EVERY JRPG and WRPG owes this man everything.

I didnt see "Became Godfather of the Virgin Elite" in that timeline.

It's just a shame that RPGs have advanced so little in gameplay terms from the humble dice-rolling beginnings. Progress has been SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.

@Rebelphoenix83: Couldn't have said it better myself.

Gygax has helped shaped my imagination, and I will be forever grateful.

Too bad Japan took the RPG concept and bent it over, raped it repeatedly and dropped out stuff like Blue Dragon.

an hero indeed

Nerds owe him all they hold dear.
I don't know how it's possible to pay him back, except to thank him.
Thank you, sir, and may you rest in peace.

WOW..what a legacy-i personally believe in "bow to no man" but /bows before gary gygax

No developments in graphics can ever rival the imagery the imagination can conjure up. I still remember how vivid the scenario that came with Basic D&D box set felt as I read through it.

@Ignatius: yeah, but jrpg's get it right from time to time, man. it just takes about 10 blue dragons to make a chrono trigger is all.

@Ignatius: True but as with everything you've got to go through alot of crap to find some gems.

Honourable mentions go to that old chestnut Eye of the Beholder which has raped me more times and faster than any game probably should, and made me love my +2 Dart, and Planescape Torment possibly the greatest RPG ever. Without these games my life would have been a lot more dull and I have Gygax and co to thank for that; their legacy in videogames casts a long shadow.

Ah, jeez. The internet does a better and better job with each year to make me feel like the only games geek who's never been within 100 metres of any form of D&D. Maybe it just isn't that common in the UK, but I've never encountered anyone over here who does D&D, let alone had the chance to participate myself. Makes me feel like I'm missing out on something.
But anyway. Hail to one of the men that brought interactive storytelling into a system with rules and guidelines, and thus armed us for creating the RPG genre as it is today.

Hail to the god damn KING, BABY!

But yeah, I think it's safe to say that without Gary and DnD, many many RPGs and MMO would be shit or non-existent today.

Awesome Mike unfortunatly theres not enough time to give every detail on exactly what he impacted but it was good.

@Pombar: I almost played it once. Some guys from high school invited me to join in. I was more interested in weed and girls though.

@Pombar: D&D is ok, but very difficult to take seriously when you're sat opposite a guy who insists on being called Nonbar Throb-Blade

@Ignatius: Like this guy said. Its a shame what japan turned the genre into. More of an interactive book than any real substance. And now when people think RPG, they think Japan. And the most important thing to them is the story, instead of the freedom;what an RPG is supposed to be about. making your own role. When one person plays as Cloud. The everyone else plays as Cloud. Same cant be said for WRPG's. Hell, Choose your own Adventure books had more gameplay than JRPG's.

I still play JRPG's, but they dont hold up to real RPG's.

I owe this man a lot. I know that may not have sounded like much, but it really is.

There's a whole other line of descent not being told here, of course, and I can't claim to know it myself, but (thanks to wikipedia!) I know that in 1986, the first Record of Lodoss War replays were published in Japan, those being transcripts of Dungeons & Dragons game sessions run by Ryo Mizuno.

Lodoss went on to spawn its own Japanese tabletop roleplaying game, novels, and multiple anime series. I wouldn't say Japan bent the concept of the RPG over and raped it repeatedly -- they just took it in a different direction. I don't know if they influenced Final Fantasy directly, or if Final Fantasy took its inspiration from sources such as Dungeonstomper, but the first FF game was developed during 1987 and released at the end of that year. The timeline is consistent.

Teachin' Steve Irwin how to play D&D.

"Young Richard Garriott attends a sumer computer camp, where he earns the nickname Lord British" -- When you put it like that you gotta wonder if being called Lord British preceded or followed the royal ass-kicking.

Damn I loved that AD&D game on Intellivision. Dark tunnels that lit up as you moved through them, exposing enemies. The skulls and dragon tracks that littered the labyrinth, and the terrifying sound of the snoring dragon in the darkness ahead.

And, of course, not having to run STRAIGHT at your enemy in order to shoot at him. Good idea!

I guess I should start playing Dungeons but I need FRIENDS.

@NoBullet: True true, but for me, when I hear RPG, I think of dungeon crawling....or Morrowing or Baldur's Gate :P

I owe this man a lot. When I was a kid in the late 70's - early 80's, D&D was a new kind of experience. Playing it with my friends allowed us to puzzle-solve, deduce logically, and think creatively. I mean, you could create your own stories. We branched out to Gamma World, Top Secret, then there were the new games like Ultima and...what was that car one, we friggin' loved that game.

The point I'm trying to make is that D&D opened a creative door that got me and my friends thinking, rather than being mindless hooligans we became thoughtful hooligans. The result has been an explosion of sci-fi/fantasy books, games, and movies. From a more personal perspective it allowed so many of us to think...we always think learning takes place in the classroom, but for many of us learning also took place in small groups, with small statues and dice.

I stopped playing sometime in intermediate school, but I went on to college and law school and became the man I am today. Games like D&D encouraged creativity and critical thinking, and I personally believe that the experience of putting my brain to use helped me get to where I am today. And it's funny, even twenty years later I can still recall some of those missions I played with my friends. They were good times, and I thank Mr. Gygax for inviting us all to play.

Goodnight my prince.

Me and my friends play what only can be described as very VERY recreational D&D. We mostly just try to write and play some of the craziest-assed campaigns we could possibly come up with.One of our most memorable ones involved burning down and orphanage, kidnapping baby unicorns, and ultimately a giant battle against Chuck Norris.

I guess this is a round about way of saying, Thanks Gary. :D

@Erwin:

Oh I think I've paid him back in full, since I've purchased almost every damn AD&D 2nd Edition Book when I was a wee lad.

@Fyren:

.... ok =)

I am a Fan of his

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@Islandkiwi: i think that was a steve jackson game called car wars. big fun. i am stilled amazed when i think of all the things i learned not directly from table top rpgs but from getting together with a bunch of friends to play table top rpgs. from religion, politics, music, alcohol, women, weed, you name it- good times indeed.

so i was waxing pastorally about mr gygax and your post reminded me of all the games i used to play back then. i went up to my rental storage place and with a little rummaging around found a treasure trove of late 70's role play gaming goodness including rule books for top secret, gamma world, metamorphosis alpha, boot hill, some steve jackson mini games (no car wars unfortunately) and my original ad&d rule books and dungeon modules. i can't believe they haven't been lost in all these years but i know what i'll be doing this weekend.

Mr. Gygax once again please allow me to salute you.

you forgot D&D's influence on the early idSoftware team and ... Daikatana. sorry but true.

Ah, this brings back fond memories of the delightfully awkward and fucked-up double life I led in high school.

Let's all head to the local inn and drink 1d4 ales in his honor. Whoever fails their constitution check isn't allowed to drive back home.

Sigh.

This man is one of the most influential faces in gaming history. The fact that this man was from Wisconsin makes me proud to live here. Unfortunately, all the fucking Wisconsin news can talk about is Brett Favre's retirement.

I can't think about this without almost crying. I was exposed to D&D through my father around age 6, and I simply couldn't imagine whom I would be without Mr. Gygax's game. It's more than just video games . . . Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman teamed up to write some fantastic novels thanks to the experimental design team at TSR. All walks of non-sports games were championed by TSR when it took on religious zealots in the 80s, who tried to tell us that our imaginations were evil. Aside from the games themselves, D&D has gained me friends I will never forget, because its creators knew that the most important thing was getting everyone together in the same place and enjoying each others' company.

As others have said, the breadth is greater. I'll add to it: Shining in the Darkness was a close mirror of the Gold Box crawlers (especially the utterly fantastic Dragonlance series. I have an Apple ][ sitting around just for CK, DKK and DQK), which was adapted into Shining Force and eventually a huge influence on the strategy RPG genre (disregarding Chainmail's influence on small-scale fantasy wargames).

I'm not sure what else can be said. I play Chrono Trigger, I see his influence. I play world of warcraft, I see his influence. I play MTG, there it is. All that L5R that got me through law school, his hand is even more clear. My world is a cocoon filled with the progeny of Mr. Gygax's genius, so it would not be unfair to say that I owe him nearly everything.

Thank you, Gary.

I would reiterate that the first rules system for The Elder Scrolls series was based on D&D. I'm sure the younger kids here may not have played BG or Planescape, but they have played or heard of Oblivion. Even Anderson Cooper played D&D... so that's just more proof of the lives touched by the game. ;)

Without this man's great contribution and influence I would not be a game dev today.

Gygax -> Gariott (Ultima) -> Why I'm here

My first introduction to D&D was in the 4th grade (1986). My "homeroom" class had amongst the piles of standard board games, the D&D basic rules box game (red box). From there, I was hooked. Just so happened that my best friend's older brother had all the AD&D books. Hell - I didn't even need to play the game - just reading the Monster Manual and Fiend Portfolio could entertain me for hours. I used to "roll" characters just for fun.

Some of my friends (in their early 30s) still play to this day. Dungeons and Dragons shaped my imagination and was the catalyst behind all the "nerdy" stuff I never could outgrow (RPGS, videogames, metal music, comicbooks).

Thank you Gary, for enriching the lives of millions, myself included.

Happy Trails, Gary.

I never played D&D.

I never rolled a 20 sided die.

I never pretended to explore a dungeon while wearing a costume.

I never knew this man's name until he was gone.

But what this man did for gaming in general, he should be remembered forever. Without the basic rules he laid down, we'd never have the RPG as we know it today. Diablo, Elder Scrolls, Neverwinter Nights, and even other person-to-person RPG's like the Vampire: Masquerade would not exist today if not for his original influence.

He made the western RPG, both in real time and in video games.

Good job, Man. Not many people can boast that they created an entire culture.

1988 - SSI releases Pool of Radiance, the first in the Gold Box series of D&D games, which allowed you to import your characters into subsequent games to continue your adventure.

This was my fathers, my brothers, and one of my favorite games growing up. It honestly spoiled me for RPG's, as I never got the same enjoyment out of them as I got from playing Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, and Pool of Darkness. Creating your own characters, transferring them between games, awesome weapons and spells, and continued leveling all made this series of games so imaginative and fantastic. Thank you for these games, and may you rest in peace, Mr. Gygax.

I loved Adventure - used to play it in middle school.
And I *loved* Pool of Radiance - still the best D&D computer game IMO.

RIP Gygax, RIP. He's more then likely hosting a game with a level 9 Messiah somewhere.

Two changes I'd make to that list are that firstly, Chainmail had no fantasy elements in its first incarnation. It was strictly medieval warfare at first, but the player group got bored with it and Gygax shoehorned fantasy elements in by making them mimic existing devices. Secondly, the man got to voice himself for one episode of Futurama (Anthology of Interest I), and you didn't even mention it. It's not his only IMDB credit, but it's certainly the one with the biggest name recognition (I watched that ep before going to work, after finding out that he'd died).

@Pombar:
Well, if it makes you feel any better, the last time I played, I was playtesting the alpha and beta rules for AD&D 3rd Edition (got my name in the book, but never once played with the published ruleset).

@Master Saji:
I think of wierd stuff, like playing Toon, Macho Women With Guns, a session of GURPS when I effectively shut down a battle sequence by turning the opposing leader into a giant chicken (it's amazing how demoralizing that is for an enemy squadron...), getting a $3 billion Nuyen payoff in Shadowrun because we were clever enough to rig a special camera that would record the final Harlequinn battle sequence (complete with all the magic stuff that was going on at the time), and once doing a single-session two-man run that effectively cleared out what was intended to be an entire summer of gaming for a six-person crew. You just can't get away with that sort of stuff in a computer game...

RIP Gary, thanks for everything \m/ >.< \m/

Thank you Gary Gygax. Your effect on gaming and the world in general probally cannot be measured. Let all the D&D players of the world roll a d20 save in your honor. *Rolls dice*

The Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series are the only real RPG's I've ever cared to play. Yeah, I get bored easily, but these games rocked!

I still own the books "choose your own adventure" and "Advanced D&D" were you would choose and roll a dice while reading.

All these and many more games fill many of my most precious memories (painting miniatures and reading tons of TSR books as Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, The Anubis Murders and the Samarkand Solution among others).

The more I read your posts the more I feel you are indeed my long lost bother, Mike.

The other post were you announced us Gygax demise brought a tear to my eye.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane and thanks for the joy your brought to my life Dungeon Master, Godspeed.