There aren’t many details yet. All I’ve heard so far is that it is to be a $150 million movie based on Gary’s life and will be written by George Stayton. It is described as “a combination action movie and bio pic” and will focus on how Dungeons and Dragons came to be.

If it comes to fruition, I will certainly go see it (well, most likely I’ll wait and rent it). Unfortunately, I predict that it will be awful. D&D has always been misrepresented and misunderstood by those that don’t play it. I strongly suspect that this movie won’t be any different. Further, the history of D&D seems to be quite different depending on who you ask: Gary, Dave Arneson, TSR, or the various other individuals and organizations involved in that history.

Nonetheless, I will cross my fingers and hope for the best. If nothing else, I hope that enough of the proceeds will go to the Gary Gygax Memorial Fund to finish the monument.

It’s easy enough to produce a list of excellent fantasy books, but I thought that some of those who never saw this list before might be interested in seeing which books Gary thought worthy of including.

Sadly, I have only read a few of these. Although I prefer fantasy RPGs, my reading tastes lean more towards science fiction (as well as science journals, and web design related materials). Lately though, I have been reading the Gord the Rogue series and have found it fascinating. So much so that I’ve found a newborn desire to read as many of these old classics as I can locate.

Appendix N: Inspirational and Educational Reading

Inspiration for all of the fantasy work I have done stems directly from the love my father showed when I was a tad, for he spent many hours telling me stories he made up as he went along, tales of cloaked old men who could grant wishes, of magic rings and enchanted swords, or wicked sorcerers and dauntless swordsmen. Then too, countless hundreds of comic books went down, and the long-gone EC ones certainly had their effect. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror movies were a big influence. In fact, all of us tend to get ample helpings of fantasy when we are very young, from fairy tales such as those written by the Brothers Grimm and Andrew Lang. This often leads to reading books of mythology, paging through bestiaries, and consultation of compilations of the myths of various lands and peoples. Upon such a base I built my interest in fantasy, being an avid reader of all science fiction and fantasy literature since 1950. The following authors were of particular inspiration to me. In some cases I cite specific works, in others, I simply recommend all their fantasy writing to you. From such sources, as well as just about any other imaginative writing or screenplay you will be able to pluck kernels from which grows the fruits of exciting campaigns. Good reading!

– Gary Gygax

The most immediate influences upon AD&D were probably de Camp & Pratt, REH, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, HPL, and A. Merritt; but all of the above authors, as well as many not listed, certainly helped to shape the form of the game. For this reason, and for the hours of reading enjoyment, I heartily recommend the works of these fine authors to you.

– Gary Gygax

What Books Would You Add?

I’m sure most people would add the Harry Potter series. Beyond that I think I would add the Dune series (the first three books) as an example of a desert people. Robert Heinlein’s Have Space Suit, Will Travel, although a science fiction story, is (I believe) the origin of the Illithids (Mind Flayers). Many attribute this race to a book by H.P. Lovecraft (whose name I can’t recall and have never read), but Heinlein’s evil aliens closely resemble Illithids in many ways. Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series is quite inspiring as well. Oh, how could I forget Stephen Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant or Mirror of Her Dreams series.

That’s my short list. I’m sure I left out dozens. What other fantasy books would you include?

Although the first book was released in 1985, I never read it until just recently. As I said yesterday, I have never had any interest in reading books about games I was playing. I finally gave Keep on the Borderlands a shot (hoping that such a fine module would lead to an equally exciting book). Unfortunately, I found the novelization terribly disappointing.

Urged on by friends, who insisted that there were much better books out there, I went to a used book store in search of one of Rose Estes’ Greyhawk books (which various people had recommended as worth reading). The store I went to first didn’t have anything by Estes at the moment, but I bought a copy of Artifact of Evil (the second book in the Gord the Rogue series). After checking numerous other used book stores, I had acquired books two through five but was unable to locate the first one (other than online and I avoid online purchases whenever I can, especially since it was the middle of the christmas rush at the time).

I hate reading a series out of order but I wanted to dig in and see what the story was about. I picked up Artifact of Evil and found it riveting from the first page. Before I was done, I had acquired the first book (Saga of Old City) and moved quickly on to devour it. From there I moved on to, and now am in the middle of, Sea of Death (3rd or 4th book, depending on your count).

There are five books in the series (In order: Saga of Old City, Artifact of Evil, Sea of Death, Come Endless Darkness, and Dance of Demons) plus two other books of collected short stories (Night Arrant and City of Hawks). Some people place the two collections within the series, making the whole a series of seven books. However you count them, they make up a wonderful story.

Corporate Politics

Gary Gygax co-founded TSR and created the World of Greyhawk. He wrote the first two Gord the Rogue books, at least in part, to promote the other World of Greyhawk products. Sadly, he was forced out of TSR at this time and lost the rights to his Greyhawk setting (as well as most other intellectual properties) but managed to retain control of Gord the Rogue. You will notice in the pictures above that only the first two books are listed as Greyhawk Adventures. The rest were produced after he left TSR and carry instead the banner of Gord the Rogue.

TSR then began screwing around with the World of Greyhawk, taking it ever further from the vision Gary held for the setting. As a result, in the fifth (and final) Gord the Rogue novel…

… nope, no spoilers.

You’ll have to read the series and see for yourself.

More than a Series of Books

One of my greatest regrets is that I never had the chance to meet Gary or sit in on one of his games. There are archived posts on various forums that give an insight to the man and a couple of folks who have played in his games that can relate some of their experiences. But that’s not the same as experiencing it for yourself.

The Gord the Rogue series has allowed me to step back in time and, in a sense, sit in on one of Gary’s games. I have Darlene’s map of the World of Greyhawk on my wall and can follow Gord’s exploits on it as I read the books. They give me a glimpse into how Gary approached the game and what kind of adventures he must have run. It was an unexpected treat to discover how much I was to enjoy this aspect of his books.

Gail Gygax, Gary’s widow, is auctioning off Gary’s personal gaming collection. Apparently, the Treasure Trove is handling the auction. Here is a link to the first batch of items on eBay.

Happy Bidding!

Gary Gygax was an active user on the enworld forums, under the user name Col_Pladoh. Enworld archived a number of threads where Gary answered all sorts of questions and shared his wisdom with the community.

I wish I had found this while he was alive so that I could have talked with him.

If you go to the Enworld Archived Threads Forum you will find a number of these threads (13 unless I’ve missed some) plus all sorts of other gems that enworld thought were valuable enough to preserve.

To make them easier to find, I’ve compiled a list of links to all of the ‘Ask Gary’ threads :

Enworld

Dragon’s Foot

Troll Lord Games

Who I am

My name is Mike Summers. I'm a programmer, web designer and all-around computer geek. I was born in East L.A. but claim Oregon as my home. I currently live with my three cats: Darwin, Bear and Jasmin.

Why 'Old Guy Gaming'?

The domain OldGuyGaming.com wasn't my first choice. It wasn't even in my top 100 choices. But it was available and I didn't have to pay for the privilege of using it. Also, it is quite appropriate. I would estimate that the average age for D&D players is somewhere in their 20s. I've been playing D&D almost since its inception and I was in high school then.

My Gaming Background

I was first introduced to D&D in the 70s. Our earliest games were as simple as rolling to see how far away the nearest town was and fighting random monsters until we got there. We took turns DMing and our campaigns grew quickly in complexity.

My favorite campaign was one of my earliest. It was centered around a small town named White Eagle (after Gary Gygax's Greyhawk) and had a large abandoned wizard's mansion on the edge of town with a number of dungeons within a few day's ride. Everything was geared towards very low level characters and we had more fun there than we have in even far more sophisticated campaigns. This was in large part to the newness of everything. Unfortunately, all my maps, notes, books, dice and miniatures from that time were lost. :(

There have been many campaigns since then. Out of all those in our original group, I've moved around the most and have had to create new groups more often. But our original group has always managed to get together from time to time and play.

One of these friends dragged me into Ultima Online, followed by Dark Age of Camelot and finally World of Warcraft. It's hard to play one of those and make time for D&D, so my gaming wavered over the years. Each time I broke the addiction with an online game and returned to D&D only to have this evil friend taunt me with another distracting online game that would demand all my waking hours again until I could break free from its seductive powers.

My Return to D&D

A couple of years ago, I was playing WoW heavily and had written an add-on called dbCraft. It was very well received. A guildy put me in contact with a friend of his in England who ran a firm that was needing LUA/XML programmers (two tools which I had taught myself in order to write the add-on). It turned out that this guy played WoW and was using my add-on which pretty much replaced the interview. I started selling off all my stuff (and gave away ALL my D&D stuff) in preparation to moving there permanently.

A large part of my desire to move there was that I've had kidney troubles for years which I expected to worsen and living in a country with REAL health care looked awfully attractive. Unfortunately, once I had more fully researched the economy over there, I realized that his offer would barely cover rent and utilities and maybe food and until you acquire citizenship, changing jobs is somewhat complicated. So I stayed here.

Here we are sometime later and I've finally broken free of WoW for the last time. My thoughts turn to D&D but I had given away all my stuff. On top of that, version 4.0 has come out while I was away, TSR got bought out by Hasbro, Miniatures have become "collectible" with ridiculous price tags and a whole new generation of gamers has appeared. I had a lot of catching up to do.

Why Start a Blog?

Now I am looking at needing new books, dice, miniatures, gaming mats, and accessories. Not to mention learning the new rules. Plus I would need to create a whole new campaign from scratch. Basically, I was starting from zero, just like someone just getting in D&D. However, I have the experience needed to get up and running quickly and knew what tools I would need to get there. If someone else were just starting out, I'll bet they'd like to see how I went about it. A blog seemed like a great way to document the process as well as collect tidbits of info together all in one place.

Also, as expected, my medical problems have worsened to the point where I can no longer work. Freelance web design might be an option but I can't guarantee deadlines which makes that complicated. If this blog becomes successful, I may be able to gather a modest advertising income from it which adds a little bonus incentive. This may also give me a forum in which to develop and sell gaming products online.

In either case, I've always been fascinated with the idea of writing a blog. I'm certainly opinionated enough to come up with enough content. :) Plus it offers the opportunity to keep my hand in web design to some extent and the ability to do so unhampered by what a client wants.

Already I have enjoyed developing a WordPress theme from scratch. I started out with a completely stripped Starker's theme and built everything up myself. It may not look spectacular yet but I met my goals in functionality and will work on the look over time. I just wanted to get it finished enough that I could start posting right away.

Goals

My main goal here is to document my process in preparing and running a campaign. I want to create a step by step plan that someone completely new to the game can follow in order to prepare their own world.

Beyond that, I want to: share my expertise and insight, answer questions, supply source material that I've created (modules, maps, alternate rules systems, etc), provide links to related material, useful software and exciting artwork, and act as a depository for everything a DM will need to prepare and run a game.

I also want to cover the use of technology in D&D. Although it is a pen & paper game, that doesn't mean that computers and other bits of technology can't make the whole process move faster and be more enjoyable.

I will attempt to post twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, plus additional posts as time allows. I tend to write in the late evening so don't look for those posts earlier than Wednesday and Saturday.

Time Frame

My primary goal is to lay out the process to get a game ready from scratch. I told some friends that I was hoping to have a game ready in about two months. Two months from now would place us just before Valentine's Day weekend. That's not going to work so I'm targeting the weekend after that. If all goes well, I'll have everything ready for a game on February 20th, 2009.

I hope you'll stick around and watch the fun while I try to hit that date.