E. Gary Gygax, 1938 – 2008

March 4th, 2008 by Adrian

 

No lame jokes about failed saving throws, final quests, or undead please.
It’s for real: E. Gary Gygax passed away today.

Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set I got the D&D Basic Rules Set for Christmas when I was about eleven years old, and I spent most of the following snowy weekend exploring the kobold-infested caves just outside the Keep on the Borderlands. 

In terms of actual time spent playing the game, I probably peaked a couple of years later.  That didn’t stop me from picking up volume after hard-bound volume of AD&D 2 rule books from the bottom shelf of the Hyannis Woolworth’s well into High School.  (And I read those suckers cover-to-cover, believe me.)

So many cool ideas, so many possibilities… most of them sound like stereotypes now because they’ve been constantly tread & retread in every medium from paperback to WoW, but then they were exciting and fresh.  And it was fascinating to see how those dramatic fantasies were reduced down to — and then reconstituted from — a balance of maps, tables, and statistics.   My first insight into game design principles.

Every geek’s got to have a D&D story or two, and that’s mine.  I could go on, but I think Rich Burlew pretty well sums it up.  RIP, EGG.    

Posted in "Pop" culture, Games


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