The gaming industry has lost a pioneer, a visionary, a creative soul, and I have lost a good friend.  E. Gary Gygax was 69 years young when he departed this earth on Tuesday, March 4, 2008.

I still remember some of my early conversations with Gary back in early 1974.  At this time I was a freelance review writer for various trade/industry magazines, and he had this small game company in Lake Geneva WI known as Tactical Studies Rules.  I used to call Gary in the early evening and he would be sitting at his kitchen table working. We would talk on the phone for hours about games, miniatures, about the industry and about the things that he was working on.  We talked about Tolkein and the world he created in his books. We talked about the game Chainmail whose subject matter is medieval warfare and about the boardgame (wargame) industry in general.  We would often spend a few hours a month chatting about the new games and rules that his small company and other companies like his were publishing.

I remember sometime in late 1974 he started telling me about this new idea that him and Dave Arneson were developing.  This was going to be a Paper and Pencil game that was unlike anything ever designed.  Every time we spoke about it he would get excited and we would kick around some of the details.  We spoke about this new product, as well as other items that he had in the pipe to be released in the coming months.  All these discussions he trusted me not to publish, as they were personal conversations between Gary and me, and I never broke that trust.

Towards the end of 1974 I received a new package from Tactical Studies Rules.  In this package was a boxed game with three booklets, a crayon and a strange dice.  The name on the box was “Dungeons and Dragons”.  I eagerly opened the rules and read the three books cover to cover and knew right from the start that this would be a tremendous success.  I don’t think that 24 hours went by before I called Gary and told him that he had a winner on his hands.

I wrote a review for “Dungeons and Dragons” as being a new way to play a game using paper, pencil and ones vivid imagination.  This game made the impossible possible.  While I knew the game would be a success, even I couldn’t foresee the far reaching success that D&D would have through the decades.  However, I do remember telling Gary that he had a winner on his hands and wished him the luck he deserved.
As we all know, this was the beginning of the Dungeons and Dragons franchise.  As far as I know, it all started at a kitchen table in Lake Geneva, WI.

From 1974 through 1985, I was one of the first people who received his new products for review whenever they were released.  Many of these games and/or rules I reviewed for the different magazines I wrote for and my only promise to Gary was that it would be an honest and unbiased review.  The years following the early years were both kind and hard on Gary.  He and Tactical Studies Rules also known as TSR, saw some very good times, and then some bad times.  Through it all, there was D&D as the staple product to support the company. 

Today, D&D is part of Wizards of the Coast and they are getting ready to release their 4th Edition of the rules.  There have been hundreds, if not thousands of books, maps, spin offs, etc. from the simple idea of a fun pencil and paper game where a gamer would use their most powerful weapon, which was their mind.

Last summer, I had the tremendous pleasure to spend quite a bit of time with my friend at GenCon 2007.  We spoke about the old days; we spoke about the good times, and touched on the bad times.  Gary’s health had deteriorated during the last few years.  He told me that he wasn’t even sure he would make it to Indianapolis for GenCon.  In fact, Gary told me how he had to promise his wife, Gayle, that if he went he would have to use a scooter to get around in the convention center.  Gary told me that he was having a great time meeting his fans, shaking hands, talking to all, and signing autographs.  He made himself available for anyone who wanted to talk with him without hurry them away.  As tired as he was, he acted the role of GenCon’s Honored Guest with enthusiastic energy.

Gary truly loved to talk to his fans and spend time talking about games or about how his passion for D&D changed the lives of others for the better.  In our last conversation, he was still telling me about how much he enjoyed GenCon 2007.  Gary was a visionary, an author, a game designer, a diplomat for the fantasy game industry, a husband, a father and my close friend.  An industry will miss a creator, but even more I will miss my friend’s emails and phone calls.

E. Gary Gygax, Rest in Peace My Dear Friend.