Mar 04 2008

Dungeon Masters Never Die, They Just Roll Up New Characters

Categories: General Dave Rathbun @ 8:09 pm

One of the original Dungeon Masters passed on when Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, died today. There have been plenty of people who have had an impact on the lives of millions, but Gary hits closer to home. He had an impact on me.

I started playing Dungeons and Dragons in 1980. I kept playing through college and beyond. I met some really great people along the way, and remain friends with many. I even have a Dungeons and Dragons themed website that has never quite received the amount of attention that it deserves. I would be willing to bet that the percentage of people that work in the information technology industry today that played D&D is quite high. Hm, maybe I need to figure out how to do polls on my blog. 🙂

Even this web site shows touches of Dungeons and Dragons. The logo in the top corner, the text that changes under the blog title, even the title itself can all be traced back to origins in some fashion or another related to D&D. I have many fond memories of playing the game into the wee hours of the morning. I have what feels like acres of shelf space dedicated to D&D books and other materials. I have created worlds. 🙂

Thank you, Gary.

6 Responses to “Dungeon Masters Never Die, They Just Roll Up New Characters”

  1. Comment by Chris March 5th, 2008 at 10:11 am

    Woot even did a sort of tribute yesterday … I smiled
    http://www.woot.com/Blog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryId=4118

    16 Gary Gygax Jokes We Better Not Catch You Making

    “Quick! Someone cast Raise Dead!”
    “Don’t worry – he’s just playtesting the Astral Plane for the next edition.”
    “He’s gone the way of Star Frontiers.”
    “Analysts warn of a free-fall in Mountain Dew futures.”
    “In the next town, you meet a stranger named Barry Bygax.”
    “Now who will lead our young people to Satan?”
    “With his last breath, he cursed the name of Marlon Wayans.”
    “I wonder how they’ll divide up his XP.”
    “Pallbearers, make a Bend Bars/Lift Gates roll.”
    “At least he didn’t live to see Disney’s Greyhawk On Ice.”
    “Lorraine Williams is behind this somehow, I just know it.”
    “The worlds of adventure gaming, fantasy fandom, and van painting will never be the same.”
    “When I heard, I cried 2d10 tears.”
    “Is there anything in the will about electrum?”
    “Heart condition? Wow, I always thought it’d be owlbears that got him.”
    “Suddenly, nobody in Heaven wants to hang out with Marilyn Monroe on Friday night.”

  2. Comment by Dave Rathbun March 5th, 2008 at 1:58 pm

    There was a news headline that someone wrote that (and I will paraphrase since I don’t have the link in front of me at the moment):

    Dungeons and Dragons Creator Fails Final Saving Throw

    If you’ve played the game, you get it. 🙂 Same as some of the quotes from Woot, I imagine… some folks will get them, and those unfortunate enough to have never played the game will give out a collective “huh” and move on.

    Hm. I wonder many hits would you get on “owlbears” if you did a google search?

  3. Comment by Freitag March 7th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    Order of the Stick also ran a tribute…
    http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0536.html

    Isn’t that the you always fail?

    Personalized Results 1 – 100 of about 19,200 for owlbears with Safesearch on. (0.94 seconds)

  4. Comment by Andreas March 12th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

    I used to play D&D and other Fantasy & Sci-Fi RPGs in the 80s & 90s.
    I came across D&D in an article about a new computergame for the Mattel IntelliVision video console back in the 80s..

    And I am a big fan of Dragonlance 🙂

    We all had loads of fun…

  5. Comment by Dave Rathbun March 12th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    My wife played too. I would not let her have a kender (see Dragonlance) so she just rolled up a hobbit, erm, a “halfling” and played him like a kender. The world was never the same. 😆

  6. Comment by Andreas March 18th, 2008 at 4:54 am

    Oh boy, kenders, such cute little beings, but JINXED…

    I also loved Greyhawk, Castle Ravenstein, Chateau d’Amberville, and City of Thieves, those were some of the best campaigns and adventure modules I have came across. I never got into LARP.