Co-creator of the seminal RPG Dungeons & Dragons died Tuesday at his home in Lake Geneva, Wis. He was 69. It could be argued that had it not been for Mr. Gygax the role-playing games of today would look vastly different. Indeed, much of the fantasy literature and video games many enjoy may not even exist. Dungeons & Dragons‘ impact was felt far outside the adolescent teens’ basement. The game has touched virtually every aspect of the entertainment industry. Movies, music, books, video games, television – Dungeons & Dragons has touched it all.
I am not the biggest fan of the game but living in the gaming culture like I do I know how far and wide its influence has spread. And I am grateful. Gary Gygax brought a lot of fun and good memories to many people. Even me.
So, thank you, Gary. The wife and children you leave behind will be in the prayers of many.
Natural 20 for Gary!
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I was a huge D&D player as a kid, back in the early 1980s.
Gary Gygax dead. Wow.
I got the news from 4chan’s /tg/ yesterday. I didn’t believe it- and then I saw it on Wikipedia too. D&D isn’t my favorite system (in any edition), but his death sort of closes the first (core rule) book on pen and paper RPGs. It’s a shame that the hobby seems to be withering on the vine despite (or because of?) Wizards of the Coast’s best efforts to grow and milk the market.
Elisha Feger’s last blog post..Final Fantasy 7 for the NES
I’d have to argue that Wizards of the Coast is doing a lot to hurt the hobby. Or, at least, they don’t care about the greater hobby but only their properties. And even that isn’t exactly true. The “Star Wars RPG” about died under their care. They didn’t publish a single “Star Wars RPG” book for over two years. But wouldn’t you know they keep churning about D&D books! What really ticked me off is that they used the new “Star Wars SAGA Edition RPG” to beta-test the D&D 4.0 mechanics.
Man I hate Wizards of the Coast!
i can’t say i ever really cared for D&D or the sourcebook and rules-laden mentality that it spawned, but I think any gamer owes Gary Gygax a debt of gratitude regardless. Without him we likely wouldn’t be playing the games we’re playing, be they D&D or otherwise.
I heard (somewhere) that a lot of their Star Wars books sold horribly. Besides, Star Wars as an RPG has been dead in the water since West End Games went under. You can hardly blame WotC for not supporting an ailing product line. (Of course if what I heard is wrong, then this paragraph should be replaced by one excoriating them. :p)
I guess what’s going on in the RPG world right now is sort of what happened to videogames in the early 80′s. WotC’s OGL type stuff started a boom! Anyone could make things for D&D and tap into that huge market! Of course then a lot of utter crap is published, and next thing you know the industry heads towards a crash. I guess the question is, what book is going to end up being the ET of RPGs?
Elisha Feger’s last blog post..Final Fantasy 7 for the NES
D&D has a special place in my heart thanks to the genius of Gary Gygax. I’ll miss him.
Scott Kirwin’s last blog post..Countering the Worshippers of Death
Though I haven’t played any role-playing games in decades, D&D has a special place in my heart as well. Through the gaming shop I owned back in ’82, I met some amazing people like Scott Kirwin.
“I heard (somewhere) that a lot of their Star Wars books sold horribly. Besides, Star Wars as an RPG has been dead in the water since West End Games went under. You can hardly blame WotC for not supporting an ailing product line.”
West End went under not because of “Star Wars” but because if any sci-fi movie got made they tried to make an RPG out of it. They were just handing out “Species” core books for a time!
And if WOTC didn’t want the “Star Wars RPG” license they should have gotten rid of it. If it was doing so bad why did they pick it up from West End? So, I have to conclude, it didn’t start doing poorly until WOTC got their hands on it.
And I am willing to grant that they did sell poorly. Part of the reason is how much WOTC was charging for them. Softcover black-and-white splat books were as much as hardcover full-color releases of the same page count. How is that right?
The SAGA edition core rulebook retails for $40. The first SAGA sourcebook, “Starships of the Galaxy,” retails for $35 though it’s nearly half the size of the core. Shouldn’t a sourcebook that is half the size of it’s core cost half as much?
WOTC doesn’t seem to think so.
Perhaps the “Star Wars RPG” sold so poorly because they priced it outside of the range of everyone but the hardcore.
First, I want to clarify my statement. I didn’t mean West End died because of d6 Star Wars, I meant that the franchise as an RPG has been dead since WEG died.
And yeah, I agree that RPG books are costing way too much in general, and moreso with WotC’s case. I’m not sure how to solve that problem though: these books don’t exactly have large markets, leading to larger per-item prices to make up the costs of smaller print runs, leading to lower sales, etc. Unlike the academic book market, there’s no university with nigh-unlimited funds to pick up the excess cost. It doesn’t help that books with low-production values (see Cheapass Games’s line of non-RPG games like Kill Doctor Lucky) don’t sell near as well as books with high-production values. The industry has gotten itself into a pretty bad situation in general.
Elisha Feger’s last blog post..Welcome to Academia, Leave Your Rights At the Door
As you may have figured out, I like the “Star Wars” RPG. I own every book from the previous edition and I’ll probably get all the books for the SAGA edition – because I’m stupid.
But I think this situation could be improved if companies lowered the entry bar. Drop full-color. Drop hardcover. Palladium Games has been around forever (and I can’t stand them either but for different reasons than WOTC) and I can’t recall them publishing a single full-color hardcover book. While they’re in financial trouble its not because of books sales. It’s because someone embezzled a few million from them.
High production values are nice but if those production values keep potential customers away, they’ve got to go. I think the industry could benefit from a ‘back to basics’ mentality. Good writing, good mechanics, reasonable entry bar. They won’t be maximizing profits but they’ll keep their industry afloat.
WotC seems to simply handle acquired properties poorly. I was a big AEG fan (running groups in both L5R and 7thSea), both franchises were on the cusp of major, world-altering storylines and campaigns when they were bought out, and WotC has greatly disappointed on that front (since they decided to try to combine it with merging into the “WotC Uber-D20 system” thing.)
Phelps’s last blog post..Gary Gygax (1938 – 2008)
That probably sounds like the way to go. Though I do like hardcover for some of my books. They just tend to hold together a lot better through repeated paging and leafing. I’m sure my Hero System 5th Edition would have disintegrated now if it were soft-back. On the other hand, splats and a lot of setting books (that will be replaced in 2-3 years with a new edition) could stand to be made a lot of more cheaply.
Maybe the holy grail will turn out to be pdf publishing?
Elisha Feger’s last blog post..Welcome to Academia, Leave Your Rights At the Door
If PDFs is the way to go, and it might very well be, then I’d demand that prices drop. No way am I paying as much for a PDF than I would for a real book. That’s one of the reasons I stay away from PDF RPG books now. They’re simply too expensive. Cutting out the entire printing and distribution costs should have a larger impact on PDF prices than they currently do.
I hear that, Kevin. I found a couple cases a while back where the .pdf edition of some novels were more expensive than the trade paperbacks. Publishers are insane sometimes.
Elisha Feger’s last blog post..Returners FFRPG Beta Release is a Go!
Not a huge D&D fan, but without Gary I probably wouldn’t have some many RPG books to love. Farewell to him.
You know, I’ve never bought a PDF rpg book, and I don’t plan to. I really, really like the feel of something solid in my hand. Reading something on the screen hurts my eyes and just lacks… well… everything that makes books awesome.
I’m with you, Jesse. I have a friend that lives for PDFs and I just don’t get it. I like the tactile sensation of holding a book. And, in my opinion, a book is far more inviting than a file on a computer screen. But, then, that same friend also says, “Why waste money on a book when you can download a PDF?” So, there you go.
Which brings up an interesting problem for publishers that want to go PDF primarily: What to do about piracy? It’s far easier to give away a PDF than a book. The latter, while you may lend it out, you’ll want back. This’ll force someone that likes the content to purchase the book themselves. No such problem with a PDF.
Take a look at how Steve Jackson games is handling the book sales for a good idea of how to approach the cost issue. Currently, 2-3 months after the hardcover is published, SJGames starts to sell a pdf version of the book at warehouse23.com. So far, the model is working well.
Me, I’m sad to see Gygax pass, I never met him, but played with people who had known/met him. I’ve been Role Playing since I was 7 years old in 1978. I still run a game every Sat. And D&D seems to be the best standby ruleset when I’m dealing with new players or just want something less difficult to GM.
People complain about the rules bloat in D&D, but to be honest, if you use GM’s rule #3, rules are just guidelines, its one of the easier systems to modify for an enjoyable game that adheres to rules #1 (Everyone has fun in general), and #2 (Be consistent in the rules). Thats why its the standby/teaching game for me.
Gygax created and helped create much of what I enjoy most in life, and for that I thank him dearly.
Re: Piracy, when BESM 3rd edition (or whatever it was that GoO was working on putting out when it went bottom up) came out, all the people that had bought it early got PDF copies – with their personal information in the header. I think it was name and credit card number? Definately something you wouldn’t want other people seeing.
Elisha Feger’s last blog post..Returners FFRPG Beta Release is a Go!
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