Gary Gygax, a pioneer of the imagination who transported a fantasy realm of wizards, goblins and elves onto millions of kitchen tables around the world through the game he helped create, Dungeons & Dragons, died Tuesday at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was 69. HERE is a complete report from the New York Times' Seth Schiesel.There is also this video tribute from the folks at Wizards of the Coast, which in 1997 acquired Gygax' company and its trademark game, which had become a commercial phenomenon, selling an estimated $1-billion in books and equipment, and being played by an estimated 20-million people ..... including me.
I enjoyed it. By the time I arrived at college, only a year or two after the game was introduced, it was already a staple on campuses around the country, and remained so for many years afterward. Over time, my 'mad monk' character gained a lot of powers, and I gained a lot of friends ..... and these were 'actual' friends, people across the table from from you, staying-up and winding-down after mid-terms, or sharing a long cross-country trip on the band bus. Gygax always stressed the social experience of the game, sharing the adventure - and for some of us, a pizza and beer - which I found to be superior to the virtual acquaintances one forms in today's generation of online RPG's. It also left more to your imagination than you are allowed through a computer program, and some dungeon-masters elevated their craft of fashioning a fantasy world to something approaching art.My active participation - and even my interest - in D&D eventually faded as I gravitated more and more to the board games produced by Avalon Hill and SPI. But I never completely let go ..... and I suspect, cloistered somewhere, in some long unopened box, the mad monk awaits.
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