Posted on 03/06/2008 1:06:02 PM PST by Teflonic
Set both of your 20-sided die to 0-0, raise the Monster Manual to half-staff and spend your 14th level ranger's next several turns hoisting a few pints of ale - even if that does mean losing some hit points along the way.
If none of that makes any sense, then you probably didn't take much notice when Gary Gygax died earlier this week. But for those of us who spent our Friday nights huddled around a hexagonal map scattered with lead figurines of dwarves and owlbears, instead of the spiked punch bowl at the junior prom, this is a very mournful week. Our nerd king has fallen.
Gygax was the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, and the godfather of role-playing games. The legacy of D&D is most apparent today in its huge impact on video games and social networking. (Don't fool yourself. Dungeons & Dragons and Second Life are a lot more similar than you think.) For many of us who played, however, the name Gygax conjures up the past: a short but meaningful era when we lost ourselves for hours at a time in a fantasy world created with pen and paper and lots of imagination.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Or halflings named “Baggins”?
Snow Crash.
One of the greatest books ever. Seriously.
Seriously, seriously.
John Romero (co-creator of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, etc.) ran a D&D game throughout his time at id with John Carmack and others. They knew his time at id was short when he killed off everyone's character while DM-ing a gaming session.
Nope...everyone who knew Gary is well aware of the bigotry out there.
Yes, I was on his mailing list.
His political views developed over time.
When I first met him, he considered himself a libertarian. I spent the past few years persuading him that social morales were a necessary function for any free society’s survival.
With Ron Paul’s traitorous stand with respect to the War on Iraq, I believe he came around to seeing my point of view.
There were few, almost no political stands where he and I diverged.
I’m going to miss him.
Actually, Gary always claimed that the various wargames that were available when he was young inspired D&D...not Tolkien.
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