Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Master Gygax is dead ... why why why?


Hard to believe, harder still to understand. Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons has passed away.

I'm just another one of those kids that got hooked in the late 70s, when my simple magic user with a dagger got killed by an orc. I formed our school's DnD club. I went to the school board meeting where they decided not to pay our teacher who was volunteering his time to mentor the DnD club (all other teacher-mentors got paid) because another teacher complained about the school subsidizing satanic influences.

And here I am, all these years later, an active duty army officer and battalion commander...still playing, but my group is now made up of nurses, military commanders, teachers, national intel types, and others who have been very successful.

I owe quite a bit to that game, and to the man behind it. An equal facility with math, and with people; an ability to think creatively; lifelong friends; and a love of oddly-shaped dice.

Thank you so much Mr Gygax ... for so much.

Lt. Col. Mike Lawhorn
U.S. Army