D&D Co-Creator Gary Gygax Has Passed Away 512
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.
FIST SPORT! (Score:3, Funny)
Casting (Score:5, Funny)
RIP, Gary.
How has it improved my life? (Score:5, Funny)
Quick. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:FIST SPORT! (Score:1, Funny)
Me too, if it wasn't for AD&D (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Quick. (Score:5, Funny)
Rest in Peace (Score:5, Funny)
* rolls dice *
"very sad to hear that!"
(With apologies to the writers of Futurama).
Re:Quick. (Score:5, Funny)
Which plane?
Sad day... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Quick. (Score:5, Funny)
That would permanently lower his constitution by one. I don't think Gary would want to live that way.
yes. bad taste. (Score:3, Funny)
RIP
Re:How has it improved my life? (Score:5, Funny)
Awwww... (Score:2, Funny)
Since I believe premarital sex is wrong (Score:4, Funny)
It was... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Rest in Peace (Score:4, Funny)
* rolls dice *
"very sad to hear that!"
(With apologies to the writers of Futurama).
From the episode:
Gary Gygax: Here, take my +1 mace.
Re:This sucks. (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you Mr. Gygax, for your role in many enjoyable hours of leisure.
Pouring... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Casting (Score:4, Funny)
Well, I guess we all have to go meet the 'Dungeon Master' in the sky at some point....
Re:Quick. (Score:4, Funny)
Unfortunately, I think his death qualifies as Death From Old Age and Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection specifically exclude that.
Not just YASD (Score:3, Funny)
Funeral Details? (Score:5, Funny)
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.
First chat with the Almighty (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Quick. (Score:5, Funny)
Appareantly he got a glimps (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Thank You Gary! (Score:2, Funny)
That's a githyanki. Didn't even have to look it up.
D&D, specifically first edition rules, were a huge part of my childhood, too. I remember my first introduction. Being six or seven, my cousin had me take over for him while he was up from the table. Killed his shiny new cavalier (Unearthed Arcana had just come out) with a 1/1.
Wow. Until just now, I had almost forgotten. Some 10 years later, I set fire to his '90-ish Cavalier. It was a completely freak electrical fire in the dash, but it was me, just the same.
Anyway, Gary started an avalanche and I'm glad I got caught up in it.
I feel sorry for the cemetary... (Score:3, Funny)
And then they'll realize they have to have someone go out and clear up the piles before they can mow. A lawnmower hitting Gygax's grave will cause a 30' radius spray of polyhedrons, doing from 1d6 to 3d6 damage depending on the horsepower of the mower.
Re:Quick. (Score:5, Funny)
Never fear, he was an American!
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.
Re:Funeral Details? (Score:5, Funny)
I find it ironic that the man credited for preventing so much sex had six kids himself.
Re:This sucks. (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:I don't get it (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Best game ever (Score:2, Funny)
She used a ninth level spell just to get some friends?
Re:Me too, if it wasn't for AD&D (Score:5, Funny)
Not willing to play along (Score:3, Funny)
Puts Gygax himself to shame.
Re:Not willing to play along (Score:4, Funny)
Except when he play a module himself and casts Resurrection...
Re:This sucks. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This sucks. (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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-1 offtopic = you admit you don't understand the sarcasm = you wasted your mod point
Re:Not willing to play along (Score:3, Funny)
Mod Parent Awesome! (Score:2, Funny)
What, good sir/madam, is the offering required to begin worship of your august self, and the fiery blade of sarcasm you so righteously wield.
Re:This sucks. (Score:2, Funny)
Observes 1d4 + 1 minutes of silence then loots his body.
Re:This sucks. (Score:2, Funny)