Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the world famous Dungeons & Dragons game and one of the original members of D&D publishing company TSR, has passed away at the age of 69. According to his wife, Gail Gygax, he had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, some previous strokes and a near-heart attack, but no specific cause of death was given.

Gygax (whose full name was Ernest Gary Gygax), along with Dave Arneson, helped create one of the fastest growing game genres in the world when they developed Dungeons and Dragons back in 1974, a roleplaying game that uses medieval characters, mythical creatures and oddly shaped dice to calculate moves and the odds of surviving them. Tired of playing the basic war-game based board games available in the 60’s, Gygax & Arneson injected major fantasy elements into the mix and D&D was born. The game quickly became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and spawned multiple video games, books and even movies. (Wonder if he had a piece of World of Warcraft, currently the world’s biggest fantasy/role-playing game? Would only be right given what WoW owes to his and Arneson’s imaginations, don’t you think??)

Besides his main claim to fame, Dungeons & Dragons, Gygax was also a prolific writer, having written dozens of fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series of adventure novels.

Here’s hoping he’s now having the adventure of his next life…

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