Farewell, Gary

Farewell, Gary Gygax.

You know how when you hear that someone famous died and most of the time, you tend to think (or at least I do alot)..."Oh wow...what a shame." and that's as far as it goes. Then come the one's like Mother Teresa, who you look at and think "The world just lost something today.". Last are the ones that when you hear, you sit down stunned for a minute...that was me today when I read the news story about Gary Gygax dying on the web. D&D was a huge part of my formative game playing. I think back fondly to my time in his care...D&D...the memories.

For God's sake, I was 11 when I first started playing at school with my friends. I've still got a 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook and most of the modules that Gygax wrote.

I shudder to think of the trouble I could have gotten into had I not started playing D&D and had something to occupy my time as a teenager. While my friends were out drinking and attempting other stupid crap, I was happily engaging my mind..."What's that you say? I'm looking at a pit and my rope will only get me 2/3's of the way across and the ogres are coming...hrmmm"

I've moved on into other games since, with my latest being World of Warcraft, where in the official forums, the idea of an in-game memorial has been raised. I would fully support an in-game memorial. I like someone's "Bag of Holding" idea...but it would have to be some ridiculous number of slots....like hundreds...of course, make it so nasty to get to, that people have nightmares about the attempts. I can still remember the pain of some of those modules...."Queen of the Demonweb Pits"...shudder...the G series - Hill Giants, Frost Giants, Fire Giants...oh my.

All RPGs pale in comparison to the open-ended, free-flow joy that was D&D. Unfortunately, trying to find people who play now is akin to finding people who are willing to receive root canals via their eye sockets. Some nonsense about "the graphics suck". Kids these days have no imagination...

Farewell, Gary...you'll be missed...may you never miss another saving throw...