Farewell Gary

Today is indeed a sad day for I learned that Gary Gygax, inventor of the role playing game "Dungeons and Dragons" has failed his saving throw against death and has reached zero hit points. He is hereby awarded posthumously the status of Honorary Dragon.

I would not be the dragon I am today without Gary, in fact I probably wouldn't be a dragon at all. I got into AD&D at university, went along to my first game after joining the society during fresher's week and absolutely loved it. A year later I was society president.

D&D taught me narrative, plot, character development and a host of other skills as I ended up writing almost all my games after a few weeks and I can say that I was a fucking good DM; I never had a shortage of players and the games went on long into the night. I made some great friends through the game and had some truly excellent times thanks to it. Contrary to its geeky image it even helped me get laid on more than one occasion. It also got me up close and personal with religious types who were none too happy with this "satanic" game and whereas I was indifferent to the religious until them it served to harden my atheism and taught me that anyone who follows any religion is, when all is said and done, a fool at best and an evil twat at worst.

Later on after leaving uni I fell in with a couple of players and we started a fanzine called "The Immoral Minority" so I even ended up learning to draw properly (well someone had to do the artwork) and how to steal time at the company photocopier without anyone noticing.

And although I played other RPGs, particularly Warhammer later on in my "London Period", AD&D still remained a firm favourite. I still have the books and my dice upstairs in the loft although it's probably fifteen years since I rolled a d20 in anger.

Gary, you were an inspiration to a generation, your invention gave me some of the happiest memories of my life and your legacy will live on*. Today there is no-one sat behind the DM's screen, a can of coke will go undrunk, a bag of crisps unmunched and a d4 will roll no more.

Rest easy Dungeon Master, may Bahamut fly you home.





* (And future generations will forget the fucking awful cartoon series and that turkey of a movie with Jeremy Irons in it)