Gary Gygax | |
|---|---|
 Gygax at Gen Con Indy 2007 | |
| Born | Ernest Gary Gygax July 27, 1938[1] Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | March 4, 2008 (aged 69) Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Resting place | Oak Hill Cemetery (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin) |
| Occupation | Writer, game designer |
| Period | 1971–2008 |
| Genre | Role-playing games, fantasy, wargames |
| Spouse | Mary Jo Powell
(m. 1958; div. 1983)Gail Carpenter (m. 1987) |
| Signature | |
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 Literature portal | |
Ernest Gary Gygax (/ˈɡaɪɡæks/ GHY-gaks; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008)[2] was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson.
In the 1960s, Gygax created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con gaming convention. In 1971, he co-developed Chainmail, a miniatures wargame based on medieval warfare with Jeff Perren. He co-founded the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) with childhood friend Don Kaye in 1973. The next year, TSR published D&D, created by Gygax and Arneson the year before. In 1976, he founded The Dragon, a magazine based around the new game. In 1977, he began work on a more comprehensive version of the game called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. He designed numerous manuals for the game system, as well as several pre-packaged adventures called "modules" that gave a person running a D&D game (the "Dungeon Master") a rough script and ideas. In 1983, he worked to license the D&D product line into the successful D&D cartoon series.
Gygax left TSR in 1986 over conflicts with its new majority owner, but he continued to create role-playing game titles independently, beginning with the multi-genre Dangerous Journeys in 1992. He designed the Lejendary Adventure gaming system, released in 1999. In 2005, he was involved in the Castles & Crusades role-playing game, which was conceived as a hybrid between the third edition of D&D and the original version of the game.
In 2004, he had two strokes and narrowly avoided a subsequent heart attack; he was then diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm and died in March 2008 at age 69. Following Gygax's funeral, many mourners formed an impromptu game event which became known as Gary Con 0, and gamers celebrate in Lake Geneva each March with a large role-playing game convention in Gygax's honor.
- ^ "United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/J52H-DQQ : accessed February 12, 2013), Ernest G Gygax, March 4, 2008; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
- ^ Mead, Lawrence; Malcomson, Ian (2003). "Dungeons & Dragons FAQ". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on October 2, 2008. Retrieved October 3, 2008.