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by Daniel Berger.
Original Post: RIP Gary Gygax
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Gary Gygax, the father of Dungeons & Dragons, has died.
I spent many hours enjoying Dungeons & Dragons, especially in college. A group of about 6 of us started our characters at 1st level my freshman year of college in 1988. We had a great GM who ran a low-magic, low-xp universe.
My 1st level Ranger managed to work his way up to 6th level (woohoo!) by the time we retired in 1992. I think I had a whopping 2 magic items when we finally quit - a slightly magical sword of some sort and some boots of Elvinkind. That was it. It forced us to be much more creative in terms of dealing with problems, and led to a better role playing experience, which was good.
Funniest story. Our GM would plan out his worlds rather meticulously, but it was somewhat freeform, and sometimes we would stumble onto things we weren't meant to stumble on just yet. One time, our sophmore year I think, we ran into a vampire. At about 3rd level. Without much in the way of magic items. Our entire group got its ass kicked, and we ran screaming like little schoolgirls. One person needed a visit to a powerful cleric to be cured. That ended up being an adventure unto itself.
We went back to kick his ass our senior year when we had a little more experience (and more firepower) under our belt. We lost. Again.
What's strange is that after my undergraduate career I began to absolutely loathe role playing, and I'm not entirely sure why. I guess I decided that I just didn't have time for that sort of nonsense any more, and that I had just outgrown it. I still have my character sheet, btw. Somewhere.
Anyway, Gary's legacy will live on for generations in the hundreds of role playing games that have since been inspired by D&D. RIP Gary.
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