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[cactuswatcher]

One of the true gods of geekdom, Gary Gygax, died yesterday. His name will forever be associated in the minds of geeks with the creation of Dungeons & Dragons. The social acceptability of being a geek changed directly because of what Gygax and his co-author invented. I was a little too old to be involved with face-to-face D&D heavily. I never played D&D except on the computer. But suddenly there were groups of younger guys and girls getting together regularly, proudly thumbing their noses at the 'cool kids' who didn't get it. It would take another 5 or 10 years for the computer revolution to set in before geeks got a lot of good publicity in the media. But it was D&D that destroyed the stupid idea that geeks were necessarily kids with no friends.

I had always thought that Gygax was my age or a little younger. Turns out he was significantly older.

Frankly I think D&D only worked because the kids who played it were smart enough to make it work. The original game from which D&D sprang, Chain Mail, and the early versions of D&D itself are clumsy and cumbersome. It took intelligence, patience, cooperation and imagination to keep a game going for weeks on end. The cool kids never had the patience for that kind of thing. What was the appeal? I think it was the innovation in D&D that you could improve and make something greater of your character by playing the game and playing it well.

Comments

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

What a lovely tribute, CW :) I never played D&D and I don't play video games of any kind, but I can certainly appreciate that D&D helped pave the way for geeks in general.

[bhadrasvapna.livejournal.com]

A-D&D and the various RPGs that followed are the ultimate fanfic for people who were not usually writers. The best DMs/GMs I had were excellent writers and came up with their own modules. When we gathered, it was like writing a collective story. Every week, I looked forward to seeing what the DM/GM would come up with and how I would foil his attempt to kill me.

[anomster.livejournal.com]

I was already involved in science fiction fandom when D&D came along & 1st heard about it in that context. I remember learning to play it at science fiction conventions (& speculating one time about what if someone rolled an 18 in charisma & a 3 in everything else, resulting in a klutzy, weak, idiotic fool--& all the other characters would do whatever s/he said). I played for a while w/a small group that met near where I lived...I think it was upstairs from a book or comics store. Then I moved just a little too far away to get there regularly, & I never followed along to the more advanced versions. Now gaming has its own track at science fiction conventions, & even its own conventions, & I'm pretty sure D&D was the beginning of its expansion.

I heard about Gary Gygax's death last night on the radio. They said D&D players would show up at his house & he'd invite them in to play! And like CW, they were surprised at how old he was. Still, 69 isn't old enough. It's too bad to lose him this soon.