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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 9651337" data-attributes="member: 697">I'm not sure it's that simple. He moved to LA in 1983 IIRC, and came back to Lake Geneva for good in '85. He had the money that he could've gone back to LA, but he didn't.I really don't think that writing TTRPGs was Gygax's dream. He was 36 when D&D came out. He was already in his 30s when he was exposed to the game's concept, with a wife and children. When he did take that first step to becoming a game designer, he produced historical wargames and miniatures games. He didn't move into fantasy until the Twin Cities crowd came to him with their ideas.He makes a game that becomes a huge hit, but he ends up in an endless feud and lawsuit with his co-designer. That co-designer has plenty of friends in his social circle who also turn against him. TSR is wracked with constant in-fighting and politicking. He can't just be the guy who writes new character classes, puts together a dungeon, or spends a year researching a historical battle to do a hex and counter wargame. Within TSR and in the broader world, he's too big for that now. His marriage falls apart. Why wouldn't he go to LA and leave all that behind? Who's left in Lake Geneva that isn't a mortal enemy or someone just trying to get a hand in his wallet?I'm not saying it's healthy or objectively wise to head to LA and party like a teenager, but I wonder how much of that was a reaction to losing the dream. Our imagining of our ambition rarely matches the reality of it.</blockquote>

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