The news of Gary Gygax's passing reached me yesterday and this morning most of the Modelling and Wargame sites are talking about the effect that Gary had on the industry. I wanted to talk about the effect that D&D had on me personally.
Back when I was a very young school boy in South Wales, I first got involved with role-playing through a group at Swansea University, D&D was still very new and was still played with pencil and paper, rather than loads of miniatures. I enjoyed the fun of those first naive games and sometimes wonder if it is possible to go back to that fun element, rather than rules junky approach which was one of the main reasons I moved away from D&D as I grew older.
The pencil and paper games grew to whiteboards and china pencils with miniatures - mainly in those very early days Citadel dwarves and D&D monsters! White boards moved on to green cloths over mounds of books and building made from beermats, later still scratch built terrain and converted armies. Now nearly 40 years on I still paint model soldiers and roleplay (rarely) but it was that initial kick by Gary and the other designers of D&D that has caused this life-long love affair with the hobby or obsession as my wife would say.
Thank you and rest in peace Gary Gygax.
Tony
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