RIP: E. Gary Gygax

[Nathander]

Originally Posted by Mr. Marshmallow

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.

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.

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.

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:



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.

Originally Posted by Jerry "Tycho Brahe" Holkins

The first time I ever played Dungeons & Dragons, I was six years old - books with great red demons on the cover that dared us to claim their riches, subtitled by this alien name Gygax. My mother was furious when she found my uncles had exposed me to those subterranean burrows, spilling over with rubies, and tourmalines, and the wealth of old kings even songs no longer remember. As a young man, I began hiding the books I bought inside my bed, which had a vast hollow space I had hidden in as a child. These books were soon discovered, and blamed for everything from recent colds to the dissolution of my parents' marriage. I took the wrong lesson, I'm afraid: I didn't learn to fear them. What I learned was that books, some books, were swollen with power - and this power projected into the physical realm. Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes.

I owe a tremendous debt to his legacy. I couldn't even calculate how deep.

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.