General Discussion

I remember when i was younger.. I played dungeons and dragons for days on end with my friends.

It was unusual because we didn't join an already existing group, we started from scratch and made sense of the rules ourselves...

Some of my fondest childhood memories were spent travelling Greyhawk  with my friends exploring strange new places. Thanks Gary for providing me with the tools to nurture my imagination and make some great friendships along the way.

I tend to play MMORPG's mostly now .. but none of this would have happened if Gary Gygax hadn't had the desire and drive to make his own vision become reality.

    My fondest memories of early childhood were sitting around the dining room table playing with the early (lead rich) miniatures of my oldest brother and his friends as they played AD&D.  A few years after that, my brother had moved out and my siblings didn't really interact with each other, at least not in any positive way.  But I remembered Dungeons and Dragons and before I was old enough to scavenge money together, or even understand the literary requirements, I was busy trying to recreate the game my brother had played with his friends.  After a few more moves, I reconnected with my brother long enough for him to pass on his books to me.  My first books were D&D and a few mixed AD&D housed inside a 10th Anniversary Boxed Set case. 

    This was the beginning of a reconnection between myself and my siblings.  The only things we all had in common were blood and Dungeons and Dragons.  And only one of those was voluntary.  Even after my parents divorce, my siblings put aside their mutual hatred and interacted long enough to continue teaching me how to play and to introduce me to their favorite stories and characters from the game. 

    In the following years I was able to start earning money and, of course my primary expense was building my collection of, then spankin' new, 2nd Edition manuals and modules.  I gathered a following of freaks and societal outcasts and taught them to play. 

    Enough.  Suffice to say, Dungeons and Dragons has been and continues to be one of the most important facets of my life.  As an adult, it is closer to me than anything, save my wife and daughter.  And Mr. Gygax is the only person I have ever considered to be my hero. 

    In your name I offer my favorite character of all time.  Long before Lord Baal became a common place name thanks to Diablo, I played a character named Lord Baal.  While his playtime was incredibly short-lived, his backstory made him memorable.  Lord Baal was a demon paying penance.  He was born a paladin, was lost in the Nine Hells and was slowly corrupted into a demon knight.  Eventually he broke free of the corruption and sought redemption.  At the time of playing, we was an "imagination" elemental.  Amorphic, and completely looney, he most often took a form very similar to , but with batlike wings.  His penance was to protect the party and keep them from harm.  In OOC:  he was placed in the game as a backup for the DM, a means of preventing a group of completely newbie characters from hopeless annihilation.  I still take his name in every online game I play.  I still remember infuriating the DM with 30 minutes of real time spent playing with an otherwise useless aquarium in a haunted house we were sent to investigate.  I even went so far as to shape change into a lining around the glass of the aquarium so we could carry the water around with us.  I loved that insane character. 

    Gary, everything I love, I owe to you.  Thank you.  You will be greatly missed.

Rest I peace Gary, for you brought us all closer, I remember staying up all night  for prob a total of like 50 hours over 2 days rolling dice, and laughing, having a great time. not to mention all the food and drinks consumed.

Thankyou

I play rpgs, and liking plenty of them.

Thankyou

You changed an industry, and many, many lives for the better.

Thankyou

and finally you did good Gary, you did Good

I kinda figured there might be a tribute to Gary here. Too bad I didn't check in sooner.

Anyway, it's 1981...

A five-minute chat with a newfound friend on the playground as to what D&D was all about and I was hooked. Swords, monsters and armor? Suddenly kickball is no longer cool. Until you've immersed yourself in that world, it's hard to understand the appeal. But Mr. Gygax helped transform a completely shy and introverted 12 year-old into someone who opened himself up in ways unimaginable through D&D and roleplaying. Artistically I thrived through character drawings, painstakingly painted lead miniatures, and original monster creations to surprise friends and players who were all too familiar with the ol' Monster Manual. And even though I was petrified to go before classmates for any sort of oral report in school, I had no problems GMing daylong games with adults and kids alike, acting out various character voices and FULLY engaging players in MY world.

Not long after I was regularly attending The DunDraCon in Oakland, California. Me and my friends would game at events like that on little or no sleep sometimes. Nourishment consisted of NoDoz, Jolt Cola and one pound bags of M&M's. Hotel room? Bed? Who needs it?! I'm probably lucky to have not gone into cardiac arrest from 72-hour stints like that. And all for a game. A game!

Or is it? Some would tell you that roleplaying is a way of life.

And Gary's influence on the digital age...

I musta been about 16 when the original Bard's Tale for the Commodore 64 hit shelves. I sold off my comic book collection to buy that computer JUST to play that particular game. That was more than 20 years ago. Look at what we have now! All of that...all of *this*...it's all a direct result of Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's creation.

I really hope some big names and big companies step up to the plate sometime this year and really, truly honor what this man introduced the world to. He deserves it.

Thanks Gary.

When I read of his passing it was if I had lost something vital. A fantastic wizard of imagination has been lost. His spells however will live on and mingle subtly with our everyday lives. Through countless books, movies and games his presence will be forever felt.

My brothers and I would play D&D into the wee hours almost every day. The game had a way of expanding your thinking and imagination. It drew from us a courage to do things in our everyday lives that we not have considered otherwise.

As I look back, I recall that we always had one empty seat at the table when we played. No matter how many friends we had over for a dungeon run, always an extra seat.

Maybe not so empty, thanks for being there Gary. You will be missed.

I have played and DM'd  D&D  campains  for a long time now about 17 years i have a few water proof crates full of old characters and such  curently i play in 4 diffrent games and run one every week  i have more books that i care to remember were i have them in my house  although by far i had an elven ranger that was a royal pain in the a** if it was there he would see it if it made a sound he would hear it  he could hit a pin from 400 feet away  [never the less most dm's per pissed because of this] when ever we needed something sniped my ranger was there. hats off to you  D&D was a big part of my life

With him vanished a part of my own childhood.

Thank you for the many hundreds of weekends, which resulted in friends for life and many excellent memories.

I can still recall opening the blue map from Keep on the Borderlands before we had any rules, sitting with my mates saying 'i don't know what this is, but it looks fun'. We each got a rule book on xmas day and ran out the house to my friends' and played all afternoon. My parents were stunned why i would give my present away (i got the monster manual and wasn't the dm). failed my exams thanks to him, but frankly didn't care and proved a lot more useful in life.

Maldred the Black
Cleric (level 11 in the end I think)

gary is been a big part of my gaming life.. farewell to you gary farewell

As someone who has been in many AD&D campaigns as both a player and a DM, I was really shocked and saddened to hear about Gary Gygax's death. I know very little about him other than his co-creation of Dungeons and Dragons and a second RPG in the 90s (whose name I can't remember). I hope his legacy continues to carry on in RPG and cRPG fields. As such, though he is bodily dead, he will still live on in our modern gaming traditions.  I hope I am not too conceited in saying that I think that is what he ultimately would have wanted.

RIP Gary.