RIP Gary Gygax

[Big_John]

i never played D&D.. but it looked like a neat idea for its time.

RIP dungeon master

[Raz]

Oh, didn't realize he'd died, no news or anything. Woah.
I've never played D&D, but I have mingled with it's counterparts. RIP.

[Captain Fishpants]

The story is here.

Another little piece of my childhood - and my job history - dies. :(

[drone]

Martok started a thread in the Arena here yesterday.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=100096

The story is here.

Another little piece of my childhood - and my job history - dies. :(

You worked for Gygax/TSR? I remember you said you worked on the 40K Rogue Trader rules, you have had your hands in everything!

[Togakure]

Oh boy, did I play D&D ... at the peak of the first wave in the early 80s I was paid $5 per player per 6-8-hour session to DM games (4 to 6 players on average). For a high school kid that was good money when we were playing often.

D&D laid the groundwork for so many RPG games that are so popular nowadays.

Peace and thanks, Gary Gygax. Those were great times.

[Gregoshi]

You got paid to DM Masamune?! How did you manage that?

RIP Gary. I posted my thoughts on Gary's passing more extensively in the Arena thread.

[seireikhaan]

RIP.

[Crazed Rabbit]

RIP, and thanks for the memories.

CR

[Big_John]

RIP.

[Lemur]

It's too late for any of us to cast Cure Critical Wounds now. RIP.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Another little piece of my childhood dies.

My thoughts exactly.

[Ravencroft]

Well, I read about it in the paper a while ago,

though I'm not a Dungeons and Dragons player, I'm saddened cuz one of the inventors of RPGs is gone... requesciat in pacem.

[spmetla]

May he rest in peace. I owe him a good many hours of entertainment with several buddies playing D&D and AD&D.

[Captain Fishpants]

You worked for Gygax/TSR? I remember you said you worked on the 40K Rogue Trader rules, you have had your hands in everything!

Years ago there was a TSR UK subsidiary, and I was there as a humble worker bee.

I have D&D to thank for never having had what most mothers would describe as a "proper job".

I owe Gary thanks for that.

[Caerfanan]

He missed his constitution saving throw, then.

I didn't think that it would "affect" me so much. Actually I started gaming a lot with roleplaying games, and they are still the best games for me on many regards... so many hours with all those versions of D&D, then AD&D, then D&D again... Still playing a few times a year...

RIP

[English assassin]

Wow. Without AD&D at school I would have....well, played even more Apocalypse I suppose. (anyone else remember that one?)

RIP Gazza.

[Togakure]

You got paid to DM Masamune?! How did you manage that? ....

Nowadays we have these great PC games. Back then, there was D&D. It was quite the rage. There were some decent DMs, but most just used the pre-made modules etc. I made my own world with unique races and cultures and nations, flora and fauna, beliefs and religions, characters high and low, big and small, etc.. I made a series of color maps--political, geographic, historic development etc., and kept a reference book of eveything I created and how it related to the rest of the world. I developed complex characters--allies and enemies, organizations, ranks and titles, and oodles of magic items, benevolent and malevolent. I made it very hard to acquire the good stuff. And when I shook the dice cup full of six-sided dice and said "you hear thunder roll as you argue with the DM ... do you continue?" players learned very quickly to listen instead of argue (it sucked to have their painstakingly developed 15th-level character killed by a random bolt of lightning from the sky ...).

I read a ton of fantasy back then (there weren't that many movies out, so I was not hampered by having so many other peoples' images in my head), which fed my imagination and creativity. Apparently others found my world and stories and characters entertaining enough to pay for a spot at the table. I limited players to six per session, so sometimes I had to disappoint those who had not been with us as long. In the end I joined a travelling rock band and our D&D days came to an end. But to this day they were my most enjoyable gaming experiences--and I'm sure it's why I love PC-based games so much now.

Amazing that I missed 37 days of my senior year in high school thanks to D&D and still passed. If you're wondering how I got around the bobbies, well, the school adminsitrators never saw any other signature but mine ... heh.

[Vladimir]

nvm

[Gregoshi]

Back then, there was D&D. It was quite the rage...

Yep. I started playing in late 1977 with the "white box" set of D&D rules. I started my first (and only) campaign in the fall of 1978 and it was still going up until 2007. I created my own world like you. I've had several groups come and go over the years but it has always been the same world. We kind of just stopped playing in 2007 - burn out on my part and family lives made it difficult to get together. However, I've been getting the itch to play again and Gary's death has ampified that feeling.

I used a mix of modules and my own dungeons. Gary's Giant series was a major part of my campaign during my senior year of college. The players finished it during our very last session together before graduation, standing on the verge of moving into the Drow series. The players and I had a blast playing the Giant series...thanks Gary.

However, I've never made a cent DMing. My hat's off to you Masamune for doing so!