This thread needs some D&D-related laffs:
I too was a D&D geek growing up. It was what got me into gaming. Sad day indeed.
Gary Gygax was a prominent figure in the wargaming scene too, though. D&D actually grew out of that.
Very sad news. :(
Didn’t everybody?
His hit points ran out. :(
He’s rolling up a new character as we speak. It hard to imagine anyone who had a bigger influence on my childhood (Stan Lee would be close).
Umm…Gygax wasn’t real happy with where WoTC took D&D for 3.0 and 3.5…
Oh well, no offense meant. It’s a sad day for sure.
Sad day. Gary’s work is what started my lifelong addiction to roleplaying. In a way, it was my gateway into computer gaming and, eventually, gaming journalism. Owe the man’s work a hell of a debt. Thanks, Gary.
Sad news indeed. I still remember when I was 8 years old my dad brought home a brand new game in a blue box with a dragon on the front. That was the birth of a lifetime of love for all things Dungeoney and Dragoney. =) While I quit playing the actual RPG game in my teens, it’s effect would carry over into thousands of hours spent on well over 100 CRPGs for various systems in the nearly 30 years since that first blue box. Anyone who enjoys MMORPGs owe’s Gygax a huge debt, as does the entire CRPG community as I’m pretty sure you’d be hard pressed to find a CRPG development team without somone directly infuenced by D&D in the mix.
Here’s hoping Gary finds high adventure on the next plane.
Yeah well Gygax’s latter-day adventure systems weren’t all that great either. Still… dang it sucks.
— Alan
R.I.P. Gary.
I remember going to a friend of a friend’s house, because he had this cool new game. It was the D&D Red Box. I was in 6th or 7th grade at the time. Seeing the picture of the female Cleric ready to crush someone’s head in was pretty much the beginning of the end :)
Good times… Good times.
Hey, you’re a “picture thief”!
Got into DND seeing some folks playing Castle of Amber module. Thought it was the coolest thing ever. Got the basic set with good ole keep on the borderlands and the rest is history.
Also loved the Greyhawk world with the country writeups. good times.
Still a big D&D geek, and have been since I was 13.
It makes me sad. RIP GG.
I interviewed him a while back, sometime after 3.0 came out. He hadn’t been happy with D&D as D&D since he lost control of the company (back during 1st edition AD&D, if I remember correctly,) but was always happy to talk to people who were enthusiastic about gaming.
Besides being the father of a hobby I love dearly, he was also a very kind, funny man.
Sad news.
If it wasn’t for GG I might had gotten laid in high school…
I still have a few 1st edition modules and my dice - the Blue Box was my start on this hobby as well (and I still think LARP’ers should get off my goddamn lawn)
I never played D&D, but you could still tell Gygax had a great sense of humor from the Futurama episode mentioned earlier in the thread:
GYGAX: Hello, Fry! It’s a… [rolls dice] …pleasure to meet you!
Sounds like he’d be amused at the idea of “rolling out a D20” in his honor.
His funeral better have a 3d6+1d4-1 gun salute.
That’s an average of 12 guns!
And that’s before you add your Dex bonus.