Dungeons and Dragons creator dies

From www.bbc.co.uk:

Gary Gygax, co-creator of the first role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, has died at the age of 69.

Gygax, who developed the game in 1974 with Dave Arneson, had been suffering from health problems for several years.

Famous for its mythical creatures and odd-shaped dice, Dungeons and Dragons was an instant success that spawned a slew of video games, books and films.

Gygax was also a author who wrote numerous fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series ofseries of adventure novels.

He died on Tuesday at his home in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, leaving a wife and six children.

Skills and abilities

Ernest Gary Gygax grew up in Chicago, moving to Lake Geneva at the age of eight.

His father, a Swiss immigrant, read fantasy books that got his son hooked on the genre, according to Gygax's widow Gail.

Gygax was working as an insurance underwriter in the 1960s when he began playing war-themed board games.

It was these that inspired him and Arneson to develop Dungeons and Dragons, in which players create fictional characters by rolling dice that determine their skills and abilities.

An estimated 20 million people worldwide have played the game, with more than $1bn (£505m) spent on equipment and books.
D&D rules grew out of war gaming in the early 1970s



"I thought we would sell about 50,000 copies," Gygax told the BBC News website in 2004.

Gygax and Arneson sold their rights to Dungeons and Dragons in the 1990s, when the game's popularity began to wane.

According to his widow, though, he hosted weekly games as recently as January.

"It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman," she said.

White Tiger wrote:

... he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman," she said.

Damn It! I knew I should've played more D&D then I would be a doctor! Doh!

LOL @ Emma.

I have played D&D since I was like 8 years old. It was a lot of fun with a group of friends that I spent a lot of time with. They moved away about 4 - 5 years ago, and haven't gamed since.

I'm not a doctor, or a lawyer. So, it didn't help me. I got jipped.

Did he really die or was he just role playing his death?

wahh wahhhhhhhh bad joke.

Anytime anyone dies it's sad.


SOMEONE explain to me, in brief, the fascination and addiction to D&D. I'm just curious, cause I don't get it.

I am a lover of Dungeons and Dragons. Played since I was 10. Oooh, D&D, you sweet sweet game.

My favorite professor joked that the guy died of severe case of virginity. This professor used to play a lot, too.

PIPPIN!!! I knew that we had to be kindred spirits! We both LOVE D&D!!!!! :drunk:

We don't really have it in Australia. I mean, I'm sure you can get it... but I don't know anybody who plays it. And a lot of myf riends were NEERDY.

I only played it twice (and, might I say I was AWESOME at it BOTH those times ) I'd never heard of it before I started going out with a semi-nerd who had mega-nerd friends.

But it was good fun, I'd play it again.

I have not read a comment yet... but I wager there is already some kind of nerd, 8-sided dice, or troll comment.

Let me check.

-HECK!

Illuminate wrote:

Did he really die or was he just role playing his death?

wahh wahhhhhhhh bad joke.

Anytime anyone dies it's sad.


SOMEONE explain to me, in brief, the fascination and addiction to D&D. I'm just curious, cause I don't get it.

You make fun of D&D people so much. You hate them more than the Dutch.

-HECK!