I just read from Dave that E. Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons died.
Enworld is down, probably from traffic overload. But the story is creeping up on the net and CNN confirmed it.
I owe my favorite hobby and way of life to this man. I would have wished to thank him in person at Gen Con but this short, poorly written note sent on the electron pathways of the Net will have to do.
I picked up the Dungeon Master Guide when I was 12 (in 1985) with my hard earned savings from being a paperboy. I became a DM at that time and I never looked back.
Adv. D&D opened up a new world of games and possibilities to me. The games may have changed a few times, but the legacy of having fun inventing fantastic stories always remained near and dear to my heart.
It helped a socially inept, somewhat shy boy gain long lasting friends, build self confidence and become the successful and happy man that I am today.
For the rulebooks, the Temple of Elemental Evil, Against the Giants and everything that RPGs brought to my life, thank you Gary and rest in peace!
My condolences to his friends, family and the readers of this site.
I shall uphold your memory by teaching the game to my children and their friends.
Edit: Here’s a few other posts on the subject by fellow bloggers and news sources in solidarity to a great man. I’ll add them as I see more pop up.
Blogs
- Critical Hits’ Dave
- Stupid Ranger’s Vanir, Dante and the Stupid Ranger herself.
- Jeff’s Gameblog tribute, and subsequent proposal
- Greywulf’s Angel tribute
- DNAPhil’s tribute
- Geekdad’s news
- Epic Level Grognard’s tribute
- Evil DM’s tribute
- John Arcadian’s tribute and 3 news stories.
- Ronin’s tribute
- Shamus Young’s tribute
- Bruce Cordell’s tribute
- Bob Younce’s tribute and tribute/News page
- Graham’s tribute
- Dr. Rotwang’s tribute
- Captain Cursor’s tribute
WebComics
- Penny Arcade’s very fitting tribute
- The Order of the Stick’s perfect tribute!
- Duelling Analogs’ Very funny tribute
- Full Frontal Nerdity’s tribute
- Questionable Content’s tribute (and it’s not a gaming comic)
- Fuzzy Knights’ tribute
- Cat’s Grace tribute
- xkcd’s very fitting tribute
Companies
P.S. This is not me trying to catch all tributes, but mostly those of my extended contact, friends or those that caught my eye.
“I shall uphold your memory by teaching the game to my children and their friends.”
There is no greater honor than that my friend.
Thanks ELG.
My daughter is definitively showing signs of the DM syndrome.
Wow. That is sad sad news. I remember running through old school first ed dnd books when I was too young to even understand what it all meant. Gary’s passing definitely deserves a big memorial of some kind. I’m glad to see wizards has something up about it.
Gary will definitely be missed.
Thanks for pointing me toward the Wizards site John.
This a sad day indeed and on March Fourth, GM day no less.
It’s odd to feel such loss for a man I never met. I heard he was a great guy. I guess it just makes me think about how much D&D has influenced my life. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for such a great hobby.
I suspect there will be many Mountain Dew toasts to him at game tables across the world this week. I know I’ll have one at mine.
Same here… next week I’ll dedicate the adventure to the man. Maybe by using original monsters he created/adapted to the world of D&D.