Gary Gygax helped keep me out of trouble when I was in junior high school.
I was saddened to hear that Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons and the father of modern role-playing games, has died. He was 69 years old.
For many of us who grew up before PCs became ubiquitous and long before it was cool to be a geek, Gygax’s creation meant Friday nights spent playing games with your friends, not wishing you were someone else. Instead of finding creative ways to break the law, we were busy rolling 20-sided dice and doing battle with Orcs and other evil beasts…
So let’s pay our respects: You have to wonder how many of today’s writers, computer programmers, video game creators, and other creative sorts wiled away their winter nights playing D&D. Thanks, Mr. Gygax. You allowed us to use our brains.
I’ll second that emotion.
I’ve done my time in the D&D and other RPG world. It’s the end of an era.
I wonder if my son will take to D&D. He already (tries to) play YuGiOh and Pokemon, which aren’t RPGs per-se, but it’s not a huge leap in my mind.
Serious question–what is the challenge of RPG’s? I tried to play for about 5 minutes and “felt” no interest at all.
Same feeling I get trying to play gin rummy–dumb game with nothing more than chance?
Now, take poker==you have to basically know the odds, but the winners learn the personalities and tells of their competition====is there anything like that in RPG’s or what is the “inside attraction” that is not obvious to those looking in?
Same with something like Chess. All the moves are known and all the plays are observable, but another layer of skill comes in learning that some players won’t sacrifice a power piece, some are offensive, other defensive==ie, fun games come down to fantasizing you are actually out figuring your opponent.—Rolling dice?
Salutations and Hope for a new world.
Its been along time, but i stall have the Full AD&D 2nd edition full MM…3 2″ binders.
and the current versions are at version 3.5, and COST A FORTUNE…
I remember when $50 and a few frei(ie)nds could lead to YEARS of fun.
Even when a DM(younger then I) asked me HOW i could get a Warrior, lvl 25, acolyte, and Blessed, OUT of a game. Told him to Have his GOD, ask him to COME to him to be his right hand man.
Played, HP Lovecraft, Shadowrun, D20 and others..
From the TIME of those who could THINK and imagine, to NOW and the script kiddies..
God, to be 20 and have the knowledge i have NOW.
I like a lot of people around the world have spent hours with friends play D&D on the weekend. You will be missed Mr Gygax.
Dungeons and Dragons led to the computer game Adventure, which led to Zork, which led to Diablo, which led to Ultima Online, which led to World of Warcraft.
Many many games and fantasy franchises owe their existence to Gary Gyjax’s creation.
#3 Basically it’s the challenge is to play you character as well as possible – like a theater role on the fly, not scripted. The fun comes from doing it well, interacting with the other characters and the different situations you find yourself in. 5 minutes is definitely too short to get that feeling. It takes several sessions to get to know your character and develop a feel for him/her/it.
The dice-rolling tends to be important in the beginning of your RPG experience. Everyone tends to get fixated with stats and feats, etc. After playing for more than 15 years I can say that the obsession with dice rolls pales and I started to appreciate free-form more and more. The best/funniest/strangest scenarios I played were without any dice whatsoever.
So look for the deeper level of complexity. It’s not about dice rolls.
I too, have did my time in the D&D world. It was one of the best ways my brain could just let go of everything and just escape for several hours.
It gave me a world where I could dream and imagine. It is what gave me the ability to be the creative person I am today.
I still dream of those worlds. Wish I could be a kid again to have the time and just go back to those worlds and forget everything.
Here’s to a great man his talent!
May he rest in piece, knowing how much he brought to this world. Amen.
M
#7–Bgiby==thanks, that does make sense. Kinda like putting on a suit every morning and playing at being a captain of industry? I can see the role playing becoming more interesting as time goes on===but just like work, very dependent on whom you are playing with?
Thanks.
Gary was half of the team that created DnD. Both he and Dave Arneson had to fight TSR for the credit and money for their creation. He also was the founder of Gen Con North America largest gaming convention that celebrated its 40th birthday last year. He and Dave spawned and industry and he will be sorely missed.
Truly an unsung hero.
I heard they buried him in his parents basement…
I wouldn’t say Gygax was unsung. Many people don’t know his name but he had no problem trumpeting it when he ran things in Tactical Studies Rules and its followup, TSR.
Both he and Dave Arneson, a real unsung hero, deserve credit, and none of the egregious D&D fear spawned by ignoramus reporters. Yes, it may have been “geeks” that were drawn to this game but more importantly, it was the intelligent that were drawn to it. It’s attraction is to create and fantasize, to stretch both your emotive but empathetic abilities, to figure out complex ways of doing one thing, and doing it very well, to challenge your intellect, to challenge your preconceptions and see things from a different point of view, but mostly, to have a great time with similarly intelligent friends.
Sure, it looked odd from the viewpoint of people who had little imagination. It looked violent when they heard of the hack and slash type campaigns. But it was a great way of either working out frustrations in one’s life or avoid them without burning down some jock’s house, ramming your car into a telephone poll or stealing something from a convenience mart (unless you were poor and they happened to have some gem dice).
I’m very happy to see the majority of these comments being positive.. I spent many a year playing D&D as well as other role playing games, and still would if time and logistics permitted. Good times.
And, #13, Lord_British, that’s hilarious!
An entire generation of folks were rescued from TV brainwashing, jock-worship, and other such inanities because RPGs gave them a venue to address their social and emotional needs without all the egalitarian crap that passes for school social events.
He deserves mention, and I mean it. HOWEVER – having dealt with the man on several occasions I found him to be an arrogant jerk. Still, he deserves respect for his efforts – along with dozens of other game creators and visionaries.
#10 – but just like work, very dependent on whom you are playing with?
Exactly!
At its worst, its just self-loathing social misfits rolling dice.
But at its best, it is a very interactive, social and personal game that allows all the players to share the creation of a fictional world.
You know how it feels to get lost in a good novel, RPGs offer a chance to share that feeling but rather than just read a story, you and your friends share authorship.
That, and you get to eat a metric fuckton of Cheetos.
I was never a huge fan of fantasy, but I played a lot of Traveller and Cyberpunk back in the day… Without Gary Gygax, none of those games would exist.
The death of Gygax proved two things we thought as gamers back in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
One… Gygax missed a save throw?
Two… The DM doesn’t die, the PCs do. Think again.
Although I never saw eye to eye with him, I can’t say i don’t appreciate him and Dave taking a minitures game and making it an RPG. We all played chess and other board games and pretended that we were the pieces. The two of them gave us rules and order to how to do it.
I will still never forgive him for the poor research on weights of weapons and the pro-human rule making. But I will say his and Dave’s invention is a lot more fun than the current schlock incarnation now.
But I saw the day coming where people would get too technical with it when idiot DMs bought those critical hit sheets which told them what body part was damaged. I mean did Conan ever fall into a pit and ruptured his spleen and die?
Nope.
Morons, ruin the fantasy by injecting too much reality.
Cursor_
# 17
“But at its best, it is a very interactive, social and personal game that allows all the players to share the creation of a fictional world.
You know how it feels to get lost in a good novel, RPGs offer a chance to share that feeling but rather than just read a story, you and your friends share authorship.”
Very well put OFTLO. That was what I was trying to get across, but my brain was addled with too much work and I ever managed to misspell my own nick.
We used to consume huge amounts of Coke in the old days, you go really funny in the head after a few liters.
I started playing D&D back in 1980 and played all through my primary, high school and early work years. It was a fantastic way to waste a whole day at a time while enjoying good friends company and trying to challenge ourselves to get out of ever stickier situations the DM put us in. Plus it was a great way to consume vast quantities of junk food.
It kept us off the streets and away from harm. Our parents loved it for this. They knew where we where and what we were doing.
Gary Gygax and his friends/collegues that created D&D and influenced all of the games that followed deserve to be thanked. If only this current generation could take a leaf from my generations book and stop being law breaking idiots then we might just be saved.