Gary Gygax died this week at age 69. So what? Well, you might only know him from D&D fame, but his reach was far and broad.
Pull up a chair, lemme tells ya a story.
Gygax was first involved in the creation of 3 games: Greyhawk, Blackmoor, and Eldritch Wizardry. These were modifications to the first game he helped build called Chainmail.
Chainmail was a series of rules for large scale battle simulation. It became the default set of rules for all combat recreations, including live civil war reenactments, Risk, Starfleet battles, Warcraft, Diablo, and a hundred classified military simulations. Yes, even the movie Wargames had a toe in Chainmail. Though the simulations were all calculated by a group of scientists, they used a derivative of the Chainmail rules to insure their accuracy. So basically, if you're playing any kind of game or simulation with 20 or more possible troups, you're probably playing a child of Chainmail.
Greayhaw, Blackmoor and Eldritch wizardy got combined and refined into Dungeons and Dragons. And while it's true that much of the fantasy was "borrowed" from existing sources, The game system itself led in many directions. First, D&D was the origin root of all role playing games: Champions, Cyberpunk, Traveler, etc. So, if you've ever rolled dice with anything but 6 sides, that's probably due to the Gax.
Second, D&D was such a fast and dirty system that it was stripped of it's fantasy and utilized in clinical Psychiatric environments. Later, I would write a variation of D&D called Blaster Sword and Shield (never released publicly), specifically intended for utilization in these environs. With the fine tuning of later Role playing environs, clinical psychologists could achieve never before dreamed-of manipulations of a patient's psyche.
Third, D&D jumped to computers as an early unix game called Dungeon! which lead to Zork which lead to Castle Wolfenstein. CW was the first animated first-person shooter. It gave birth to Doom, Marathon, Halo, and abut a third of all video games on the market. Most recently World of Warcraft, Everquest, etc.
Fourth, D&D was purchased (briefly) by Wizards of the Coast, the company responsible for Magic - The Gathering. Most collectible card games are based on that system which was based on D&D in the first place.
On a social level, D&D has served to keep social rejects out of social situations where they could possibly thin the chances of mate selection for those people not smart enough to fully engage their brain. :P
And oddly enough, it was the popularity of D&D, not Tolkein that lead to the decision to green light the Lord of the Rings again. The Rank and Bass version very nearly killed the series for Hollywood, but the surge of D&D children, like Everquest, WoW, Magic, etc was the intended targeted market.
In a strange way, D&D is partially responsible for Ren Fairs and SCA. SCA being the medieval recreation society that started as a live action D&D guild, Ren Fair being the renaissance variant of SCA (for those people who wanted to go beyond 1500).
Still not impressed? The fraternity built by Gamers is so far reaching that D&D is like a low hum in every high-tech environment: NASA, IT, Physics (Carl Saga, Steve Hawking and Asimov were all gamers), Sci Fi of all kinds. The Geeks that rolled dice in their basements and watched Star Trek as kids make direct connections to: IPhone, Quick Time, VTOL, Ion Drive engines, The Space shuttle, many comouter programs, CDs/DVDs, and so much more.
The hippies may have had the 60s (thanks, by the way). But the Geeks had the 70s. While all the pretty, hairy people were wearing polyester and gold chains, the geeks were building a fraternity that changed the world. BTW, when they weren't rolling dice they were building the technology to make it possible for you to read this. Tip a d4 to Gary the next time you shoot, stab, blow up, heal, or connect with anyone in any way other than FTF. :)
