Thursday, March 6, 2008

A Tribute to E. Gary Gygax

I felt I needed to do some kind of tribute to Sir Gygax for co-creating something that has changed my life. So I have go to the websites I know of and found the different tributes and memorials I could and linked them here. I also thought another good way of giving a tribute to Sir Gygax would be to tell how I got started in D&D and for anyone reading this to post a comment about your story as well.

It all started when I was about 10 so we are talking roughly 1986ish. My (older almost cousin) Zack was a DM and my brother and I would go to his house once a week so in order to give us something to do he decided to run a game for us. The moment I saw the books (this is when Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was out) I thought this was going to be cool. I then opened them and started creating a character. Well that was it for me I was hooked one could say addicted. The first character I made was a thief (which would explain my love of them. I always play a thief/rogue character in just about every fantasy rpg I have played.) . So it was my brother, my other (almost cousin) Josh and myself as the players. We played D&D for several years, my brother and I also bought the red box D&D and played at home just the two of us. My brother also had some friends how played and after much nagging from me allowed me to join in.

We also played a few other RPG's at my cousins house - Marvel Superheros, TMNT, Star Frontiers and a few others I can't think of any more. I have to say I loved them all.

Around the time I hit high school, my brother went to college and my link to DM's and playing was gone. So I decided to DM a game myself So I gathered up my friends and taught them how to play. They got hooked just like I did. So there I was a DM now the Master running a game of my own creation. It was awesome, I had a creative outlet. I bought all the books and different game settings I could get my hands on or more importantly could afford at the time.

As the years went on we tried different systems from Rifts to Paranoia, but always D&D was my favorite. I have stopped DMing an in person and online game as I could not put in the time I wanted to make it a great game. I could not stay away completely so I am currently DMing a Play by Post game over at Helms Deep RPG. I am also a player from my friends DM game who took up the reins when I retired. And now I am creating a NWN2 module. So as I said before I was hooked and addicted to D&D and rpg's in general. So thank you Gary Gygax for 22 years of fun, creativity and friendship.

The Vault Networks Memorial page

A great comic tribute


From Enworld.org:

Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and often known as the Father of Roleplaying, has passed away at the age of 69.

As well as Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Gary authored his Dangerous Journeys and Lejendary Adventures RPGs, along with sourcebooks for Troll Lord Games' Castles & Crusades system and generic d20 sourcebooks. He was also the author of numerous fantasy novels, including Greyhawk Adventures, Gord the Rogue, and much more.

You can read the CNN obituary here.

Gary was also a regular poster here on EN World's messageboards, under the username Col_Pladoh. He will be missed.


EN World member charlesatan has put together a list of tributes to Gary from across the web:

3 comments:

Ernie Noa said...

Great post, great links. Sounds somewhat similar to my early gaming days.

Delak said...

I can only take credit for the first half of the post, the other half and links came from Enworld.org.

Yeah those where the days.

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There are no words deep enough to express what he brought to my formative years. Such fun, entertainment and spirit brought about due to a GAME! The gift of awakening the imagination, the spurring of the seeking of knowledge, and the friendships that were created during the hours of dice and paper determinations are some of the fondest memories I have. To even think of the thousands of hours it must have taken to create, transpose, codify, edit and print goes beyond the realm of imagination!!