Dungeons & Dragons co-creator dies at 69 (AP)

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Dungeons & Dragons co-creator dies at 69

MILWAUKEE - Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69.

He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.

Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.

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My god. Peace be with his wife. I've played D&D since I was a preteen, and it filled my boring days with fantasy entertainment of the mind.

We'll miss you Gary!

Your friend,

- D

I am sorry to hear of Gary Gygax's death. My sympathy goes to his family.

I remember playing an elf thief/fighter in a D&D game that ran weekly for 2 years, during the 1980s. My dungeon master was a medical student at the time, yet he found time to paint these models, and he even cooked for a meal for the team (it was always chicken noodles stir fried in a wok!) during the break in the 6 hour long gaming session. I am also partially deaf and never followed the conversations but the others were very kind to me, I managed to follow the game somewhat from maps and placement of models. Any very important bits were spelt out to me. I was also the only one who did not drink the wine!

So, Gary G made his mark on the world, and long may he be remembered.

Xygag the Great has failed his last saving throw...

What Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson did, back in the '70s, has made an enormous mark on the world at large, and a massive change in my own life. The first actual friends I made were in college, bonding over AD&D, Top Secret, Champions, and Twilight: 2000. What first made my cohusband comfortable with me (something necessary if he were going to join our family - our wife wasn't getting rid of me) was when I volunteered to run D&D v3.0 games for him (and others, of course - need a group, after all).

If it hadn't been for Gary and Dave playing Chainmail, a medieval war simulation, back in the day, and then wondering what lay inside the castles they beseiged, it seems unlikely we would have roleplaying games as we know them today.

1d6 minutes of silence for a man who has brought so much happiness.

I mean, wow. Just wow. Wow. Wow.

at least I heard it from Fark rather than say, look through Recent Changes on Wikipedia or the TV news (I bet that fellow D&D player Keith Olberman may mention this, as may Jon Stewart). What a shock.

I remember watching the cartoon on TV, in the 1980s. RIP.

I've not yet played D&D, but the game inspired many other role-playing computer games, so it must be good. RIP Gary.

Somewhere, Jack Chick is rejoicing.

(His Dark Dungeons tract is a classic. "I don't want to be Elfstar! I want to be Debbie!")

^
Thats uberly odd, according to some people like Jack Chick, D&D role play gaming involve saying or incanting spells. In the 2 years that I played an elf (see my earlier post) I never once made or heard a single incantation, nor anything that would remotely be "occult", ritual magic, or invocation of demons. Obviously these fundies have never seen a D&D game in progress, and yet proceed to make extremely rash assumptions about the way the role playing games is played.