Tag Archives: tsr

R.I.P. Gary Gygax

By lytspeed Posted in Gaming, Geek Leave a reply

Please forgive this minor interruption, but a shadow passed over my heart today. I read on CNN that Gary Gygax, co-creator of the Dungeons and Dragons game, died today at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

For those who are D&D detractors, it may not be news at all. But for me, this is very sad news, because I’ve been a gamer since about 1978, and D&D was an essential part of my formative years. I grew up in a world where I was constantly worried about nuclear destruction due to the Cold War, and for me, D&D not only offered an escape from grim reality, but it also encouraged my creativity in ways that school did not. Playing D&D taught me group dynamics, and I think that’s part of the reason I fit in successfully in whatever job I work. D&D taught me how to work cooperatively with others to solve problems, and it gave me more than a little humor over the years.

Although I am not currently active in a D&D game per se, I am still gaming, using the same skills, dice, and imagination that Gygax’s product first awakened in me.

R.I.P., Mr. Gygax. May your ride to Valhalla be pleasant.

Tired & WotC

By lytspeed Posted in Gaming, Writing Leave a reply

I am beat tonight. I will definitely be going to bed early. I won’t get any writing done tonight, but I will get some done tomorrow at lunch an also after Stories for All Seasons tomorrow night.

I did a little creative work tonight, though it was primarily tedious. If you look to your right, you should see that the scroll bar for this (and every page of this site) has turned an interesting shade of bluish-gray. I just figured the site could use a balancing effect for the spiral down the left side of the page. Whatever.

There is one more thing I want to cover before turning in. Today, my son got a letter from Wizards of the Coast, with his Magic: The Gathering DCI tournament card in it. He also claimed that a hand-written letter accompanied it. In this day of custom-printed mail merges, I figured he had just gotten a well done form letter written in some kind of cursive font. I asked to see the letter.

To my surprise, he actually got a hand written letter from someone named Dee Bleifield (sorry if I’m mutilating your name, Dee), a DCI tournament director that he had met while visiting his Mom in Texas. Dee took the time to hand write his letter, complete with her direct phone number and an offer to call her if he needed help finding local tournaments.

That’s pretty damn cool. Evidently WotC hasn’t lost all the small company feel that TSR used to have in its early days. I remember sending a query letter to Kim Mohan, who was then editing Dragon magazine, asking if he would be interested in an article submission about D & D druids and listing different specs for some possible animal forms that high-level druids could assume. I was only a couple of years older than my son is now. Kim responded to me with a personal letter, saying that he would be interested in seeing the article, though I’m sure he knew that the person behind the query letter was still very wet behind the ears. I’ve always remembered that, though I never got up the guts to send in the article.

It seems that Dee has tapped into that same importance in the youth market. Keith, my son, will always remember getting a personal letter from a Wizards of the Coast staff member, just as I remember getting the letter from Kim Mohan. If WotC ever revives Amazing Stories (please please please) I will definitely submit something to him this time.

(Update, 12/9/2014: Amazing Stories has indeed been revived, but not by WotC. It’s now being run by Steve Davidson.)