2008/03/05:
E. Gary Gygax, 1938-2008, R.I.P.
It's hard to imagine a person who has had more influence on my life,
directly and indirectly, than Mr. Gygax. Well, my parents clearly did, but
not many other people.
I was introduced to D&D in either 1978 or 1979 (it's a bit fuzzy, since I was
in my single-digit years in those days), but the first book I have has a print
date of 1978. It was a neighborhood kid, a little older, sharing his interest
in the game and in this wonderful story called The Hobbit which I had never
heard before.
I played off and on throughout the rest of elementary, jr. high, high school,
and college. I also tried other systems (GURPS, Storyteller, Amber, Toon,
Amazing Engine, and a couple homebrew systems), including Gygax's next entry:
Dangerous Journeys (http://www.icculus.org/~msphil/mythus/ still hosts my
online archive of stuff I wrote for the system when I was playing it).
Eventually, the gaming died out for several years, only to come back full
force around 2005 when a friend was recruiting for a new D&D game with the 3rd
edition (or maybe 3.5) rules.
D&D brought me to fantasy, fantasy brought me to a lot of my reading material,
and the computer-based games (Ultima, Bard's Tale, Diablo, Heroes of Might &
Magic, Majesty, Heretic) with similar thematic material have made up most of my
computer gaming time.
In essence, the vast majority of my leisure time activities for as long as I
can remember has been directly or indirectly influenced by his legacy. And I
know I'm not alone in this.
Gary, you touched many lives while you walked this planet.
May all your rolls be 20s in that great tabletop game in the sky.