To lovers of asymmetrical dice, bad heavy metal and yellowed Conan the Barbarian paperbacks, Gary Gygax is a demigod. To regular folk, those few who have ever heard of him, his passion for lead soldiers, sub-Tolkien schlock and pizza mark him as the archetypal geek.
Gary Gygax invented Dungeons and Dragons (D & D) in his basement in 1971 and inadvertently spawned a viral counterculture, a movement that evaded mainstream attention because it never sought or appropriated contemporary concepts cool. He's pretty popular with manufacturers of lopsided dice too.
More sneered at and unfairly reviled as a psychological prop to the terminally awkward than actually played or appreciated for its vast sweep, D & D (and it's more cerebral sibling Advanced D & D) combined table-top wargaming with story-telling traditions stretching back to prehistory. It was the world's first role-playing game (RPG) and inspired a slew of imitators. Many surpassed Gygax's efforts. But Gary got there first.
Born in Chicago in 1958, Gygax created D & D during a flagging all-night table-top session. Spurred on by an ecstatic word-of-mouth response, he quit his insurance underwriter job, establishing TSR Inc to publish and distribute D & D rule-books and supplements. Within four years, the company was showing a $1.2 million annual turnover.
For all his restless creativity, Gygax lacked business savvy. TSR's Exocet-like rise to prominence attracted corporate sharks and by the early 1980s, he had ceded control to faceless boardroom bean counters.
Banished to a Californian subsidiary, Gygax oversaw the short-lived but fondly remembered D & D cartoon series. Despite its twee execution, the show exuded an ethereal other-worldliness approaching the haunting grandeur of Gygax's original vision.
The RPG industry foundered briefly in the mid-1980s and TSR recalled Gygax as creative consultant. He masterminded a string of well-received releases, but hostilities flared anew and the suits jettisoned him for good. Hoary old TSR came unstuck when the card-trading phenomenon, Magic the Gathering, gobbled up its fanbase in the mid-1990s. Magic creators Wizards of the Coast staged a surprise takeover, recently unveiling an extensively revamped edition of D & D.
Close to 30 years since its emergence from a pungent suburban cellar, D & D abides: an estimated two million 16-35year-olds play RPGs every week in the US and the release next spring of the first D & D movie (Jeremy Irons stars) underscores Gygax's enduring influence.
For more about Gary Gygax see www.garygygax.com