Roll to save against stunning blow.
There was a lot of loss yesterday, some more personal than the other. I cannot speak to the personal loss, except to say that my sympathy is with those of you mourning. As for the death of Gary Gygax...
I considered not posting this at all. I never met the man, and never even played the original Dungeons and Dragons. His death isn't news to most of you, and my experience is not unique. I am not the first to make such a post, and I doubt that I will be the last.
Still. This man co-created a game that shaped an entire generation of geeks, and I feel the need to mark his passing.
I remember sitting in the family room as a kid, watching my mom, my sisters and some of their friends spread out on the floor. Cliff behind the Dungeon Master's screen, all of them adventuring through this world that they were creating with naught but the help of a few books, some strangely shaped dice, and their own imaginations. I wanted very much to play, but Mom wouldn't let me because it would have kept me up past my bedtime.
I remember working up the courage to talk to two boys my freshman year of high school and who were sitting nearby and who were oblivious to the lesson, and were feverishly going through a stack of Magic: The Gathering cards. That same afternoon I hung out with them and their friends, and rolled up my very first AD&D character. Those four guys were some of my closest friends throughout high school, and without D&D and Magic, we would have been the Breakfast Club, without Saturday detention.
I remember watching a mentally scarring video at RUPSA one week about pagan festivals (and, apparently, how only the people you least want to see naked are the ones who feel compelled to go skyclad). Gaming in college was sporadic at best, but even so... promethius and I slipped out somewhere in the middle of the video to, as he put it, "complete a side quest to regain sanity points," before returning to the meeting. This is the language we speak.
I remember flouncing around Marlboro campus, playing a princess in a LARP, and impressing a theater major there when I cried over my fictitious brother's death. I realized two things that day. I could act, and I was developing rather a large crush on said theater major--a woman.
I remember looking forward to Mondays during the last, frustrating months of my relationship with Dennis. On a weekly basis I played Call of Cthulhu with four of my best friends, and it took me out and away from my failing relationship better than anything else could.
I remember listening to the Dead Alewife's Satan's Game and thinking "Yes, this is exactly what D&D was like in high school!" Years later I would come across baronmind's blog, as the only other person in all of Livejournal-dom that listed "Satan's Game" as an interest. Some years after that, I fell head over heals for him, and have stayed that way ever since.
To this day it is theater and my weekly Krayzen game that keep me from turning into a complete recluse.
I never met Gary Gygax, but the game he co-created has had a far-reaching impact on my life. And he will be mourned.
I considered not posting this at all. I never met the man, and never even played the original Dungeons and Dragons. His death isn't news to most of you, and my experience is not unique. I am not the first to make such a post, and I doubt that I will be the last.
Still. This man co-created a game that shaped an entire generation of geeks, and I feel the need to mark his passing.
I remember sitting in the family room as a kid, watching my mom, my sisters and some of their friends spread out on the floor. Cliff behind the Dungeon Master's screen, all of them adventuring through this world that they were creating with naught but the help of a few books, some strangely shaped dice, and their own imaginations. I wanted very much to play, but Mom wouldn't let me because it would have kept me up past my bedtime.
I remember working up the courage to talk to two boys my freshman year of high school and who were sitting nearby and who were oblivious to the lesson, and were feverishly going through a stack of Magic: The Gathering cards. That same afternoon I hung out with them and their friends, and rolled up my very first AD&D character. Those four guys were some of my closest friends throughout high school, and without D&D and Magic, we would have been the Breakfast Club, without Saturday detention.
I remember watching a mentally scarring video at RUPSA one week about pagan festivals (and, apparently, how only the people you least want to see naked are the ones who feel compelled to go skyclad). Gaming in college was sporadic at best, but even so... promethius and I slipped out somewhere in the middle of the video to, as he put it, "complete a side quest to regain sanity points," before returning to the meeting. This is the language we speak.
I remember flouncing around Marlboro campus, playing a princess in a LARP, and impressing a theater major there when I cried over my fictitious brother's death. I realized two things that day. I could act, and I was developing rather a large crush on said theater major--a woman.
I remember looking forward to Mondays during the last, frustrating months of my relationship with Dennis. On a weekly basis I played Call of Cthulhu with four of my best friends, and it took me out and away from my failing relationship better than anything else could.
I remember listening to the Dead Alewife's Satan's Game and thinking "Yes, this is exactly what D&D was like in high school!" Years later I would come across baronmind's blog, as the only other person in all of Livejournal-dom that listed "Satan's Game" as an interest. Some years after that, I fell head over heals for him, and have stayed that way ever since.
To this day it is theater and my weekly Krayzen game that keep me from turning into a complete recluse.
I never met Gary Gygax, but the game he co-created has had a far-reaching impact on my life. And he will be mourned.