RIP: E. Gary Gygax
 

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Ernest Gary Gygax, co-founder of DUngeons & Dragons, passed away last night. A little while ago i accidentally dialed his number on the phone, and last Gencon I actually got to meet him. We discussed things ranging from religion to game design, and I had the chance to consider him a personal acquaintance, if not a friend.

July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...gary-gygax.jpg

I've never played the DnD games but I do respect what the man did for RPG entertainment. And I always loved his cameo on Futurama. May he rest in peace.

I've been playing one for of D&D or another for years; a lot of the people I played with regarded the man as almost a deity. I thought of him as something of a genius, both for the design of the game and his later works of fiction, not to mention his writings in Dragon magazine, all of which was enjoyable both to play and to read. He'll be missed by many. :(

RIP :(

To be honest, I've never been the kind of person to be addicted to the whole 'D&D' craze. None-the-less, it's still sad to see someone who accomplished so much in his lifetime pass away.

(Great photo Rid :up:)

Oh man, what a huge part of my childhood and adolescence...the world will miss him.

:rose:

I also wasn't a big fan of the D&D craze, I never liked the game and forgive my brash bluntness here but most of the people I knew that were into this were like the crazy obsessed kind. Either way, its a shame our generation has lost Gygax.

I remember not too long ago he was guest starring on "Code Monkeys" on G4TV playing himself, he was pretty funny (and the episode itself was hilarious)

"There are NO sexual charisma points in Dungeons and Dragons!"

It really is a shame.

Tragic news there. May Gygax R.I.P.

aww dude. This is not cool. :(

Never really a D&D fan, but RIP my good sir.

I feel sorry for you there, as that's a VERY small percentage of the actual people who play D&D. Don't get me wrong, as the obsessives ARE there, but most of them have moved on to different pastures (LARPing, mainly). It's understandable you'd never get into the game though; RPGs aren't for everyone.

That was a great episode, and it was nice to see Gygax, though my favorite time he's ever gueststarred on something is still Futurama.

As for myself, I was raised on fantasy, and along with it, Dungeons & Dragons. My dad ran a campaign when I was fairly young, and I remember him allowing me to play some of the NPCs occasionally, as well as sometimes running a small one person adventure for me to play (for what it's worth, I played a fighter named Wilbur, and I think I named him that because I created him shortly after watching Charlotte's Web). I've been a fan of the game, and role playing, ever since, as well as my passion for science fiction and fantasy.

I really do believe Gygax to have been a truly great man. Not only did he create a game that brought happiness and enjoyment to several million people worldwide, but he helped to keep the fantasy genre afloat. Not only that, but his game celebrated, and help preserved, the ideas and concepts created by J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard, and Howard Philips Lovecraft. I don't consider Gygax, or my admiration of him, to that I hold for a deity, but I think Gygax was a genuinely great man.

I know I'm gushing on and on, but Dungeons and Dragons, and my involvement with it, was one of the defining things of my childhood, so I hope you'll not mind me talking a bit more on the subject.

One thing that has been interesting, and heartwarming, to see, has been how webcomic authors have been reacting to the news. One example, and one that is simply touching, is the tribute done by Rich Burlew, the author and artist of a D&D based comedy entitled "Order of the Stick". Since there's no objectionable content that I can see in the comic, I hope you won't mind me posting it here:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/image...CDAwzZyA2l.gif

Another group that has done tribute has been Penny Arcade, as the writer for the strip, Jerry Holkins, is a gigantic fan of D&D. They did a tribute as well and, while there's no objectionable content to it, I've decided to simply post the link instead of the comic as the pun made in it would seem bizarre to those unfamiliar with D&D as a whole, and possibly cruel. For my own part, I think Gygax would've gotten a kick out of the joke, due to his own obvious love of puns as seen in First Edition.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2008/20080304.jpg

I will, however, post the tribute Holkins makes in his usual post that he puts up before each strip.

Again, I hope you'll all forgive me for going on like this, but Dungeons and Dragons HAS been an important part of my life and childhood. And I'm obsessive? Possibly a little, though not to the point where this game is MY life. If I didn't have it any more, I wouldn't necessarily be bothered, since it's just a game. However, I think that having it has brought me a lot of happiness, so thank goodness for it.

(And, no matter how obsessive I may be, at least I'm not LARPing, no offense to those who do)

I'll say just one last thing: first Robert Jordan left us, and now Gygax. This is kinda turning out to be an ominous year for the creators, and fans, of the fantasy genre. :(

hey guys, i hear the Head of Vecna has surfaced...

and i call wizard.

I wanna cast "Magic Missile"! 8D If I respect D&D for one thing more than any other it's that it makes for some brilliant parodies. The fact that Mr. Gygax could laugh at himself will make him greatly missed.

I echo that sentiment, Nyo. (In all honesty, I never played, but I have a couple of friends who did.)

like somebody on another forum said, "we should all bow our heads for 1d6 minutes of silence"

When I was at school, fantasy stuff was a real escape for some of us bored 80s britkids and I'd played all the copies that came later but it was an American kid from the local art college who gut us playing D&D, the pure stuff. It was great, we'd go for hours in these webs of wonder he'd spin so that he'd have to make us take breaks presumably so he could clear his head of those numbers he was immersed in.

So that came from EG Gygax did it? Wow, what an amazingly logical man he must have been as well as everything else. He certainly had the right name.