Father of RPG, Gary Gygax is Dead
Armour Points not enough to defeat man with hood and scyth
Posted 5 Mar 2008
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Gary Gygax died in his Lake Geneva (Minnesota) home on March 4th this year at the age of 69 - apparently from complications possibly arising from an abdominal aneurysm.
For those of you in the 'who the hell is Gary Gygax?' camp - he was the old, wise, bearded gentleman most commonly associated with the invention of the role-playing game. Yes, Gygax is seen as inventing Dungeons and Dragons (and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons). By doing so he brought the notion of turn-based role-playing games to the tables and cellar floors of millions around the world.
This means that, if you're playing and loving Mass Effect, Tabula Rasa, Final Fantasy 0-XXXIV or - poor you - Folklore, many people will claim that you owe it all to Mr Gary Gygax and his cohorts at TSR Games.
According to his local newspaper, The Star Tribune, "Gygax dropped out of high school but took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago for a while.
"He was working as an insurance underwriter in the 1960s, when he began playing war-themed board games."
So, farewell then Mr Gary Gygax - anybody who can go from insurance underwriter to inventor of an entire genre of game-play deserves a decent send off.
Do you have any D&D-themed memories? Tell us in the Forum.
For those of you in the 'who the hell is Gary Gygax?' camp - he was the old, wise, bearded gentleman most commonly associated with the invention of the role-playing game. Yes, Gygax is seen as inventing Dungeons and Dragons (and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons). By doing so he brought the notion of turn-based role-playing games to the tables and cellar floors of millions around the world.
This means that, if you're playing and loving Mass Effect, Tabula Rasa, Final Fantasy 0-XXXIV or - poor you - Folklore, many people will claim that you owe it all to Mr Gary Gygax and his cohorts at TSR Games.
According to his local newspaper, The Star Tribune, "Gygax dropped out of high school but took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago for a while.
"He was working as an insurance underwriter in the 1960s, when he began playing war-themed board games."
So, farewell then Mr Gary Gygax - anybody who can go from insurance underwriter to inventor of an entire genre of game-play deserves a decent send off.
Do you have any D&D-themed memories? Tell us in the Forum.
Comments
1/6
i hope they bury him in a huge dragon shaped crypt with a haunted yet enchanted sword along with a 108 side die
2/6
SPOnG wrote:
Armour Points not enough to defeat man with hood and scyth
Oh SPOnG, you are so cheeky. But you reminded me of a conversation I was having last night about Patrick Moore. Basically that it breaks my heart to see him wheeled out on The Sky At Night now that he's getting a bit frail. Then we remembered that as he is Gamesmaster, perhaps he can find a cheat code to give him extra health, e.g. by bashing out notes in a certain order on his xylophone.
PS I believe 'scythe' should have an 'e' on the end.
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3/6
Bentley wrote:
PS I believe 'scythe' should have an 'e' on the end.
so would that be Scythee?
JK
4/6
Bentley wrote:
SPOnG wrote:
Armour Points not enough to defeat man with hood and scyth
Oh SPOnG, you are so cheeky. But you reminded me of a conversation I was having last night about Patrick Moore. Basically that it breaks my heart to see him wheeled out on The Sky At Night now that he's getting a bit frail. Then we remembered that as he is Gamesmaster, perhaps he can find a cheat code to give him extra health, e.g. by bashing out notes in a certain order on his xylophone.
PS I believe 'scythe' should have an 'e' on the end.
And since he had nothing to do with D&D after AD&D 2e, armor points have no correlation with him.
Subtitle = fail.
5/6
Stefen wrote:
And since he had nothing to do with D&D after AD&D 2e, armor points have no correlation with him.Subtitle = fail.
Thank you for that clarification. If we're going to be really pedantic, he had nothing to do with Mass Effect or any of the video games I mentioned either. This is aside from the fact that he did have a lot to do with kicking the whole genre into being - which was the point.
Personally, I played one game of AD&D and moved rapidly on from this form of conformist 'gaming'.
I returned to forming my own chaotic battles after which the 1/32 scale Airfix Australian Army would cut up meat for a barbie with the Afrika Korps (who brought the booze). Friendly English Captain Stoates would often turn up with a cheery wave before the Yanks piled in (late), didn't bring anything, ate everything and got stoned.
I have reproduced it below:
But that's just me.
6/6
Memories? We're still playing 29years later! Thanks For All The Fun Gary!
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