In case you hadn't seen this bit of news, this morning, Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons, died. I wanted to make some kind of comment about "failing a saving throw" here, but a quick Google search revealed the nets are already loaded with people making that joke (whether you judge it to be in poor taste or not).
Hearing this news made me realize that D&D was the first non-Monopoly, non-Sorry, you-get-the-idea game I ever played. I wasn't with the game very long before moving on to West End's Star Wars RPG, then Vampire, then ultimately out of role-playing games and into German board games and CCGs. But I actually still have all my books for it, packed away in a box somewhere. Probably with hand-drawn dungeon maps and character sheets stuffed in the pages.
The fact I never got rid of those things is probably just another sign of what the news today made me realize: there's still just a bit of a connection there, because it's really where this gaming thing started for me.
I'm sure a huge number of game fans out there are having similar thoughts today.
8 comments:
I was 12 when I bought my first AD&D books (nope, never played the original). They were the Player's Handbook and the Game Master Guide (or whatever it was called back then).
I remember studying those tomes for weeks--and using them, too, of course. And yes, that's also where the gaming bug first bit me for real. Before that, just as the good doctor said, it had been just Monopoly and Sorry-ish crap.
I ended up getting rid of my AD&D stuff (but I did keep all three editions of West End Games' Star Wars RPG -- best RPG I ever played!). But I have so many good memories of those AD&D sessions with my high-school friends that it would be impossible for me not to feel a loss today.
Rest in peace, Gary.
FKL
I was a huge D&D fan growing up. Shadowrun and Battletech followed but we still used mostly D&D rules for aspects of those games too. unlike old video games, it's not quite so easy to grab an old copy and play for an afternoon. (I still have all of my books, too.)
(raises cup of mead to the fallen hero) anybody got a resurrection spell memorized?
the mole
You have to think, though, that somewhere Barron is a little cheesed off that he's not even the most significant gaming obituary of the day.
Gygax also wrote some decent novels. Like many of you, AD&D was my "gateway geek".
P.S. Um... "Barron"?
For Snarky's benefit, Barron Vangor Toth, co-designer of the WWE Raw Deal CCG, also died in the last couple days.
Similar thoughts indeed.
I've been playing D&D (starting with the red box set way back when) for far too long, I'm sure. In fact the same core group of guys (give or take a couple that've come or gone) have been playing every Friday night for almost 20 years now, and have Gygax to thank for indirectly bringing and keeping together the closest group of friends I've ever known.
So this Friday, in tribute to him, I'm having each of the other guys dig up their favourite retired character of years gone by, raise them to the appropriate level, and I'm going to run them through what Gygax considered one of the favourite modules he'd ever written, Tomb of Horrors.
Anybody that's played it before want to place bets on how many survive the night? ;-)
So, how many did?
FKL
LOL I loved the Tomb of Horrors. A great way to kill those lvl 20+ characters!!
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