Thursday, April 9, 2009

R.I.P. GM

Dave Arneson passed away this week. His name may be unfamiliar to you but generations of gamers owe many hours of enjoyment to him.

He and Gary Gygax* created Dungeons & Dragons and in their honor I'd like to once and for all expose myself for the geek I truly am.

These are my dice.

Swirly pink, sparkly magenta, iridescent purple, tiny glittery ones that I think would make fabulous earrings, even a spherical die with a weight inside to make it work. I've only ever used a few of them while gaming but have collected the others simply because they're pretty.

That rattle in my handbag? Now you know.

_____________
*Last year, I wrote about Gygax's passing and my fondness for roleplaying games and the guys who let me play with them. I also posted photos of miniatures I painted. My geekery is an unstoppable force and knows no bounds. Beware - it might be contagious. (oh, you should be so lucky.)

23 comments:

Rustmeister said...

I wish I knew what happened to my dice. I had a pretty good collection, myself

Sigboy said...

I second what Rustmeister said.

Where is your D100?

breda said...

sigboy - I totally need one!

Mad Saint Jack said...

Sigboy-

What you're too cool to roll 2xD10???

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Geeks!

alan said...

Yep. Spent many an hour with D&D.

Serr8d said...

I still occasionally role an 'attitude check' (2D6). Frightens my subordinates. )

jimbob86 said...

I recently found some of my dice..... which is truly amazing, considering they've been through 3 intercontinental moves since I played much......

Anonymous said...

D&D. A refuge for the kid with too much imagination for Cody Wyoming. Along with Lord of the Rings and Empire of the East (Fred Saberhagen), they helped make me who I am now. Whatever that is.

Mike

On a Wing and a Whim said...

Hey, I recognize some of those dice - some of the opalescent set are in the glove box, and some of the glittery set are on the dresser, and there's always at least one d10 in my purse, right next to the multitool and the maglite...

RIP Dave & Gary, and thank you for the good times you gave us all, even when our DM's declared "rocks fall, everyone dies!"

Stan said...

As a fellow gamer of mine said "1d4 minutes of silence for our homies who went below -10"

Anonymous said...

all the courners wore off my dice many years ago. the 20 sided is nearly round.

Anonymous said...

"His name may be unfamiliar to you but generations of gamers owe many hours of [unemployment] to him"

Cardboard counter gamers rule, RPGers drool!

Shootin' Buddy

Ken said...

I used to have the three-booklet set (this would have been about 1982), and actually tried to run a game or two. I preferred RuneQuest, though, and I still have my Second Edition rulebook.

I still have a few cardboard-counter wargames too, but I prefer miniatures. I'm painting up some Crimean War plastics (bought dirt cheap at a convention) as fictitious armies for my sons for Christmas.

Joanna said...

Ever see Gygax's cameo on Futurama? "Hi, it's a *rolls dice* pleasure to meet you!"

Anonymous said...

this is from when Gary died.
http://xkcd.com/393/

Thirdpower said...

I still have mine in the same bag I've had them in for the last 20 years.

Warthog said...

I have my whole set at my parent's house. All 2nd Ed.

We should have a blogger D&D party, LOL

Lee said...

At some point I gave up on bags and got a couple of those clear plastic fishing lure holders. I have a problem. I haven't played in years and I still want to buy dice...

Serr8d said...

Lee, I used the Crown Royal bags for dice, back then. Now, they only hold my chess pieces. Now there's a game what never goes out of style~!

Warthog said...

Hey now, I still proudly carry my dice in a crown royal bag. I had to drink that whole damn bottle to get that bag, LOL.

Toastrider said...

Breda, hit any convention where tabletop RPGs have a presence. There's gonna be SOMEONE selling dice jewelry.

I know there was one last year at Dragon*Con. A friend of mine got some very nice earrings there :)

Anonymous said...

These are my favorite sets of dice, available in bone, hematite, or brushed steel, and giant copper or steel d20 as well:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/745a/

And a d20 necklace too!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/jewelry/7ae3/