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Gary Gygax Has Died

It is rare to be the creator of a new genre. Dungeons & Dragons was co-created by one Gary Gygax - and it was part-game, part-fantasy novel (or series of novels), and part, frankly, ambitiously-imagined (if sometimes derivative) alternate world. His work was hugely influential - often despised as (especially before video games took over as enemy number one) the instigator of teenage murder, suicide or derangement; or at least, nerdy alienation - and then again loved by millions. D & D clearly proved the worth of the fantasy market, and is as responsible as Tolkien for its continued popularity, in later film and book incarnations (including Rowling). Anyone who has had a Palladin or Elf confront a many-eyed gelatinous monster in a dank corridor will know the thrill (and perplexing complexity) of those many-sided dice, those well-thumbed books. He will be missed, his game will live on.
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darren bifford said…
I owe Gary Gygax a great deal, and I'd bet I'm not the only small-town North American poet who does. Forget about being a geek (I was), or about my parents misgivings of a game my friends and I spent consecutive days and nights playing (under library tables; in basements).
The fact of the matter is that D&D gave our small, starving brains something to hold onto. It gave us a mythology; it gave us stories; it told us to create.
The public schools sucked. Our parents were young and unreligious (so no King James bible, etc). The only "literature" we had as boys were role-playing games.
I think they kept my mind alive until I was finally introduced to poetry and philosophy in my late teens. By then we had pretty much left role-playing games behind, as was probably right. Still, I remember what I did (and loved) as a kid and what I do (and love) as an adult as being only different in degree, not in kind.
Wed Mar 05, 11:27:00 pm 2008
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