Okay, so it's been almost a year since I posted last.  Pretty bad, I know.  But today I wanted to eulogize Gary Gygax.  He's had many more eulogizers, but I wanted to write this.

I never met him.  I never attended any cons, so I never had the opportunity.  But that's okay.  He knew the impact he had on the world. I don't really play D&D any more, which is a game that spun off of what he invented, but I see the influence everywhere.  Every video game that has a fantasy element lives in his shadow: they either connect directly to tropes he introduced or consciously sway from them.  The first Final Fantasy game for the NES almost rips him off in several ways, and today WoW still uses the class/race system he introduced. Just as modern fantasy lives in the shadow of Tolkien, it lives too in the shadow of Gygax, and will never in my lifetime escape it.

And boy, was the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide fantastic.  The encounter tables alone!

RIP