Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away in 2008. His widow, Gail Gygax, has worked to have a memorial or statue built in his memory in their hometown of Lake Geneva, USA.
Set in Library Park, in a spot that Gygax himself chose, the memorial will be a stone table, benches, and a statue of Gary Gygax himself. The table will feature a bronze map of Gygax's first ever D&D dungeon level, scaled for use with miniatures.
The Gygax Memorial Fund will be launching a Kickstarter to raise the funds to make the Gygax Memorial Table. They need $150,000 to make the basic monument--the table and benches--with other elements added at higher stretch goals. At $250,000 they will add a bronze 'throne' at one end of the table, and at $500,000 they will install a statue of Gary Gygax on that throne. The bronze dungeon map comes in at $925,000.
If you pledge at the basic level, you'll get a scroll and a mention on the Gygax Memorial Fund website, as well as a "mini-level mega-dungeon" (that has miniature giant space hamster vibes!). For higher pledges at $250 or more you can have your name engraved on one of the stone pavers around the monument.
There are even higher pledge levels of $10,000+ which are available separately to the actual Kickstarter, and if you pledge an astonishing $150,000 you get a half-sized replica of the statue, an engraving on the back of the throne, and get to play in the first ever game on the newly completed table.
If the funding is raised, it is estimated that the monument will take a few years to build, with the basic elements in place by October 2026.
The campaign creator is the Gygax Memorial Fund, which was founded by Gail Gygax. The mini-mega dungeon will be written by Paul Stormberg; the sculptor(s) will be 'internationally acclaimed' and the project has revived bids from Mike Martino of Lacrosse, Wisconsin and James Nance of Loveland, Colorado. The Kickstarter launches this Tuesday, on October 1st.
This isn't the first memorial planned by the fund. Back in 2012 they raised over $100K, apparently from a single donor for a different design (pictured below) which was not constructed. In 2022 the bulk of that donation was returned to the donor after several years of setbacks. According to its yearly tax documents, at the end of 2023 the fund had a balance of $9,759 after raising a total of $250,157 between the years 2010-2023, although mainly prior to 2014. The Memorial Initiatives page of the fund's website includes details of various recently completed projects--a park bench, permanent exhibits at the Lake Geneva library and museum, and other things. The website provides an account of the fund's activities and fundraising efforts over the years.
