If you know who Gary Gygax is, you probably already know that he has died. If you don’t know who he is then you probably don’t, but aren’t really bothered about it. Either way this post is a little redundant, but you’re getting it anyway. Sorry.
Gary Gygax was one half of the team that invented Dungeons and Dragons, and so consequently invented role playing games in general. In 1974 he and his friend Dave Arneson wanted to expand the scope of the table top wargames they had been playing. Inspired by sci-fi and fantasy books they modified their home made rules to enable players to take control of just a single character rather than an entire army. They then sent them off on epic adventures through monster infested dungeons and a whole new hobby was created.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a role-player. Well, ok, I am a little bit ashamed to admit it, but I am willing to do it never-the-less. But my shame does not originate from the pastime itself, but from other’s perceptions of it.
Role playing has a bit of a reputation as being a geeks hobby. A game for teenage boys huddled in a basement polishing their +2 longswords of smiting. And this preconception is very unfair. Oh sure there are those amongst us who live up to the stereotype of a bearded and unwashed slob with no social life. Me for example. But there also those amongst us who are suave, worldly, and socially adapt. I have yet to meet them obviously, but I am assured they exist.
In theory I game every Sunday night. In practice it’s probably about once a month as work, life and family gets in the way. Still I relish the opportunity to sit down with old friends and basically piss about for three or four hours. It’s been quite a while since we’ve actually played any Dungeons and Dragons though. At the moment I’m a swashbuckling Yorkshire communist in Rich’s Pirates of the Caribbean game and an erudite Holmesian investigator in Craig’s 1950’s spy thriller.
In fact if someone were to try to force me sit down and play a game using Gygax’s original rules I’d probably give them a jolly good punch up the bracket. Gaming has moved on immeasurably since those days. But that does nothing to reduce the man’s stature or legacy.
In many respects he was the Stan Lee of the role-playing world. A grey, larger than life, grandfather figure who’s ideas on the genre may have been a little out of date but who garnered respect from the industry non the less. Off course that metaphor only works if you actually know who Stan Lee is, but if you don’t then shame on you.
So goodbye Gary, and thanks for the good times and the good friends you brought me.
Stan Lee of the role-playing world. Yep, that sums it up so well!
Like Lee, there are whole entertainment industries today that owe their existence to Gygax, including my current gaming crack… World of Warcraft!
We all owe him a 4 Debt of Gratitude.
Oooh, that should have had said “plus” then 4, did my symbol get edited out or did it get eaten by the comment program?
Testing plusses: 1 2 3 4
You owe me a load of plus symbols! :-)
How strange, let’s have a go -
1 2 3
You’re right you know, wordpress does appear to have a thing against pluses. There goes my plans to do a post outlining my new universal mathematical theorem
I just read about that. I never played, but when I was in highschool a bunch of my friends used to get together every week; it was a real social event.
Bloghoppin’ hi!
Karen MEG (Pomtini)’s last blog post..Fashion Friday: Junior Miss Edition
I clearly remember hearing about D&D from friends and school mates in the 70’s. And then in college during the 80’s as I saw groups of kids in the dorms playing all night.
Even after thirty years, D&D is still a mystery to me because I’ve never played it. Nobody ever invited me into a game.
Now I’m depressed.
Yes, we’ve been mourning the loss in our house all week. Sadly, in real life we can’t cast gentle repose until we can get Gary’s body back to the nearest large town where a cleric of 9th level or higher can bring him back. *sniff*
Tracy’s last blog post..Our Tiny Little Foodie
Hi, just stopping by to say hello. Nice blog
Blog hopping on by……
1stopmom’s last blog post..Party Post
That name is made up…RIGHT?
Xbox4NappyRash’s last blog post..La Blitz Du Ovulation!
But did you realize, Dan, that he most recently lived and died in Wisconsin. The infinite glory of our state never ends.
I am such a late-blooming geek, that I totally escaped the D&D crowd while growing up. I am so upset about that since I think I would have been really into it.
Do kids nowadays play D&D or is it all online and gaming?
dan leone’s last blog post..There MUST be a support group for this?
Steven Lynch - Dungeons and dragons
a song describing the stereotype wonderfully.
Never played it myself..I’ll stay with table top gaming..that one has a bad enough rep too.
Arjan’s last blog post..Inquisitorial Icon
I am also a *real* role-player! I bet you lost everyone completely when you said …’At the moment I’m a swashbuckling Yorkshire communist in Rich’s Pirates of the Caribbean game…’ ‘No you’re not’, says everyone, ‘we know exactly who you are - swashbuckling communist indeed.’ They just don’t understand…
My granny gave me my first Dungeons and Dragons Basic set in 1982 and I still have it, although I have not played any games in a very, very long time. If I remember correctly Gary Gygax’s writing style was the most pompous, over-written, fake-archaic prose there ever was. If I was him I would have been dumbfounded at the legions of social misfits who flocked to his game and made it into a huge, seething mass of cliche. The thing was, I still love the cliche. When you play these games you sit around with your friends retelling your fictional exploits as if you actuallly did them - I think this is maybe what freaks most normal people out - these guys really believe this stuff - what they don’t realise is actually we don’t, we just like to pretend. Childish but fun.
You can’t take it away from him - Gary Gygax was the fore-father of all that and so, for me, is responsible for making my social-misfittery much more survivable. And now I don’t even think I quite so weird as I was then, even if I do still like role-playing.
Rich C’s last blog post..Weird