Farewell to a man who changed the world

[mythichistorian]

Gary Gygax has died.

This was the man who created 'Dungeons & Dragons.'  Who inspired thousands of people to exercise their imagination.  Who gave us permission to play in worlds where we could chose to be heroes and villains, wielders of magic and creatures with amazing ablities and power.

You may never have cracked open a Player's Handbook,

Comments

[chriselora55]

Sad to hear of his passing.Yes, D&D certainly changed the world all right.
(Elora is my D&D character, hence the second part of my LJ name.Haven't played for a while though.)

[mythichistorian]

I miss my days of table-topping, and the hours spent setting up scenarios and rolling random encounters. These days I'm reduced to playing D&D based computer games (and only when I have some spare time, which isn't often) - they're not the same, by any manner of means.

[amorettea]

Ah, nothing like sitting around the dining room table rolling those funny dice and speaking in silly voices to represent all the characters. No special effects but lots of fun.

[mythichistorian]

Oh, the special effects are the best sort - all in the imagination ... :-)

Lots and lots of fun!

Obit

[themis1]

I have never managed to spend as much time as I would like playing with dice, but D&D has influenced my choice of computer games, and underpinned a lot of my thinking and reading, for what seems forever.

I echo your sentiments.

Re: Obit

[mythichistorian]

Just imagine for a moment ... without Gygax, Elminster and the Realms would probably still exist - but it's equally probable that we would never have known about them!

Nor would we have discovered Kender, met Ike, or created Snap and Callidax ...

[gileswench]

I well remember the day my brother walked in the door with three staplebound booklets that changed our worlds. We played D&D, and then moved on to other games. Now my name appears in the credits of several volumes of the latest edition of the rules for Ars Magica. My brothers and I - and several other people who were in this particular game - can still make one another laugh until it hurts with phrases and images from a Runequest game we played about a quarter of a century ago. Nobody else gets it when we start chanting Boom-Boom-CHA! or yelling Anthropology and death!, but we will never forget what these things mean to us.

I don't play much these days, but I do believe, like you, that part of my storytelling skill was honed by playing these games.

Gary, sorry you missed your saving throw. So long, and thanks for all the fish.