To say that RPGs are not my genre is to put the most positive spin on reality imaginable.  But still, I can’t help being saddened by this news.  You would be hard pressed to find a game since Monopoly that has had the cultural impact that D&D has had.  I am heartened to see his passing get a touch of the attention that it warrants.

As a longtime boardgaming enthusiast I owe many talented designers a great debt of pleasure. 

But Gary Gygax is in a category all his own.  We ‘got into’ D&D at the very beginning (when the rules came in those three incomprehensible booklets).  This must be something like 30 years ago.  Yet when we - now - ‘golden oldies’ get together we, after so many years, often still talk about those memorable nights we spent adventuring in the dungeon passageways.  That is something that can’t be said of many other games - if any.

So though now regrettably ‘gone’ he is most certainly not ‘forgotten’ in this corner of Surrey.

- Derek

I met friends through D&D as I met friends through M:TG, as I met friends through board games. Maybe Gary liked to hear about how people got strength to be doctors and lawyers through D&D… but I think the fact that games can give people friends that last a lifetime and in many instances people get married through meeting to play games should give him more happiness than personal achievements. My best friend and I played D&D and he introduced me to the hobby.

It is also important that there would be no Gen Con without Gary, either.

I have no doubt that the success of what we have now in games is because of the things that Gary did to grow the hobby and I am very thankful.