Information AboutGary Gygax |
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Ernest Gary Gygax (born July 27 1938 in Chicago, Illinois , son of a Swiss immigrant father and an American mother ) is best known as the author of the well known fantasy Role-playing Game '' Dungeons & Dragons '' (''D&D''), co-created with Dave Arneson and co-published with Don Kaye in 1974 under the company Tactical Studies Rules . Although he shares the title with several other people, Gygax is generally considered to be the "father" of the modern role-playing hobby. BIOGRAPHY His gaming experiences began at the age of five and six with playing Pinochle and Chess as well as early developments of what is now considered to be Live Action Role-playing together with Jim Rasch as Referee / Game Master , John Rasch and Don Kaye as fellow participants. At about the same time Gary began educating himself in Sci-Fi novels with Ray Bradbury 's ''The Veldt'' in Bluebook and Robert E. Howard ’s ''Conan the Conqueror''. "I've been reading fantasy since 1950." Gamespy interview with Gary Gygax Interview ", interview by Allen Rausch (URL accessed on January 3 , 2005 ) It was in 1953 that Gary Gygax first started playing Miniature War Games with Don Kaye. The game '' Gettysburg '' from the Avalon Hill company captured Gygax's attention. It was from the same company that he placed an order for the first blank hexagon mapping sheets that were available. He was also looking for new ways to generate random numbers. Platonic Solids would be his new dice. In (URL accessed on August 20, 2005) In 1967 , a 20-person gaming-get-together was organized by Gary Gygax at his home including the basement sand table. This was later called "''Gen Con 0''" as it led to the start of the annual Gen Con Gaming Convention the following year, which is now the world's largest and longest-running annual hobby-game gathering. Gen Con is also where Gary Gygax would meet Brian Blume and Dave Arneson. Brian Blume would later enter into TSR as partner with Don Kaye and Gary. "I'm very fond of the Medieval period, the Dark Ages in particular. We started playing in the period because I had found appropriate miniatures. I started devising rules where what the plastic figure was wearing was what he had. If he had a shield and no armor, then he just has a shield. Shields and half-armor = half-armor rules; full-armor figure = full armor rules. I did rules for weapons as well." Gygax and Jeff Perren wrote '' Chainmail '', a Miniature Wargame from which ''D&D'' was developed, in 1969 . Together with Don Kaye, Mike Reese and Leon Tucker, a military miniatures society would be created under the name ''Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association'' (LGTSA) which at the time also met in Gary's basement. Gary Gygax, "''LONG BIOGRAPHY of E(rnest) GARY GYGAX''", revision 6-05, ©2005 Gygax and Kaye founded the publishing company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) and published the first version of ''D&D'' in 1974 . For the spell systems, Gygax would be inspired by Jack Vance , but also draw upon such renowned fantasy authors as Robert E. Howard , L. Sprague De Camp and Fritz Leiber . The hand assembled print run of 1000 copies would sell out in nine months. In the same year, Gary Gygax hired Tim Kask to help make the transition of ''The Strategic Review'' (progenitor of DRAGON magazine) to the fantasy periodical today known as Dragon Magazine with Gary Gygax as author and later as columnist. After the death of Kaye in 1976, his widow sold her shares to Gygax. Gygax then controlling the whole partnership Tactical Studies Rules created '' TSR Hobbies, Inc ''. He sold it soon after to Brian Blume and his father Kevin because of money problems. The Blume family owned roughly two-thirds of TSR Hobbies by late 1976. Tactical Studies Rules published the two first printings of the original ''D&D'' and '' TSR Hobbies, Inc '' went on with the game. A few years later a new version of ''D&D'' was created, '' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons '' (AD&D) (1977-9). The '' Player's Handbook '' would be the first rule book of the new system. The new rules were not compatible with D&D. As a result, the D&D and AD&D had distinct product lines and expansions. Gary Gygax left TSR in 1985 during changes in TSR's management. Problems arose while Gary was preoccupied with making the CBS cartoon series Dungeons and Dragons. "I was pretty much boxed out of the running of the company because the two guys, who between them had a controlling interest, thought they could run the company better than I could. I was set up because I could manage. In 1982 nobody on the West Coast would deal with TSR, but they had me start a new corporation called "Dungeons and Dragons Entertainment." It took a long time and a lot of hard work to get to be recognized as someone who was for real and not just a civilian, shall we say, in entertainment. Eventually, though, we got the cartoon show going (on CBS) and I had a number of other projects in the works." After leaving TSR Gary Gygax created '' Dangerous Journeys '', an advanced RPG spanning multiple genres containing almost every rule that Gary could think of. He began work in 1995 on a major new RPG, originally intended for a computer game, but in 1999 released as '' Lejendary Adventure '' which some consider to be his best work to date. A key part of its design was to keep the gaming rules as simple as possible, as Gygax felt that role playing games were becoming too complex and discouraged new users. He is now in semi-retirement, having almost suffered a Heart Attack after receiving incorrect medication to prevent further Strokes after those on April 1 and May 4 2004 . Although working hours declined gaming is still very much a part of Gary's life. Together with James M. Ward , creator of the '' Metamorphosis Alpha '' and '' Gamma World '', Thursday night is RPG night. "I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else." Personal Gary Gygax married Gail Carpenter on August 15 , 1987 , which was the same day as his own parents' 50th anniversary. As of 2005 , he is father to six children and seven grandchildren as well. The first five, Ernest G. Jr. , Mary Elise , Heidi Jo , Cindy Lee and Lucion Paul are from his first marriage. His latest, through his current marriage, is Alexander Hugh Hamilton Gygax born on October 2 , 1986 . His latest grandson is Jonathan To (pronounced toe, his father being Chinese-Vietnamese). Gary describes his studio in his typical narrative fashion as, "a small but sunny upper room—cluttered with books, magazines, papers, and who-knows-what else. Right now, pending the redecorating of that room, I am lodged in the downstairs dining room at a long table that holds two computers and a scanner, with the printer hiding to one side below it. The radio there in the studio was usually tuned to a classical music station, but the station was sold, programming changed, so now I work sans music, or now and then with a CD playing through the computer. While there are bookcases in the upper studio, elsewhere on the second floor, and on the first floor, the main repository of printed lore (other than that piled here and there) is my basement library which includes thousands of reference works, maps, magazines, and works of fiction." Honorable Mention From 1975 to 1994 , Gary Gygax received several awards related to gaming ...
Gary Gygax was tied with J.R.R.Tolkien for #18 on "GameSpy's 30 Most Influential People in Gaming" (Gamespy Magazine, March 2002). As of March 13 , 2003 , Gygax is listed under the entry ''Dungeons and Dragons'' in the Oxford English Dictionary. A strain of bacteria has been named in honor of Gary Gygax, namely "''Arthronema gygaxiana sp nov UTCC393''". "''Molecular and Morphological Characterization of Ten Polar and Near-Polar Strains within the Oscillatoriales'' (Cyanobacteria)", by Dale A. Casamatta, Jeffrey R. Johansen, Morgan L. Vis, and Sharon T. Broadwater, Journal of Psychology, 2005 ''Sync'' Magazine named Gary Gygax #1 on the list of "The 50 Biggest Nerds of All Time". Number 1: Gary Gyrax: "Cocreator of Dungeons & Dragons and father of role-playing games. Defining nerd moment: With a last name that sounds like a barbarian warrior from space, is it any wonder this guy invented the 20-sided die? Between 1977 and 1979, Gygax released Advanced Dungeons & Dragons for advanced dorks, taking the cult phenomenon to new heights whilst giving himself a +5 salary of lordly might." ''Sync'' Magazine, December/January 2004/05 ''SFX'' Magazine listed him as #37 on the list of the "50 Greatest SF Pioneers". ''SFX'' Magazine March (#128) 2005 Media Coverage
He had a cameo appearance in the April 13 , 2004 strip of R. K. Milholland's on-line comic Something Positive . Gary is shown getting busted by the FBI for creating Dungeons & Dragons and causing "years and years of anti-social mayhem". In an episode of '' Dexter's Laboratory '' (entitled D&DeeDee), Dexter attempts to play a super-powerful character named Gygax with a soul-stealing sword, but ends up with Hodo The Furry-Footed Burrower instead. His name has twice been an answer in the board game Trivial Pursuit . Mentioned in magazines and newspapers too abundant to list here. JOB TITLES
:::Co-Producer, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Animated Television Show
ROLE-PLAYING GAMES '' Boot Hill '' - role-playing elements in the Wild West, with Brian Blume, 1975 Dungeons & Dragons (see also Dungeons & Dragons )
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (see also Dungeons & Dragons )
Dangerous Journeys (see also Dangerous Journeys )
Lejendary Adventures (see also '' Lejendary Adventure '')
Castles & Crusades For '' Castles & Crusades '', the Castle Zagyg series is a planned series of seven sourcebooks based on Gygax's original campaign. For Copyright reasons they are not published under the name of Greyhawk .
Generic d20 System (see also D20 System & Open Game License )
NON-RPG GAMES Rules for Miniatures/Table Top Battle Games
Board Games
Chess Variants
LITERATURE Fantasy Novels (TSR, 1985); Cover art by Clyde Caldwell ]]
Misc Books & Short Stories
::''The Ice Dragon'' ::''The Green Hydra'' ::''The Crimson Sea'' ::''The Fire Demon''
Periodicals
BIBLIOGRAPHY EXTERNAL LINKS
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