A moment of silence please.
Today passes Gary Gygax. The author and creator of the book Chainmail and Dungeons & Dragons.
Few people have had such an impact in my life than this Author. My cousin one day came over to my house and taught me this new game. It was so fantastic (pun-intended) that I was hooked. I quickly learned all the rules and bought all of the starter manuals. I was hooked!
I spent hours and hours developing maps and adventures and playing them out with my school friends. I continued playing through my college years. Since college I have not had time to play but all aspects of my life are influenced by this game.
I was not much of a reader in my youth. When I started reading these books I started looking at fantasy novels. I was given a copy of Lord Foul’s Bane by my same cousin and was off to a world I never knew existed. I quickly ready through this book and was hungry for more. I ready everything I could get my hands on. All of my allowance money was now spent on books instead of pinball games and candy.
This was also the same year that Star Wars came out.
I look around my world and I see so many things influenced by fantasy role playing. From my Username, to participating in the Ren Faires, to how I decorate some rooms in my home, my backyard and how I interact with people. I am constantly amazed at home much of my personality is based on stories I have read in my youth.
Thank you for creating a tool that has sparked my imagination and put me on a path of adventure and creativeness. I will always remember that it started with a roll of a Pentagonal Trapezohedron