Runner-Runner-Rebuy

Yesterday morning, Gary Gygax died at the age of 69. For those of you who don't know, Mr. Gygax was the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, and he helped spawn a cultural phenomenon that touched books, television, movies, video games, and card games.

I had an awkward childhood, the son of a schizophrenic father who, in and out of mental institutions, was never really part of my life. From the age of four, I was raised with my sister, by a single mother who did her best to keep us fed and clothed. Finances were difficult. My mother worked multiple jobs, to save money and get us off of welfare. Time and money were never available until I was almost college aged, so things like Boy Scouts, Little League, and Soccer Teams were never part of my formative years.

In the summer of 1983, I had just turned 9 years old and was in a Toy's R Us with my grandparents shopping for a birthday present. They said I could choose any item I wanted. I felt like I had won the lottery, but I knew I had to be cautious. I couldn't just run and grab the first Stormtrooper off the shelf, I had a real opportunity here. Each row of toys had to be thoroughly inspected. Even the aisles with girl toys, because you never know what might have gotten placed there by accident.

After what was probably hours of deliberating, I had narrowed it down to The Millennium Falcon or Castle Greyskull. While I deliberated with myself, my grandfather was trying to push a baseball mitt on me. While he was expounding on the merits of America's pastime, I noticed a shelf of colored boxes and books.

I pulled a red box off the shelf and was floored with the picture of a huge dragon about to chomp some kind of barbarian with a sword in two. The blue box had a different dragon fighting the same barbarian, only this time, he was on a horse and looked better equipped to deal with his pending doom. I grabbed both of them, along with two adventures, Keep on the Borderlands, and Isle of Dread, and convinced my grandparents that all four were required to play the game.

The Falcon and the Castle went back, I we left the store with my first D&D purchase. Somehow, the baseball mitt made it home with us too. It would be years before I found someone to play D&D with, but I must have read those books and run myself through the adventures hundreds of times, eventually changing things here and there, or coming up with new ideas of my own.

D&D really sparked my imagination, and helped get me through some pretty lonely times as a kid, and later when playing with other nerds, it became part of a bond of lifelong friendships. I still play once a week with a group of friends of which whom some date back twenty years.

So on Wednesdays nights, if I have plans with you, don't expect me to show up until after 11PM, because I'm rollin' dice with my homies.

Thanks, Mr. Gygax, if there is an afterlife, they just got one hell of a DM. RIP.