Gary: I heard.

Gary: I sense the theme of your next Close to the Edit.

winn2r: You could be right

Gary: It will touch everyone. There are a number of folks who will not really care, but for the most part the guy was either respected or loved.

winn2r: …or both, yes.

winn2r: We all have our faults.

Gary: I had some correspondence with him a couple months ago. He seemed like a nice fellow.

winn2r: I have spoken to him a few dozen times, and yes, he did.

Gary: Just goes to show you, you never know when your number is up.

winn2r: True.

I received the news this morning that Gary Gygax had passed away, and I had to junk my column and write a new one. I am sure there will be hundreds of other remembrances posted in the next few days. As was said by some playwrite, “…there are many others like it but this one is mine…” As I write this, literally minutes later, my inbox is being pounded with messages from around the world.

I first became aware of Mr. Gygax in 1976. I was opening my birthday present and reading the D&D rules. This person was obviously a genius. He must live in a huge mansion with servants and be mobbed by fans everywhere he went. So I thought at ten. I was wrong.

Though the details of the story do differ, there are some common threads in the mix. He founded the IFW with Don Kaye the year this columnist was born. He wrote Chainmail with Jeff Perren in 1970 and 1971. He and Mr. Kaye founded TSR and published D&D in 1974. D&D, along with TSR had a difficult birth and a difficult childhood. Mr. Gygax left TSR altogether in about 1985. He had come back in different capacities.

Why do I not call him Gary, as so many other people do? It just does not feel right to me. Whenever I have spoken to him in person, I have always called him Mr. Gygax, or Sir. I just do not know him well enough to call him anything else.

His arguments with the esteemed Mr. Arneson over the specifics of who created D&D are legendary and generally irrelevant to this column. They both did, and in my mind they both should have been recognized as co-creators. That did not happen, and that is too bad.

While Mr. Gygax was responsible for some awesome games, he was also responsible for at least one of the five worst RPGs of all time, Cyborg Commando. I can find not a single redeeming feature to that game, and I do not think anyone else did either. So my point bringing this up is that we all make mistakes. Gary Gygax was not a perfect man, a perfect writer, or a perfect game designer. He was a man whose family meant a great deal to him. He was a seeker, and a keen wit. He was a challenging developer who could ask tough questions.

GenCon Zero was, by the way, held in his basement.

He wrote many things. He did so well and generally well received. His greatest passion was for games and he wrote everything from Chess variants to roleplaying games. I just noticed that the AP story does list both Gygax and Arneson as co-creators of D&D, so that is cool.

Castle Greyhawk was wrapped up in TSR, so when it was republished as Castle Zygag by Troll Lord Games there was great rejoicing. There are seven books in the original plan. I hope more of them see print. To date three are available. Lejendary Adventures was never my cup of tea, but it still has a core of rabid fans. I did like Mythus, because it was doing some things that D&D was not doing at the time.

I have no idea how many languages D&D saw publication in, but it was many. I have seen five or six with my own eyes if memory serves.

Some of the comments I see most commonly are his good nature and that he was a gracious guy to legions of fans who came to meet him at GenCon and elsewhere. When I met him I was completely unprepared. Talking with some friends when one of them said, “there’s Gary… Hey Gary, how are you…” What followed was a ten minutes conversation where I stood in stunned silence while they reminisced. He asked what my name was and I could not answer. One of my friends stepped in and helped. I just shook his hand. I am sure this was not the first or the last time that had happened to him. I was somewhat taken a back a year later when he remembered my name. He was always a great guy when we spoke in person, or by email.

His wife and six children survive Mr. Gygax. A family is the greatest testament any man can receive. I am sure they are all distraught by his passing, and I offer them my condolences. I hope there is a huge to-do about this at GenCon this year. After all, without him, where would we all be?

Farewell Seeker. You will be missed.