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Gygax has left the plane.
Mar. 5th, 2008 09:07 amGot this news yesterday but just hadn't had a chance to sit down and type.
Gary Gygax died. The WotC site, they do have a mention of it on their D&D page.
Its kinda weird. Gary being dead and all. I never told most folks this but to me, he was always "Uncle Gary". This crazy old uncle that I had growing up. The guy that your parents tolerated because he harmless but obviously eccentric. Mom didn't like D&D and didn't think much of "Uncle Gary" either. Thought he was corrupting youth by encouraging them to live in a fantasy world. She never forbid me from playing it even though she feared that I might be obsessed with it. Eventually she did understand it better and ceased to be concerned about its potential bad effects on me. But her fear (almost bordering on paranoia) made me very conscientious that it was easy for some folks to live in that world. And I have tried to avoid folks that are like that. Its ok if they are INTO it. Just not OBSESSED with it.
I was formally introduced to Dungeons and Dragons by a childhood friend John Cook. This was ack when classes and races were mixed. So your choices were Elf, Dwarf, Fighter, etc I took to it immediately. Even though growing up, most of my D&D adventures ended horribly. I must've gone through about 3 dozen characters that always died in unpleasant ways before I really "got" it. Then I started thinking more strategically. Then unfortunately, the folks that I gamed with started leaning towards the Monty Haul. I started writing more then as an outlet for my D&D longings.
When I got to GA Tech, I was lucky enough to run into folks that needed a simlar outlet. I joined a campaign that lasted about six months. Then our GM graduated. I then took up the mantle and started up a game. That game is still going actually. 1st Edition D&D with some very small mods on level limits and such. Other than that, its straight old school D&D. Funky inconsistencies, archetype classes and all. My campaign has been running off and on (mostly on) for 20 years now. And is quite possibly the oldest 1st Edition D&D campaigns in the Atlanta area. Probably because most folks kicked 1st edition to the curb a long time ago. Nevertheless, its got a long and rich history that I find very difficult to simply toss away. And despite what others might say, the 2nd edition and 3rd editions of D&D have a different feel to them that makes it feel like a different game to me.
People will often say that D&D is a bad game. And I agree with them. The game system was simplistic and has issues that can never be properly "fixed'. But to me, that is like complaining about the quality of the airplane that the Wright Brothers used. of course it sucked. It was The First. You don't complain about it, you learn from it. And all the things that come after it pay homage for it was and what it started and not for how old it is.
I had the "honor" of meeting Gary at the first DragonCon many years ago. He was arrogant and humble at the same time. A lecherous bastard to say the least but still had a type of charisma that had the non-fanboys drawn to him. I'll always be thankful for his contributions to the Gaming world. And I hope that history will be even kinder to him in death than it was in life.
Gary Gygax died. The WotC site, they do have a mention of it on their D&D page.
Its kinda weird. Gary being dead and all. I never told most folks this but to me, he was always "Uncle Gary". This crazy old uncle that I had growing up. The guy that your parents tolerated because he harmless but obviously eccentric. Mom didn't like D&D and didn't think much of "Uncle Gary" either. Thought he was corrupting youth by encouraging them to live in a fantasy world. She never forbid me from playing it even though she feared that I might be obsessed with it. Eventually she did understand it better and ceased to be concerned about its potential bad effects on me. But her fear (almost bordering on paranoia) made me very conscientious that it was easy for some folks to live in that world. And I have tried to avoid folks that are like that. Its ok if they are INTO it. Just not OBSESSED with it.
I was formally introduced to Dungeons and Dragons by a childhood friend John Cook. This was ack when classes and races were mixed. So your choices were Elf, Dwarf, Fighter, etc I took to it immediately. Even though growing up, most of my D&D adventures ended horribly. I must've gone through about 3 dozen characters that always died in unpleasant ways before I really "got" it. Then I started thinking more strategically. Then unfortunately, the folks that I gamed with started leaning towards the Monty Haul. I started writing more then as an outlet for my D&D longings.
When I got to GA Tech, I was lucky enough to run into folks that needed a simlar outlet. I joined a campaign that lasted about six months. Then our GM graduated. I then took up the mantle and started up a game. That game is still going actually. 1st Edition D&D with some very small mods on level limits and such. Other than that, its straight old school D&D. Funky inconsistencies, archetype classes and all. My campaign has been running off and on (mostly on) for 20 years now. And is quite possibly the oldest 1st Edition D&D campaigns in the Atlanta area. Probably because most folks kicked 1st edition to the curb a long time ago. Nevertheless, its got a long and rich history that I find very difficult to simply toss away. And despite what others might say, the 2nd edition and 3rd editions of D&D have a different feel to them that makes it feel like a different game to me.
People will often say that D&D is a bad game. And I agree with them. The game system was simplistic and has issues that can never be properly "fixed'. But to me, that is like complaining about the quality of the airplane that the Wright Brothers used. of course it sucked. It was The First. You don't complain about it, you learn from it. And all the things that come after it pay homage for it was and what it started and not for how old it is.
I had the "honor" of meeting Gary at the first DragonCon many years ago. He was arrogant and humble at the same time. A lecherous bastard to say the least but still had a type of charisma that had the non-fanboys drawn to him. I'll always be thankful for his contributions to the Gaming world. And I hope that history will be even kinder to him in death than it was in life.
