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Out of Saving Throws
Posted by tgirsch

I’m slow to blog this, as I’ve been very busy with work, but it’s worth mentioning. On Tuesday, Gary Gygax, co-creator of the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game, died at 69.

For my part, I was a D&D geek from about the age of 11 to the age of 14 or 15, and my love affair with computer role playing games started there and continued into my twenties. One of my best friends to this day was a kid I met playing D&D on the playground at elementary school. I hadn’t really thought about it all that much until I read about his death on Tuesday.

Gygax’s impact on popular culture is difficult to overstate. Even if you’ve never played D&D, you’ve certainly heard of it, and there’s a good chance that at some point in your life, you’ve played a game that borrowed heavily from it. Computer games in particular have borrowed and continue to borrow from D&D with impunity. Whether it’s the old Ultima series on Apple II computers, or more modern variants like World of Warcraft and EverQuest, modern role-playing gaming owes a great deal to Gygax’s contributions.

Sympathies to Gygax’s family and friends. He will be missed.

March 6th, 2008 Culture | 2 comments

2 Comments »

  1. digglahhh writes:

    Ever seen “Wet Hot American Summer?” Hilarious movie.

    Here are a couple exchanges from that movie:

    Caped Boy: Excuse me, ladies. You may remember me as the guy who came to dinner a few weeks ago with underwear on my head. My name is Keith Stat from Millburn, New Jersey. State bird, the mosquito. And as you may have heard I am recently a crowned class B dungeon-master. So if any of you would like to play D&D today, please speak now or forever hold your peace.
    [He chuckles, and there is an awkward silence at the table]

    Caped Boy: Anyone? Alexa!

    [Alexa gives him a withering glare]

    Caped Boy: Maybe you would like to join in? We do need a druid, and you have definitely cast a level 5 charm spell on me.

    Alexa: In your dreams, douche-bag!

    Caped Boy: Douche-bags are hygienic products, I take that as a compliment. Thank you.
    [Keith walks off]
    Alexa: Ewww!

    There’s another scene at the climax of the movie where in order to stop some sort of cataclysmic event from happening, they need generate random numbers between 1 - 20.

    “A true dungeon master never goes anywhere without his twenty-side die.”

    Comment 3/6/2008

  2. tgirsch writes:

    You can also buy some of these for your car.

    Comment 3/6/2008

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