Dungeons and Dragons
I've heard of Black Monday and Black Friday, but I guess I get to add a new one. Black Tuesday.
Yeah, I know, a lot of you are going to think I'm silly for this, but cope. I am a geek and a nerd, and I loved Dungeons and Dragons (well, I did say loved...4th edition looks to be ... I won't say it, but needless to say I won't be buying it).
E. Gary Gygax died. The father of roleplaying games. Damn. I had gotten to see him at a couple of Cons, but never really met him. He seemed like a nice guy (hey, he helped create the staple of the gaming industry).
I still remember finding the basic boxed set (mud dice included) in a plastic bag of my brothers belongings (he had gone into the army at the time). I was in 4th grade. It just looked so cool. I read the whole thing (not unusal, since at that time, I was reading Edgar Allen Poe, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells...my teachers were freaking out) and fell in love with it. I saved all my allowance and used it to buy more books. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons books. My parents hated them (they saw the stupid 60 Minutes article and made me watch it...where it tried to link DnD to Satanism and teen suicide). I had to sneak the books and my Dragon Magazines into the house.
I even used to pain the old Ral Partha miniatures (at the time I was using Testor enamel paints, wow they were horrible jobs).
My friends and I would play solo games, or rarely if we could all get our parents to agree to a large sleep over, a group game of DnD. I remember memorizing the first 2 monster manuels and the fiend folio...and we used to quiz each other at lunch for fun with Guess the Monster.
It was the game I cut my teeth on. I howled at the comic illustrations in the Dungeon Masters Guide. I used the list at the back of the DMG as a great suggested reading list (thank you! I doubt I would have ever read Elric of Melibone, but I did and its one of my favorite series!).
I fell in love with roleplaying. It was a place where I could be anything I dreamed. It is responsible for my dreams of being an author, of a game designer, of so very much of my life.
And one of the ones responsible for it has passed on.
Thank you Mr. Gygax. I never got to tell you that in real life, but you changed my life. Thank you.
Yeah, I know, a lot of you are going to think I'm silly for this, but cope. I am a geek and a nerd, and I loved Dungeons and Dragons (well, I did say loved...4th edition looks to be ... I won't say it, but needless to say I won't be buying it).
E. Gary Gygax died. The father of roleplaying games. Damn. I had gotten to see him at a couple of Cons, but never really met him. He seemed like a nice guy (hey, he helped create the staple of the gaming industry).
I still remember finding the basic boxed set (mud dice included) in a plastic bag of my brothers belongings (he had gone into the army at the time). I was in 4th grade. It just looked so cool. I read the whole thing (not unusal, since at that time, I was reading Edgar Allen Poe, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells...my teachers were freaking out) and fell in love with it. I saved all my allowance and used it to buy more books. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons books. My parents hated them (they saw the stupid 60 Minutes article and made me watch it...where it tried to link DnD to Satanism and teen suicide). I had to sneak the books and my Dragon Magazines into the house.
I even used to pain the old Ral Partha miniatures (at the time I was using Testor enamel paints, wow they were horrible jobs).
My friends and I would play solo games, or rarely if we could all get our parents to agree to a large sleep over, a group game of DnD. I remember memorizing the first 2 monster manuels and the fiend folio...and we used to quiz each other at lunch for fun with Guess the Monster.
It was the game I cut my teeth on. I howled at the comic illustrations in the Dungeon Masters Guide. I used the list at the back of the DMG as a great suggested reading list (thank you! I doubt I would have ever read Elric of Melibone, but I did and its one of my favorite series!).
I fell in love with roleplaying. It was a place where I could be anything I dreamed. It is responsible for my dreams of being an author, of a game designer, of so very much of my life.
And one of the ones responsible for it has passed on.
Thank you Mr. Gygax. I never got to tell you that in real life, but you changed my life. Thank you.