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D&D Co-Creator Gary Gygax Has Passed Away

Mearlus writes "In the recent past co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons Gary Gygax has worked with Troll Lord Games, a small tabletop RPG publisher. Their forums have up a post noting that Mr. Gygax has apparently passed away. Gygax was known, along with Dave Arneson, as the Father of Roleplaying." Saddened reactions from well-known designers have already begun to appear online. Consider this is an in-memoriam Ask Slashdot question: How has D&D (and tabletop roleplaying) touched/improved your life? Update: 03/04 23:16 GMT by Z : With more time, official announcements have had time to appear. Many sites are featuring posts on Gygax's impact on gaming, including touching entries on Salon and CNet.

29 of 512 comments (clear)

  1. FIST SPORT! by ringbarer · · Score: 3, Funny

    What loot did he drop?

    --
    "Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
  2. Casting by WormholeFiend · · Score: 4, Funny

    Spell of Silence on all the trolls!

    RIP, Gary.

    1. Re:Casting by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Funny
      What...no saving throw?

      :-(

      Well, I guess we all have to go meet the 'Dungeon Master' in the sky at some point....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  3. How has it improved my life? by StevenMaurer · · Score: 5, Funny

    It kept me from ever being in danger of becoming an unprepared teen father.

    1. Re:How has it improved my life? by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh, um, yeah, me too. It was totally D&D that kept me from getting the girls. ;)

  4. Quick. by RandoX · · Score: 5, Funny

    Get the cleric.

    1. Re:Quick. by rucs_hack · · Score: 4, Funny

      oh you are so going to hell for that one....

    2. Re:Quick. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      oh you are so going to hell for that one....

      Which plane?

    3. Re:Quick. by T.E.D. · · Score: 4, Funny

      Get the cleric.


      That would permanently lower his constitution by one. I don't think Gary would want to live that way.
    4. Re:Quick. by Ioldanach · · Score: 3, Funny
      Are you sure? Start with Speak with Dead and ask!

      Unfortunately, I think his death qualifies as Death From Old Age and Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection specifically exclude that.

    5. Re:Quick. by El+Gigante+de+Justic · · Score: 4, Funny

      I believe you could still reincarnate him, but he might come back as a kobold if you do that.

    6. Re:Quick. by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 5, Funny

      Never fear, he was an American!

      Starting in 1952, the Bureau of Health Statistics which is part of the CDC, decided that you couldn't just die of old age, you had to have a reason, like you fell on your knitting needles, got hit by a bread truck, or something like that. I think they listed 130 official reasons for death.

      Since he died after 1952 and was American, he died of some cause other than old age. Hence, Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection all work.

      Good thing I've been maxing out Rules Lawyering since I was a level 1 rollplayer.

      --
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  5. Me too, if it wasn't for AD&D by georgeha · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd have been a debt-ridden teen father driving a 13 year old Japanese subcompact. Now I'm a debt-ridden middle aged father driving a 13 year old Japanese subcompact.

    1. Re:Me too, if it wasn't for AD&D by Stoick · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's much better than being a debt-ridden subcompact father riding a 13 year old Japanese teen. Trust me.

  6. Rest in Peace by The-Bus · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Gary Gygax has passed away? I'm--"
    * rolls dice *

    "very sad to hear that!"

    (With apologies to the writers of Futurama).

    --

    Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.

    1. Re:Rest in Peace by ajs · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Gary Gygax has passed away? I'm--"
      * rolls dice *

      "very sad to hear that!"

      (With apologies to the writers of Futurama). I don't think they mind.

      From the episode:

      Gary Gygax: Hello Fry. It's a (rolls dice) pleasure to meet you.
      Gary Gygax: Here, take my +1 mace. RIP E.G.G.

  7. Sad day... by painandgreed · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...if only I had a 1000 GP gem.

  8. Since I believe premarital sex is wrong by unassimilatible · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd like to thank Gary and D&D for ensuring my virtue in grade school.

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  9. It was... by Jabbrwokk · · Score: 5, Funny

    [rolls dice] a pleasure to know him.

  10. Re:This sucks. by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Part of my childhood just failed its save vs death.

    Thank you Mr. Gygax, for your role in many enjoyable hours of leisure.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  11. Pouring... by dbc23 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pouring out a 40 of mountain dew for my dead homie.

  12. Funeral Details? by Skevin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nevermind the cleric. Which funeral home?

    Seriously, does anyone have funeral details yet? I somewhat envision the geek version of Mother Theresa, when she died, only with about a third as many people attending...

    However, I expect twice as many people demanding that the Pope canonizes "Saint Gary", the Patron Saint of Natural Twenties, Preserver of Virginities; may your troubled heart find shelter in His mother's basement.

    S.

    --
    "Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
    1. Re:Funeral Details? by Black+Art · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Saint Gary", the Patron Saint of Natural Twenties, Preserver of Virginities

      I find it ironic that the man credited for preventing so much sex had six kids himself.

      --
      "Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
  13. First chat with the Almighty by EricTheGreen · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Mr. Gygax, care to explain why I wasn't included in Deities and Demigods?"

  14. Appareantly he got a glimps by geekoid · · Score: 3, Funny

    of 4th edition.

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  15. Re:This sucks. by lgw · · Score: 4, Funny

    He left before AD&D 2E - actually, was forced out after his ex-wife got controlling interest in TSR and decided as a "fuck you" to mess with the company. The fact that he was fighting a lawsuit from the man who *actually* wrote D&D was a factor as well. Regardless, he was influential through the early games that he ran, and the viral spread of the game as the people he gamed with started their own games and so on, until there was a market you could publish a book for.

    The early versions of D&D, perhaps through 2E but certainly the earlier stuff, had a distinct charm. The combat system was certainly crappy, but is was so simple and flexible that you could do what you wanted to with it easily. World War II squad vs company of orcs and trolls? Give me 20 minutes to throw it together and we'll start.

    At least he went before WotC completely pissed all over his design by releasing the crap known as 4E. There's nothing left of D&D in that system, just a bunch of WoW kludge. Wonder if he dropped any good loot?
    --
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  16. Re:Not willing to play along by Culture20 · · Score: 3, Funny

    No one makes it out of *his* modules alive at the end.
    Except when he play a module himself and casts Resurrection... ;-)
  17. Re:This sucks. by LaskoVortex · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would argue that Mendel has had no impact on molecular genetics.. His model system was horribly simplified and, for the traits he studied, wasn't even perfectly accurate.

    Mendel stopped doing genetics before epistasis and population genetics were even conceived of, much less understood.

    Genetics succeeded after him not because of his influence in understanding heredity, but despite it. We all know that nonhomologous recombination plays an important role in the genotype of certain offspring and that random mutations can cause drastically new traits. (I'm ignoring the fact that such traits can result in selective advantage).

    The reason genetics has succeeded as a field is because molecular geneticists have worked out a lot of the mechanisms of gene segregation on the molecular level. Mendelian inheritance has mostly played a peripheral role in this.

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    Just callin' it like I see it.
  18. Re:Not willing to play along by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, the bastard is always giving his son special favors. That's why I stopped playing in his game. At least in Cthulhu's game, I know that everybody is going to get eaten.