Building a Gary Gygax Memorial

An anonymous reader writes "It looks like approval to build a memorial to E. Gary Gygax has been granted in Lake Geneva City, Wisconsin. The Gygax Memorial Fund is still taking donations for the memorial that may begin construction as early as later this year. I (like many on Slashdot) spent many years of my youth using Gygax inspired creations as an excuse to socialize, roll dice, and eat chips at impromptu gatherings before computers intruded on the RPG realms."

Comments

Detailed map?

[charlieo88]

Will the map be on plain square graph paper or since it's outdoors, will it be on hexagonal graph paper?

It damn well better...

[cthellis]

...be underground.
...have traps leading up to it.
...have someone narrating your way.
...involve a strength check to open the door.
...force you to roll dice constantly.

Re:Who is Gary Gygax?

[Captain Spam]

Would it have been so hard to use the summary to reveal who Gary Gygax is? It's not like he's a famous geek like John Bardeen.

I'm sorry, but I'll have to ask you to turn in your geek card. You... (rolls dice) ...disgust me.

Re:Perhaps a museum or a statue, but not a memoria

[Crudely_Indecent]

I'd endorse and support memorials for all 3.

Gary Gygax: For giving geeks and nerds something to do while all the popular kids were out drinking and having sex.

John Wayne: For not taking shit from anybody (his bronze statue needs to be electrified so he doesn't even take crap from pigeons).
You know, forget the memorial.... We just need to clone the Duke.

Madonna: For the "Like a Virgin" years....when she was still hot....I want to remember the hot Madonna.

A more profound effect than one might recall

[Krishnoid]

Reminds me of this old post and my small contribution to it. I had to rewind quite a bit to recognize how fundamentally D&D shaped my model of reality. It allowed kids to test the waters of having an adult level of power, responsibility, and open-ended freedom of action in what was effectively a hostile wilderness; a world with rules but where the rule of laws of nature, God, magic, and morality were called out explicitly and which overrode the rule of the law of man, in contrast to how those laws subtly-to-overtly shape the law of man in the modern world. And all in the days before computer simulations of the same.

Incidentally, it's a 503(c) organization -- tax-deductible in the US.

Re:A more profound effect than one might recall

[MagusSlurpy]

I think a lot of it has to do with impressions. It sounds a lot less like an internet scam to most people if they've bothered to get the 501(c)3 approval.

Dave Arneson

[__aanonl8035]

I hope the memorial succeeds. I believe Gary Gygas deserves one. I also believe Dave Arneson should get one. It is often glossed over that Dave Arneson was the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons. I have read different postings concerning the origins of Dungeons & Dragons, and many of them point to the main idea of it was created by Dave Arneson, and Gary came along and said that it could be made into a product. Then Garry spent a long time categorizing the rules and expanding them. What a great game it was!

Re:Who is Gary Gygax?

[Abstrackt]

I was out having sex AND playing D&D - you loser

Sounds fun! I put on my robe and wizard hat.

Hall of Fame

[Phoenix666]

When I was in junior high I went to a gaming convention where I played D&D with Gary Gygax, Tracy Hickman (author of the Dragonlance series), and Larry Niven. It was the Ravenloft module that Tracy had written, so naturally he was the DM. Watching those guys spin the fable was an amazing experience I've never forgotten, and it set a bar for fantasy gaming that no computer game has ever come close to surpassing. Maybe it's because in a computer game no one ever gets into character and brings pathos to the role. Sure, the mechanics and special effects of computers are great, but nobody really gets emotionally attached to their character (beyond how much time they spend levelling up) and...the storytelling just isn't there.

All these years later I realize that that evening with Gary, Larry, and Tracy and the other players was like our generation's equivalent of hanging out with Jack Kerouac and Allan Ginsberg at the height of the Beat era.

I hope they build Gary a monument that pays proper homage all the young imaginations he fired and lives he influenced. RIP, Gary.

In an inner chamber of the memorial...

[Rocky]

...exhume his skull, embed gems into it, and put it on a table. That would really screw with those in the know.

/yes I know the Tomb of Horrors jokes are getting old.

Re:Perhaps a museum or a statue, but not a memoria

[EdIII]

John Fucking Wayne. Our family would build our own memorial to that man.

Every family reunion for as long as I can remember... there would be a fight over John Wayne. The rest of us had bettintg pools over him.

One relative was a real Macho tough SOB. The Duke? You don't insult the Duke and walk away.. you crawl away.

One relative was a flaming gay man. With conspiracy theories.

I won the pot one year by guessing how many glasses of wine and at what time the Duke would be accused of being gay and part of the grand homosexual conspiracy in Hollywood and how many minutes it would take for us to have to hold the first relative back from killing the latter relative.

We had first aid kits handy :)

Ahhh.... the memories. Thank you Duke.