Because I AM a geek

Tuesday morning, Gary Gygax died.


Guys, I can't really figure out how to put this utter feeling of loss into words. I mean, it's not as strong as if a friend or family member were to have died. But it is very sad nonetheless.


Gary Gygax, having created DnD, is responsible for a few friendships in my life. If it weren't for DnD, there wouldn't have been any other table-top rpg. No Vampire. I never would have met Christina or Jev. I probably woudnl't have ended up meeting the Pirates. True, there wouldn't have been some fallings outs that were nothing short of minor catasrophes, but that's life. I wouldn't trade in those good times for anything.


How many times have my friends at home gotten together to play Mage, or Mythus, or Vampire?


Highschool sucked for a lot of us, and playing V:tM was something to look forward to.


In life, the day-to-day is nothing short of monotonous, it's the same thing over and over again, but when we'd role play, it was something to look forward to. I don't know about the others, but I mostly looked forward to the excuse to get together; whether we played the game or not, we'd all be together, with the intent to play a game. It was like a minor weekly, or bi-monthly, holiday, where we'd all bring something for dinner, have dinner, maybe a drink, maybe dessert and play a few hours.


Good times.


Not that those times are gone now. Gary Gygax never directly influenced how people got together. It's jsut, without the man having lived in the first place, we wouldn't have done that.


Many people can remember their first experience with DnD, or a p&p rpg; and if you can understand that I (along with many other people) not only remember their first experience, but countless others after that - that in some way it formed who I am now, then you can understand what a loss it is for the creator of DnD to have died.


I guess, there are easier ways to put this, after all, you may not be a p&p geek.


Imagine if you found out that Hironobu Sakaguchi/Miyomoto died?


Imagine if David Bowie died?


Imagine... other famous people who had some influence over your life... imagine what you would feel if they died?


It's not a deep hurt. You probably never met them, never got to thank them; but it does feel like something is missing. It feels generally blue.


You take a deep sigh, and miss the person, and do something to honor them.


Of course, the only proper way to honor Gary Gygax is to break out the 1st ed. books and do a dungeon crawl.

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