"How wonderful Dungeons & Dragons was actually invented by a guy named Gygax!" ~ Mitch Benn, entertainer on BBC4's The Now Show.
Yep. How wonderful indeed. It's a bloody good name.
He died aged 69 (Dude!) on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. What he left to the world was many other worlds for a lot of people to explore. Some of those people developed strong friendships from those explorations. Others got married. I did both, and I owe it to Mr. Gary Gygax, because if I hadn't decided to go to a D&D game one cold, wet Sunday in 1992 I wouldn't have met Ogrek about 3 months later ~ although I came close; he still remembers the green-and-red haired punk in the ABC Cinema during a Star Trek 1 to 6 Marathon a couple of years earlier.
I'm not the only one. Tarol Hunt (who does Goblins) met his soulmate at a game, as did many, many others. Not bad for a game considered to be the domain of 'Geeks' who didn't have a hope of 'getting laid'.
He's homaged in Dexter's Laboratory and Futurama, two of my favourite cartoons. The fact that he uses a D6 and a D10 in an episode in the latter because there were no D20s developed until a little while after the game system still brings a smile and makes for interesting D&D trivia down the pub.
I'm not the only one. Tarol Hunt (who does Goblins) met his soulmate at a game, as did many, many others. Not bad for a game considered to be the domain of 'Geeks' who didn't have a hope of 'getting laid'.
He's homaged in Dexter's Laboratory and Futurama, two of my favourite cartoons. The fact that he uses a D6 and a D10 in an episode in the latter because there were no D20s developed until a little while after the game system still brings a smile and makes for interesting D&D trivia down the pub.
The Griffin Gamers honoured him with an empty chair placed at the gaming table.
Goodbye Gary. Don't forget your dice.
~Chaszmyr
