Line #23 Creator/GaryGygax


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5	[[caption-width-right:350:Roll [[MediaNotes/D20System 1d20]] against your save to determine if you cry, and if so, how much.]]
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7	->''"Greetings! It's a-- ''[rolls two dice, one with 20 sides and one with 6]'' '''pleasure''' to meet you!"''
8	-->-- '''Gary Gygax''' [[AsHimself (voicing himself)]], ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E16AnthologyOfInterestI Anthology of Interest]]"
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10	Ah, good old '''Ernest Gary Gygax''' (July 27, 1938 -- March 4, 2008). Where would we be without thee? Probably somewhere else, given the sheer number of different forms of media (and with them, a very large number of tropes) that originated from his work.
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12	Back in the day, there were no [[TabletopRPG Role-Playing Games]]. None. Only [[WarGaming tabletop war games]]. Gygax (yes, despite sounding like the name of someone's own PC, that was his actual last name) didn't like that at all, so he asked his friend Dave Arneson to make one. Arneson rewrote all of the rules to ''Chainmail'', a system that Gygax and the local shop owner Jeff Perren had developed, to create ''Blackmoor'', the first tabletop RPG. Gygax then, along with Arneson, worked to expand this from a simple add-on to ''Chainmail'' to its own system entirely. And thus, ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' was born.
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14	[[Creator/{{TSR}} TSR Inc.]] flourished off of the game, leading to multiple game modules, many alternate universes (TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}, TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}, TabletopGame/DarkSun, TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms, Literature/{{Dragonlance}}, TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}...), eventually even a [[WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons1983 cartoon adaptation]] and [[Film/DungeonsAndDragons2000 a few movies]]. However, eventually TSR fell under new management, causing him to leave the company. He continued to work on new tabletop [=RPG=]s and write novels afterwards, and remained affiliated with his original creation all his life. In March of 2008, Gygax died at the age of 69, and gamers the world over lost their saving throw against mourning.
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16	Depending on who you ask, Gygax may be considered to be [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation one of five things]]:
17	# [[CreatorWorship The god of gaming made flesh]]. [[invoked]]
18	# A genius who is effectively the father of modern role-playing.
19	# A [[TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors sadistic]] and [[TabletopGame/TempleOfElementalEvil crazy]] man who [[KillerGameMaster liked watching people squirm]].
20	# A [[CreativeSterility thief]] and a {{Jerkass}} who made too many mistakes to continue leading his empire.
21	# All of the above.
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23	----
24	!!Media in which Gygax appears in some form or another includes:
25	* Gary Gygax has been referenced in many ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' products, with many things named after him as an homage.
26	** The OptionalBoss of ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' is named Kangaxx. And, while not based on D&D anymore, ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' featured an OptionalBoss Gaxkang, who's a reference to both Kangaxx and Gygax.
27	** The ring of Gaxx, a recurring artifact.
28	** Zagyg, the god of Humor, Ocultism and unpredictability, was named after him. By himself.
29	** The city of Gryrax in TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}} is named for him.
30	** Gygax's own PlayerCharacter, Mordenkainen, is a notable wizard in the lore, with various game supplements and spells bearing his name.
31	** The name of the prominent wizard Tenser, creator of spells such as ''Tenser's Floating Disc'', is an anagram of "Ernest." (The character was created by Gygax's son, also named Ernest, making Tenser named after EGG at one level removed.)
32	** The dragon god Garyx is named after him. [[TakeThat Garyx is an evil destroyer deity]].
33	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''
34	** As the page quote indicates, he [[SpecialGuest voiced himself in one episode]].
35	** In "Fry Am the Egg Man", an ancient tome titled the Gygaxicon is used.
36	** The ''Futurama'' movie ''Bender's Game'', which references ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' heavily, is dedicated to him. Gary Gygax died while the movie was in production.
37	* He also [[SpecialGuest voiced himself]] in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodeMonkeys''.
38	* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' tipped its hat to him in the episode "D&DD", with Dexter's [[HerCodeNameWasMarySue powerful character]] being named "Gygax".
39	* He's the DM/narrator for a series of quests in ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragonsOnline''.
40	* A strain of bacteria was named in honor of Gygax, "Arthronema gygaxiana sp nov [=UTCC393=]".
41	* Creator/BlizzardEntertainment dedicated the 2.4.0 patch of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', "Fury of the Sunwell", to Gygax.
42	* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' features a prominent NPC named after Gygax -- Lord Gyr of Gixx, the ruler of Absalom, the City at the Center of the World.
43	* In ''WebVideo/AcquisitionsIncorporated'', Gygax is the name of the Darkmagic family's cat, [[spoiler:who turns out to be TheMole for the rival family and the BigBad of season 5]].
44	* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' when [[FishOutOfTemporalWater time displaced]] [[{{Ninja}} ninja ]] Lari [[http://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/709/ asks Molly if her cell phone is a "magic item,"]] she tells him, "Only in the [[ClarkesThirdLaw Clarkean]] sense. Not in the Gygaxian sense."
45	* Had a [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0536.html posthumous cameo]] in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''.
46	* [[https://xkcd.com/393 One]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip spoofs ChessWithDeath as Gygax plays a game of Dungeons & Dragons against the Grim Reaper.

Context Creator / GaryGygax