Gary Gygax Fails His Save Check; Dies at 69

He was level 41.

CNN Article

Quote:

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- 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.

Gygax always enjoyed hearing from the game's legion of devoted fans, many of whom would stop by the family's home in Lake Geneva, about 55 miles southwest of Milwaukee, his wife said. Despite his declining health, he hosted weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons as recently as January, she said.

"It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, what he gave them," Gygax said. "He really enjoyed that."

Dungeons & Dragons players create fictional characters and carry out their adventures with the help of complicated rules. The quintessential geek pastime, it spawned a wealth of copycat games and later inspired a whole genre of computer games that's still growing in popularity.

Funeral arrangements are pending. Besides his wife, Gygax is survived by six children.

For better or for worse (possibly worse), Gary Gygax changed the face of evening and weekend time-wasting for an entire generation of unathletic misfits, effectively spelling a slow death for ham radio - but also bolstering Mountain Dew and Doritos sales like nothing else could've!

So, in this moment of Gygax's passing, do you feel he was a hero to the imaginations of the masses, or a demon whose sinister designs turned otherwise promising adolescents into useless cysts on society's buttock?

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In before "That's not funny Crash because everyone else made the same joke." Its inevitable.

Sad that he didn't get to see 4th edition come around. Too many interests of mine stem from his work, so I'll have to credit him for his contributions to (hu)man(oid).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Gygax's influences reach farther than most people realize. Sure he did D&D, but without that groundwork in western fantasy we wouldn't have MUDs, Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer, Ultima Online (and by extension several other RPGs), and more fantasy novels, games, and toys than I care to think about. An entire industry (several actually) owe their success directly to him.

Not to mention LARPers.

Originally Posted by Crash

So, in this moment of Gygax's passing, do you feel he was a hero to the imaginations of the masses, or a demon whose sinister designs turned otherwise promising adolescents into useless cysts on society's buttock?

Neutral at best, Chaotic-neutral at worst.

Nah, really though, I think he was a good guy. Anyone who bolsters youthful imaginative thought gets credit in my book. It's sorta like the guy who invented the handgun. His influence on the world can't be stressed, but whether his machinations were a curse or a godsend is all up to the individual. I've never played D&D before, but we're all a little geeky here, so in that respect I have to give it up for the Gy-man.

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