Sad to report that Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, amongst many other game systems, accessories, and novels has passed away at the age of 69 from long standing health problems.
While Dungeons & Dragons became famous for its voluminous rules, Mr. Gygax was always adamant that the game’s most important rule was to have fun and to enjoy the social experience of creating collaborative entertainment. In Dungeons & Dragons, players create an alternate persona, like a dwarven thief or a noble paladin, and go off on imagined adventures under the adjudication of another player called the Dungeon Master.
-link to New York Times obit
You know, I can’t even begin to tally how many endless hours I spent playing characters, creating worlds, reading rulebooks, etc. The above quote really does capture the spirit of it though, the game was fun, for sure, but even more than that it gave you a reason to hang out endless hours (and many sessions lasted until literally the sun came up) with friends, shooting the shit, some times about what was going on in the game, other times about movies, comic books, the future, whatever else. The education that I got from having a collaborative environment really did open up my eyes to the possibilities of what life could be. I discovered that things that I had never considered before, like college, was a real possibility, just through the friends I made playing the game. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for D&D and a desire to have another roll at the table.
