Gary Gygax Dies at 69

Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and the author of the original AD&D books, died today at age 69. Chicken John Rinaldi writes:

Gary Gygax saved more lives than penicillin. When I was 10, he was 39. He knew he was writing a book for 10 year olds… but never talked down to us. He was the only adult presence in my life from the time I was 10 to the time I was like 15 that didn’t preach, didn’t talk down and didn’t have any parameters.

What made Gygax’s D&D so brilliant — and so appealing, I’m guessing, to many Daring Fireball readers — was that it was both a rich fantasy milieu and a very clever rule-based system.

★ Tuesday, 4 March 2008