Tuesday, March 04, 2008
How Do You Properly Memorialize Gary Gygax?
I’m serious: I don’t know how to do it.
I can’t claim that he was a great man or even a good man--I honestly don’t know much about the man. I don’t know his politics, his religion (or lack thereof), what he was like on a personal level, or even if he liked to kick puppies. But he helped me improperly misspend some good portion of my youth on AD&D, he was wildly creative, and if not for him I might not truly understand what Bender meant when he said “It’s sorta social. Demented and sad, but social.”
And I don’t even mean that in a bad way. I loved wasting time with my friends on AD&D.
The sad news is that Gary Gygax has passed away at age 69--which isn’t young, isn’t old, and certainly seems too soon.
If not for his contributions, video games and geek culture would probably look much different than it does today. Beyond jokes about “d20s” and “saving throws,” D&D’s systems and mythos have spawned many excellent games, including Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment.
Rest in peace.
Update: And, damnit, I’m not the only one.
Update: This is equal parts amazingly wrong and ridiculously appropriate. As is Robert’s comment on this post.
Another Update: Michelle Malkin, too? Who would have guessed? Ed Driscoll, has a few words and so does Wizbang.
Comments & Trackbacks
I eulogize him here. Last month’s obit of WFB has drawn 160 viewers; this one has more than 1500 and counting. I guess we know who’s important in the world.
As for memorializing him, that’s easy:
Let us now bow our heads for 1d4 + 1 moments of silence.
That is truly beautiful, man.
Beautiful.
He was a mediocre fantasy writer (on his best days), and I could probably name 20 better game designers without taking a breath. He was, in my experience and by all accounts I’ve heard, a nice man, though not much of a businessman.
He was also absolutely indispensable. Most of those better game designers would never have been published if it weren’t for Gary Gygax leading the way. Conservatively, billions of hours of roleplaying would never have happened if it weren’t for the game that Gygax designed. And hundreds of jobs would never have been created (including mine some years ago), were it not for the industry that he catalyzed.
You know what? That’s one hell of a legacy.
Rest quietly, sir.
D&D was actually the second Gygax game rule set I bought in high school. The first was their rules for WWII miniatures combat. I can’t find that first set, but I still have my boxed set of the first three D&D rules books. That should tell you how old I am if you don’t already know.
By the way, I had written the “fails saving throw” headline at another forum I post at, before seeing the above one. Really.
You mean Tractics*? Let’s just say that I bought MechWar ‘77 when it was set several years in the future. 8-) I first started playing D&D when it was brought in to the miniatures gaming group (the Rhein Confederation Wargames Society) that I was a member of—more than 31 years ago, now.
*FWIW, I didn’t have to look that one up.
This makes me sad. I don’t know that he was a great man but he left an indelible mark on the souls and the psyches of many in our generation. The story of how Dave and I met - many years ago - is one too long to recount here. Roleplaying games played a significant role, however. It is not unreasonable to say that David and I may not have become friends without the indirect intervention of E. Gary.
I never met him, but he will be missed.
Doug, Robin, you two are freakin’ old. Which will make me good whenever I start feeling old.
Jerry, I think it is safe to say that our friendship would not be what it is if E. Gary Gygax hadn’t created D&D.
May your Hit Die always roll Crits!
May you always make you saves.
And now that you have all the time in the world to game to your hearts desire, may your DM be generous and kind.
Thank you Gary for many Hours and Years of fun and imagination which have richly enhanced so many of our lives.
I think the original miniature game was called “Chainmail”, not “Tractics”.
I had the original D&D Basic boxed set. Man, I wish I’d taken care of it and still had it.
Tractics was the TSR ruleset for WWII miniatures combat that Robin was referring to. Chainmail was a precursor to the beige-then-white-box original D&D rules (which came out substantially before any D&D Basic set).
What DougS said. As kids, we used 1/72 or 1/35 scale tank and vehicle models as miniatures for Tractics. Was an improvement over throwing rocks and lighter fluid on them. Greater reusability.
I guess I mis-read your post. Somehow I didn’t see the “WWII” part. The only game I knew Gygax had done before D&D was “Chainmail”.
My apologies.
This is a funny cartoon. I don’t know if it was written for Gygax but it still works:
http://www.xkcd.com/393/
The mouseover text on that comic is, “RIP, Gary”.
BTW, it’s almost always worthwhile to read the mouseover text at xkcd. The only problem is that it’s often too long for Firefox 2.x to show the whole thing.
DougS -
Just switch the tab to IE. That displays it fine. That’s how I read my Achewood. ("Achewood - the comic with alt-text so compelling that Robert will open an IE tab for it")