The inventor of Dungeons and Dragons passed away on 4th of March. I've been meaning to write about it for days but somehow I've let the week and a bit go by without comment. This obituary was in The Economist so I'm posting it here.FOR most people, “role-playing” conjures up dreary afternoons at management retreats, pretending to be an irate customer or a difficult employee. But if you are under 45 and possibly something of a nerd, more evocative memories may surface. You are Jozan, adventurer-cleric of the sun-god Pelor, travelling the world of Greyhawk, battling orcs and evil wizards, righting wrongs and seeking treasure—at least until you and your friends run out of beer and crisps and stagger off to bed. This is Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the first of the role-playing games and the reason for thousands of misspent youths.There's an interesting comment towards the end that points out the Wikipedia entry about Dungeons and Dragons is longer than the entry for Marcel Proust's great work 'Remembrance of Things Past'. Pretty funny, and yet obliquely it would be true of my own life experiences. The writings and thinking of Gary Gygax has cast a much longer, darker, denser shadow than the great French Jewish writer. It's perverse but true - Yes indeed, it's embarrassing but true: My life has been more consumed with the slaying of 16 Hit-Dice Red Dragons called Glaurung and Smaugusborda, than with the events of The Guermantes and The Swanns.
Gary Gygax was perfectly equipped to bring this fantastic world to basements and dining-room tables all over the world. As a boy he was fascinated by games of all sorts, from pinochle to chess. His father, a violinist, read him countless pulp novels featuring dragons, wizards and elves. Even the family name, he once said, had fantastic origins, proving that the Gygaxes were descended from Goliath.
Considering all this, I still know far less about Gygax than I do about Proust.
So it goes.
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