Saving Throw… Failed!
Tonight I have no links, only sorrow. I write this as a tribute to a man who I never met, yet whose works profoundly shaped my life. I learned this evening that Level 100 geek Gary Gygax passed away this morning from an inoperable abdominal aortic aneurysm.
In my teens, I would occasionally play D&D with friends, informally. Like most other ‘parties’ we rarely left the taven where quests tend to originate - preferring instead to cause tavern brawls a-plenty, run up bar tabs into the millions of dollars, and generally molest any NPC that was female and nearby. Although we never approached the game with the seriousness that some do, we had fun dammit, and it helped forge bonds of friendship that are still carried on to this day.
Later came Magic: The Gathering. Many years, and thousands of dead minions. Oh how Ioved the smell of burning orcs in the morning!
Dungeons and Dragons introduced me to fantasy, for which I will be eternally grateful. I was first made aware of the world of Dungeons and Dragons, like most children of the 80’s, through the Saturday morning CBS cartoon. I was enamored with the possibility of using my imagination to becore more than I was. Even though the show only lasted a few seasons, it opened my eyes to fantasy and roleplaying and diverted me from the path of science fiction that I was following at that point.
Although some tend to look at anything that has swords and dragons on the covers as crap, I find it to be a nice escape. I read to forget reality, if only for a few minutes. I grew up on Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein, who were amazing science fiction authors, precisely because they remembered the fiction aspect. Today’s crop of science fiction authors trend towards the science, with fiction tacked on as an afterthought. When I want to read chemistry, physics, etc I know where to find good source material. When I’m reading for the story, I want fiction, not a doctoral thesis in particle physics with a half-rewritten episode of Melrose Place tacked on.
The other major contribution Mr. Gygax made that changed my life was GenCon. I’ll skip descriptions of it, because it defies all description. Suffice it to say, my wife and I planned our wedding so that we were able to attend GenCon on our honeymoon. I look forward to taking my daughter to it in a few years, because I think it will create a lasting memory.
I don’t know if Mr. Gygax was a religious man, but I will say a prayer for him nonetheless. A legend has moved from mortality into a more eternal pantheon. If I meet him in heaven when I die, I plan on joinng the line to buy him a tankard of ale!
Farewell Gary.
Gary Gygax July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008: Rest In Peace
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