Gary Gygax passes on

From various online sources:

Reports from numerous sources are that Gary Gygax, one of the pioneers of the RPG genre, has passed away. Monte Cook and others have posted their thoughts about the man and his impact.

Ernest Gary Gygax (July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American writer and game designer, best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson, and co-founding the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR, Inc.) with Don Kaye in 1974. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of the role-playing game.

Gygax died the morning of March 4, 2008, at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was in semi-retirement, having almost suffered a heart attack after receiving incorrect medication to prevent further strokes after those on April 1 and May 4, 2004. He was diagnosed with an inoperable abdominal aortic aneurysm. Even while his health failed, gaming remained very much a part of his life. Gygax was still active in the gaming community and had active Q & A forums on gaming websites such as Dragonsfoot and EN World.

"I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else."

Unlike a lot of the people who posted on Monte Cook's blog, I had no personal affiliation with the man. But all they said were true -- he was the Father of RPG. Having played Dungeons & Dragons from the red basic set, I can credit much of my personal character from the games I ran (as a DM) and the roles that I played (as a player character). A lot of the better personal aspects in that matter.

Many of my random encounters will stop harassing PCs for the moment, and pay their respects to a great man.

Dark Heresy

You are an Acolyte in the service of the Emperors’ Inquisition. You stand in the front line of a great and secret war where your duty is to hunt out the foul stench of heresy, the vile alien, and the twisted influence of Chaos. You will tread where others fear, venturing to distant planets, ancient space hulks and the unsavoury depths of the under-hive.

You will never know fame nor reward, yet if you stand resolute your deeds will be whispered to the God-Emperor of Mankind and your name will be revered for millennia.

Fast character creation to get you into the game quickly, followed by a lifetime of possibilities with an expanded advanced careers system.

Dynamic rules for all eventualities th at let you handle everything from social interaction to deadly fast-paced combat, psykers and psychic powers to insanity and mutation.

Comprehensive background on the Calixis Sector, the official setting for Dark Heresy written by best-selling Warhammer 40,000 novelists Dan Abnett and Ben Counter.

A galaxy of guns to equip your acolyte, from lasguns to inferno pistols, chainswords to power blades.

Pitch your players straight into the midst of dark events with a complete adventure to get you started.The Dark Heresy core rulebook contains everything you need to start your adventure in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

+++

Raymund (PG Raymund Tesoro) generously sold the currently out of stock Black Industries RPG book, Dark Heresy, to me (actually me and Les will co-own it). I'll be running a campaign for it alongside Tiny's Dragonlance campaign and Lesther's World of Darkness campaign on a later date. I will be absorbing a lot of material from the many volumes of rulebooks, source books and White Dwarf magazines at home before I start the campaign. Miniatures for combat? We have oodles of those LOL

Sadly there are no stats for Necrons in the core rulebook T_T

2008

New year, late post. What else is new? LOL!

I got to play two games using epic Butcher the past week. He did not disappoint. Plus I got to play with two of my warjacks, too -- the Behemoth and the Kodiak. The Doomreavers, being Orsus' elite cadre, delivered problems to Kei and his Grim Angus. I got to win Killing Fields via objective because of the Doomreavers' elite cadre ability. Against Fred's Iron Lich Asphyxious, I got to his caster in Mosh Pit with two Doomreavers and the Drakhun with Feel The Hate! I will be painting him up as soon as I finish Larkin Vain's Sea Dogs.

I also plan on applying for Press Ganger this year. I'll either be getting the Cryx starter or the Merc starter. Arvin says that we should get the Menoth and Cygnar starter, as was also posted on the Privateer Press site. Well, that would depend on what I'll be working on this year.

I'll be demo'ing and playing Anima Tactics as well. The stuff is already on its way here.

Me and the boys are still looking at Flames of War and Heavy Gear Blitz. More on this soon!

Luigi has been pimping a lot of the new Vampire Counts and it's getting tremendously hard to resist! I guess I can wait for the army book to be released first before getting anything. Zombies suck now. Unless you get that awesome new Corpse Cart. Temptation... strong...

Tiny also started with a Dragonlance campaign. Kei is playing a human rogue, no surprise there. I'm playing a human fighter (again no surprise) but with two daggers. I was hoping to go for the assassin prestige class later on, but found out I have to be evil to do that (and I have little inclination to veer off my true neutral alignment). Fred got to join on our second week as a half-orc barbarian. More updates on this soon!

Lots of changes at work. Most of it not fun for me T_T I'll just have to keep myself busy.