E. Gary Gygax

E. Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died this morning at 69. He should have had a cleric nearby with a potion of healing +3.

Developed with Dave Arneson, Dungeons & Dragons came about in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game, known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit - particularly among teenage boys - and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies. Despite his declining health, he hosted weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons as recently as January.

Gary Sandelin, 32, a Manhattan attorney, said his weekly Dungeons & Dragons game will be a bit sadder on Wednesday night because of Gygax's passing. Goddamn, nerd! I used to play in high school with a secret cabal of other too cool guys who would never publically admit to the game, but playing into your 30s and then being on record as distraught is the supreme dork move.

The original D&D evolved from Gygax's interest in miniature war-gaming - every weekend, his basement would be full of game geeks conducting medieval-era warfare with hundreds of metal miniatures on a huge sand table. When things eventually got a little boring for the participants, Gygax threw in some new twists - a dragon, a wizard, a giant. The additions proved so popular that he soon ran out of room in his basement. Gygax published the innovations as the game Chainmail, the war-gaming forerunner of D&D. Eventually his experiments with war gaming lead to a focus on individual characters, as opposed to armies, and the exploration of ruins and wilderness areas as opposed to mass combat. With Arneson, Gygax developed the basis for what would become Dungeons & Dragons. (he experimented with several names - it was his daughter's enthusiasm for the "D&D" moniker that made it stick). Gygax shopped the game to various game companies, who were not interested, citing the game's complexity and open-ended quality. Undaunted, he raised $1000 with his long-time friend and fellow gamer, the late Don Kaye, and formed TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) in 1973. Together, they hand-assembled 1000 copies of the rules, which quickly sold out.

The game proved immensely popular - Gygax estimates that in the first year or so, photocopied game books outnumbered legitimate editions 2 to 1 - and many of his fans were rabid supporters of the new company. TSR published numerous other RPGs - Star Frontiers, Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Gamma World - and branched out into the traditional entertainment industry as well, with books, magazines, video and computer games and the famous (if somewhat silly) Saturday morning D&D cartoon. The foundation of the TSR empire, however, remained the D&D game.