Gary Gygax

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Template:Greyhawk Author Ernest Gary Gygax (born July 27, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois) is best known as the author of the well known fantasy roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), co-created with Dave Arneson and co-published with Don Kaye in 1974 under the company Tactical Studies Rules (AKA TSR). Although not alone in contributing to the origins of the industry, Gygax is sometimes described as the father of the roleplaying game.[1]

Biography

Gygax is the son of a Swiss immigrant father and an American mother. His gaming experiences began at the age of five and six with playing pinochle and chess as well as the usual pretend games of any child that could be likened to live action roleplaying together with Jim Rasch as referee/game master, and John Rasch and Don Kaye as fellow participants. At about the same time Gary began educating himself in science fiction novels with Ray Bradbury's The Veldt in Bluebook and Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Conqueror.

"I've been reading fantasy since 1950."Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag

He was in semi-retirement, having almost suffered a heart attack after receiving incorrect medication to prevent further strokes after those on April 1 and May 4, 2004. He was diagnosed with an inoperable abdominal aortic aneurysm. Even while his health failed, gaming remained very much a part of his life. Gygax was still active in the gaming community and had active Q & A forums on gaming websites such as Dragonsfoot and EN World.

I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.


Awards

Gary Gygax has received several awards related to gaming:

  • Strategists Club's, "Outstanding Designer & Writer" — for creating D&D
  • Origin Game Convention's, "Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame"
  • Origins Award, "Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame Honors" (2004)
  • Four time winner of Games Day's, "Best Games Inventor" (1979–82).

Gary Gygax was tied with J. R. R. Tolkien for #18 on "GameSpy's 30 Most Influential People in Gaming" (Gamespy Magazine, March 2002).

As of March 13, 2003, Gygax is listed under the entry Dungeons and Dragons in the Oxford English Dictionary.

A strain of bacteria has been named in honor of Gary Gygax, namely "Arthronema gygaxiana sp nov UTCC393" (Journal of Phycology, 2005).

Sync Magazine named Gary Gygax #1 on the list of "The 50 Biggest Nerds of All Time" (Sync Magazine, December/January 2004/05).

SFX Magazine listed him as #37 on the list of the "50 Greatest SF Pioneers" (SFX Magazine March #128, 2005).

Gary Gygax appeared on a Futurama episode, "Anthology of Interest I" (aired in 2000), during which he rolled dice to decide on what greeting to give when introduced to Fry ("It's a... *roll* ...pleasure to meet you"). Later, he gives his "+1 mace" to Fry to fight off the inhabitants of the future. The episode ends with Gary dungeon mastering a Dungeons & Dragons game with Fry, Al Gore, Nichelle Nichols, Stephen Hawking, and Deep Blue.

He had a cameo appearance in the April 13, 2004 strip of R. K. Milholland's on-line comic Something Positive. Gary is shown getting busted by the FBI for creating Dungeons & Dragons and causing "years and years of anti-social mayhem." The comic seems to imply that Gygax uses drugs, and includes a note from Milholland asking him "please don't sue."[2]

In an episode of Dexter's Laboratory (entitled "D&DeeDee"), where Dexter and his friends are playing a game which clearly is Dungeons & Dragons (although never mentioned on screen), Dexter attempts to play a super-powerful character named Gygax with a soul-stealing sword, but ends up with Hodo the Furry-Footed Burrower instead.

His name has twice been an answer in the board game Trivial Pursuit.

The now-defunct Washington, DC-based art punk band Pitchblende named their final album, Gygax!, in his honor.

In the MMORPG version of Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Gygax serves as Dungeon Master for the "Delera's Tomb" quest chain.

In the arcade beat-'em-up Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom, "Gygax" is the highest scoring name on the ranking list by default.

Gygax has appeared twice in the comic Nodwick, both times as an antagonist of the title character and his employers, seeking revenge for the parodization of his Dungeons and Dragons modules.

Gygax has also appeared as himself in an episode of the G4TV cartoon series Code Monkeys.

Job titles

  • 1970-73 – Editor-in-Chief, Guidon Games (publisher of Wargaming rules and wargames)
  • 1973-83 – Partner of TSR and then President of TSR Hobbies, Inc.
  • 1983-85 – President, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Entertainment Corporation
Co-Producer, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Animated Television Show
  • 1983-85 – Chairman of the Board of Directors and President (1985 only) of TSR, Inc.
  • 1986-88 – Chairman of the Board of Directors, New Infinities Productions, Inc.
  • 1988-94 – Creator/author under contract to Omega Helios Limited
  • 1995-... – Creator/author under contract to Trigee Enterprises Corporation
  • 1999-... – Partner, Hekaforge Productions

Dungeons & Dragons

  • Supplements:
    • Greyhawk (with Rob Kuntz)
    • Eldritch Wizardry (with Brian Blume)
    • Swords & Spells

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

  • Rule books:
    • Player's Handbook
    • Dungeon Master's Guide
    • Monster Manual
    • Monster Manual II
  • Supplements:
    • Unearthed Arcana
    • Oriental Adventures (with Dave Cook & Francois Froideval)
  • Accessories:
    • Dungeon Geomorphs (3 sets)
    • Outdoor Geomorphs
    • Monster & Treasure Assortments (3 sets)

Castles & Crusades

For Castles & Crusades, the Castle Zagyg series is a planned series of seven sourcebooks based on the Castle Greyhawk from Gygax's original campaign. For trademark reasons they are not actually published under the name of Greyhawk.

  • Castle Zagyg, Vol. 1: Yggsburgh Troll Lord Games, 2005 (ISBN 1-931275-68-8)

Fantasy novels

Miscellaneous books & short stories

  • "At Moonset Blackcat Comes" (Fantasy short story featuring Gord the Rogue appearing in Dragon #100).
  • "Evening Odds" (Fantasy short story with Gord the Rogue sharing Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champions universe) -- White Wolf, Inc., 1997.

Bibliography

  • Acaeum. "Chainmail." The Acaeum. Available online:[3]
  • Casamatta, Dale A., Jeffrey R. Johansen, Morgan L. Vis, and Sharon T. Broadwater. "Molecular and Morphological Characterization of Ten Polar and Near-Polar Strains within the Oscillatoriales (Cyanobacteria)". Journal of Phycology 2005.
  • Gygax, Gary. "Designers Forum: Gary Gygax on Dungeons & Dragons: Origins of the Game." Dragon #7 (1977): 7.
  • -----. "From the Sorcerer's Scroll: Greyhawk: the Shape of the World." Dragon #37 (1980): 10-11, 30.
  • -----. "On the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on the D&D and AD&D games." Dragon #95. Lake geneva, WI: TSR, 1985.
  • -----(posting as "Col_Pladoh"). "Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part V." Dragonsfoot Forums. Available online:[4]
  • Rausch, Allen. "Gary Gygax Interview." Gamespy. 2004. Available online:[5]
  • Wizards of the Coast. "Th History of TSR." Wizards of the Coast. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2003. Available online:[6]
  • Gygax at Troll Lord Games is a listing of the Gary Gygax branded products sold by them.
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