Gary Gygax Dies, Age 69

I remember the first time I saw the name Gary Gygax. I was in 1oth grade, standing in a corner store in Oscoda, Michigan. It was a narrow aisle, packed with all manner of toys, model cars, and books. Some friends told me of game using a complex set of rules, twenty-sided dice, and sheets of graph paper. They’d sent me to the store to take a closer look at the game, the rules of which lay within the confines of some books. The name Gary Gygax was emblazoned upon the back of a the Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook, right next to the TSR branding. The book explained how the player could create...