A moment of silence for Gary

[peragro]

D&D cocreator Gary Gygax now beyond scope of healing spells

By Ben Kuchera | Published: March 05, 2008 - 08:59AM CT
"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules."
-Quote popularly attributed to Gary Gygax
On March 4, Gary Gygax died at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, after suffering two strokes in 2004 and being diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was 69. While the man may not be with us any more, the ideas that he popularized though his work on Dungeons and Dragons will guide the game world for a very long time to come. In many ways, Gary Gygax built the bridge (complete with trolls underneath and dragons flying above) that we walk across every time we play a role-playing game, whether it be with a pen and pencil, a computer, or a home console.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080305-dd-cocreator-gary-gygax-now-beyond-scope-of-healing-spells.html

[Kuan]

D&D is soooooo geeky.

RIP Gary. Guess you ran outta HP.

[peragro]

Originally Posted by Kuan

D&D is soooooo geeky.

RIP Gary. Guess you ran outta HP.

I wonder if he can come back as a zombie and, if so, does he still get to run his company in an undead state?

Hmmm. Have to ask the DM.

[peragro]

[KarTek]

Despite being somewhat nerdy myself, I can not, nor have I ever been or will be in the future able to play any RPG's...

[Jordan G]

Originally Posted by KarTek

Despite being somewhat nerdy myself, I can not, nor have I ever been or will be in the future able to play any RPG's...

I'm with ya on that. Never rolled the 12 sided dice.....but I'm certainly not an elitist.

Just not my dorky cup of tea.

[KarTek]

I'm a FPS guy. It appeals to my inner need to blow crap up!

[Chad300tdt]

I don't mind RPG's as long as they're on a TV screen. I could never get into D&D. It takes too long and there's no visual, at least when I tried it as a kid.

Also, I've never been into games that took longer than one sitting. I play video games occasionally, but I've never completed one. I just mess around with it until I'm bored.

[Chad300tdt]

Originally Posted by KarTek

I'm a FPS guy. It appeals to my inner need to blow crap up!

I like Crackdown on the X-box 360 for that. You get more superhuman powers the longer you play until you can throw cars at people and jump over buildings.

[davidmash]

There is a game called Utopia on this web site http://games.swirve.com/utopia/. I have been playing for 6 or 7 years. Never thought something like this would appeal to me (I'm a FPS kind of guy as well) but Utopia has hooked me hard. h game constantly changes. Each game (age) is about 3 to 4 months long and you are part of a kingdom (25 members) so you can build up friendships. There are endless combinations of play and the owners make changes (some minor some major) every age. I take my PC traveling so I can play when away.

[KarTek]

Much of my problem is that I play so sporadically that I can never develop any online friendships. I just don't have the time to play on a regular basis and sometimes, I may not play for months at a time.

[Angel]

I'm a D&D geek, not afraid to admit it. I've even rolled a D100 =) I dont get all these people that do nothing but play online- dude, thats not how we did it in the old days =) we sat down around a table, with real people (and got just as pissed off, just about as often as the MMORPG'ers). Last observations on this board showed me a number of guys who preferred in person dealings to online.

I dont play much anymore (becuase its so hard to get people together =) but I remember the "1st edition" of D&D rules, before it was "AD&D". Good stuff. Perhaps in my retirement, I will live in an old folks home with other ex-gamers. We will commence to have a blast (as long as someone can still see the numbers on the dice)

The entire MMORPG world owes Gary Gygax. RIP dude.










Moment of silence complete =)

-John

[peragro]

^^Sounds like you're coming more from my direction. I last played D&D around 25 years ago; with real people and bags full of real dice. It was a blast. My father was dead set against it. He thought it to be a huge waste of time. Funny thing is that I look back now on time spent then and realize that there was quite a bit of worth to those days wasted playing D&D. The creative thinking aspects of it have helped me greatly in my professional work. It was definitly more beneficial than sitting around watching TV.

Today I don't have much time for Role Playing or games in general. I have, over the last few years, become addicted to Oblivion and Morrowind and to a lesser extent, games like Diablo or Baldur's Gate. All can be played by one's self and you can pick up where you left off - in my case that'll be from 9 months ago with Oblivion if I play again soon. Another plus is that the kids love watching you play. It's like toddler crack. It does make me realize the value of sitting around with a group of friends and participating in a made up game without a computer or a video screen. Sort of like reading the book is better than watching the movie - and better for your brain in the long run.

[Ara T.]

I never played the pen and paper stuff but there are 3 or 4 really good D&D based games on the PC. Baldur's Gate, Planescape:Torment (this one's really trippy!), Icewind Dale, etc