Wednesday, March 5, 2008

R.I.P. Gary Gygax

The co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons passed away this week, at the age of 69. He shall be fondly remembered by generations of geeks everywhere.

The group of men Mike games with every other week kindly welcomed me into their secret society of microbrew tastings, hot wings and polyhedrals. We ventured into unexplored terrain, we cast spells, we battled monsters together against incredible odds! Puns were thrown across the table as easily as dice and rules were argued like philosophy. It's always satisfying to slay a foe with one sweep of your magic sword, but the most enjoyable part of our evenings together was always the sense of camaraderie I took home with me. A bunch of creative intelligent guys, hanging out, laughing, fully at ease - it was such a pleasure to be included.

(and yes, I even painted my own minis...)


11 comments:

Christina RN LMT said...

Nice minis! I never used them, but I still have my dice...or rather, my DAUGHTER has my dice.
AD&D, played many, many hours. Followed by Gamma World, followed by some kick-ass game whose name I've forgotten, except it involved superhero characters, and mine was "Hell's Angel", complete with halo AND pitchfork.
Good times.

Earl said...

Well, you aren't the dragon nor the multi armed charmer, must identify with the sword slinger with the staff of mighty magic.. and pointed ears? What I always loved is the Dungeon Master with imagination and cool ways for my characters to die in my foolish heroics... or was that a dream?

breda said...

Good times, indeed, Christina. And Earl? I posted the photo of the dragon with you in mind. =)

Anonymous said...

The only reason I've never played DnD is that I've never had anybody- save Stingray- to play WITH, and it's not really a two-man game.

In short, I am so jealous of you right now.

Anonymous said...

Christina,
Likely Champions, I mean not that I ever played those games...

No, don't look in that box, no it's not full of AD&D books...

;-)

phlegmfatale said...

like labrat, I'm kinda having D&D envy right now.

Christina RN LMT said...

Gregg, don't worry, I won't peek in your box!
Thanks, though, must google "Champions" now!

Anonymous said...

Seriously, as much as I enjoyed D&D, my favorite was Traveller, which was a sci-fi RPG created by physicists. Yes,I have no doubt that Gygax influenced them.

OTOH, I GMed one and ONLY one space battle. This was back in the days of computers with dual floppys so I did all of the calculations and visualisations in my head. Ever try to keep 3 planets, their satellites, 6 ships, their missiles and debris + various assorted space junk straight in your head? Add to that the gravitational effects of all of the above along with ballistic trajectories etc...

Yeah, my head hurt for a couple of days. Other than that I loved the game. It would be really cool with the space combat computerized with modern tech.

Anonymous said...

Hey! I painted my own minis, too!

Must photograph for you sometime. Maybe this summer.

Anonymous said...

If I played, I'd use my charisma points to seduce that snake woman.

It'd be tough love, but I'd do it to help the party.

Anonymous said...

Excellent paint job.

We're still playing D&D semi-regularly and just started up a new Shadowrun game. It gets harder once folks start having kids and all, but the food & drinks get better. :)