On Tuesday, March 4, 2008 Ernest Gary Gygax passed away. He was the designer of Dungeons & Dragons as well as several older miniature games and several newer RPGs. After some problems in the 1980s when he was forced out of TSR — the company he created — Gary Gygax was able to rediscover his place in the roleplaying world. In the last twenty years of his life he was widely recognized and lauded as the old gentleman of gaming. In the last decade he participated on the Internet in many forums and well knew how much he was loved and appreciated by his fans. That’s more than most of us can ask for in life.
Today I mourn Gary Gygax, because he’s quite simply, the reason I game.
I have no idea how I first discovered TSR’s Dungeons & Dragons. I figure I must have seen it in some brick-and-mortar store, perhaps a Toys ‘R Us, which widely carried the D&D books in the 1980s. However it came to my attention, I begged my dad for a copy for my birthday, and he was kind enough to accede.
That first edition of Dungeons & Dragons that I received was the Basic D&D box. It was actually edited by Tom Moldvay — another luminary in the RPG industry who sadly passed away almost exactly a year ago, on March 9, 2007 — but built on the original by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It would not have existed without Gary.
As I’ve written elsewhere, roleplaying games were the prime entertainment of my youth. However, I also played the occasional board game, many of them also published by TSR. I’m certain that it’s that early start in gaming that has brought me to where I am today, with my interest in Eurogaming. So, ultimately, it’s thanks to Gary Gygax and his exciting and evocative game of exploring dungeons and fighting dragons that I’m here, writing this today.
In fact, Gary has influenced much of my life. I work today at a gaming company and I run a roleplaying portal. I’ve written several roleplaying books, which have helped me to explore my creative side. Most of my best friends came to me through gaming, including a roleplaying group that I’ve been playing with for 19 years. None of that would have been the same without Gary and without Dungeons & Dragons. Without him, I literally don’t know who I’d be or what I’d be doing.
Even if you were not personally introduced to the gaming industry by Dungeons & Dragons, as I was, your gaming experience would probably be dramatically different if not for Gary. Though a singular person, he’s had an amazingly large effect on the industry, as the ripples from his original design spread out, like waves in a pool.
If you’ve ever played an adventure board game, it’s probably thanks to Gary. TSR published the first such game, Dungeon, and ever since most adventure games have been based on RPG ideas. So every game of Runebound, Descent, Dungeoneer, and Arkham Horror is ultimately thanks to him.
If you’ve ever played a Games Workshop game, it’s probably thanks to Gary. Though GW came into existence to publish traditional games, it found its earliest success as a licensee of TSR. Thus, any game of Warrior Knights, Chainsaw Warrior, or Fury of Dracula is ultimately thanks to him. Likewise, any of GW’s miniatures games, including Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40k can be traced to that same impetus that made the company successful.
If you’ve ever played a Fantasy Flight game, it’s probably thanks to Gary. Perhaps Twilight Imperium would have been made anyway, but much of the success of Fantasy Flight came from its d20 RPGs in the early 2000s and from its adventure games of more recent years, and those all go back to Gary. So even non-adventure games like Starcraft can be traced back to that original stone dropped in the pond.
If you’ve ever played a game put out by any other roleplaying company, it’s probably thanks to Gary. Steve Jackson’s Illuminati and Atlas Games’ Lunch Money might never have come about if the publishers hadn’t started out with RPGs.
If you’ve ever played a fantasy-themed game, it’s probably thanks to Gary. There were two peaks of general interest in fantasy, centering around the American publication of Lord of the Rings in the 1960s and the release of the movies in the 2000s, but without Dungeons & Dragons it’s hard to believe this interest would have been sustained in between. ICE’s Lord of the Rings games of the 1980s and Steve Jackson’s Munchkin are just a few of the fantasy games that definitely came about due to the roleplaying field.
If you’ve ever played a French game, it’s probably thanks to Gary. The RPG field has had a heavy influence on French gaming, and I suspect games like Shadows Over Camelot, Age of Gods, and many others would not have come about without that. Certainly, the French field would have existed in a different form, but not as we know it today.
There surely would be gaming without Gary. In particular, I suspect that German games would be largely the same, thanks to their own, distinct genesis. However, much of the rest of the field came about in their current shape either directly or indirectly because of one man, Gary Gygax. Whether you know him or not, he’s probably brought many, many hours of joy to your life. I know my life is better for what he created.
Thanks, Gary, and Farewell Seeker.
