I am one of those who are split on the remembrance and celebration of Gary Gygax and GaryCon.
Do we celebrate him for Dungeons and Dragons, or not?
If you have been a tabletop gamer and started out playing with Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax is noted as being the legend who brought us this game. But, if you have been a tabletop gamer who started out playing Dungeons and Dragon’s you know the history of the birth of Dungeons and Dragon’s and the fate of TSR, Inc.
I am split on if Gary Gygax is the hero he is remembered to be, or if he should be the hero remembered for the founding of TSR?
But even then, if you have not read the book by Ben Riggs, “Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons and Dragons,” you should. This should be required reading for any tabletop and mmo gamer.
I grew up around the stories, and I grew with the hobby.
Back at the start of summer vacation between the sixth and seventh grade, my bud called me on a Saturday morning and asked if I wanted to learn a new game. His Uncle was coming over to teach and play a game with him and his younger brother. He didn’t remember the name of the game but explained that we play heroes who slay monsters and save kingdoms.
It sounded interesting, so I headed over.
We were waiting patiently at his kitchen table when his uncle arrived with a well-worn, travelled, and bruised shoebox with a lid. He set the box on the table and removed the lid. We gazed with awe at the contents as trumpets heralded a new coming in the background as we wanted to see what was inside the box as he removed “the game.”
There were two boxes of dominoes, a small digest sized box with three small books, some index cards, pencils, some weird looking dice, and the bottom of the box was lined with cotton padding which had small figures. My buds Uncle slowly laid everything out on the table and began explaining what everything was for and that he would be “The Dungeon Master.”
He began placing the dominoes upright on their sides, creating a maze. He handed us index cards and told us we could each choose one of the cards, it would have what we had (inventory) and what we could do (stat blocks) and informed us who we would be (classes). A warrior who could use swords, a mage who could cast spells and a cleric who had divine powers.
This would be a defining moment for the two of us as my bud chose the mage, I chose the fighter, and his younger brother was given the cleric. To this day we will still play the same class types.
My friend’s uncle then explained the story. The three of us had grown up together in our small village on the outskirts of Marquette Woods. We each stayed in contact with each other as we went to school and learned our trades.
It was the sixth day, and the village was at rest. Our characters had always heard tales of a lost dungeon in the woods and the three of us had gone in search of it. We had known these woods since childhood, so we had explored portions of it already. We were going to search in a new area we had not explored yet.
At that point he removed three miniatures from his shoebox and placed them on the table in front of the opening he had made with the dominoes and assigned a piece to each of us based on our ”class.” We found two doors that were slightly open leading down under ground to a long hallway. Explaining movement to us, each domino was a ten feet long section of wall, and we could move up to twelve dominos.
We went in and we found a large room, he rearranged the dominoes and described the room to us. There were bones scattered about the floor, a dark sticky kind of a black colored pudding type ooze around and a chest in one corner of the room and asked, “What do we do?”
This led to an interactive discussion between the three of us as we reviewed our index cards to see what we could do. I went into the room towards the chest to see what was inside. As I entered the room, my buds uncle placed three skeleton warriors inside the room, the bones scattered about the floor had come to life and they were getting ready to march towards us with rusty swords to attack…
The chest was a mimic, and the ooze was “Black Pudding” that I my character fell too, melted from.
It was the best two hours ever as we were introduced to DnD Chainmail edition.
Later that summer my bud called me and asked if I had seen the new comic shop which had opened in our neighborhood. I was not into comics, so I had not noticed or really paid much attention to it until, he shared that they were going to be holding “Advanced Dungeons and Dragon” games there on Saturday mornings and we needed to reserve a spot in advance if we wanted to play. The Saturday coming up at the time would be the stores first game.
From that first Saturday morning game, before I left, I purchased my first AD&D book, The Monster Manual, so next time, we would know how to kill a “Black Pudding” and any other monsters we encountered.
That comic shop led to epic adventures and campaigns with Dungeon Master’s, who to this day we still remember and we talk about; George Finchum, Lee Ramsey, and Len Greski who on any given Saturday would seat anywhere from twelve to 15 players around two tables jammed together.
From that comic shop, I was introduced to games I still own; Gamma World, Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Marvel Super Heroes and Top Secret all from TSR., along with Traveler from GDW, with games just about every night of the week from 6pm to 8pm.
Would we have had the Gold Box games without TSR which gave rise to the first original three MMO Games?
Neverwinter created communities that still – exist – today, albeit not as active as we once were, and is still remembered.
And from TSR, SPI, 3DO, and Sierra On-Line would we have had the first “Big Three:”
So, I am still split on celebrating Gary Gygax for Dungeons and Dragons.
I’d rather celebrate those who were part of TSR, Inc. for the worlds and games they created.
Either way, this weekend I will be at GaryCon.
I’ll be one of the older bearded guys with glasses wearing a Blue Hawaiian shirt.
Discuss: What color Hawaiian shirt will you be wearing?
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