The WOC DND home page has been altered
Brian
Hal - I probably deserve that (makes a reflex check)
I was trying to confirm the news, I heard through Digg.
I figured that the Dope would have a thread on it.
I just started playing (finally) 3 weeks ago.
It is sad, but at least he was able to have his time with fame.
This bites.
You did good, sir: your creation has given joy to millions.
And that’s another 39 points for Rachm Qoch, right? 
EGG would be proud.
I too got interested in a wide variety of subjects as spin-offs from D&D.
And I disagree, in gaming groups you can always penalize annoying players with arbitrary secret dice rolls and events (see Paranoia XP). In corporate meetings, you usually have to suck up to them and call them “boss.”
I never did quite memorize the difference among the various pole arms. The only ones I know well are the halberd and the awl pike.
I was never a PNP gamer, but I can say with certainty that Gary Gygax helped shape me into the geek I am today. Very sad news.
My magic-user casts Bigby’s Round of Respectful Applause.
I put up a picture of my copy of the AD&D 1st Edition DMG. It kind of says it all.
I met him once early on, around 1980. He was an annoying and arrogant prick and he takes too much credit for something that others contributed much too. However, he did a great job in making Role Playing Games the success they are and maybe I either caught him on a bad day or he matured.
Despite my early impression of him, I find it sad he passed away. I had no idea he was 69 already. He did not appear to be 41 when I met him. I would have thought he was in his early 60s instead.
Jim
Never met him, but his game and books gave me many happy hours with friends in my awkward teen years, and helped lead me to a lifelong interest in history, militaria and biology. Rest in peace, Gary.
He should be cremated, with his ashes going into a 20-sided urn.
With the sad deficiency that when the guy from marketing that no one likes is being a jerk you can’t have his head spontaneously combust. 
Met Gygax once (briefly) back in '96 at the Gamers Guild store (if I remember the name correctly) in Lake Geneva, while on a buying trip to TSR & Gencon. Seems his son worked in the store and Gary would just drop in now and then… cue the awe-struck fanboy trying to sound cool and complimenting him on the idea of sketched with modules (Tomb of Horrors, etc).
[Aside: my first taste of D&D/AD&D – though not of RPGing-- was in '81 when the big bookstore chain here finally got around to bringing in some boxes and books. My friend and I purchased what we could from the poor selection available… a Basic and Advanced set (D&D), a Monster Manual, and two modules, G1-3 Against the Giants, and S-1 Tomb of Horrors. Woefully under-leveled and geared PCs vs. Tomb of Horrors… not a pretty sight]. :eek:
Roleplaying has moved on a long way (for me at least) from “whack the monster”, “get the gold”, and 30 trolls crammed into a 10’x10’ room… and when years later I tried a module Gygax had endorsed that promised (paraphrasing) “roleplaying like it used to be” I was sadly disappointed.
That said, Dungeons & Dragons had an enormous impact and influence, and Mr. Gygax’s contribution to that fledgling industry was considerable – whether as a prime contributor, or by providing a focus for gaming and gamers.
I’ve read and used his books more than any other books, ever. Sad to hear of this loss.
Not a stretch at all, when role-playing games since then describe themselves by contrasting with D&D.
My vocabulary is what it is because of Gary. I remember scaring by 7th grade English teacher by defining “familiar” on a test in a way she was not at all familiar with. 
Sad indeed. But out of curiosity…death pool?
May his Bag of Holding always be full of just what he wants in the afterlife.
I started playing D&D in 1976. It’s fair to say that if it weren’t for Gary Gygax I wouldn’t be working as a game designer right now.
Enjoy the Outer Planes, Gary.
Nobody had him.
Courtesy of the crew over at woot.com:
16 Gary Gygax Jokes We Better Not Catch You Making
- “Quick! Someone cast Raise Dead!”
- “Don’t worry – he’s just playtesting the Astral Plane for the next edition.”
- “He’s gone the way of Star Frontiers.”
- “Analysts warn of a free-fall in Mountain Dew futures.”
- “In the next town, you meet a stranger named Barry Bygax.”
- “Now who will lead our young people to Satan?”
- “With his last breath, he cursed the name of Marlon Wayans.”
- “I wonder how they’ll divide up his XP.”
- “Pallbearers, make a Bend Bars/Lift Gates roll.”
- “At least he didn’t live to see Disney’s Greyhawk On Ice.”
- “Lorraine Williams is behind this somehow, I just know it.”
- “The worlds of adventure gaming, fantasy fandom, and van painting will never be the same.”
- “When I heard, I cried 2d10 tears.”
- “Is there anything in the will about electrum?”
- “Heart condition? Wow, I always thought it’d be owlbears that got him.”
- “Suddenly, nobody in Heaven wants to hang out with Marilyn Monroe on Friday night.”
[sub]Because no D&D-based thread is complete without pointless nitpicking:[/sub]
No weapon has hit points, little kobold. They do damage that is taken off the hit points of someone who gets hit, but they don’t have hit points of their own.
