What did Gary Gygax mean to you?

[Master_of_None]

As a tribute to the man, share your story of how you got into D&D and what it means to you.

My first introduction to D&D was with the basic set (red book) when I was 8. A friend got it, gave me a fighter character, and took me through a little adventure. I was hooked right away. We moved up the expert set not long after: more levels! more spells! more monsters! more everything! During a sleepover I taught another friend to play and he too was hooked. One day, the friend who taught me showed me the Monster Manual. Eyes bugged out. The beholders and mind flayers were so cool. We stopped playing the original sets and moved up to AD&D. Anytime we had $10 we would beg our parents to drive us across town to the hobby shop that sold the books for $2 cheaper than anyone else. We pored over the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and the other classics. Figuring out the complex rules and learning all the vocabulary was a great education for a 10-year-old. How else would you learn the world "thaumaturge"?

From then on, my friends and I spent a good 80% of our time playing D&D, and soon other RPGs. I moved away when I was 12, but in the first week at my new school one of my classmates mentioned he played D&D, and I was invited to his group. I met new gaming friends, and kept on playing. Slowed down in high school as we learned to drive and found out gaming wasn't a great way to attract most girls. Some of us took up computer RPGs as well: the original Wizardry, Might & Magic. Then, 20-some years after first playing, one of those high school friends told me about a D&D MMO in the works. We signed up, and it felt like the old days of sitting around the table in someone's basement.

Playing D&D was a great education. Much better as a kid than just watching TV. I learned so much from those games, and made a lot of friends along the way.

Thanks, Gary.

/salute

[Generals]

Yea he had quite an impact on me as well. Was about 10-12 when I got that D&D box set, there was that sample solo adventure in it. I thought I was invincible when I got a long sword over the old shortsword I had! Anyway I had quite the imagination, and felt the cold and dampness of the dungeon I was in and the hair stood up on the back of my neck when I looked around for a random encounter. Graphing out the dungeon was a real blast. I was hooked, and soon got my freinds and family on it too. I started DMing shortly afterwards and hosted games for about a decade, making huge campaigns, maps, tables, collecting dice, etc. Had to have hundreds of people in central Virginia play in my games, sometimes over a dozen for 8-12 hours. Played well into the Army years, then I got promoted to Tank Sergeant and shipped off to war which pretty much ended them glory days. The groups went their separate ways after that. I'm always fond of the great times and and eternally grateful to Gary (and cofounder Dave) for a rich and imaginative start on life for me and so many others.

I hope he liked and approved DDO before his time was up. It must have made him proud to see it mature like this.

/salute

[Scarsgaard]

I was 10 yrs old playing D&D before red box in the G3 series as a Fighter with my cousin who dm'd...

...I was hooked from there and played PnP until I hit 19 and then it was Raves.. Barstarring and Mosh Pits... but even then I read every book... PnP'd when I could find people and then I found the old SSI titles.. baldurs gate prompted me to buy my first computer and oh my...

Yes, I am a D&D addict and a Troll.. I blame Gary

[Bekki]

I got started playing AD&D first ed. back in 1982...
friend had the books and we had sterted with
Yes, the Village of Hommlet. I almost immediately loved it.
I played through most of my years in High school,
got started running some games as a D.M. and had a blast.

I didn't truly hit stride in the game until I was in the Marine Corps.
When I met up with some close friends and we had a regular group for some 4 years.
I have since played for over 20 years and truly enjoy the game.
I have collected Miniatures', and painted them, and shared Hours of fun with
family and friends. I can never repay the gift tha Gary Gygax has given me.
His immagination, vision, dedication to the game, is a tribute to us all.

To Generals.
In another Post a player said that Gary Actually Played DDO.
He showed up in the Wavecrest as a Level 1 Ranger, and talked to players passing through.

I am also told that up until his last days he still hosted a weekly game in his house.

/Salute

[Ministry]

My best friend and I met these two hot girls and were attempting to score with them, as best as 2 - 13 year old guys could score. We went over to their place and met their younger brother and cousin who were in the basement where we were thinking we would weave our magic and make them disappear and do our thang. We were ****ed they were down there, but when we asked *** they were doing, the magic was weaved on us. We sat down and found out what Basic D&D was about. All they had was that one soft cover red Basic D&D book, but we were hooked. We lost sight of our initial goal and ended up playing for hours. The girls were so ****ed at their brothers...hahaha. The next day we went out and picked up the Basic book and never looked back. I too played AD&D though out my high school and college days and know that my grades would have been higher and I probably would have had more dates / more to do with girls, but I didn't care.

A number of years ago my career shifted to I.S. / I.T. and all I could think about was the day they would bring D&D to the internet in the way Turbine has, so I could work and play at the same time.

So, now I'm married to a beautiful girl and still play D&D (DDO) but without the stinky fat guys and dingy basements that I really didn't like.



/Salute and Thanks Gary

[Uamhas]

Funny thing, that. When I was a little girl I idolized my big brother. I wanted to be just like him. (never could understand that outdoor plumbing wasn't the only difference... meh) I don't know how old I was, but D&D first made it's appearance in my life when I was an itty bitty git, via my hero, and I was immediately hooked. He refused to let me play ("MOOOooom!! There's got to be SOMEthing that's just MINE!" he would say) but that never stopped me from gobbling up every book that he let me borrow, or from perching quietly (SO not my natural state as a child) to watch him and 3 of his friends play with those irresistible miniatures on that funky looking mat that covered half the bedroom floor while thumbing back and forth through what looked to me to be a funky kinda magazine. (no, not Hustler Womp ). Go figure, though, I never actually played D&D pen and paper. It was only after I had bitc... ahem, reasonably expressed my desire for more attention from my significant other that he plunked me down, showed me where to start, and let me build and play my own DDO character. Now he no longer plays, and I have 2 accounts with a game I absolutely love. Thanks Mr. Gygax. I suspect you have touched more lives than you ever would have thought, back in the 70's.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

I never knew him; never met him; and I'm not one prone to hero worship or following a certain writer/celebrities work etc.

To me he was a great writer/designer of fantasy games/books.

There were many who came after him and propably many who assisted him in his creations.

But his were first!
D&D was first!
D&D is still my favorite.
D&D spawned a whole plethra of copycat/similar games.....and spreading into the computer game era.

I devoted hours/days/years to reading what this man wrote....and enjoying his legacy.

That is very significant.
He changed my life....made it more fun......because of him, I have the friends I do today.....or at least better bonded with the ones I had then that enjoyed his work as well.

Like I said, he may not have created this all on his own, and some many of the foundations already existed...

But D&D and TSR brought role=playing games into my life......and the only name on most of the First edition books was E. Gary Gygax!

I owe this man, who I never met, a debt of gratitude for making my life more enjoyable.

I don't know if he was a great man or not.....but he made a great impact on my life.
And yesterday, I watched as the Internet romor mill went into action.....it was amazing how many people posted something about Gary and how saddened there were by his loss.

His death made front page news on CNN.com.
Surprising, for a man who most corporate Americans had never heard of.....
But from the huge number of posts on the Internet and the speed at which the news of his loss disiminated.......it was truly a noteworthy event.

R.I.P Gary. and Thx.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Let me add one personal little story.

Before D&D I had only toys.

At one point I had bought a package of small plastiscDinosaurs. In this package was a dinosaur that had never existed in real life.
It looked like an Armadillo(sp) with a long nose almost like a beak....and kinda a flat fin sticking up on it's back a little like a sharks, but wider.
The thing had claws, that I used to imagine it would use to dig in the ground and burrow along......but like I said, this dinosaur never existed......so I have no idea why the toy company had put this creature into their package of small plastic dinos.

The D&D came......then the first Monster Manual came........and low and behold their was my Dino!!!! The Bullette. The picture looked just like the one I had and the discription of it's abilities were so similar to what I had imagined!

Well, there is no way to know for sure, but since I am pretty sure this creature has no hisorical or folk-lore origin....I'll bet that Gary Gygax, a man involved in table-top minture wargames.......might have happened upon the same little "dinosaur' that I did in the early '70s......and used his imagine to include it in his fantasy game.

I also bought a pack of similar dinosaurs a few years ago in Japan, and noticed a very similar one in that pack as well......seems this made-dino design is still finding it's way into chinese toy factories.

Edit: just found this link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulette

[Music_Man]

As most of you familiar with the community here on Thelanis know, I am the brother of Shinarel. His best freind, who some of you will remember as Nessa, as well as a couple other of his gang got into PnP during his high school years, which put me somewhere around 2nd grade. I didn't get to play at first, but what I heard about it intrigued me alot, since we did the whole ren-fair thing as a family and I had a huge imagination. Before then, I remember Shin had a knock-off DnD bored game that we would play sometimes when he babysat my bestfriend and I, way back in the day -- I wasn't even 6 back then... I don't remember any real DnD stuff though I remember Shin having a number of the books.

Anyway, eventually they let me roll up some characters & I got to play with them maybe every 1 out of 3-4 times they met up. I remember my first character was a barbarian who had two self made stone axes strapped to his wrists like bracers (Nessa, was a great DM and found ways to work with all my silly-young-kid ideas for my characters). I remember getting so into the game, not just from the stories Shin and Nessa would tell form the games I wasn't at, but also from being engulfed by my character... making choices like they would and all that. My most fondest memory, came when Nessa allowed me to make "Jump" into an offensive spell; He decided that if I so decided I could get close enough to my enemy (as an uber squishy wizard) and touch them to make them fly into the air, I could then break a grasshopper leg to end the spell, and watch them come flailing down to earth with such un-grace that it usually broke limbs and such. The best time I had with that came during a tough fight with a bunch of orcs in a cave. I managed to sneak around the battle and approach the leader and cast the spell on him, and it worked as it usually did... except since the roof of the cave wasn't that high, the orc's head just got smashed into the ceiling and his body just dangled there like a stalagtite ... and the rest of the orcs scattered. Eventually though I wans't able to make it to their games anymore and that was the end of PnP time.

Nevertheless, as soon as word of DDO reached Nessa and Shin, I heard about it. I was in my first year of college and pretty broke so Shin offered to finance my adventures... and thus, I have come to remain here.

Thanks Gary, you're creation has inspired and tutored so many of us in the ways of life... it's even had profound effects on really strange people like Marilyn Manson who used to write his own campaigns.

/Salute.

[Magus_d]

I actually didn't start with D&D, I started with the TMNT RPG. But soon after trying to play that game (amazing how playing most RPGs alone doesnt work well) I met a guy at the local game store who told me about D&D. A few months later I found out one of my friends played it, so I joined them for my first D&D game. It didn't last long, two sessions, but it was great fun. Those friends didn't like the game so that ended my D&D for a few years.

Jump ahead to my sophomore year and I meet this guy who looks like a devil. Dark greasy hair, big bushy eyebrows, evil smile. One day I see him with a strange book and bend my head down to read the title. I instanstly got this huge smile on my face and he asked if I knew what it was.

Now 15 years later my group of friends and I get together almost every week to play D&D, and a three of us are on DDO pretty much nightly.

Thanks Gary for the great times.