RIP Gary Gygax

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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.

Let's Bring in Some New People

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/dots-rpg-project-dice-shop

Heads up folks. Here at Jimbo's Science Fiction and Fantasy Reviews we don't generally do commercials as such. I am more than happy to review something I've read or watched but this is a bit different. Today I'm doing an advert for a product that I flat out wouldn't know how to use if I had it. So needless to say, I don't have any personal experience with this. I just wanted to throw my weight behind it because I thought it was a really good idea.

Yes, you read that right. No, it's not a typo. See, here at Jimbo's we (all one of us) like to promote true inclusiveness into our hobbies. No, I don't mean fake inclusiveness that comes from excluding certain people in the style of K. Tempest Teacup or the last couple years or the Nebula Awards where "inclusiveness" means freezing out large segments of the population. I'm talking about inclusiveness where you actually bring new people into a hobby without finding it necessary to remove others that you happen to not like.  That's the right way to expand interest in something you love. You do it without spreading hate.

Anyway, what I came across in my journeys across the Magical Book of Faces was a product that promotes TRUE inclusion. It's something that I had never thought about but that makes a ton of sense once you have your face rubbed in it. (And yes my friends, sometimes face rubbing is what it takes.) Apparently, blind people have trouble reading dice. Yeah, I guess I should have realized that off rip, but since I had never gamed with a blind person before, the obviousness of this never dawned on me.

What the DOTS RPG Project has done is to make braille dice. Now blind people have a way to read their own dice at the table. Now they can join in on the fun. Now they can have the whole group in suspense about what a die roll comes out to instead of the group having them in suspense. I love this idea. I also know that with my sick sense of humor, I'd sit there laughing at important points in the adventure/campaign and INTENTIONALLY keep people in suspense because that's just me.

There is some stuff on their page about how to read these. Something about orientations and corresponding letters and probably something else that someone who actually knows how to read braille would probably understand. I don't read braille though, so it may as well have been Chinese as far as I'm concerned. I'd probably do better with Chinese. I don't read that either but at least I know a hanzi when I see it. If you put something in braille in front of me, I'm just as likely to think it's Morse Code or something.

The post I read also said that DOTS was planning on doing braille rulebook(s) at some point. I totally love that idea but if they exist at this point in time I was not able to find a link and so I couldn't include one. If someone who has a link to the rulebook(s) in question please drop a link in the comments. Also, please understand that I'm not leaving them out intentionally, but through ignorance.

Somewhere out there someone is reading this and thinking "Hey Jimbo, why are you putting this here? This blog does Science Fiction and Fiction. These dice aren't specfic. They actually exist." If that's you, then you have a point, sort of. I mean, these dice are real but they're intended (at least in part) for SF/F purposes. Seriously. Other than being pen and paper RPGs, what do all of the following having in common?

Rifts
Heroes Unlimited
Dungeons and Dragons
Pathfinder
Warhammer
GURPS (most settings anyway) and
Shadowrun

They're all set in SF/F universes. They are SF/F. Pen and paper role players are us and we are them. It's time to bring more people into the club. Let's help them learn about Science Fiction and Fantasy. Dice (and I know this from experience) are a gateway drug. This way folks. A good GM/DM might as well be a good author when it comes to generating interest into things.

While I'm on the subject, I'm going to ask a couple of questions here that I honestly don't know the answers to. If you do, please leave the answers below because I'm interested, but I work sixty-five hours a week and I don't really have the time to research answers.

1.) Are popular SF/F books available in braille? Seriously? I mean, I know it's got to be more expensive to produce a braille brook than a printed one. I don't have the figures available at my fingertips but I can't see how it wouldn't. I would imagine that most independent authors (and I love indy authors, you're the lifeblood of my blog) can't really afford to offer braille printouts. But what about companies like Tor or Baen? They both sell lots of books and it should be possible I would think. If they don't I think they should. If they do, then good on them. I'm not insinuating that they don't. I'm flat out stating my ignorance in the matter. That's a totally different thing.

2.) Do SF/F authors/publishers (or any other author/publisher for that matter) donate free downloads of their audio books to charities for the blind? You know, like the Lions clubs or something. If not, they should. Again, if they do, then good on them. I'm not really sure how this would work with an Audible contract either. Speaking of which, does Audible do donations? There has to be a tax deduction here somewhere if it's a charity. Again, I'm not trying to make it look like they don't. I just don't know if they do.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating for legislation to force anyone to do anything. I happen to believe that we have too many laws in this country already. I just think it would be something nice and something that could possibly bring economic benefits long term. No, I don't have statistics available. I haven't done the research and I don't have the chops to generate that kind of a study myself if I had. It just occurs to me that a person who gets a free book (like, oh say the first book in a series) might want to read/hear more from the same author.

Getting back on topic, the dice are now available for sale. There is also another site where you can download the directions to make your own. Er, actually it's a 3D printer program but close enough. I put the purchase link at the beginning of the post and I'm going to put it at the bottom as well. I decided not to include a link to the download page for the simple fact that I want to see the proprietors of the DOTS program rewarded with money. Not only do they deserve it, but their continued existence as a company is going to depend on an income stream. If you want to see more products added in the future and support what their doing, support them from your pocket book. If you want the programs you can Google them I guess, but I would urge anyone who has a need for braille dice or a spot in their collection for something they can't get anywhere else to drop a few bucks on some of these dice.

Braille Dice
DOTS RPG Project, 2018

DOTS dice are available at the following link:

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/dots-rpg-project-dice-shop

Edit: Per the requst of the DOTS staff, I am also including the link to download the 3D printing instructions for the dice.

https://t.co/UQ1y5qQATw?amp=1