D&D co-creator Gary Gygax, R.I.P.
Yes, I was a D&D geek in grade school. I admitted it publicly to Ace of Spades three years ago. Sad news for you fellow nerds out there. Gary Gygax passed away today. Wired and Slashdot have details.
Mid-afternoon timewaster quiz: What kind of D&D character are you?
***
P.S. If Joe Duffy, Jim Gregory, Eric Markley, Jenny Smith, or Lori Dolquiest of the Absecon D&D gang happen to read this, know that I remember those weird days with fondness. The sight of Jim Gregory stuffing six-sided dice in his nostrils is seared, seared into my memory.
Ace: “He will be remembered by many geeks of a certain age for helping making long-lasting painful celibacy seem almost hip and cool (almost), and also, sadly, for undermining Israel’s ability to defend herself from her enemies.”
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- Ace of Spades HQ
- Gary Gygax has died. : Adam Lawson
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- Ankle Biting Pundits » Blog Archive » Geeks In Mourning- And Other “Geeky” Things
- In Which There Is No Defense Against the Onslaught of Reality « This Recording
- Hot Air » Blog Archive » Friday afternoon video: Reno 911 does D&D
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Where’s a level 7 Cleric when you need one?
(if you’re offended, back off: Gygax would laugh :P)
Very big loss to gaming… Gary Gygax invented the core system that to one degree or another every single role playing game has used since.
The imagination and creativity it took to run a D&D campaign and to play I think made a lot of us geeks the successes we became as adults
I knew there was a reason I liked you Michelle other than politics heh
He had the imagination to take a stupid looking plastic figure of a bug with a PROPELLOR on its tail and turn into one of the most feared beasts an armored fighter would face…The Rust Monster
Wow, that brings back some memories. My favorite character was an Elf Magic User I had. (Of course, like everybody else, I had a number of characters) There is a trunk in the attic with all of my old D&D stuff in it……except the DM guide that got stolen from me in college.
Gary Gygax took a hold of imagination and put it to page well enough for the rest of us nerds to grab it and run with it. It is thanks to him and people like him that the MMORPG’s of today are around. The Tolkein of RPG’s has passed but his legacy will continue to grow.
Thank you Gary, you will be missed (unless someone rolls a 20 that is…)
I was usually a paladin. I just couldn’t stand to be anything other than lawful good aligned characters, and that was a must for paladins. The pen and paper campaigns we played in high school were decent…
The best D&D experience for me though is the Baldur’s Gate series. They just rock. Still playing actually, in Baldur’s Gate II right now.
Malkin, your awesomeness seems to grow by the day.
I think it’s a fitting farewell tribute to say, Gary Gygax, your health is 0.
A cleric needs to be at least level 18 to cast ressurection. Jeez, don’t you know anything?
Quite sad. I used to play AD&D back in Junior High. I grew out of it, but I looking back on it, I still think it was kinda cool (which, of course, makes me something of a geek). And those different sided dice were awesome. Too bad no one ever developed some sort of advanced craps game for those.
This is a true story. Many years ago at a Gencon (That was a gamer’s convention named for Lake Geneva where Gygax & Co were located but actually held at U Wisconsin in Kenosha) we got drunk together. I clearly remember Gary offering me a daughter if I came to work for him. I’m pretty sure that she was cute and ended up marrying a dentist. My friends and I used to drive up from Chicago to have brunch in Lake Geneva, nice town, and visit the hobby shop where D&D started. All things considered I probably should have taken the job and the fringe benefits.
Ah memories.
Spending hours (days) at a time exploring caves drawn on graph paper, looting orc corpses and…hey, I still do that playing World of Warcraft!
I need to get a life.
That’s just wrong! And it’s HIT POINTS, not health!
I have to admit playing D&D while pulling SAC Alert. It was a great way to spend time with an average of 10 days (in jail as we called it) of having restrictions on your proximity to your aircraft. Thanks to my son I now play World of Warcraft mostly during the winter months and barely dabble in it very lightly when the weather gets better allowing me to play outside a little more. I may have to grow old, but with some things I doubt I will ever grow up.
The level 5 armor on my Cavalry Fighting Vehicle defeats your spell! I lay my 25mm bushmaster cannon. (Pause to roll dice.) Thump, thump, thump!!! It is like Gandalf himself has cast a spell. YES!! I rolled a 12. Score! (Pause to push glasses back up onto bridge of nose.) My High Explosive rounds fling orc bodies and elfen blood all around.
Okay, I dabbled with D&D for maybe one semester in 7th grade, but never again.
I still have an original Players, DM and Monster manuals in a box in my storage closet. Sad to hear this.
Not craps but we did come up with a heck of a drinking game in college with those die….
I also have first issue AD&D books, in very good condition aside from a few pencil notes in the margins. Was I ever such a geek?
RIP Mr. Gygax
*Shaking my head
Ah pity.
Like most everyone else here I remember DnD with fondness. My brothers and I used to play alot with some of the neighborhood kids.
I also remember mom taking it away at some point because she was afraid we were going to summon Satan. :P. We got it back eventually.
Nowadays, my brothers and I are still “gamers” (of the computer variety) and we occasionally still get together for an online adventure in Neverwinter Nights 2 (ADnD on your PC).
RIP Gary.
LG Fighter-Rogue
and
NE Ranger-Assasin
Lurch is liable to sue you for plagiarism. At least your memories are more pleasant.
As much enjoyment as I took from Dungeons & Dragons as a kid/young man, it’s a shame to hear this news.
RIP Gary.
#9
If I remember correctly, a level 7 Cleric would have access to the Raise Dead spell (spell level 5). But that’s probably 1st edition D&D and quite outdated now.
Now, if Gygax had been disintegrated by a Beholder … that might require the power of the Resurrection spell.
I’ll have to roll a 21 die salute when I get home
#23:
Nah. Even in 1st ed., you don’t get 5th level spells until level 9. (2nd at 3rd, 3rd at 5th, 4th at 7th, 5th at 9th).
If I am judged to be the first person to be correct on this point, I want a trophy for being the ubergeek I am.
Qwinn
My first Character was a Cleric too. a wimpy one.
If only I had know about Monks then.
I still have the 1d20 from when I was 13. (38 now)
Zeroangel, my Mom stopped us from playing for awhile too. She said people who did that couldn’t tell the difference between the game and reality…right…like an orc would pop out of the bushes on the way to school…and like I’d have to worry about his measley hitpoints anyway….sheesh.
#23 et al.:
NWN2 basically uses ADnD ver. 3.5 Rules:
http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Raise_Dead
http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Spell_progression#Cleric_or_Druid
So, a 5th Level raise dead spell will do it, lowest level needed is 9th lev Cleric. Of course, it would have to be followed with some healing spells.
However, since Gary was old and his natural time in the Prime Plane was coming to an end, if you try this one too many times the Gods are going to get involved and Kelemvor is not one to be trifled with.
Man, I guess it takes an uber-geek with an 18 INT and lots of skill points to figure this out I guess.
oh man… I am such a geek.
MrVIBEMAN:
Yah, we were really upset when Mom took it away. I think she saw something about it on the news and freaked out (thank you MSM).
We tried complaing to Dad, screaming and yelling, more complaining, finally tried a rational, logical arguement and that seemed to work (its helping us learn math, its no worse than TV, etc.) I’m not sure though because this was over the course of a few weeks and I think Ma just got sick of hearing about it.
I think we all had a cleric at one point just because you could survive with crappy stats as a low level cleric. Mine was Melvin the Mediocre IIRC.
I heard that EGG’s last words were “Arneson yet lives…”
I’m such a geek I posted this at DragonAvenue.com hours before the mainstream news even.
RIP Mr. Gygax. Your game turned me from an anti-social awkward pre-teen into a well-read, outspoken and even somewhat popular teen. Despite my closet playing while on active duty, I never missed a game day - even going so far as to play via bulletin boards and forums. May all your hits be crits.
Luckily, my mom never interfered. Started playing in 8th or 9th grade, and kept playing all the way through college and grad school. Had stops along the way to try GURPS and Warhammer RPG and Rolemaster and … all those others pre-video game. Now in my late 30s, just waiting for my kids to get a little bit older so I can get my own homegrown group meeting again … wheeee!!!
Gygax gave us current and future geeks an awesome outlet for creativity and learning, and we’ll remember him fondly.
I started playing in college in ‘75. Somewhere those three pamphlets are tucked away.
No doubt my favorite character was a half elf fighter/magic user. He got to around 12/11, which took something like 3 years of weekly playing.
RIP Mr. D&D.
I had many hours of fun in a new school in 6th and 7th grade on a field trip to Cumberland Lakes Park (near Ft. Campbell).
Two weeks in the woods, barracks style cabins. I was a new kid who didn’t know anybody. One of the other kids had his full-on AD&D Dungeonmaster kit and drew me into his world. I ended up with some new friends, and one mean character. I named this guy Balfour the Mighty. Pure fighter with no magic powers. I traded all magic for pure brute strength. There were plenty of others who had magic powers, so I was the enforcer. Picture Conan the Barbarian, only 7 feet tall, about 325 pounds, armored up with armored battle horse and carrying a two handed bastard sword on the hip, and a dual-headed battle axe on his back.
I forget the specifics, but he had permanent plus ups on damage. When he landed a blow, it was often devastating. He ended up having a decent Barony with his own castle and agrarian community to protect. I designed his castle on grid paper, and it was a fairly impressive abode. Plenty of wealth after many skull-cleaving campaigns, always there for his friends in trouble with that big, bad battle axe.
Man, I haven’t thought about Balfour the Mighty in years. Good times.
Ah, Dave Hargrave of Arduin fame has been gone for a few years now…
And now Gary Gygax…
Come my friends… its time to Storm the Gates of Hell to retrieve our fallen freinds… after all, we’ve done it before… and Orcus does still owe me a favor…
Lord Eric Von Steinan
Godslayer
Paladin of the God of War
(rest in Peace Gary, but Orcus does still owe me a favor from 1980…)
Dude, this is Gygax we’re talking about. Greyhawk, not the Realms.
Like many I cut my roleplaying teeth on D&D and even though I soon moved on to what I considered to be better games, I still look back on it with fondness.
I also remember the hysteria of the 80s when non-gamers were convinced that D&D was going to turn teenagers into suicidal Satan worshippers who couldn’t distinguish between fantasy and reality. I remember the movie Mazes & Monsters starring Tom Hanks as a college student who lost touch with reality as a result of playing a D&D-style game. I remember B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons). I even remember 60 Minutes doing a rather one sided piece on the game where they tried to prove it was driving teens to commit suicide. These days those people have moved on to video games it seems.
Like others I mainly do my gaming online these days, playing World of Warcraft and City of Heroes/Villains though I still get togther with friends to do a little old-fashioned pen & paper gaming on occasion.
I can still smell the mustiness of my bud’s basement where we hung out to play. Hunkered down til all hours with naught but Dew and Pizza, nectar and ambrosia…
Mr Gygax, thanks for everything. RIP.
I took the survey… it said I would be a Lawful Neutral Human Monk/Sorcerer (2nd/2nd Level). I guess that is good, right?
Too true. I stand corrected.
Nerull, then, is not one to be trifled with.
More than one person seems to be a WoW player I can’t be the only NWN2 player here, can I?
Who wants to get a game on?
maybe he’s just getting his character reincarnated…so long as he doesn’t come back as a rot grub….or Ridley the Theif…
You should all watch Dead Gentleman’s “THE GAMERS” in tribute to Gary. Would love to do a group showing of “Dorkness Rising”.
I get the 21die salute, but would they all be 20 siders or various polyhedronal shapes?
Good terminology correction. Also, I was trying to phrase it in a way that wouldn’t be flippant, but I guess I failed. Maybe if it wasn’t a direct address, something more eulogistic such as “and as is the destiny of all who live, his hit points are now at or below zero”.
Oh man…this is truly a depressing thing to hear about. And to think that I heard about it here, of all places.
I spent many days and nights playing D&D having learned the game from my Uncle, which lead to a life-long love of Fantasy SciFi that even includes a couple of dragon inspiered tats, and a horrible addiction to World of Warcraft.
Gary Gygaxx…you will be terribly missed +20
I told my buddy Jeff Stoner about Gygax dying and he replied
No no LibertyVista, it was quite funny…I wasn’t offended or anything…and you know there has to be someone who is going to say something similar at his eulogy. It’s only fitting, and that’s the way he would want it.
I have a feeling Heaven got the advance copy of 4th Edition and they wanted him up there to run it.
And I love the fact he ran a game on a regular basis until January.
R.I.P., Mr. Gygax. Thank you for giving someone who was a social outcast since 6th grade something to do.
Romeo13 said:
No need. With his millions of followers, Gary should no doubt qualify for divine ascension under the Deities and Demigods rules. And given the income level of your average geek, it should make for one heck of an opulent temple. We can build it on the ruins of the Shrine of the Kuo Toa, or remodel the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giants. The citizens of the Pomarj can help (they owe us for overthrowing the Slave Lords).
Thanks for all the fun, Mr. Gygax.
I need to recalibrate my geed detection device…obviously. MM slid in under the geek detector…
Actually you need to be a 16th level Cleric to cast Resurrection, but only a 9th level Cleric to cast Raise Dead.
Yes, I still play AD&D 1e - in fact I have the books right here at my desk next to my computer.
Last year at GenCon I was lucky enough to have Gary sign my mint / monochrome copy of Dungeon Module T1 The Village of Hommlet.
RIP Gary
The only positive notes in all of this is that we will be able to see the real World of Greyhawk that Gary told us would never be released until after his death. And we will finally get to see the stats for his characters!
I would rather have Gary back though.
Goodbye Mordenkainen, Bigby, and Riggby. Where are you when we need you?
It’s very sad to hear an influence of some great good fun in your life has passed on.
But D&D , Michelle??
Wudda never figured it.
Took the quiz. Imagine that…I ended up being Lawful Good. Who woulda guessed?
Lawful Good Human Ranger/Cleric (3rd/3rd Level)
Ability Scores:
Strength- 16
Dexterity- 17
Constitution- 15
Intelligence- 13
Wisdom- 17
Charisma- 15
Actually, I would have killed to have rolled a character with those stats. Sweeeeeeet!!!!
And it’s nice to know there are more Right-Wingers than me that go to War Gaming Conventions…I don’t feel so alone now. *sniff*
Cameron - Gary was running a Lejendary Adventure game, he had no interest in D&D 3e, and even less in D&D 4e!
I bet he will get to play again with Don Kaye!
My last character was a half elf thief and I was chaotically good. I think the last game I played was eight or nine years ago. Most people I know now don’t like AD&D.
It is nice to see others here who share my geekiness.
My brothers and I were into D&D ourselves. What a lose to the gaming industry. He really set the game world on end. Look how many video games have been inspired by his creativity.
R.I.P.
It’s a level 9 cleric to cast Raise Dead, level 13 cleric to cast Resurrection, and level 17 cleric to cast True Resurrection. It’s a level 7 druid to cast Reincarnate.
hadsil - those must be 3e versions - Gary had nothing to do with them.
Btw, a Druid can cast Reincarnate at level 12; a Magic-User can cast Reincarnation also at level 12.
Do not challenge me on my knowledge of Gary’s game!! Bwahahaha LOL
At age 14, my future husband got to play D&D with Gary at Gencon in 1974…though I suspect he was a little more interested in Gary’s daughter who was also playing with them.
I met my husband at a rec center when we were both stationed in Germany, playing D&D- I was the half elf cleric, he was the dwarf tank.
Our son met his gf 5 years ago playing D&D- and at the age of 2 he had already been taught to yell “Die Scum!” when throwing dice for daddy.
Now we all play WOW- son got me hooked, I got hubby into it. Calliopetora, Scarlet Crusade- still playing a priest, of course!
Thank you Gary for all you have done for my family!
Nice to know there are more of us right ‘wing’ gamers. I was starting to feel lonesome.
It’s a great game, helps create a rich fantasy life. You actually have to know how to read and *gasp* do math!
I’m sure Gary doesn’t mind the cheesy jokes, that’s just how gamer geeks ‘roll’. Heh.
I was JUST like one of the two guys in this YouTube video… I’m embarrassed to say which one. Rest in peace, Gary.
Fear of Girls
What a sad day. My dice sparkle less brightly today.
However, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that his death *may* have been the prelude to his divine ascension….
Funny how pop culture has changed. A few years ago someone penned an essay in TIME (I think) that said “The Geek shall inherit the Earth” and its point was that what is now hip in pop culture would have gotten you beaten severely in my high school twenty some years ago. Think about it, Spiderman and super hero movies, Lord of the Rings, Anime, and now we play D&D on line with others (still in parents’ basements lol) and call it World of Warcraft.
As a casual D&D player in the early 80’s I had one negative take on Gygax. It seemed to me like he became a pretty greedy merchandizer. It seemed that every year he added or deleted one monster or spell from those expensive hard cover books and called it a “new edition.” Some of my friends would rush out and spend their hard earned savings on every single thing Gygax put out.
I hate to hear that he passed. I couldn’t tell you much about him, or even tell you what he looked like, but I have very fond memeories of playing D&D and AD&D with my friends from about 6th to 9th grade. It helped a bunch of kids from the sticks pass the time on cold winter days. And since Michelle played it, we are the coolest gamers evah!
The very best song about D&D ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyxnEKTjhj0
Enjoy.
Ahhh I remember those days. I never got past version 2.0 of the game though. He was a visionary to help the geeky kids of all ages find a niche in the world. Today I play Warcraft instead. You will be missed GG.
And I always thought you had a D&D history for some reason MM. Everyone does at one time in their life.
Never could get into the game myself, but my brother used to play as did many of my friends in school.
RIP, Mr. Gygax.
My question is what other RPGs did everybody also play?
As for me, I started with D&D as a monk
other games played were several variations of Star Wars. I got typecasted to mostly play Wookiees since I can actually do the vocalizations and played a combat droid.
Cyberpunk- Cyber implanted cop long before ‘Ghost In The Shell’,
Paranoia-One of several clones
Champions Super Hero gaming- a teleporting alien
Black Ops- a mix between an MIB agent and Steve Irwin
and dozens of secondary characters…
Game over, Gary.
Thanks.
He must have rolled a 1 on his Constitution check. He’ll be missed, considering the days of geek-dom I enjoyed (and still do occasionally!).
I took the quiz. I’m a
Lawful Neutral Human Ranger/Sorcerer. 2nd/2nd
I think the test is defective.
I have neither the ability scores needed to be a druid or sorcerer. In fact, wizard is just about the only class available to me.
But based on my answers it should come as no surprise that at age 33 I still have quite an active fantasy life. I’ve been playing D&D since high school and still play today.
R.I.P. Gary. Without your game I wouldn’t have nearly as many friends as I do, nor would I have met my wife.
Michelle played D&D also. That just made my day.
I was the Dungeon Master. I’m in the library room now and all of the books are in sight. D&D emerged as a natural outgrowth for our high school chess club, which I also led.
RIP Gary.
I was not the biggest D&D fan, although I did enjoy getting together with friends to play in my college years. I was running a series of thieves once, first name on the (military) phonetic alphabet, last name Fagin (from Dickens). A friend wanted to kill off Zulu Fagin. (He never got the chance–he moved while I still had Charlie Fagin.
RetFireman (#50 and 51) I ended up being a paladin with decent scores. I, too, would have really wished that I could have rolled the numbers that I ended up with.
It has been great to see how many folks I respect, like Michelle and Ace had gamed.
I met my wife at a game of D&D; also, a future employer at the same game.
The game has been very good to me!
Our daughter started playing D&D with us when she was 10 and it made for a much better relationship over these past eight years. I recommend it highly to anyone with kids to get out the books and game with your kids!
Read up on the new version, 4.0, about to be published this year; really different from what you played back in the day! They don’t have THAC0 anymore, f’rinstance. The old version is still waykewl though.
Oh, check Ebay, those old books in decent condition also might be worth something.
Did the test. The scores are more in line with the current D&D, btw. No stat necessary, just better ones give better bonuses.
True Neutral Human Fighter/Sorcerer (3rd/3rd Level)
Ability Scores:
Strength- 11
Dexterity- 13
Constitution- 11
Intelligence- 15
Wisdom- 11
Charisma- 13
I’ll have to try that out in a game, now!
DragonHawk said:
More than you know. A lot of gamer geeks were applied math and science majors which are the majors where conservatives hide out on leftie puke campii.
It also taught teamwork, time management and organization, and that most important skill: looting the bodies of your slain enemies.
Currently I’m a mercenary character in Serenity during which I have learned the damage factor of a metal barstool against my enemies. I’ve also played a half-orc Druid in the “Eye of the Lich Queen” model for 3rd Edition DnD Eberron. Black bear familiars ROCK!!!