Gary Gygax is Gone
Mar. 4th, 2008 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rabidsamfanHe died this morning.
Count me among the "geeks" who will raise a glass in his honor. If it hadn't been for odd shaped dice I doubt I'd have half the friends I do.
I'd always "storytalked" with my sister and friends, playing elaborate games of make-believe, but it wasn't until I was in the Air Force, at technical school, that I had a chance to play D&D. One of my fellow airmen -- a girl named Deb whose red hair and personality has me remembering her like a force of nature -- had curled xeroxes of lots of the tables, and I made myself a halfling thief. I don't remember much about the game, except I was a rules lawyer. After much persuasion I convinced the other players that my halfling could carry acid filled glass pellets for her sling as well as silver pellets.
This proved vital. One night, on a series of dice rolls that will live in infamy, a baby red dragon mysteriously failed to flame me and the rest of my party to death and my halfling somehow managed to hit it in the eye with one of the glass pellets, killing it instantly. The dragonskin armor I got from its belly was one of my proudest "possessions".
As you can tell, since I'm boasting about it so many years later.
I seldom played D&D after that -- moved on to Warhammer, where I found the calculations simpler -- but the idea stayed the same.
Thanks for the memories, Gary.
Count me among the "geeks" who will raise a glass in his honor. If it hadn't been for odd shaped dice I doubt I'd have half the friends I do.
I'd always "storytalked" with my sister and friends, playing elaborate games of make-believe, but it wasn't until I was in the Air Force, at technical school, that I had a chance to play D&D. One of my fellow airmen -- a girl named Deb whose red hair and personality has me remembering her like a force of nature -- had curled xeroxes of lots of the tables, and I made myself a halfling thief. I don't remember much about the game, except I was a rules lawyer. After much persuasion I convinced the other players that my halfling could carry acid filled glass pellets for her sling as well as silver pellets.
This proved vital. One night, on a series of dice rolls that will live in infamy, a baby red dragon mysteriously failed to flame me and the rest of my party to death and my halfling somehow managed to hit it in the eye with one of the glass pellets, killing it instantly. The dragonskin armor I got from its belly was one of my proudest "possessions".
As you can tell, since I'm boasting about it so many years later.
I seldom played D&D after that -- moved on to Warhammer, where I found the calculations simpler -- but the idea stayed the same.
Thanks for the memories, Gary.
