In Memoriam: Gary Gygax

One year ago Gary Gygax passed away.

I have been playing D&D for thirty years now.  In 1979 I was just a child, and I had no conception that D&D would become such a big part of my life.  Few other interests I had as a child have stayed constant throughout the years.  At the same time I was playing D&D I was building space ships out of Legos, sword fighting with fake lightsabers, and creating hideously complex soap opera style storylines for my Star Wars action figures.

Nowadays I have a long commute, spend most of my day working, and if I am lucky, manage to spend some quiet time with my wife.

But I still play D&D.  I think I enjoy it more than ever.  Not because of I enjoy memorizing obscure rules or rolling dice.  No, I enjoy it because it is quintessentially a social experience.  It's different from getting together to watch a movie or go out for some beers.  It is collaborative story telling, and when it is done well there is nothing like it.

So thank you once again Gary!  The game that you and Dave Arneson created all those years ago continues to entertain countless people.  You have left behind an amazing legacy.

(Not) rolling with the punches.

One change in Fourth Edition D&D which is sure to delight some players and infuriate others is that there are no longer any random rolls in the character creation process.  Character stats will be created using point-buy, and hit points will now be a set number per class level.

When I heard this I was actually surprised.  I honestly shouldn't be.  My regular game has been using point buy and fixed hit points as a house rule.  Other game systems, like White Wolf's Storyteller System, Champions, Star Wars d6, and even OGL games like Mutants & Masterminds have been doing it for awhile. 

Eliminating random rolls from character creation simply makes sense.  A player who rolls poorly finds himself at extreme disadvantage at the game table.  Meanwhile, I player who rolls well can make a character who finds the average adventure to be a cakewalk.  When these characters are both in the same party it can be a problem.  At least until the character with poor rolls dies and the player can roll up a new one.

That being said, the old school gamer in me cringed when I found this out  Some atavistic part of my mind screamed "It's OK for you to make up some mamsy-pamby house rules to take out rolling, but by gum in REAL D&D you roll 3d6, six times, in order, and live by the results!"

The more rational point of my mind quickly reasserted itself.  It did make me realized how ingrained die-rolling is in the D&D creation process.  I think its because all of us have gone through the extremes.  The joy of rolling that eighteen!  The horror of seeing three ones!  Its a shared experience that helps bring us together as gamers.  Everyone has a story of playing a fighter with a nine strength or that thief who's lowest score was a fifteen.

In the end I suppose rolling your statistics just seems so quintessentially Gygaxian!

Still, I can't say I am sorry to see the randomness go away.  It will make the game fairer and easier to run.  I just bet we will call it "rolling up a character" even after the rolls are gone.

Coming out of the (Gaming) Closet

A lot of people who play Dungeons & Dragons don't admit to that fact.  Not that they necessarily lie about it, but they don't bring it up.  I know I have strong tendencies in this direction.  While I was pretty open about playing D&D at my last job, at this one I kept it pretty close to the vest.  When a co-worker would ask if I had "any plans for the weekend" I would say "I am getting together with some friends" rather than "I have a D&D game this weekend".  Technically true, but definitely a semantic dodge.

Being in the gaming closet is a relatively common phenomenon.  There was an entire series of Knights of the Dinner Table strips devoted to the question "At what stage in the relationship do you divulge that you are a gamer to your significant other?"  It probably wouldn't have been so funny except I have had that same conversation with many of my gaming friends.

Considering how deeply in the closet some gamers are, it is amazing we can find other gamers to play with.  One of my college friends likened finding other gamers to Vampire: The Masquerade.  In that game, vampires maintain a world-wide conspiracy hiding their existence called "The Masquerade".  One consequence of this is that you can't just ask if someone else is a vampire without breaking the Masquerade.  So if you suspect someone is a vampire, you ask a series of leading questions and carefully gauge the responses. Only when you are certain you are talking with another vampire do you own up.

If you think I am exaggerating, observe this real life conversation I had with a former co-worker.

Co-Worker: "It's like that game, Dungeons & Dragons.  Have you ever heard of it?"

Me: "I have."

Co-Worker: "Actually, I used to play it"

Me: "Me too"

Co-Worker: "You know, if I could find a group, I wouldn't mind playing it now"

Me: "Actually, I still get together from time to time with some guys to play"

Co-Worker:  "I still know some guys too"

Obviously, this is absurd.  Football fans don't use secret code to determine if you are a fellow football fan, they just ask.  But I understand the reticence of D&D players to come clean.  When D&D players are presented in popular culture they are almost always held up as objects as scorn and derision.  A lot of writers use D&D as dramatic shorthand for "Look! Nerds!".

I really feel the treatment D&D players get in the popular press is worse than similar groups, like comic book readers or computer geeks.  It is usually at its worst in mainstream television, but even shows that you would think would be D&D friendly often go for the easy "Look! Nerds!" joke.   Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel had relatively nuanced jokes concerning Star Wars and comic book fans, but revert to type when D&D is brought up.  For goodness sake, the "Look! Nerds!" joke appeared in Shrek 3, a movie about an ogre and a talking donkey.

(As an aside, the writers at The Simpsons and Futurama have inserted very funny D&D jokes in their shows.  However, comic fans seems to take it on the chin.)

In any case, I am going to make an effort to be a little more forthcoming about playing D&D.  It came up at work when news of Gary Gygax's passing came in.  Not surprisingly, my co-workers finding out I play D&D was not the end of the world.  It never is.  One of these days I will get old enough to realize this. 

PS - I would like to dedicate this blog post to my friend Brian, one of the LEAST "in the closet" gamers I know.  Brian has never been shy about proclaiming his love for D&D, and if every D&D player had his evangelical nature, the hobby would be in much better shape than it is today.

The King is Dead, The Kingdom Prevails.

It was first reported on Troll Lord Games Message Board. I have to admit, when a co-worker told me about Gary Gygax’s passing I didn’t believe it. But then more and more mainstream news outlets started picking up the story. By the time I saw Gary Gygax on the front page of Google News I knew it must be true.

I’ve never met Gary Gygax. I was never one to attend the big conventions like GenCon where I might have had a chance to shake his hand or tell him how much I loved the game. So I cannot comment on the man. Nevertheless, it has caused me to think about the game that Gary and Dave made, and what he means to me as an avid D&D player.

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created D&D back in 1974. Personally, I have been playing the game since around 1979. I was very young at the time, and the game had a profound effect on me. I doubt if I would have the deep seated love of fantasy literature that I do now. It expanded my vocabulary, introducing me to words like paladin, encumbrance, and phantasm.

I’m not especially outgoing. I’m not an athlete. But playing Dungeons and Dragons gave me an outlet to be social. It gave me an outlet to be creative. I am still in contact with many of the friends I played D&D with over the years. The same cannot be said of the people I met in high school, or even college.

I think about my current gaming group. We are a pretty disparate group of people. If we weren’t all D&D players, I am not even sure many of us would have met. But our love of this hobby brings us together twice a month like clockwork.

So thank you Gary. Thanks for starting this whole ball rolling. I believe the world is a better place because of it.