Geek on the Borderlands

Today, while reading through the first few pages of the old 2nd. edition AD&d “The ruins of Undermountain”, and seeing The Yawning Portal Inn mentioned (the everpresent inn run by a retired high level adventurer that was so prominent in the Forgotten Realms), I came to the realization that we didn´t ask ourselves so many questions about gaming back in the day, and that it was both a good and a bad thing. It was good because it meant that we would simply concentrate on the fun side of things, and less on the metagame. Things were that way just because they were that way, and it wasn´t important if it didn´t make much sense, as long as it was fun.

On the flip side, gaming has evolved much thanks to those very same questions. It is undoubtable that RPG´s have become more playable, streamlined and user-friendly with time (using logarithms for Traveller space combat, anybody?), and that they are better because of that. The only question that remains now is: “are RPG´s more fun thanks to that evolution, or not?”. Given that the simplicity of 1st. ed. D&d is still appealing to many people, and how a greater complexity, rules-wise is not always a good thing, it´s not an easy question to answer, and the most likely way to do so is to say “it depends”.

Ultimately, I think that a game is only as fun as the GM and the players make it to be. No amount of good rules can save a bad group, nor can a bad system throw good players off the right track when it comes to having fun… And that is the beauty of our hobby .

As has been reported around the world and internet, Ernest Gary Gygax died this morning. I found out during class when a class-mate of mine, a non-gamer mind you, told me during a break. She’d read about it on some website. At first I accused her of joking, but it soon became apparent that she wasn’t. It was a kick in my very soul, as if I’d lost a very dear friend suddenly.

I never really knew Gary, not in any sense of the common word. Sure, I gamed with a friend who’d learned to game under him in college, I’d talked to him at a few conventions, but I couldn’t call him a friend or even an acquaintance. Still, the two times I had the pleasure of meeting him he was kind, courteous, interested and attentive. He gave me words of encouragement and a smile with a handshake. It’s not often that you get to meet one of your heroes and he turns out to be a wonderful human being.

Wherever he is (and surely it is some great celestial realm filled with ambrosia and never-ending dice), I hope he’s happy. He helped to create a game that changed my life in dozens of small ways and a few big ones. Without Dungeons & Dragons I’d never have met most of my closest friends. I wouldn’t have the wonderful job I have now, or have my name in the credits of RPGs. I’d probably have gone crazy in high school in my tiny town with nothing better to do. Or even worse, I might have turned to drugs or other delinquent behavior.

The game he helped to pioneer changed my life in such a profound way that I feel like I’ve lost a second father. That’s a hard blow to take, especially early in the morning without enough sleep. My thoughts and condolences go out to his family and friends.

Yet, in some very real sense, he’s not completely gone from the world. His legacy and his game lives on in thousands of homes every week. I myself will be running a game tomorrow. The edition may be different, but I’ll be damned if anyone says it’s not a direct result of his hard work. The world may be darker for his passing, but it’s also brighter than a thousand suns thanks to his work. He has brought joy, laughter, relationships, friendships, and countless other wonderful things to millions of people with nothing more than his wits, a friend, and some pencils. That’s a legacy that will live on for generations to come; a legacy that the greatest of men would be proud to call their own.

End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it; White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Rest in Peace, Gary.

The news even made CNN and BBC. Gary Gygax, father of the roleplaying game, died today.

I dont it can be adequately be explained how much impact D&D and other roleplaying games has had on my life or the person that I am.

There’s only a small list of people I consider heroes in this hobby. Greg Stafford, Steve Perrin, Greg Stolze.. and Gary Gygax.

If we can see the world of our imagination, its because we stood on the shoulder of a giant.

Ernest Gary Gygax passed away today at the age of 69 in his house in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. This is a piece of news that hit me, and many others, like a sledgehammer when we read about it earlier today. Apparently, his health had been failing lately, as his wife reported, and soon we will know more about it.

All in all, this is very sad news for every single gamer, whether they know it or not. Gary, together with Dave Arneson, brought us the first commercial RPG, Dungeons and Dragons. Without what the two of them brought us, videogames, roleplaying, miniature gaming, and many other of our little hobbies would not be the same. We would probably not be enjoying so many fantasy and sci-fi novels as we can enjoy nowadays, we wouldn´t spend countless hours in front of a table, with friends, pizza and mountain dew, slaying dragons and taking their loot just for the sheer fun of using our imagination and enjoying the company and the presence of our friends. Our lives would simply not be the same.

If that was not enough, Gary left behind many great things as a legacy: he took part in creating the wonderful Dungeons and Dragons cartoon series, he was both approachable and friendly whenever the fans interacted with him, and above all, he was The Original Dungeon Master.

Whichever plane you are now in (and I am sure that not even Elysium and Mount Celestia are good enough for you), you have our love, and you live on in your legacy and memory, Gary. May we meet behind the DM´s screen.

Javier.