The End Of An Era

The creator of Dungeons and Dragons passed away yesterday.

Boingboing has a great interview from 2003 posted.

It's been years since I last played D&D (or any of its spawn), but Gygax's imaginative construct made a contribution to my own formative years that cannot be ignored. The game itself was a wonderful escape from the often near-insanity of adolescence, and provided an amazing creative outlet for me.

I fondly remember scraping for weeks and months to get the money together to buy the source books for D&D and countless hours spent designing adventures and worlds in which to host them. None of the stories we created would make great literature, but they were immensely enjoyable in the moment.

In keeping with the more common themes of this blog, D&D was no stranger to controversy, with many religious groups speaking out against the game. That debate fascinated me, and was in some ways my introduction to just how badly people will twist reality to suit their dogma.

Rest In Peace, E. Gary Gygax - you will be missed.