Today marks the twelfth anniversary of the death of one of gaming's greats. Gary Gygax was the impetus for the creation of Dungeons and Dragons but he was more than that. An entire generation of geeks grew up on D&D. It's more than that though, too. Three (maybe four) generations of geeks have grown up with Role Playing Games in general, be it tabletop roleplaying games like yes, Dungeons and Dragons, but also GURPS, Heroes Unlimited, Shadowrun, Pathfinder, the Star Wars RPG (yes, George Lucas invented Star Wars but without D&D there's no RPG to go with it.) or the early platform RPGs like the Final Fantasy franchise, Wizardry and the Phantasy Star franchise, and MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, Everquest, City of Heroes, or Elder Scrolls Online. That all started with Dungeons and Dragons. Every bit of it comes from a game that started in someone's basement.
It's more than just Role Playing Games though, too. The D&D legacy has helped build geek culture in ways that go far beyond gaming. The Lord of the Rings novels were published long before Dungeons and Dragons ever hit the shelves, but without the growth in the fantasy genre promoted in large part by D&D in the form of its players and fans. Willow, Dark Crystal and even The Princess Bride all owe a large debt to Gary Gygax and his game whether they realize it or not.
And, can you say card games? The original audience for Magic the Gathering was, yup you guessed it, RPG players. Yu-Gi-OH and Pokemon both descended in large part for MTG and are part of Gygax's legacy as well. Of course, when MTG first came out and a flurry of card games followed there was a D&D based one named Spellfire. It didn't catch on because it wasn't as cool as Magic (and I've played both) but it was there nonetheless.
Speaking of card games...
All of the fantasy card games have one thing in common: Art. Seriously. I've already reviewed Beholder. The fact remains that some of the best fantasy art over the last forty-plus(!) years was either created for Dungeons and Dragons or descends from it. I love fantasy art. When I was married and had a bigger budget I went to the local Ren-Faire and came home with new art every single year. I bought it at art fairs. I went to a local place that features local artists... and left disappointed. There wasn't any fantasy art. But pretty much any fantasy art (with the possible exception of Cthulu related stuff) descends from D&D art somehow.
Let's not forget comics. Not only have there been like elebenty bajillion different D&D titles but the parodies are excellent. Seriously, if you haven't checked out webcomics like Darths and Droids (I cast Summon Bigger Fish because I'm a Cheddar Monk) or Rusty and Company (I haven't reviewed Rusty and Company? Why haven't I reviewed Rusty and Company? This is a travesty. THIS WILL NOT STAND!!!!)
And guys.. The novels. Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Eberron, the other ones that I'm blanking on...
They're all based on Dungeons and Dragons settings. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are two of my favorite authors of all time. Their first book was Dragons of Autumn Twilight. R.A. Salvatore is another one of my favorite authors. He got his start writing in the Forgotten Realms. (And can we get a decent Drizzt Do'Urden movie PLEASE?!??!??!?!?!?!?!?) He was the editor of the Everquest line of novels as well and I already noted that EQ was a descendant of D&D and therefore Gygax. (Does anyone know where I can get my hands on the old Spelljammer novels?)
There are, in my estimation, only three true giants in the field of Fantasy Fiction. The first is Tolkien who wrote Lord of the Rings and really created the modern fantasy genre. Before him, we had several ancient mythologies for fantasy stories and not much else. Since Tolkien, we've seen an explosion of Fantasy. Without Tolkein I don't think D&D would have taken off the way it did in the 1970s. I certainly don't think it would still be here.
Most recently, we have J.K Rowling. Harry Potter is something that has taken over the world. Of course, J.K. Rowling also pushed the Young Adult Genre to new heights and pretty much singlehandedly added the Young Adult sections to both the bookstore and the library and so she's a giant in other fields than JUST fantasy, but it all starts with a magic casting boy named Harry Potter. In a way though, probably the most impressive thing about Mrs. Rowling (whom I loves and respects) is that she is maybe the only fantasy author since 1977 who didn't draw on Dungeons and Dragons fandom at the beginning of her career. Most of the Harry Potter fans that have been there since the beginning were not old enough to have played D&D before they started reading HP. (Yes, I played D&D before I read Harry Potter. I was also in my late twenties when I read Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. Oh, and there were four books out by then.) Geek culture is exploding in the United States right now, and a lot of the reason for that is a British woman who can write like a champion.
The last, but definitely not least, is Gary Gygax. I've covered a lot of the reasons above. Yes, a lot of what he did was derived from Tolkien. The fact remains that he invented the modern Roleplaying Game. Gygax did every bit as much as for RPGs as Tolkien did for fantasy in general and J.K. Rowling did for the Young Adult genre. And do you know what else he did?
That's my daughter Riley at our gaming table.
Gygax and his game have brought people together and created friendships on a huge scale. A love of Dungeons and Dragons has created friendships and brought families together. When my then-wife was pregnant with my oldest daughter, I declared that I would one day play D&D with my kid. My ex thought I was crazy because “She won't be interested. She's a girl!” I just shook my head. One of the happiest days of my life was the first time my kid showed up at my gaming table and I got to present her with her first dice. I was a proud papa that day. There are millions of stories like mine. And we owe that to Gygax as well.
So rest in peace, Mr. Gygax. We miss you. I know you're somewhere banging out some natural 20s and steamrolling mobs. I'll see you when I get there.
Some Dungeons and Dragons related products are available at the links below. If you click the link and buy literally anything, I get a small percentage at no cost to you.
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