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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hello, all. Ed and I have been e-mailing back and forth since we heard the news, and when I sent him your post, ddporter, he responded with:

I have many, many happy personal memories of Gary, who was not just the father of our hobby, but (thanks to the nature of our hobby), the Emperor of Our Dreams.
Most of my memories are of the “you had to be there” variety rather than the “darned good anecdote” sort, but I do recall, at one of the first Parkside GenCons (for you youngsters, those are the GenCons that were held in the beautiful countryside campus of the University of Wisconsin - Parkside), meeting Gary (right after my first Pages From The Mages article had been published, if I recall rightly; he’d read it and been mightily impressed). He shook my hand, said to the gaggle of gamers and staffers surrounding him, “Back in ten, guys, maybe a little longer,” shoved open one of the glass doors that let right out into the rolling lawns of the “park” surrounding all the linked buildings, and said to me, “C’mon!”
We set off for a meandering walk around the parkland, talking fantasy books, and because I read voraciously and had grown up with a family library of accumulated classics of all sorts that was truly awesome in breadth, I had read about as widely in fantasy (from the ancient epics up through the latest generic sword-and-sorcery efforts) as Gary had. We chatted back and forth like two kids, eager to share our common love for fantasy with each other, and I promised to try to get him a copy of a Gardner Fox title he’d lost his copy of (duly gifted to him at the NEXT GenCon, by the way), and we parted with him hugging me and grinning like a kid.
THAT’S how I’ll always remember Gary: the kid just reveling in fantasy. A kid who just happened to have a beard and belly and glasses (and later, a mullet and hair that changed hue with age, and stronger glasses . . . and at the end, a motor scooter to help him with his walking). We did quite a few panels together at cons, down the years, and I recall one in Toronto with Robin Laws, Gary, and yours truly (at which Gary looked unwell and sounded very tired), where he brightened up at seeing me, and asked, “Still have the dress?”
This referred to an early GenCon panel about “What Dungeon Masters Do?” in which the moderator asked the six (all male, Gary and me being two of them) panelists how far we’d go as far as acting went, in-character, as a DM, including: “If you were in a full-costume murder mystery, even though most of you are hairy, overweight males with beards and/or moustaches, would you put on makeup, jewelry, and a dress, and try to ‘seriously’ act like an alluring female, instead of overacting or being full-on Monty Python ridiculous, despite how ludricrous you might appear?”
Gary replied: “Hell, yeah, just for a laugh. I’m afraid it would be a laugh, though.”
I can’t recall most of the other panelists’ replies (most were of the “Hell, no!” variety, I think), but I replied: “Certainly. Up to and including enthusiastic flirtation - - unless I knew doing so would upset my players! I’m there to ENTERTAIN my players, first and foremost, so their preferences rule.”
Gary looked down the table at me, and asked: “Would you really?”
I assured him I would, and to prove it, if he wanted proof, would borrow or buy high-fashion feminine garb in Lake Geneva and he could take me out to The Red Geranium (among what then passed for highbrow dineries in the town) for dinner, and we could play happy married couple for the evening. He cringed (after all, he lived there, and was married, and I did have a full beard and moustache, and was hairy and getting fat and was very obviously male), and said that doing so REALLY wouldn’t be necessary.
So the next year, when I was attending GenCon, I found Gary’s hotel room, bought a really snazzy dress in a secondhand shop in Milwaukee, put it on, knocked on his door, and bid him a sultry, “Hello, sailor!” Inevitably, I did so just as some of the hotel staff passed us, traversing the corridor. Gary stared at me with his mouth open for what seemed a very long time, and then whooped with laughter, laughing so hard he was banging on the door with his fist, all doubled over. Making my way to the elevator, I joined two of the staff who’d seen me at Gary’s door, collected the expected funny looks from them, and told them breathlessly, “That was Gary Gygax, a man so virile that manly men swoon over him!” I don’t know how they treated him for the rest of his stay, but when I passed him in the exhibit hall on Sunday, he asked me, “WHAT did you tell the hotel staff? They keep looking at me like I’m going to pounce on them!”
I put on an innocent look, and asked, “You mean you’re not?”
And he chortled again.
In short, though we rarely saw each other, we had fun (like two young, immature, carefree kids) on most of those few occasions, and I don’t regret one moment of it.
I DO regret that there won’t be any more of those moments.
Until of course, the day comes where I join Gary in whatever place old Dungeon Masters go when they pass on. I sure hope it’ll have crumbling castles and wicked wizards and dragons swooping low, and beautiful princesses needing to be rescued - - and even more gorgeous babes in full armor galloping up to us.
And being as Gary got there first, I’ll expect him to have my dress ready.

So saith Ed. Who regrets that just attending D&D Experience will probably mean he won’t be able to get time off work again so soon, to go and attend Gary’s funeral. Sigh. Rest in peace, Lord of Greyhawk.
love to all,
THO

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Originally posted by Pasta Fzoul

Here's another tribute to the architect of adventuring, from the webcomic xkcd: http://xkcd.com/393/

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0536.html

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Originally posted by KnightErrantJR

When I heard the news I had to post to my blog (in my sig) on the event of his death. If you are interested, check it out. Gygax's passing really did make me stop and take stock of what I thought, not just about him, but the hobby in general and what it has meant to me.

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Originally posted by The Sage

It's interesting. Something a little more permanent [or maybe just solid] would've been better though -- a proper steel-sided die perhaps.

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