MILWAUKEE - Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and is widely seen as the father of the role-playing games, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69. He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.

Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.

Gygax always enjoyed hearing from the game's legion of devoted fans, many of whom would stop by the family's home in Lake Geneva, about 55 miles southwest of Milwaukee, his wife said. Despite his declining health, he hosted weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons as recently as January, she said.

"It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, what he gave them," Gail Gygax said. "He really enjoyed that."

Dungeons & Dragons players create fictional characters and carry out their adventures with the help of complicated rules. The quintessential geek pastime, it spawned a wealth of copycat games and later inspired a whole genre of computer games that's still growing in popularity.

Born Ernest Gary Gygax, he grew up in Chicago and moved to Lake Geneva at the age of 8. Gygax's father, a Swiss immigrant who played violin in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, read fantasy books to his only son and hooked him on the genre, Gail Gygax said.

Gygax dropped out of high school but took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago for a while, she said. He was working as an insurance underwriter in the 1960s, when he began playing war-themed board games.

But Gygax wanted to create a game that involved more fantasy. To free up time to work on that, he left the insurance business and became a shoe repairman, she said.

Gygax also was a prolific writer and wrote dozens of fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series of adventure novels.

Gary Sandelin, 32, a Manhattan attorney, said his weekly Dungeons & Dragons game will be a bit sadder on Wednesday night because of Gygax's passing. The beauty of the game is that it's never quite the same, he said.

Funeral arrangements are pending. Besides his wife, Gygax is survived by six children.

Sad day for the hobby we all so love, this happened on tuesday

Thoughts and prayers to Gary and the ones he left behind

Nazar

Sad news.

I, too, was acquainted with this game mainly by reading his writings and playing the original D&D and AD&D (1st edition). Later, we shifted to the 2nd edition, but never forgot our joy of playing the earlier versions of the game. I still have most of the books and game-texts Gary Gygax had written.

His name will be alive and will be remembered for long.

I gained my love of fantasy by playing 1st edition AD&D and really noticed the diff when the 2nd edition was released (tanarri , fiends what the hell are these!) I still have fond memories of the classic Gygax era modules ( Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth , Dracolisk anyone?) . Sikret 's response to those gamers who wanted a stronger challenge in this game echos Gygax's own response to those who wanted a high level module 25 years ago. He produced the classic Tomb Of Horrors ( a module designed to kill you!)

RIP Gary Gygax.

Without saying too much, I was very young when I was introduced to D&D back in 1980. It was still a new concept back then, but in it's short introduction, quickly became the biggest selling game in history even exceeding the previous record held by Monopoly.

The reasons for it was self explanitory, but he also created an expression, not just a game allowing DM's the ability to take controll. In many ways it was genious in it balance. I remember the time when people tried hard to advertise D&D as almost Occultist in it's information and "dark teaching of witchery", lol. Those were the days.

Point is, Gary fathered many creations, his insights led to creations by many others. I doubt Gary will be forgotten.

It is a shame though that Wizards of the Coast do not share his outlook on what should be done, nor do the care much about game balance. IMHO, they have dropped the ball. They are again bringing out the new edition soon, which like the previous edition realy isn't backward compatible with AD&D (which BY FAR is still the best edition). So if you expected them to stand by their promisses, let this be a lesson to you. They had a history of breaking promisses and is the EXACT reason I never purchased book one of their previous edition!

I'll stick to AD&D, there is nothing wrong with it and there is FAR MORE material written for it than any other in the world.

Thanks Forever Gary, We'll remember you!