Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons and basically the whole genre/culture of tabletop role-playing, died yesterday at age 69. hopefully I'll have some time later to really post adequate tribute to how fucking important D&D was and still is to my mental landscape, cos tribute must be paid - the 'live', tabletop role-playing game is clearly an endangered species that is probably destined for extinction as a weird quirk of pre-internet, pre-good video games late-20th century culture, but I'll be damned if it didn't play a critical role in the intellectual development of an entire generation of male nerds, and if I have any kids nerdy enough to play I'll be damned sure to teach them. GG and D&D taught me so much as a kid, and, if me and fellow 'former' D&D nerds like Tim B and Matricardi and Wolfgang etc can ever get our acts together for our oft-declared ambition to run a really good campaign as the quasi-adults that we are, I'm sure it would be as revelatory as ever.
Wil Wheaton, a good a spokesperson as any for nerds that came of age in a certain era, has some nice words and personal reminiscences, which struck a chord with me and many other nerds I'm sure -
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