Gary Gygax passed away 10 years ago today. I noted it at the time but I was busy - I was a couple weeks out from a fight, I wasn't blogging at the time, and I wasn't really gaming much a the time. My campaign was still running, but it was in "run 2-3 sessions when I visit the US" mode so I didn't do a lot of daily thinking about games and gaming.
10 years on, though, I post about games daily. I put some active thought into gaming daily as well. And I play games roughly 15-20 times a year with my buddies.
I also run a gigantic megadungeon, something that for me draws a straight line back to stories about Castle Greyhawk. I gather Dave Arneson did something first, but I don't have much of his that I really draw on for Felltower. It's Gary Gygax's work, and those of people who played and worked with and for him that really inspire my current game.
So it's sad to think about the loss, and articles like this one that make me sad that I'll never get to game with the guy. (FWIW, skip down to "THE SCENARIO, OR, WAYNE AND I MEET THE WIZARD" and skip the whole history of D&D for non-gamers article content.)
But I do get to game with my friends, which is the entire point of gaming for me.
I've gamed (Napoleonics type miniatures) with Arneson*. He was a decent bloke. I imagine Gary would been the same (excepting that Arneson preferred wargaming to roleplaying).
ReplyDelete* I was lucky that he lived close by and frequented the same FLGS I did.
I knew Dave casually through a friend of a friend; I might have played DGUTS with him at TwinCon about 25 years ago, but my memories of those cons are fuzzy. My brother once played D&D with him, and I played Blackmoor with one of his players last year. So now you have two connections with him.
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