Comments on: Remembering Gary Gygax

By: Tal - Jerusalem

Tal - Jerusalem — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:09:47 +0000

Gary,
you make me cry because you went from us.
Our wizard of fantasies.

Goodbye.

By: Rachel Summers

Rachel Summers — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:00:52 +0000

Thanks so much for this. I’d be very interested in hearing the tapes; please do let me know if/when you upload them. I’ll also try to remember to check back here periodically.

By: Joseph Walters

Joseph Walters — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:48:16 +0000

This was an amazing article and an honorable tribute to a great man. I wish I had been given the opportunity to meet him, even for just 16 hours.

I grew up playing right around the same time as you were mentioning. It shaped the remainder of my life. Junior high, high school, college and beyond. Now, I am teaching my 10 year old son how to play.

I run my own game company now and I owe it all to the marathon gaming sessions that we used to go through. My favorite story is how a few days before New Years eve of this year two of my staff members requested New Years day off because they were planning a three day D&D gaming session. I knew I had hired the perfect group of gamers.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:39:35 +0000

Jerem – Ah, Dragonlance… On that first trip to Lake Geneva, we also took Margaret Weiss, co-author of the Dragonlance series (and publisher of the Serenity RPG), out for sushi at a rural strip mall. Afterward, we drove back to her place for coffee. She lives in a huge, custom log cabin filled with dragon (and Dragonlance) iconography–statuary, jewelry, framed drawings & paintings, the works–and more dogs than one can easily count. She is a very bright, competant woman. And very polite. In my opinion, however, she’s also a bit tightly wound. To be fair, we may have caught her at a difficult time. I believe she was finalizing a divorce.

After the trip, I re-read one of the Dragonlance books and found it hard to finish. That said, I tried to read one of Gary Gygax’s own fantasy novels during the trip and couldn’t make it through the third chapter. These experiences probably have less to say about them as writers than about me as a reader. After all, who am I to argue with such sales figures?

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 02:37:02 +0000

Wayne – your column made me smile from the very middle of myself, so thank you. :)

By: Voice of Free Planet X, Episode 80: Faster Feedback! Kill! Kill! Kill! | Jared Axelrod

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:42:36 +0000

[...] Legacy series My Monarch’s Henchman costume from the Venture Brothers. Second Shift podcast Remebering Gary Gygax by Wayne Chamblis, from coilhouse.net Giant Squid Audio [...]

By: Wayne

Wayne — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:22:53 +0000

Thanks, Mark. That xkcd panel made me laugh.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:16:34 +0000

Nadya – snap, totally (see above!). The far-too-aged-for-this-nonsense OAP D&D Society starts here! ;)

By: Jerem Morrow

Jerem Morrow — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 06:38:54 +0000

Fantastically magical hours upon hours spent both DMing und playing. Pouring over DragonLance books. Copying drawings from monster manuals. A boyhood full to ze brim with quests und adventures. Danke Gary. Und danke Wayne, for this view of ze man, to further ze breadth of ze pure wonder his work has brought me.

By: Conan the Librarian

Conan the Librarian — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 05:40:23 +0000

D&D was such a part of the first 22 or so years of my existence, I really can’t imagine how things would have been without it. It carried me through a turbulent early family life and when I was overseas with the Marines–this was during the mid 1990’s–there were dudes, big tough macho dudes, real Jarheads, who were totally into it. There was such a geek stigma attached to the game, which was really undeserved–there are a lot of people who have played it, loved it, and now in their ’30’s and ’40s will never admit having played and loved it. D&D is a definite Gen X phenomenon, along with Pac Man, GI Joe, and Grunge. Mr. Gygax will always be considered one of our greatest cultural mentors, along with Richard Scarry. Thanks, Gary.