Gary Gygax 1938-2008 RIP

Well I'm sure those of you connected in any way to the internet have heard of the death of E. Gary Gygax co-designer of Dungeons and Dragons, the first and arguably most popular Fantasy Roleplaying Game.

It's been nearly 20 years now since I first discovered roleplaying games by accident when i picked up a Fighting Fantasy book in an airport bookstore, mistaking it for a novel. From there it was a slipperly slope that led me inexorably to the work of Gygax and the red-boxed Dungeons and Dragons "Basic Set".

I don't think it's an exaggeration that I wouldn't have been playing WoW had I not discovered at an impressionable age the fun of getting together with friends to beat up monsters and steal their stuff.

D&D is about to enter it's fourth edition, and whilst GG has had no real creative input to this, or the prior two editions, it's still sad to think he won't be around to see it.