In Memoriam
Friday, March 7th, 2008Wrote this the other day, and wanted to repost to further share.
So people are posting moving eulogies to Gary Gygax, and I can’t match them and their eloquence. I can say only this:
When I was maybe 8 years old, I ran across my older brother and a few of his friends playing a module called Storm Giant’s Keep (I think). I was so fascinated that I begged to be allowed to listen. I was, with the caveat that I be entirely silent the whole time - a feat nearly impossible for me at that age. Somehow I managed, and listened, rapt - thinking as well “If I were playing, I could do this better than them.”
I loved it so much I pleaded to be allowed to play, and had my brother point to the “Ages 10 and Up” on the box and say I couldn’t until I turned 10. Immediately on my 10th birthday, I asked to roll up a character.
I played D&D in 5th grade with a friend in the playground on Wednesdays. I even did the Weis/Hickmanian thing and started writing a novel about the adventures I had with my character. [NOTE: it was terrible, and entirely lost now. Just letting you all know.]
Without Gary Gygax, not only would I not have my job, I might have even been… kinda normal.
Thank you, Gary, for saving me from such a fate, and giving me something I love so dearly. For all the jokes about you having failed your Fort save, I just think you were taken away too early - but it’s always hard when an icon dies, and you were an icon to me. And now I’ll never be able to mock the early “head of one thing on the ass of another” creatures that were such a big part of the first edition D&D Monster Manual without feeling a little sad.
Enjoy your new journey across the planes, yo.