• Hail Guest!
    We're looking for Community Content Contribuitors to Stratics. If you would like to write articles, fan fiction, do guild or shard event recaps, it's simple. Find out how in this thread: Community Contributions
  • Greetings Guest, Having Login Issues? Check this thread!
  • Hail Guest!,
    Please take a moment to read this post reminding you all of the importance of Account Security.
  • Hail Guest!
    Please read the new announcement concerning the upcoming addition to Stratics. You can find the announcement Here!

R.I.P Gary Gygax

  • Thread starter five oclock
  • Start date
  • Watchers 0
F

five oclock

Guest
aye alot of us probally don't know the name but he was the co-creater of D & D. he died at thy age of 69. Here is the full story from yahoo news. Im sure most of us played D and D one time or another in our lives...

MILWAUKEE - Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69.

He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.

Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.

Gygax always enjoyed hearing from the game's legion of devoted fans, many of whom would stop by the family's home in Lake Geneva, about 55 miles southwest of Milwaukee, his wife said. Despite his declining health, he hosted weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons as recently as January, she said.

"It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, what he gave them," Gail Gygax said. "He really enjoyed that."

Dungeons & Dragons players create fictional characters and carry out their adventures with the help of complicated rules. The quintessential geek pastime, it spawned a wealth of copycat games and later inspired a whole genre of computer games that's still growing in popularity.

Born Ernest Gary Gygax, he grew up in Chicago and moved to Lake Geneva at the age of 8. Gygax's father, a Swiss immigrant who played violin in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, read fantasy books to his only son and hooked him on the genre, Gail Gygax said.

Gygax dropped out of high school but took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago for a while, she said. He was working as an insurance underwriter in the 1960s, when he began playing war-themed board games.

But Gygax wanted to create a game that involved more fantasy. To free up time to work on that, he left the insurance business and became a shoe repairman, she said.

Gygax also was a prolific writer and wrote dozens of fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series of adventure novels.

Gary Sandelin, 32, a Manhattan attorney, said his weekly Dungeons & Dragons game will be a bit sadder on Wednesday night because of Gygax's passing. The beauty of the game is that it's never quite the same, he said.

Funeral arrangements are pending. Besides his wife, Gygax is survived by six children.


This story just seemed to fit right since UO has always been a role playing game..Just like D and D.

May the Dragons take you to your resting place.....Bows head...
 

Kirthag

Former Stratics Publisher
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Benefactor
Ode to Gary
by LZ

Be still the echoing roar of beasts,
Lay down your arms and shield.
Put away your magic wands of feats
and staves that witches wield.

Hang low oh troubled orcish brow,
sing naught oh faery child.
A god has left us all somehow
taking along with him his wile.

His spark had lit so many fires
imaginings of worlds untold -
creatures and dungeons and towering spires
for adventurers weak and bold.

Who e'er heard that dice could kill
or that pen is mightier than sword?
We gamers did, as we gamers still
banishing away all snobby bores.

Buck teeth and braces, glasses and zits,
fawny bimbettes and muscled jocks -
we became what our minds saw fit,
even sluttly wenches in purple socks!

There were no bounds, no laws, no rules
just a set of die, pencils and papers
and one crazy god with several tomes
that we used to mold our capers.

Be swift! Be light! Be well on your way!
But keep in mind one thing,
a god has passed from us this day
who set our imaginings to sing.




His sarcasim and ramblings will sorely be missed - this giant of a man who has inspired millions around the world with his one desire of killing boredom while at sea. You never know how you affect the world or the people in it - and no one realizes that worth until you are gone.

He inspired us all in so many ways - some more than others.

"Remember that inspiration - for these books are just books. The game is really in your mind."
~~
GG while on a vacation in Hawaii and visiting a small gamer store after some geeky kids recognized him on the beach and wouldn't leave him alone until he said something to them.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Sad to see someone like him go. May St. Cuthbert guide him now.


Rey~
 
S

Sethblackmoore

Guest
Very Very sad!! I was, as like most, a D&D geek growing up. UO was that transition for most of us I think. We often sat around and complained of the new versions of D&D because Gygax didn't have as much to do with those later versions. His name was legend among our group and I think our DM even named a monster after him at one time. Indeed a sad day! You will be missed! *rolls a d20 in reverence*
 
I

imported_kalzaketh

Guest
he will be greatly missed, and much sorrowed over hope he can andwill rip
 
Top