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Ernest Gary Gygax

July 27, 1938 - March 4, 2008

I am going to post this on the three sites I frequent. I am not normally an effusive man. I am, in fact, rather detached. That being said I have never been so deeply moved by the death of a stranger. For a moment I thought I was going to weep when I heard of Mr. Gygax’s passing. Gary’s passing, he would correct me. I received an “admonishment” for calling him Mr. Gygax during e-mail correspondence a few years ago. That represents, to me, his best quality. In spite of all the accomplishments, all of the accolades, and all of the success he was still “just” Gary. Humility is an admirable trait in one who had so much to boast of.

Without E.G.G. our hobby would be unrecognizable. Well, it would be for me. When I think back upon all the years that I have been involved in this hobby, from childhood, the awful teenage years, and into adulthood I am amazed at the influence he had on many of the happiest moments of my life. I gained all of my closest friends, many of whom I’ve known for decades, through this hobby. I thank him for that.

I am a good DM because of the advice that he dispensed in the DMG and Dragon. I learned how to write adventures from studying B2, G1-3, T1-4, and the first two Drow modules. Those taught me what to do. Tomb of Horrors taught me what not to do. I appreciate that, also.

I served in Iraq with a couple of fellow gamers. We had many hours of engaging conversations about our shared love of the game. We did some free form gaming a few times. One of the men I fought along side and I talked at length about our shared admiration for Gary. It would be the last time we spoke. Afterwards, my other two gamer friends and I reminisced about our friend and how much of a Gygax fan boy he was. I’ll miss Gary, but now my buddy gets to meet him. Enjoy the Game.

All in all, this is a hell of a wake up call. While I understand that people die, I somehow always thought that I would have the chance to make it to GenCon “next year”. I figured that I would stand in line for the entire con to get him to sign my DMG and thank him, in person for the hours of happiness his game; I would have thanked him for creating the topic that my buddy and I passed time in a terrible place discussing. I would have thanked him for creating an escape valve for me during one of the darkest periods in my life. I’ll never have that chance now.

So here is what I am going to do. I’m going to meet Kevin Siembieada (hope I spelled that right) and Erick Wujick. I’m going to meet Bill Coffin. I’m going to meet Steve Jackson. Hell, I’m going to replace my copy of Dungeons and Zombie and pester Jason Vey until he lets me mail it to him to autograph. The point is that I’m not going to miss the opportunity to thank the people in my hobby whose work I enjoy, whose work has brought me happiness, and whom I think are cool as hell. I guess that the Colonel taught me one last lesson.

Thanks, Gary
 

Game on.

Mark Chapman

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