BobProbst
First Post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gygax
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/298031
I'm actually speechless.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/298031
I'm actually speechless.
Gary Gygax died today
- Thread starter BobProbst
- Start date
thormagni
Explorer
Ahh. I just saw this and was coming here to post it. Sad day.
If anyone is interested, here is an interview with GG I did for a 2004 story on the 30th anniversary of D&D...
Gen Con Indy to celebrate role-playing game's 30th anniversary
Three decades ago, a couple of wargamers cobbled together a set of simple rules for a new type of game, stapling together pages by hand and pasting logos onto the cardboard boxes around their dinner table.
In their vision, players would take on the role of heroic adventurers fighting dragons and other mythological beasts in castles, canyons and catacombs.
They called their new effort Dungeons and Dragons and created an entire game and hobby industry that has spun off into cartoons, movies and computer games.
The 30th anniversary of D&D will be celebrated next week at Gen Con Indy, the world's largest role-playing, collectible card and board game convention, held for the second year at the Indiana Convention Center.
Gary Gygax, one of the Lake Geneva, Wis., gamers who invented D&D, said he estimated at the time that maybe 50,000 people would try the game. According to Wizards of the Coast, a Hasbro subsidiary that publishes the game today, about 4 million people a month are playing the game.
"I underestimated it by a bit," Gygax said in a phone interview. "I thought that the game would have legs, yes, but I didn't think it would have as large of a following as it turned out to have. I hadn't realized that I had somehow managed to capture the heroic quest scene."
The first set consisted of three little booklets, reference sheets that they collated, and labels glued to the front of the box and the spine. The first 1,000 were all sold in about eight months. The second run of 2,000 came in October of 1974.
The terms and ideas of the original D&D have been adopted wholesale by the computer gaming industry. Ideas like hit points, character classes, levels and experience points all originated with D&D.
"(D&D) has spawned computer games that dwarf it," Gygax said. "There are certainly more people now playing fantasy games on the computer than are playing the paper and pencil games. Movies like the ‘Lord of the Rings' and even the Harry Potter films certainly encourage fantasy gaming of all forms. The whole genre has become popular because of (Rings author J.R.R.) Tolkien and D&D."
Gygax has distanced himself from the modern D&D game and Wizards of the Coast, preferring to work on projects for Troll Lord Games including fantasy world creation books and adventure books and a role-playing game he calls "Lejendary Adventures."
At Gen Con, Troll Lord Games will also introduce a pared-down version of Dungeons and Dragons it is calling "Castles and Crusades" that will mimic Gygax's original boxed set.
Gygax does not plan to attend the Indianapolis show, but his son will be at the Troll Lords booth selling his products.
If anyone is interested, here is an interview with GG I did for a 2004 story on the 30th anniversary of D&D...
Gen Con Indy to celebrate role-playing game's 30th anniversary
Three decades ago, a couple of wargamers cobbled together a set of simple rules for a new type of game, stapling together pages by hand and pasting logos onto the cardboard boxes around their dinner table.
In their vision, players would take on the role of heroic adventurers fighting dragons and other mythological beasts in castles, canyons and catacombs.
They called their new effort Dungeons and Dragons and created an entire game and hobby industry that has spun off into cartoons, movies and computer games.
The 30th anniversary of D&D will be celebrated next week at Gen Con Indy, the world's largest role-playing, collectible card and board game convention, held for the second year at the Indiana Convention Center.
Gary Gygax, one of the Lake Geneva, Wis., gamers who invented D&D, said he estimated at the time that maybe 50,000 people would try the game. According to Wizards of the Coast, a Hasbro subsidiary that publishes the game today, about 4 million people a month are playing the game.
"I underestimated it by a bit," Gygax said in a phone interview. "I thought that the game would have legs, yes, but I didn't think it would have as large of a following as it turned out to have. I hadn't realized that I had somehow managed to capture the heroic quest scene."
The first set consisted of three little booklets, reference sheets that they collated, and labels glued to the front of the box and the spine. The first 1,000 were all sold in about eight months. The second run of 2,000 came in October of 1974.
The terms and ideas of the original D&D have been adopted wholesale by the computer gaming industry. Ideas like hit points, character classes, levels and experience points all originated with D&D.
"(D&D) has spawned computer games that dwarf it," Gygax said. "There are certainly more people now playing fantasy games on the computer than are playing the paper and pencil games. Movies like the ‘Lord of the Rings' and even the Harry Potter films certainly encourage fantasy gaming of all forms. The whole genre has become popular because of (Rings author J.R.R.) Tolkien and D&D."
Gygax has distanced himself from the modern D&D game and Wizards of the Coast, preferring to work on projects for Troll Lord Games including fantasy world creation books and adventure books and a role-playing game he calls "Lejendary Adventures."
At Gen Con, Troll Lord Games will also introduce a pared-down version of Dungeons and Dragons it is calling "Castles and Crusades" that will mimic Gygax's original boxed set.
Gygax does not plan to attend the Indianapolis show, but his son will be at the Troll Lords booth selling his products.
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