D&D and me.

So it appears that Gary Gygax is dead. I find this saddening.

I think back across the years, to the summer between 6th and 7th grade, when started hearing about this game, and then finally got to play. I immediately went out and bought the "basic set" -- the old one with the blue cover book and the dice that would melt if you left them on a radiator. I introduced several other friends to D&D with that.

I had missed out the previous school year on having the cool science teacher who ran the once-a-week after school wargaming meet, but quickly joined the group the following year. I made quite a number of friends via gaming. And I branched out from playing D&D to running Traveller, and trying all the others -- Boot Hill, Top Secret, Gamma World, Metamorphosis Alpha (how I treasured finding that, then out-of-print, when the local hobby shop re-arranged their shelves and rediscovered a copy that had quite literally slipped between the cracks). I collected and read games, even if I didn't play them that much, like Tunnels and Trolls, or Empire of the Petal Throne.

I remember all day gaming sessions with anywhere from 4 to 14 other young males. Pizza, chips, and soda. Basements and living rooms. AC/DC or Kiss or Judas Priest hovering in the background. Occasional breaks to play Atari 2600 games or throw frisbee around outside.

Sigh.

Later came Car Wars and Cosmic Encounter, and Atari 800s, Apple IIs, and TRS-80s. My first gaming convention (Origins 1980 -- I still have the booklet, which I used for a few years to collect autographs of everyone from Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, to Marc Miller, Tom Wham, James M. Ward, Steve Jackson, Winchel Chung, ...).

I lost track of most of my gaming buddies when I went off to college -- no facebook or livejournal back then -- but I made new ones, including 1cmf, who I've been gaming with since 1983/4; elflord2112; and media_junkie, not to mention quite a number of you who I met via gaming & the college even after I had graduated, because I was one of those alumni who lingered around the school hanging out with my still enrolled friends.

D&D and its offshoots have been part of my life for 30 years, and for that, I'll raise a glass to Mr. Gygax, even if these days I mostly wind up playing Carcassone and GURPS.

Thanks to you, Mr. Gygax, and thanks to my friends. Thanks to you all.