Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con gaming convention.
In 1946, after the Kenmore Pirates were involved in a fracas with another gang of boys, his father decided to move the family to Posey's family home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where Posey's family had settled in the early 19th century, and where Gary's grandparents still lived. In this new setting, Gygax soon made friends with several of his peers, including Don Kaye and Mary Jo Powell.
His interest in games, combined with an appreciation of history, eventually led Gygax to begin playing miniature war games in 1953 with his best friend Don Kaye.
Gygax was a mediocre student, and in 1956, a few months after his father died, dropped out of high school in his junior year.
Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con gaming convention.
Gygax also volunteered as a Republican precinct captain during the 1960 presidential election, and observed many infractions by his Democratic counterpart.
It reached the point that Mary Jo, pregnant with their second child, believed he was having an affair and confronted him in a friend's basement only to discover him and his friends sitting around a map-covered table. In 1962, Gygax got a job as an insurance underwriter at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co.
Except for a few months he would spend in Clinton, Wisconsin, following his divorce, and his time in Hollywood while he was the head of TSR's entertainment division, Lake Geneva would be his home for the rest of his life. By 1966, Gygax was active in the wargame hobby world and was writing many magazine articles on the subject.
Lovecraft. == Wargames == In 1967, Gygax co-founded the International Federation of Wargamers (IFW) with Bill Speer and Scott Duncan.
In 1967, Gygax organized a 20-person gaming meet in the basement of his home; this event would later be referred to as "Gen Con 0".
In 1968, Gygax rented Lake Geneva's vine-covered Horticultural Hall for () to hold the first Lake Geneva Convention, also known as the Gen Con gaming convention for short.
Gygax met Dave Arneson, the future co-creator of D&D, at the second Gen Con in August 1969. Together with Don Kaye, Mike Reese, and Leon Tucker, Gygax created a military miniatures society called Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) in 1970, with its first headquarters in Gygax's basement.
Gygax met Dave Arneson, the future co-creator of D&D, at the second Gen Con in August 1969. Together with Don Kaye, Mike Reese, and Leon Tucker, Gygax created a military miniatures society called Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) in 1970, with its first headquarters in Gygax's basement.
Shortly thereafter in 1970, Robert Kuntz and Gygax founded the Castle & Crusade Society of the IFW. Late in October 1970, Gygax lost his job at the insurance company after almost nine years.
Gygax, who had started smoking marijuana when he lost his insurance job in 1970, started to use cocaine, and had a number of extramarital affairs.
In 1971, he helped develop Chainmail, a miniatures wargame based on medieval warfare.
This clearly proved to be unsustainable when he only grossed $882 in 1971 ().
In 1971, he began doing some editing work at Guidon Games, a publisher of wargames, for which he produced the board games Alexander the Great and The Battle of France.
In the fall of 1972, around late November, Dave Arneson and friend David Megarry, inventor of the Dungeon! board game, traveled to Lake Geneva to showcase their respective games to Gygax, in his role as a representative of Guidon Games.
He co-founded the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR, Inc.) with childhood friend Don Kaye in 1973.
Worried that the other playtesters and wargamers now familiar with Gygax's rules would bring a similar product to the market first, the two accepted an offer in December 1973 by game playing acquaintance Brian Blume to invest $2,000 in TSR to become an equal one-third partner.
Gygax decided he would compress the castle dungeons into 13 levels, the size of his original Castle Greyhawk in 1973 by amalgamating the best of what could be gleaned from binders and boxes of old notes.
Gygax worked on rules for more miniatures and tabletop battle games including Classic Warfare (Ancient Period: 1500 BC to 500 AD), and Warriors of Mars. The first commercial version of D&D was released by TSR in January 1974 as a boxed set.
(In 2018, a first printing of the boxed set sold at auction for more than $20,000.) At the end of 1974, with sales of D&D skyrocketing, the future looked bright for Gygax and Kaye, who were only 36.
However, in January 1975, Kaye unexpectedly died of a heart attack.
In July 1975, Gygax and Blume reorganized their company from a partnership to a corporation called TSR Hobbies.
The Dragon debuted in June 1976, and Gygax commented on its success years later: "When I decided that The Strategic Review was not the right vehicle, hired Tim Kask as a magazine editor for Tactical Studies Rules, and named the new publication he was to produce The Dragon, I thought we would eventually have a great periodical to serve gaming enthusiasts worldwide ...
At no time did I ever contemplate so great a success or so long a lifespan." In 1976, TSR moved out of Gygax's house into its first professional home, known as "The Dungeon Hobby Shop".
In 1977, Gygax began work on a more comprehensive version of the game, called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
Dave Arneson was hired as part of the creative staff, but was let go after only ten months, another sign that Gygax and Arneson still had creative differences over D&D. === Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Hollywood=== The Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, released in 1977, was an introductory version of the original D&D geared towards new players and edited by J.
But wanting a more industry-wide periodical, he hired Tim Kask as TSR's first employee to change this magazine to the fantasy periodical The Dragon, with Gygax as writer, columnist, and publisher (from 1978 to 1981).
In 1979, Arneson filed a lawsuit against TSR; it was eventually settled in March 1981 with the agreement that Arneson would receive a 2.5% royalty on all AD&D products, giving him a very comfortable six-figure annual income for the next decade. Gygax wrote the AD&D hardcovers Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Monster Manual, and Monster Manual II.
Gygax also provided assistance on the Gamma World science fantasy role-playing game in 1981 and co-authored the Gamma World adventure Legion of Gold. In 1979, a Michigan State University student, James Dallas Egbert III, allegedly disappeared into the school's steam tunnels while playing a live-action version of D&D.
In 1980, Gygax's long-time campaign setting of Greyhawk was published in the form of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting folio, which was expanded in 1983 into the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting boxed set.
Sales of the D&D game reached in 1980.
Despite the negative publicity, or perhaps because of it, TSR's annual D&D sales increased in 1982 to , and in January 1983, The New York Times speculated that D&D might become "the great game of the 1980s" in the same manner that Monopoly was emblematic of the Great Depression. Brian Blume persuaded Gygax to allow Brian's brother Kevin to purchase Melvin Blume's shares.
But wanting a more industry-wide periodical, he hired Tim Kask as TSR's first employee to change this magazine to the fantasy periodical The Dragon, with Gygax as writer, columnist, and publisher (from 1978 to 1981).
In 1979, Arneson filed a lawsuit against TSR; it was eventually settled in March 1981 with the agreement that Arneson would receive a 2.5% royalty on all AD&D products, giving him a very comfortable six-figure annual income for the next decade. Gygax wrote the AD&D hardcovers Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Monster Manual, and Monster Manual II.
Gygax also provided assistance on the Gamma World science fantasy role-playing game in 1981 and co-authored the Gamma World adventure Legion of Gold. In 1979, a Michigan State University student, James Dallas Egbert III, allegedly disappeared into the school's steam tunnels while playing a live-action version of D&D.
This gave the Blume brothers a controlling interest, and by 1981, Gygax and the Blumes were increasingly at loggerheads over management of the company.
In 1982, Patricia Pulling's son killed himself.
Despite the negative publicity, or perhaps because of it, TSR's annual D&D sales increased in 1982 to , and in January 1983, The New York Times speculated that D&D might become "the great game of the 1980s" in the same manner that Monopoly was emblematic of the Great Depression. Brian Blume persuaded Gygax to allow Brian's brother Kevin to purchase Melvin Blume's shares.
(Since 1982, TSR, Inc.
In 1983, he worked to license the D&D product line into the successful D&D cartoon series. After leaving TSR in 1986 over issues with its new majority owner, Gygax continued to create role-playing game titles independently, beginning with the multi-genre Dangerous Journeys in 1992.
In 1980, Gygax's long-time campaign setting of Greyhawk was published in the form of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting folio, which was expanded in 1983 into the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting boxed set.
Despite the negative publicity, or perhaps because of it, TSR's annual D&D sales increased in 1982 to , and in January 1983, The New York Times speculated that D&D might become "the great game of the 1980s" in the same manner that Monopoly was emblematic of the Great Depression. Brian Blume persuaded Gygax to allow Brian's brother Kevin to purchase Melvin Blume's shares.
Finally in 1983, the two had an acrimonious divorce. At the same time, the Blumes, wanting to get Gygax out of Lake Geneva so they could manage the company without his "interference", split TSR Hobbies into TSR, Inc., and TSR Entertainment, Inc.
=== Immediately after leaving TSR, Gygax was approached by a wargaming acquaintance, Forrest Baker, who had done some consulting work for TSR in 1983 and 1984.
In 1984, after months of negotiation, he reached an agreement with Orson Welles to star in a D&D movie, and John Boorman to act as producer and director.
=== Immediately after leaving TSR, Gygax was approached by a wargaming acquaintance, Forrest Baker, who had done some consulting work for TSR in 1983 and 1984.
Gygax defended the game on a segment of 60 Minutes, which aired in 1985.
In an effort to stay in control, in March 1985, Gygax exercised his 700-share stock option, giving him just over 50% control.
In October 1985, the new manager, Lorraine Williams, revealed that she had purchased all of the shares of Kevin and Brian Blume—after Brian had triggered his own 700-share option.
Gygax took TSR to court in a bid to block the Blumes' sale of their shares to Williams, but he lost. Sales of D&D reached in 1985, but Gygax, seeing his future at TSR as untenable, resigned all positions with TSR, Inc.
However, he lost the rights to all his other work, including the World of Greyhawk and the names of all the characters he had ever used in TSR material, such as Mordenkainen, Robilar, and Tenser. == After TSR == === 1985–1989: New Infinities Productions, Inc.
In 1983, he worked to license the D&D product line into the successful D&D cartoon series. After leaving TSR in 1986 over issues with its new majority owner, Gygax continued to create role-playing game titles independently, beginning with the multi-genre Dangerous Journeys in 1992.
in October 1986, and settled his disputes with TSR in December 1986.
Gygax decided this was a good opportunity, and in October 1986, New Infinities Productions, Inc.
In November 1986, she gave birth to Gygax's sixth child, Alex.
He had retained the rights to Gord the Rogue as part of his severance agreement with TSR, so he licensed Greyhawk from TSR and started writing new novels beginning with Sea of Death (1987); sales were brisk, and Gygax's Gord the Rogue novels ended up keeping New Infinities in business. Gygax brought in Don Turnbull from Games Workshop to manage the company, then worked with Mohan and Mentzer on a science fiction-themed RPG, Cyborg Commando, which was published in 1987.
Gary was also a realist, and knew what good fatherhood would demand, especially at his age." On August 15, 1987, on what would have been his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, Gygax married Gail Carpenter. During 1987 and 1988, Gygax worked with Flint Dille on the Sagard the Barbarian books, as well as Role-Playing Mastery and its sequel, Master of the Game.
Gary was also a realist, and knew what good fatherhood would demand, especially at his age." On August 15, 1987, on what would have been his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, Gygax married Gail Carpenter. During 1987 and 1988, Gygax worked with Flint Dille on the Sagard the Barbarian books, as well as Role-Playing Mastery and its sequel, Master of the Game.
However, by 1988, TSR had rewritten the setting for the world of Greyhawk, and Gygax was not happy with the new direction in which TSR was taking "his" creation.
Gygax announced in 1988 in a company newsletter that he and Rob Kuntz, his co-Dungeon Master during the early days of the Greyhawk campaign, were working as a team again.
In 1983, he worked to license the D&D product line into the successful D&D cartoon series. After leaving TSR in 1986 over issues with its new majority owner, Gygax continued to create role-playing game titles independently, beginning with the multi-genre Dangerous Journeys in 1992.
Work progressed favourably until March 1992, when TSR filed an injunction against Dangerous Dimensions, claiming the name and initials were too similar to Dungeons & Dragons.
So in addition to his work on the RPG and the Mythus setting, Gygax wrote three novels, released under publisher Penguin/Roc and later reprinted by Paizo Publishing: The Anubis Murders, The Samarkand Solution, and Death in Delhi. In late 1992, the Dangerous Journeys RPG was released by Games Designer Workshop, but TSR immediately applied for an injunction against the entire Dangerous Journeys RPG and the Mythus setting, arguing that Dangerous Journeys was based on D&D and AD&D.
Clark had to ask Troll Lord Games to become an "angel" investor by publishing the three remaining Lejendary Adventures books. On October 9, 2001, Necromancer Games announced that they would be publishing a d20 version of Necropolis, an adventure originally planned by Gygax for New Infinities Productions and later printed in 1992 as a Mythus adventure by GDW; Gary Gygax's Necropolis was published a year later. Gygax also performed voiceover narration for cartoons and video games.
By 1994, the legal costs associated with many months of pretrial discovery had drained all of Gygax's resources; believing that TSR was also suffering, Gygax offered to settle.
Although Gygax was well compensated for his years of work on Dangerous Journeys and Mythus, TSR immediately and permanently shelved them both. === 1995–2000: Lejendary Adventures === In 1995, Gygax began work on a new computer role-playing game called Lejendary Adventures.
Although he was not able to successfully release a Lejendary Adventures computer game, Gygax decided to instead publish it as a tabletop game. Meanwhile, in 1996 the games industry was rocked by the news that TSR had run into insoluble financial problems and had been bought by Wizards of the Coast.
While WotC was busy refocussing TSR's products, Christopher Clark of Inner City Games Designs approached Gygax in 1997 to suggest that they produce some adventures to sell in game stores while TSR was otherwise occupied; the result was a pair of fantasy adventures published by Inner City Games: A Challenge of Arms (1998) and The Ritual of the Golden Eyes (1999).
Although Gygax did not write any new supplements or books for TSR or WotC, he did agree to write the preface to the 1998 adventure Return to the Tomb of Horrors, a paean to Gygax's original AD&D adventure Tomb of Horrors.
He designed another gaming system called Lejendary Adventure, released in 1999.
Gygax was thus able to return to publish Lejendary Adventures in 1999.
He also returned to the pages of Dragon Magazine, writing the "Up on a Soapbox" column from Issue #268 (January 2000) to Issue #320 (June 2004). === 2000–2008: Later works and death=== Gygax continued to work on Lejendary Adventures which he believed was his best work.
In 2000, he voiced his own cartoon self for an episode of Futurama, "Anthology of Interest I" that also included the voices of Al Gore, Stephen Hawking and Nichelle Nichols.
However, sales were below expectation. On June 11, 2001, Stephen Chenault and Davis Chenault of Troll Lord Games announced that Gygax would be writing books for their company.
Clark had to ask Troll Lord Games to become an "angel" investor by publishing the three remaining Lejendary Adventures books. On October 9, 2001, Necromancer Games announced that they would be publishing a d20 version of Necropolis, an adventure originally planned by Gygax for New Infinities Productions and later printed in 1992 as a Mythus adventure by GDW; Gary Gygax's Necropolis was published a year later. Gygax also performed voiceover narration for cartoons and video games.
Troll Lord also published a few adventures as a result of their partnership with Gygax, including The Hermit (2002) an adventure intended for d20 and also for Lejendary Adventures. By 2002, Gygax had given Christopher Clark of Hekaforge an encyclopaedic 72,000-word text describing the Lejendary Earth.
Hekaforge managed to publish the first two of those Lejendary Earth sourcebooks, Gazetteer (2002) and Noble Kings and Great Lands (2003), but by 2003 the small company was having financial difficulties.
In 2003, Gygax announced that he was again partnering with Rob Kuntz to publish the original and previously unpublished details of Castle Greyhawk and the City of Greyhawk in 6 volumes, although the project would use the rules for Castles and Crusades rather than D&D.
In 2004, Gygax suffered two strokes and narrowly avoided a subsequent heart attack; he was then diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and died in March 2008. == Early life and inspiration == Gygax was born in Chicago, the son of Almina Emelie "Posey" (Burdick) and Swiss immigrant and former Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Ernst Gygax.
He also returned to the pages of Dragon Magazine, writing the "Up on a Soapbox" column from Issue #268 (January 2000) to Issue #320 (June 2004). === 2000–2008: Later works and death=== Gygax continued to work on Lejendary Adventures which he believed was his best work.
Gygax continued to painstakingly put Castle Zagyg together on his own, but even this slow and laborious process came to a complete halt when Gygax suffered a serious stroke in April 2004 and then another one a few weeks later.
In 2005, Gygax was involved in the Castles & Crusades role-playing game, which was conceived as a hybrid between the third edition of D&D and the original version of the game conceived by Gygax. Gygax was married twice and had six children.
Finally in 2005, Castle Zagyg Part I: Yggsburgh, the first book in the six-book series, appeared.
Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con gaming convention.
In 2004, Gygax suffered two strokes and narrowly avoided a subsequent heart attack; he was then diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and died in March 2008. == Early life and inspiration == Gygax was born in Chicago, the son of Almina Emelie "Posey" (Burdick) and Swiss immigrant and former Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Ernst Gygax.
In one concession to his condition, he switched from cigarettes, which he had smoked since high school, to cigars. It wasn't until 2008 that Gygax was able to finish the second volume of six volumes, Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works, which described details of the castle above ground.
However, before they could be written, Gygax died in March 2008.
Tolkien for number 18 on GameSpy's "30 Most Influential People in Gaming". A strain of bacteria was named in honor of Gygax, "Arthronema gygaxiana sp nov UTCC393". Inducted into the Pop Culture Hall of Fame Class of 2019 In 2008 Gail Gygax, the widow of Gary Gygax, began the process to establish a memorial to her late husband in Lake Geneva.
On March 28, 2011 the City Council of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, approved Gail Gygax's application for a site of memorial in Donian Park; however the Gygax family was unable to raise the money at the time to complete the memorial during a 2012 funding campaign.
On March 28, 2011 the City Council of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, approved Gail Gygax's application for a site of memorial in Donian Park; however the Gygax family was unable to raise the money at the time to complete the memorial during a 2012 funding campaign.
(In 2018, a first printing of the boxed set sold at auction for more than $20,000.) At the end of 1974, with sales of D&D skyrocketing, the future looked bright for Gygax and Kaye, who were only 36.
Tolkien for number 18 on GameSpy's "30 Most Influential People in Gaming". A strain of bacteria was named in honor of Gygax, "Arthronema gygaxiana sp nov UTCC393". Inducted into the Pop Culture Hall of Fame Class of 2019 In 2008 Gail Gygax, the widow of Gary Gygax, began the process to establish a memorial to her late husband in Lake Geneva.
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