Gary Gygax and the Summer of '76

It was summer of 1976 when my best friend walked over to my house one day with a Dungeons and Dragons rulebook. It was from the original boxed set that was released in 1974, and sold for $10.00. I wish I'd bought a hundred of them and sealed them up in a vault, but I did not.

Anyway, my friend brought the rulebook over to show me. We, for reasons lost to me now, had already been sword fighting -- with sticks, not real swords -- pretending to be on quests, and so on. We were both interested in the basic world history we were learning in school, and we did play the roles of the French and the English. But, we weren't soldiers or even officers. We were knights, kings, and barons!

Perhaps Tolkien had somehow influenced us through adult storytellers. It doesn't matter. Wherever the characters in our make believe stories came from, they simply released what was already within us - a love for the extraordinary, the exciting, and the adventurous. We were already enamored with what today is known as fantasy role-playing, before we had ever seen Dungeons and Dragons. For us, exploring the imaginary was a natural part of being a kid.

School was out until September and we fell in love with the game. Dungeons and Dragons was based on European war games that were already using miniatures. We rarely used miniatures, or any type of game board, for that matter. We introduced some friends and family to the game and soon we were writing and illustrating our own adventure campaigns, using the D&D rules. We lived in what people today would consider the country, I suppose, with large yards and nearby woods and fields to explore. We, and other friends and our little brothers, would go on long hikes where we imagined we were on our own pen and paper adventure creations. And in doing so, we gained more material to write more adventures from. Sometimes when we returned from our explorations, my mom would have snacks ready for us to enjoy as we got down to the serious business of having fun playing D&D.

Over the years, my friend and I began to find other interests, and our time spent playing D&D together ended. I made new friends who were gamers and continued to play the pen and paper version for many years. I developed a love for computers and computer games, and today I play Dungeons and Dragons Online.

All the while, Mr. Gygax was writing fantasy novels and material, hosting conventions, and perfecting his gaming system. He eventually left TSR, which he founded, and then returned years later, much like his former partner Dave Arneson had done. Dave Arneson, who died in 2009, was instrumental in fantasy game development. He was the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, but it was his partner, Gary Gygax, who would retain creative control of the board game and bring it to stardom.

What I took from my time playing the pen and paper version of D&D would last a lifetime. Creating involved campaigns taught me to develop my writing skills. Being a dungeon master taught me how to deal with people better. Perhaps the greatest gift I took from the game was that of realizing there are no bounds to fantasy. It's why I still prefer to write fantasy today over any other topic.

When Gygax died in 2008, it was like losing an old and dear friend. I never met the man, nor did most D&D players. But we felt like we knew him because the way he felt about fantasy role-playing and social interaction came through in his games and writings. Take a look at his original Dungeon Master's Guide and you will understand the kind of dedication this man had to his game. You can easily see that the game was designed for adults, but it's nature was appealing to kids. The result was that my friend and I developed our math skills and writing talents that summer more than the other kids that were taking part in less intellectually stimulating endeavors.

Author's Note: The author of this article is not affiliated with Dungeons and Dragons in any way other than being a player of their online game and a fan of the table top versions. They don't pay me to write or promote for them. I write about this game because it reminds me of my youth, and because I love to write about monsters and magical lands and heroic adventurers. And to honor Mr. Gary Gygax who, along with my father and mother, helped raise a kid into a man who is still young at heart.