1938 – 2008
Yeah, I know I said on the About page that I wasn’t going to talk about personal stuff, but this man’s passing deserves mention.
Gary Gygax has given me some of the greatest moments in my life through Dungeons & Dragons, and all the games that followed after from all the other creators out there. He and Dave Arneson are the fathers of the hobby that has given me good times, good friends, good stories, and good thinking. They are the first causes of this blog; without the red box that I got for Christmas when I was twelve, I wouldn’t be doing this.
Since those early games, I’ve moved on to other games, and game design has come a long, long way. There have been trends and fads in games: rules heavy, math heavy, story-focused, rules light, narrative, diceless, dice pools, etc.
One thing hasn’t changed since those days, though: the love of the game, whatever the game is that you love.
We play because we love to play.
And now we witness the passing of one of the men who brought us this gift.
I invite you all to join me in thinking about how much richer your life is because of this man.
Thank you, Mr. Gygax.