So long Gary Gygax!

I used to play Dungeons and Dragons a lot when I was younger.

My brother Nick, who was older than me by several years had some early adopter friends who taught him and his pals and he taught me. My first D & D experiences were playing with my brothers high school friends while I was in 3rd or 4th grade. I had fun, mostly, but some of Nick's friends were pretty mean to me which was not fun and I would occasionally have to retire to the bathroom to cry after being abused by one of these jerks. (I remember one time in particular when I was killed by one of the jerks and the Dungeon Master, a friend of Nick's, took me aside and said that he was going to resurrect me as a Barrow Wight so that I could take revenge on the asshole that killed me. That was nice of him...)

We played nearly every weekend for a couple of years. As my brother's friends got jobs and girlfriends, I had to teach my own friends and we played a ton sometimes in school.

I loved to draw my various characters fighting the variety of monsters that lived in the D & D worlds.

I was way into sword and sorcery stuff as a kid anyway and D & D just amplified it. It was fun to pretend to be a cool hero and go on awesome adventures and you could go anywhere you could imagine!

I remember our parents (and others) asking, "Who won?" and my brother or my friends and I looking at each other knowingly and saying, "Nobody!" This always seemed to confuse the people the most. "No winner?!? Maybe there wasn't even a dragon OR a dungeon?"

I haven't played D & D since a brief resurgent moment in College, but I see the way that D & D has spawned a whole lot of our current pop culture.

I may try and whip up a game this weekend to honor Mr. Gygax for the great fun he provided me when I was younger. Thanks Gary, I hope Valhalla or the Elysian Fields or whatever is all you imagined!