Gary Gygax, co-creator of the incredibly influential Dungeon & Dragons
role-playing games, died yesterday at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin at age 69.
Almost everyone who’s ever played an RPG, be it with dice, a mouse, or a controller, owes a debt of gratitude to Gygax, who helped create many of the conventions we now take for granted, such as leveling up, stat-boosting gear, and, of course, the Dungeon Master.
Gygax created the original D&D in 1974 with Dave Arneson as a product of Tactical Studies Rules, which later became TSR. The popularity of the pen-and-paper version of D&D has waxed and waned over the years, but its status as a pillar of the gaming community has never wavered. …
I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.
…an American writer and game designer … Gygax is generally acknowledged as one of the fathers of the role-playing game.
Gygax was the son of Swiss immigrant Martin Gygax and an American mother. His love of gaming began at the age of five, playing pinochle and chess as well as the imaginative games of any child, similar to live action role-playing. He played with Jim Rasch as referee/game master and John Rasch and Don Kaye as fellow participants. It was during this timeframe that Gygax began exploring science fiction with Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” in Bluebook and Robert E. Howard‘s Conan the Conqueror. In 1953 Gygax began playing miniature war games with Kaye. The game Gettysburg
from the Avalon Hill Company captured Gygax’s attention. It was from Avalon Hill that he ordered the first blank hexagon mapping sheet that were available. He began looking for innovative ways to generate numbers, and used not only common dice (with six sides), but dice of all five platonic solid shapes.
In 1966, the International Federation of Wargamers (IFW) was created with the assistance of Gygax. Gygax organized a 20-person gaming meet in 1967. It was held in the basement of his home and later became known as “Gen Con 0” as this meet birthed the annual Gen Con gaming convention in 1968. Gen Con is now the USA’s largest annual hobby-game gathering. Gen Con is also where Gary Gygax would meet Brian Blume and Dave Arneson. Brian Blume (Castle Blackmoor) later entered into TSR as partner with Gygax and Don Kaye.
“I’m very fond of the Medieval period, the Dark Ages in particular. We started playing in the period I had found appropriate miniatures. I started devising rules where what the plastic figure was wearing was what he had. If he had a shield and no armor, then he just has a shield. Shields and half-armor = half-armor; full-armor figure = full armor rules. I did rules for weapons as well.”
Together with Don Kaye, Mike Reese and Leon Tucker, Gygax created a military miniatures society, Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA), with its first headquarters in Gygax’s basement. In 1971, Gygax and Jeff Perren wrote Chainmail, a miniatures wargame from which the role-playing game (RPG) Dungeons & Dragons (aka D&D) was developed.
Gygax and Kaye founded the publishing company Tactical Studies Rules in 1973 and published the first Version of Dungeon & Dragons (D&D) in 1974. Gygax was inspired by Jack Vance while developing the spell systems and also drew upon the work of such renowned fantasy authors as Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Fritz Leiber. The hand-assembled print run of 1000 copies sold out within nine months. In the same years, Gygax hired Tim Kask to assist in the transition of the magazine The Strategic Review into the fantasy periodical, The Dragon, with Gygax as author and later as columnist.
After the death of Kaye in 1976, his widow sold her shares to Gygax. Gygax, now controlling the whole of Tactical Studies Rules, created TSR Hobbies, Inc. Gygax, coming into financial troubles soon after, sold TSR Hobbies to Brian Blume and his brother Kevin. The Blume family would own roughly two-thirds of TSR Hobbies by late 1976. Tactical Studies Rules published the first two printings of the original D&D and TSR Hobbies, Inc. continued on with the game.Beginning in 1977, a new version of D&D was created, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
(AD&D). The Monster Manual would be the first rule book of the new system, with many books to follow. The AD&D rules were not compatible with those of D&D and as a result, D&D and AD&D would have distinct product lines and expansions. Gary Gygax left TSR in 1985 during changes in TSR’s management. This development arose while Gary was involved in the making of CBS cartoon series Dungeons & Dragons. …
After leaving TSR. Gygax created Dangerous Journeys, an RPG spanning multiple genres. He began work in 1995 on a new RPG, originally intended for a computer game; however, it was released in 1999 as Lejendary Adventure.…
In 2005, Gygax returned to the Dungeons & Dragons RPG with his involvement in the creation of the Castles & Crusades system with Troll Lord Games. Troll Lord Games has published Castle Zagyg, the previously unreleased, original version of Gygax’s Castle Greyhawk with the original dungeon setting for D&D.
Wizards of the Coast was deeply saddened to learn that Gary Gygax passed away in his home at age 69. … Gygax was a grand storyteller renowned for his unique style, sprawling “Gygaxian” adventures, and the fantastic World of Greyhawk. He inspired generations of players, designers, and authors, and he will be sorely missed by legions of fans. We extend our sincerest condolences to his family and friends.
Gygax was father to six children and grandfather to seven. His first five children are from his first marriage to Mary Jo Gygax, and the last child is from his second marriage to Gail Carpenter. Gygax resided in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He described his studio in his typical narrative fashion as: A small but sunny upper room – cluttered with books, magazines, papers, and who-knows-what else. Right now, pending the redecorating of that room, I am lodged in the downstairs dining room at a long table that holds two computers and a scanner, with the printer hiding to one side below it. The radio there in the studio was usually tuned to a classical music station, but the station was sold, programming changed, so now I work sans music, or now and then with a CD playing through the computer. While there are bookcases in the upper studio, elsewhere on the second floor, and on the first floor, the main repository of printed lore (other than that piled here and there) is my basement library which includes thousands of reference works, maps, magazines, and works of fiction.
Greyhawk
(with Rob Kuntz)Eldritch Wizardry (with Brian Blume)
Swords & Spells
B2 The Keep on the Borderlands
The Ghostwind Campaign: Chainmail Miniatures Game
[book]Attack of the Drow: Chainmail Miniatures Game
[book]Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Official Home Page
Medieval Period (Capistrano k12)
Index of Early Medieval Maps – Henry Davis
Medieval Period (1200-1450) – Humanities
Computer Role-Playing Game – Wikipedia
RPG.Net
RPG Games – Free Online Games
Dungeon Magazine – Wikipedia
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page
TSR D&D Archive: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons – catalog complete with pictures
Dragonsfoot – First Edition Advanced Dungeon & Dragons
Molly’s World – Advanced D&D (AD&D)
The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Web Ring
Should A Christian Play Dungeons & Dragons – opinion
Gary Gygax’s Extraordinary Book of Names
(Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds Volume IV) – bookGary Gygax’s Fantasy Worlds
, Volume 5 Troll Lord Games – Forum – The Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds
Living Greyhawk Game – Tips Archive
Oxford Living Greyhawk Group
Greyhawk Game Blog
Editions of Dungeons & Dragons – Wikipedia
List of Major Artifacts in D&D – Wikipedia
Lighthouse Journal 