D&D cocreator Gary Gygax now beyond scope of healing spells

Mar 5, 2008 at 8:23 AM
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Best title ever. I've only played Dungeons and Dragons in its pure form a few times (sitting around in a basement with thick books, multi-sided dice and coke), but I've played countless video games who have borrowed its format for character building and game play. Here's to Gary's 18 (00) life!

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/...

On March 4, Gary Gygax died at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, after suffering two strokes in 2004 and being diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was 69. While the man may not be with us any more, the ideas that he popularized though his work on Dungeons and Dragons will guide the game world for a very long time to come. In many ways, Gary Gygax built the bridge (complete with trolls underneath and dragons flying above) that we walk across every time we play a role-playing game, whether it be with a pen and pencil, a computer, or a home console.

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Chicken John, our erstwhile candidate for Mayor in the city of Art and Innovation, sent out a nice email about this:

Of all the people who contributed to the culture that made you who you are and championed the idea that you can do anything, be anything and do anything any way you want to however you can think it up... Gary Gygax wrote the book. Literally. He wrote the Dungeon Masters Guide, the greatest book ever written. Human nature, science, play, stats, history, geography, logistics and encumbrance... hit points, armor class, fantasy colliding with fact to make it all so real you just got swept away and actually forgot that you were a teenage idiot with no way out. Gary Gygax saved more lives than pennacillian. When I was 10, he was 39. He knew he was writing a book for 10 year olds... but never talked down to us. He was the only adult presence in my life from the time I was 10 to the time I was like 15 that didn't preach, did'nt talk down and didn't have any parameters.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons may be the butt end of the joke to some of you, but to others who understand you are taking a moment right now to remember the magic missle, the basalik and the mirror trick, White Plume Mountain, The Lich from Tomb of Horrors, Loth and the spider minions, Fonnakin Hoddypeak and astral projection.

Gary Gygax should win a Nobel Peace Prize. Either Obama or Clinton should recognize his death... and cinch the nomination. Gary had more fans than Jesus, likely. And no enemies. I am truly saddened that his life was so short, but I'm sure it was fuller than anything I can imagine. I have always wanted to meet him. Life is simply too short.

chicken`

Note that his audience for this was the real heart of the local artist community (ie, the people who created Burning Man, not the people who go there now), but it applies equally well to many of the outcast computer nrrrds who made up that first wave of the the Internet splash. Mr Gygax, I salute you!

D&D cocreator Gary Gygax now beyond scope of healing spells

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