OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

by rfloh on Mar 6, 2008 1:52 PM PST Comment 31 comments

For anyone who has every played DnD, whether on pen and paper or computers, or even medieval fantasy role playing games, Gary Gygax passed over away today in Milwaukee.

I never liked his vision of DnD, back in 1st edition days, but still, he was the founder. The father of Mordenkainen and Melf.

RIP.

So, to anyone who has played RPGs, favourite RPG games? PNP or PC would do.

Favourite DnD classes?

This FanPost is reader-generated, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of McCovey Chronicles. If the author uses filler to achieve the minimum word requirement, a moderator may edit the FanPost for his or her own amusement.

0 recs | Comment 31 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

I played Diablo II: Lord of Destruction obsessively for about three years. Both on Battle.net and a mod I found.

Democracy is lovely but baseball is more mature. BVCE supports Manny Burriss and SF Dugout.

by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Mar 6, 2008 1:51 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

I've been playing RPGs for over 27 years. Tuesday was a very sad day.

by Skaldheim on Mar 6, 2008 2:14 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

DnD?

Thoughts on 1st ed, 2nd ed, 3.0, 3.5 and upcoming 4?

by rfloh on Mar 6, 2008 2:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: DnD?

B/X and 1E please. 3/4 are just too different, and too complex for my taste.

All those Giants fans down in Giants land love that Crazy Crab!

by BlackDougal on Mar 7, 2008 4:22 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Heh

I never liked 1st ed at all. Liked 2nd ed. Love 3/3.5.

by rfloh on Mar 7, 2008 9:51 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Heh

I thought 1st was better than 2nd, but 3rd is the best for sure. Whoever came up with the idea of feats is a true genius.

Zealously advocating for Nate the Great since 2007.

by orangeandblackattack on Mar 7, 2008 10:37 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Heh

Ok, ok, I admit it. That was me. The secret's out, guys!

He is Vengeance. He is the Knight. He is Dave Righetti. PRAY TO HIM!

by howtheyscored on Mar 7, 2008 10:48 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Heh

Feats are great. I hate the fiddly skill system, though. Prestige classes were a great idea that got turned into a disaster of munchkinism.

by Skaldheim on Mar 7, 2008 11:25 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The way I see prestige classes

is no one is forcing you to be a munckin.

OTOH, if you do want to be a munchkin, you can.

I like the vast array of choices and options.

For me I play munchkin hacknslash characters rarely, only to just pass a couple hours with friends without really thinking, as a change of pace.

by rfloh on Mar 7, 2008 1:50 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: DnD?

Briefly:

AD&D: Very very good, perfect flavor, perfect playstyle. The version I would play if I were starting a campaign from scratch now.

AD&D2: Some good things at first, but it was all overwhelmed by an avalanche of broken supplements that were never playtested.

D&D 3.0: An excellent modernizing of the rules, though way too many rules for AD&D style play. Gygax himself said it was too rules-heavy for him. This is the version we play currently.

D&D 3.5: Ummm...wait...why are you changing stuff that was fine? Wow.

"D&D 4e": Get thee behind me, Satan, with your crappy MMO/anime influences and munchkin garbage! Gygax is now officially rolling in his grave over this shit! From what I've seen so far, I do not consider this to be Dungeons & Dragons any more.

I never really played the basic editions.

by Skaldheim on Mar 7, 2008 11:20 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I agree with you about 4

I HATE IT. HATE HATE HATE. And am going to hold out against it for as long as I can.

The reason they had 3.5 was to deal with some "munchkin" issues with 3rd ed: basically frontloaded classes that resulted in people cherrypicking 1 or 2 levels in many classes. IMO, they did do a good job on that issue.

by rfloh on Mar 7, 2008 1:53 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: DnD?

I dislike all RPGs with character classes and levels, although I was into AD&D back in the day (i.e, when it was the only thing around). I am also not a fan of any system where you "roll up" a character.

Game systems I like (warning: 80s alert):

o Chaosium (Runequest/Call of Cthlthu)
o GURPS (yes, I am the one guy who likes this system)
o Champions (although the Hero system did not translate well to mere mortals... and reflexively GURPS didn't work well for SUPERS)

And I have a soft spot for Aftermath! Even though it's a terrible system in many aspects (100 pages of gun rules... but they don't kill PCs)

But really - the rules set is basically irrelevant to a good RPG experience. Many of the most fun games I ever played basically had no rules at all, just good GMs.

by zenbitz on Mar 7, 2008 11:43 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: DnD?

"Many of the most fun games I ever played basically had no rules at all, just good GMs."

Another reason not to play D&D with Brian Sabean. And that was kind of a long list to begin with.

He is Vengeance. He is the Knight. He is Dave Righetti. PRAY TO HIM!

by howtheyscored on Mar 7, 2008 12:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

Remember when Elf, Dwarf and Halfling were a class and the levels system went up to 36?

Good-bye, Gary.

Zealously advocating for Nate the Great since 2007.

by orangeandblackattack on Mar 6, 2008 5:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

I never played the pen and paper incarnations much, but one of my favorite video games is Knights of the Old Republic, which is based on the d20 system. DnD's infleunce wasn't just on RPGs, but many other games as well. Good times.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2008/20080304.jpg

Nattowear | comics | Durham? I hardly know 'im!

by Natto on Mar 6, 2008 2:26 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

KOTOR?

So, have you played Bioware's other games? Neverwinter Nights?

by rfloh on Mar 6, 2008 2:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: KOTOR?

I've always wanted to play it, but never got around to doing so. Maybe I'll try sometime this summer.

Nattowear | comics | Durham? I hardly know 'im!

by Natto on Mar 6, 2008 2:34 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

If you do,

I suggest trying the (free) community / custom created content.

That is the strength of the game, not the original campaigns / scenarios that ship with the game. The toolset that allows creation of community content and Bioware's support of the community has resulted in a huge ass amount of outstanding community content.

A huge amount of modules, lots of modifications that allow you to change the looks of characters / clothes etc, and huge amounts of classes / races that Bioware did not implement.

by rfloh on Mar 6, 2008 2:48 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

I'm tipping my 8+ magic goblet to him right now.

by xanthan on Mar 6, 2008 2:38 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

"Gary Gygax ... died Tuesday at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was 69 and had 41 hit points."

by Cleophus on Mar 6, 2008 5:07 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

(I stole that from a friend so I claim immunity if it is found to be in bad taste.)

by Cleophus on Mar 6, 2008 5:08 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

I just don't see how he can have any hit points now.

He is Vengeance. He is the Knight. He is Dave Righetti. PRAY TO HIM!

by howtheyscored on Mar 6, 2008 5:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

I never played DnD. I've been into WOW for the last few years. I was quite strung-out for a while there, but now I've got it under control.
It's my first MMORPG. Before WOW, I was into FPS - such as Tom Clancy's various Rainbow Six adaptations.

by Jakespaar on Mar 6, 2008 4:00 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

just gotta say this

NERDS!

IT'S BASEBALL IT'S BASEBALL IT'S BASEBALL IT'S BASEBALL!!!

by SloIsLonelyForTheOrange on Mar 6, 2008 5:59 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

Rogue. And I have the Cs and Ds in college to prove it.

I got one word for you: "youneverknow"

by senorvegas on Mar 7, 2008 12:03 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

EGG was a righteous dude, basically inviting everyone (virtually anyone) over to his house to play/drink beer/hang out/play games (including cards, random board games, etc.). He responded directly to almost every email and answered jillions of questions from players, although sometimes the answers changed over the years.

He actually wrote several wargames and 10 books and novels, in a variety of genres. Most of all, he was not a typical Comic Book Guy-type nerd as portrayed nowadays, consumed by some obscure interest. He was a very interesting guy, incredibly well-read and well-travelled, and not pretentious or self-absorbed.

His health had been very poor for several years, so this was not too much of a surprise considering that he had an aortal aneurysm and had strokes and heart attacks. Still sad, but I got the impression that he had had to give up many things he truly enjoyed as his health worsened.

All those Giants fans down in Giants land love that Crazy Crab!

by BlackDougal on Mar 7, 2008 4:34 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

Sadly, I never got to meet him. Dave Arneson is a friend of a friend, so I've spent some time in his company. Dave's a very nice and funny guy.

Gary's broad education and intellectual curiosity is evident in the AD&D books he wrote. Not only were they fun, they were educational and inspirational. He included a long bibliography of his fantasy and science fiction influences, which introduced me to a number of oustanding authors.

The current designers have all but abandoned the educational and historical sides of the game, in favor of the OMGCOOLPOWERZ stuff.

by Skaldheim on Mar 7, 2008 11:23 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: OFF Topic. RIP Gary Gygax

I didn't know anything about the other things Gary Gygax was into. Tis a shame. All I knew of D&D is it was an effective way for one of my asshat exes to ignore me. Then it was Everquest.

But enough about my sad life. From what I can tell here Mr. Gygax really was a creative individual and it's a shame he's gone.

Democracy is lovely but baseball is more mature. BVCE supports Manny Burriss and SF Dugout.

by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Mar 7, 2008 11:29 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs