of a kobold is one swing of a two-hander). Hilarious...

I'll miss ya, Gygax. I've heard he actually narrated some of the quests in D&D Online -- though I'm not sure which ones.

[NoSanninWa]

How can he be dead? I've never even learned the meaning of the "E" in E. Gary Gygax!

I can't say that I am still a big fan of AD&D, but my goodness I'd never have learned about Role Playing if it wasn't for that game. Good times indeed and I'm grateful to him for helping me to find those good times.

[Kang Seung Jae]

I've never heard of Dungeons & Dragons.

[Vexx]

Most of the MMOs, video games, and fantasy games people play and watch today in some way owe their momentum and credit to Dungeons&Dragons (which in turn owes a lot of its legacy to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings). It was developed in the 1970s as a tabletop pen&pencil&dice game long before anyone had "personal computers".

[Rahan]

I have never played pen & paper D&D (but I have actually bought all the D&D video games following Baldur's Gate), but without him, the pen & papers games I played (Stormbringer, Cyberpunk, Warhammer, Vampires and Runequest mostly) would have never existed.
So Rest in Peace Gygax

Originally Posted by Kang Seung Jae

I've never heard of Dungeons & Dragons.

You don't have pen & paper RPG in Korea ?
D&D is the very first one and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) is still one of the most played in the world (and the game system of games like Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights). Even people who are not into RPG (and they are many, RPG is clearly not a mainstream hobby in France) have heard of it.

[technomo12]

ANOTHER GREAT ONE HAS BITEN THE DUST

SO WE ARE BORN FROM THE ASHES WE WILL ALSO RETURN ON IT

LETS LIVE ON THE MEMORIES OF Gary Gygax

MAY HEAVEN BE A MORE BEUTIFUL D&D THAN THE ONE YOU HAVE CREATED

REMEMBER THE DEAD BUT PLAY WITH THE LIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Solace]

As someone who grew up with a huge interest in fantasy, D&D was a big influence. My deepest respects and wishes to a man who gave others an outlet for imagination, adventure, and fellowship.

http://www.gucomics.com/comic/?cdate=20080305

A fitting tribute.

[Kagerou]

Oh, my God.
This is so awful. As someone who still plays D&D (waiting for 4th Edition anytime now ), I had an awful lot of respect for the man who created a game that I love playing.

Really the best way my gaming group has decided to honor him... we're busting out the old 1st Edition and doing an old-school dungeon crawl .

RIP, Gary. Go create some worlds with God.

[Risaa]

We're not the only ones mourning his loss.

[Rahan]

Not really of good taste, but the joke is good and it's better to laugh than to cry over it.

[Redalchemy]

my friends play D&D, so naturally i heard about this, so RIP Gary.

[cheyannew]

I guess that's one "benefit' to working in the gaming industry...

This went across email late Tuesday afternoon, if I recall right. We joked about making Wednesday a day of mourning and us all taking it off but the higher up didn't go for that

I still have miniatures from the old games dated 1976 I haven't the foggiest where my original D&D books are, but we sure have some fond memories of those games.

Between that and Wujcik (I totally butchered that I am betting) having cancer, sounds like this year will suck for the oldtime gamers

[Sheba]

RIP and thank you Gary Gygax.

Thanks to you, my very first advanced dungeons & dragons campain I ever did turned out to be the most epic pen and paper RPG campain ever.

I'll think of you when I'll talk about my friend's berserker barbarian player character who has cut the spine of the tarask that was about to destroy the world. I'll remember you when I'll think about my players' last stand against the undead army I was about to unleash upon them.
And my friends will drink in your memory when we'll talk about the horny and sex-crazed paladin (who vowed chastity as mistake of youth), homosexual priest, neanderthal-like feral boy, clumsy elven thief girl, and the lizardman who ate raw sheeps, much to the peasants' annoyance.

And I'll remember you when I gonna watch Record of Lodoss War for the 30th time.

Originally Posted by Daniel E.

What he said.

Mind you, I was never a fan of the pen and paper version of D&D, and it wasn't until I played the Baldur's Gate and Ice Wind Dale games, that I finally started to like the D&D universe.

Play Planescape Torment.

[WanderingKnight]

No! Where's the cleric? With my friends we never played D&D in a very serious manner (we used to do very comedic campaigns, almost never with serious stuff) but we enjoyed it a lot nonetheless. It's a real bummer.

Like someone at Slashdot said, "The game of life, where everyone eventually rolls a 1".

[ZXValaRevan]

It was too bad. I liked that man. Awaiting 4e eagerly though.