D&D Co-Creator Gary Gygax Has Passed Away

Mearlus writes "In the recent past co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons Gary Gygax has worked with Troll Lord Games, a small tabletop RPG publisher. Their forums have up a post noting that Mr. Gygax has apparently passed away. Gygax was known, along with Dave Arneson, as the Father of Roleplaying." Saddened reactions from well-known designers have already begun to appear online. Consider this is an in-memoriam Ask Slashdot question: How has D&D (and tabletop roleplaying) touched/improved your life? Update: 03/04 23:16 GMT by Z : With more time, official announcements have had time to appear. Many sites are featuring posts on Gygax's impact on gaming, including touching entries on Salon and CNet.

Casting

[WormholeFiend (674934)]

Spell of Silence on all the trolls!

RIP, Gary.

Re:Casting

[cayenne8 (626475)]

What...no saving throw?

:-(

Well, I guess we all have to go meet the 'Dungeon Master' in the sky at some point....

How has it improved my life?

[StevenMaurer (115071)]

It kept me from ever being in danger of becoming an unprepared teen father.

Me too, if it wasn't for AD&D

[georgeha (43752)]

I'd have been a debt-ridden teen father driving a 13 year old Japanese subcompact. Now I'm a debt-ridden middle aged father driving a 13 year old Japanese subcompact.

Re:Me too, if it wasn't for AD&D

[Stoick (1241202)]

That's much better than being a debt-ridden subcompact father riding a 13 year old Japanese teen. Trust me.

Re:How has it improved my life?

[moderatorrater (1095745)]

Oh, um, yeah, me too. It was totally D&D that kept me from getting the girls. ;)

Quick.

[RandoX (828285)]

Get the cleric.

Re:Quick.

[rucs_hack (784150)]

oh you are so going to hell for that one....

Re:Quick.

[by Anonymous Coward]

oh you are so going to hell for that one....

Which plane?

Re:Quick.

[T.E.D. (34228)]

Get the cleric.

That would permanently lower his constitution by one. I don't think Gary would want to live that way.

Re:Quick.

[Ioldanach (88584)]

Are you sure? Start with Speak with Dead and ask!

Unfortunately, I think his death qualifies as Death From Old Age and Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection specifically exclude that.

Re:Quick.

[El Gigante de Justic (994299)]

I believe you could still reincarnate him, but he might come back as a kobold if you do that.

Re:Quick.

[Actually, I do RTFA (1058596)]

Never fear, he was an American!

Starting in 1952, the Bureau of Health Statistics which is part of the CDC, decided that you couldn't just die of old age, you had to have a reason, like you fell on your knitting needles, got hit by a bread truck, or something like that. I think they listed 130 official reasons for death.

Since he died after 1952 and was American, he died of some cause other than old age. Hence, Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection all work.

Good thing I've been maxing out Rules Lawyering since I was a level 1 rollplayer.

Funeral Details?

[Skevin (16048)]

Nevermind the cleric. Which funeral home?

Seriously, does anyone have funeral details yet? I somewhat envision the geek version of Mother Theresa, when she died, only with about a third as many people attending...

However, I expect twice as many people demanding that the Pope canonizes "Saint Gary", the Patron Saint of Natural Twenties, Preserver of Virginities; may your troubled heart find shelter in His mother's basement.

S.

Re:Funeral Details?

[Black Art (3335)]

"Saint Gary", the Patron Saint of Natural Twenties, Preserver of Virginities

I find it ironic that the man credited for preventing so much sex had six kids himself.

Thank you Gary

[BWJones (18351)]

How has D&D (and tabletop roleplaying) touched/improved your life?

It's almost cliched now but as a Dungeon Master in my early teen years, Gary Gygax's work helped to refine creativity, learning, communication, strategy and logic in a way that few other tools or experiences (including school) were able to accomplish. The rule sets were were a revolution to me at the time that helped inspire an understanding of how to engineer environments, social interactions and most of all communicate in conventional and unconventional fashions. All of these tools have certainly helped in my personal and academic lives.

I will forever be grateful to Gary Gygax and the team at TSR.

It was...

[Jabbrwokk (1015725)]

[rolls dice] a pleasure to know him.

Best game ever

[moderatorrater (1095745)]

D&D isn't actually my system of choice, but roleplaying games in general were about the only time that my friends and I could get together. It was a way for us to force ourselves to hang out, and I've made several friends that I expect to keep in touch with for many years to come. I've always made up worlds that I play in, so for me D&D was a way to externalize those worlds and allow other people to affect them with me. It also appeals to many nerds' tendency to break down and quantify the world around them.

As a side note, my sister-in-law that's currently in college was struggling with depression and a lack of friends until she started doing RPGs. Now she's got as many friends as she could wish for :D

Friends

[The Aethereal (1160051)]

How has D&D (and tabletop roleplaying) touched/improved your life?

I made some great friends in college that I probably would not have met were it not for D&D (or role playing in general).

Re:Friends

[Penguinisto (415985)]

Same here, but in the military. Dunno about the other branches, but the USAF was packed to the rafters with D&D geeks, my former self among them.

I remember playing a round of D&D once in the cargo bay of a C-141, on the way to a TDY exercise... beat the hell out of playing the same card games over and over again, and you're right - it led to meeting a lot of great people overall.

/P

Re:Friends

[ShOOf (201960)]

There were alot of us D&D geeks in the Navy too, used to play on the aircraft carrier while out on a cruise. Everyday after that 12 hr shift you head down to the forward galley and there were at least 2 games going on, sometimes more. You didn't even have to really be a part of the campaign you could just sit down, roll up a char and play for a couple hours. Played with alot of great people, we even had some officers who played.

Gary will be missed, he gave us geeks hidden down in the basement hours and hours of enjoyment.

Same, plus:

[Mongoose Disciple (722373)]

I met the woman who would later be (and still is, to be clear) my wife through my gaming friends.

Other friends of mine have changed careers and gotten much better jobs through friends they met gaming.

Clearly D&D is a gift to the world that's touched a lot of lives, and not just those of parents'-basement-dwelling pasty teenagers.

Will be missed

[wembley fraggle (78346)]

A better question would be what aspect of my life hasn't been influenced by Gygax. Safe travels, Gary.

Helped me get through 13 years old

[dotancohen (1015143)]

When I was 13 I spent one summer, er, not at home. I only got through it by visiting a 'friend' and his buddies and playing D&D every day. 7 days a week. All summer. That's how I ate. That's where I showered. D&D didn't make me friends with those kids, but it made us close and support one another. Well, it helped them support me.

Rest in Peace

[The-Bus (138060)]

"Gary Gygax has passed away? I'm--"
* rolls dice *

"very sad to hear that!"

(With apologies to the writers of Futurama).

Re:Rest in Peace

[ajs (35943)]

"Gary Gygax has passed away? I'm--"
* rolls dice *

"very sad to hear that!"

(With apologies to the writers of Futurama).

I don't think they mind.

From the episode:

Gary Gygax: Hello Fry. It's a (rolls dice) pleasure to meet you.
Gary Gygax: Here, take my +1 mace.

RIP E.G.G.

Sad day...

[painandgreed (692585)]

...if only I had a 1000 GP gem.

Since I believe premarital sex is wrong

[unassimilatible (225662)]

I'd like to thank Gary and D&D for ensuring my virtue in grade school.

RIP Gary

[Weaselmancer (533834)]

You gave me a lot of my favorite childhood memories.

Thanks Gary. We'll miss you.

Missed by all his friends and admiers

[IAmAMacOSXAddict (718470)]

I'm currently on the play test team with Jeff T. in Gary's current works (Castle Zagyg). Gary was was the Progenitor of all modern gaming. Imagine a world that did not have D&D. Computer games would not have developed in the way they have, they would be 3d versions of Chess etc. Gary's work, and the work of the people that have followed have entertained us for decades, and through Gary's work we will be entertained for decades and centuries more... Bob H.

Farewell Gary, glad I met you.

[binaryspiral (784263)]

I had the opportunity to talk with Gary at a GenCon (when it was still hosted in Milwaukee) back in the 90's. I was a teen and full of questions having played rpgs for many of my years growing up.

He was friendly, and a fun guy to talk to. I was actually quite amazed at how interested he was at talking to my friends and I about the game and actually was very interested in what we thought of the 2nd Generation of D&D.

I only had the chance to meet him once, but I was glad I had the opportunity.

Farewell, Gary. Thanks for the great games and entertainment.

Re:Farewell Gary, glad I met you.

[KnoxKnight27 (1250754)]

Sorry that URL should have been http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Jvnm9ahJM [youtube.com]

Neverwinter Nights

[PIPBoy3000 (619296)]

While I wasn't a big D&D fan, I loved the idea and always enjoyed tinkering and making up stories. When Bioware put out Neverwinter Nights, I started my own campaign [adamandjamie.com], which was received quite well. When Neverwinter Nights 2 came along, I started yet another [adamandjamie.com] and don't plan on stopping.

At one level, it's simply a hobby that combines a lot of skills I enjoy practicing. The scripting language is C-like, which probably helped me get over a long habit of programming in Basic-like languages. Modding is also something I can share with my kids, as my son enjoys tinkering around with the toolset and putting together simple modules.

On another level, I'm in awe of the people who have played my modules and how I've touched their lives. I remember getting an e-mail from a woman who was dying of cancer and how a particular moment in my game made her husband laugh for the first time in a long while. I got another letter from a young man in the Israeli army, talking about how my games were a bright moment in an otherwise terrifying life.

I think Dungeons and Dragons has ended up being something larger than it was originally envisioned. My kids make up these elaborate "playing pretend" stories. D&D has turned this instinct for adventure into something adults can do without too many funny looks. We all need to play the hero and live a life bigger than ourselves. Gary helped give that to us, and for that I am most grateful.

Pouring...

[dbc23 (1161569)]

Pouring out a 40 of mountain dew for my dead homie.

As silly as it might seem

[sjvn (11568)]

I might not have been become a computer journalism without his influence. Some of the first stories I ever published were 'tech analysis' D&D stories. You wouldn't believe how much a volume a D&D fireball actually takes up in an enclosed area. Well, not until you've been fried by one anyway, or the fine art of bouncing lighting bolts off obstacles.

Beyond that, I can't begin to count the number of hours I spend enjoying first D&D in 1975 and then all the other RPGs that followed it.

Good-bye Gary.

Steven

D&D is IRL software

[graveyhead (210996)]

I've made a similar post once before, but it seems appropriate now.

D&D was my entire reason for becoming interested in programming computers. In the early 80's what I realized is that D&D is the "software" of games. Modules expand the original game in new ways that nobody thought of before. They expand the core system in new and interesting ways.

Sure, software was already doing this on computers at the time, but it really helped my brain make that leap at a young age - software is extraordinarily powerful.

It also seemed to foster a healthy (or unhealthy of you believe Jack Thompson ;) love of video games and computer graphics.

Thank you Mr. Gygax. You will be missed.

First chat with the Almighty

[EricTheGreen (223110)]

"Mr. Gygax, care to explain why I wasn't included in Deities and Demigods?"

Appareantly he got a glimps

[geekoid (135745)]

of 4th edition.

Re:Appareantly he got a glimps

[sckeener (137243)]

of 4th edition.

Nah, he just wanted to go out on His Day. Today is DM's Day! [sjgames.com]

Gary Gygax was a god.

[Khopesh (112447)]

Really: Ernest Gary Gygax was a god. He turned the wargaming world on its head when he created a fantasy-based game, and did it again with the little supplement in the back that dealt with more individual encounters. His legacy was this new attention to detail, a whole genre, richly inspired by Tolkien's similar work, and spawning universes of imagination to touch generations. ... for this reason, I'd say he was a creation god [wikipedia.org], having created the world of role-playing games, significantly influencing the Fantasy genre itself, and even brining polyhedral dice to a more mainstream world. Gods don't die; Gygax will live on as only the most significant fathers of ideas do.

D&D has been a part of me since 1986 or so. I've been actively playing and even designing rules for most of that time, even if I had no idea of what I was doing. How did D&D improve my life? It gave me a gateway to my imagination, allowing me to express myself in creative ways that would otherwise have been developed far less aptly. It increased my vocabulary ("what does 'proficiency' mean?), and in triggering my interest in Tolkien, it caused me to learn much of linguistics, etymology, and language, not to mention the reading of fantasy novels including RA Salvatore's Drizzt books. Its limitless possibilities make me laugh at MUDs and MMORPGs for their simplicity ... I can't play CRPGs or the like thanks to having discovered the real thing.

Thanks, Gary. From your days guiding the RPG movement, to your voice-overs on the D&D television show, to your return to the core team with WotC, you had a great run. We always wanted more, but that's only because you always provided so much. You will be missed, and never forgotten. So long and thanks for all the books.

PS: Anybody thinking of DMing or writing about a game or fantasy world (even outside the context of D&D) should take a look at his book Master of the Game [google.com], which is sadly out of print.

My remembrance

[HikingStick (878216)]

I will always remember Mr. Gygax as the man who, while villified by many, was responsible for introducing me to a world of unlimited imaginations where grand adventures took form. The doorway of imagination he opened through his game allowed me to dream bigger dreams and to imagine entire worlds within my own mind. More than any English teacher, Mr. Gygax, albeit indirectly, moved me to write stories of epic scale. Without Dungeons & Dragons, neither would I have known so many great friends.

Now he has passed from the game we call life. I don't think Mr. Gygax failed his last saving throw, but rather that the Great DM determined that it was time for his character to be retired. He will be missed.

Re:This sucks.

[ackthpt (218170)]

Part of my childhood just failed its save vs death.

Thank you Mr. Gygax, for your role in many enjoyable hours of leisure.

Re:This sucks.

[h4rm0ny (722443)]

I played D&D as a child and am better for it. It fostered a love of storytelling and is solely responsible for my love of probability theory. If everyone wasn't so busy in their lives at the moment, I'd quite happily still run a game as an adult.

Mr. Gygax, thank you for creating something so great.

Re:This sucks.

[HTH NE1 (675604)]

I propose a 21 Cast-Magic-Missile-into-the-Darkness salute.

Re:This sucks.

[Thangodin (177516)]

It wasn't the rule system itself that was important, but the very idea of a role playing game. D&D was the first attempt to come up with a war game system that could be applied to general storytelling with players each playing a single character. All the other RPG systems were derived from this core idea, and a lot of the fantasy and nearly all fantasy computer games can trace their influence, directly or indirectly, to this first RPG.

Of course, once someone had created one RPG, it was fairly easy to come up with others and improve upon it. It seemed so obvious... once someone else had thought of it.

Oddly enough, during the 70's a lot of former flower children tried to come up with games where players actually played together rather than against each other. They abhorred D&D for its violent content--and yet, it fit exactly the dynamics they were looking for, and RPGs are the only kind of non-competitive game that survived the decade.

They go back to HG Wells...

[MsGeek (162936)]

...and his Little Wars [upenn.edu]: A game for boys from twelve years of age to 150, and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boy's games and books. (Dig the not-so-veiled sexism of that title!) Yes, his rule set for gaming has passed into the Public Domain, so you can use them for free if you want to.

Little Wars was initially released in 1913. A 2004 printed edition of the work comes with a foreword...by Gary Gygax.

Re:This sucks.

[LaskoVortex (1153471)]

I would argue that Mendel has had no impact on molecular genetics.. His model system was horribly simplified and, for the traits he studied, wasn't even perfectly accurate.

Mendel stopped doing genetics before epistasis and population genetics were even conceived of, much less understood.

Genetics succeeded after him not because of his influence in understanding heredity, but despite it. We all know that nonhomologous recombination plays an important role in the genotype of certain offspring and that random mutations can cause drastically new traits. (I'm ignoring the fact that such traits can result in selective advantage).

The reason genetics has succeeded as a field is because molecular geneticists have worked out a lot of the mechanisms of gene segregation on the molecular level. Mendelian inheritance has mostly played a peripheral role in this.

--
-1 offtopic = you admit you don't understand the sarcasm = you wasted your mod point

Re:This sucks.

[lgw (121541)]

He left before AD&D 2E - actually, was forced out after his ex-wife got controlling interest in TSR and decided as a "fuck you" to mess with the company.

The fact that he was fighting a lawsuit from the man who *actually* wrote D&D was a factor as well. Regardless, he was influential through the early games that he ran, and the viral spread of the game as the people he gamed with started their own games and so on, until there was a market you could publish a book for.

The early versions of D&D, perhaps through 2E but certainly the earlier stuff, had a distinct charm. The combat system was certainly crappy, but is was so simple and flexible that you could do what you wanted to with it easily. World War II squad vs company of orcs and trolls? Give me 20 minutes to throw it together and we'll start.

At least he went before WotC completely pissed all over his design by releasing the crap known as 4E. There's nothing left of D&D in that system, just a bunch of WoW kludge.

Wonder if he dropped any good loot?

Re:I don't get it

[Maxo-Texas (864189)]

A good D&D game combines sitting around talking with friends about movies, school, your life with
* puzzle solving
* ensemble acting
* lots of calculating
* making moral choices that give you practice for real life
* or just reveling in being bad since it doesn't really count
* painting
* collecting
* drawing
* writing stories
* telling jokes
* a lot of laughter-- sometimes so hard you can't breath.

Even a bad game has most of these-- but often drops the acting part. The worst are where the referee seems themselves competing with the players instead of entertaining them since they can always win by adding more foes or an unsolvable puzzle.

Re:I don't get it

[closetpsycho (1175221)]

For the uninitiated, I will attempt an explanation of D&D. You and a number of your friends all get together, one of you comes up with an idea for a story, and everybody else plays a character in that story. The actions of the characters in the story are moderated by the person who is telling it (the dungeon master), the choices of the friends acting in it, and the whims of random chance(dice rolls). The reason geeks are so fascinated by it, is it's a chance to hang out with friends, it's a way to be creative and tell a story, it's a chance to let your imagination go wild. In theory, it's interactive story telling with dice rolls. In practice, it's an opportunity for a bunch of friends to get together, and have some fun while exercising their imaginations just a bit. If you've never tried it, I suggest you go to a local hobby shop, and find out if they host any games. You might like it, you might not. But it is the only way to truly understand what D&D is.