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Gary Gygax

Gary Gygax Books

Writer

Gary Gygax, born on July 27, 1938, and passed away on March 4, 2008, was a renowned writer. He is best known for his contributions to the role-playing game (RPG) genre, particularly for co-creating Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax's creativity and leadership had a profound impact on the modern RPG gaming landscape.

Players Handbook

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Role-Playing Mastery

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Related Quotes

“Even the most outspoken of the critics must admit that long before we had print and film media to "spread the word," mankind was engaged in all forms of cruel and despicable behavior. To attribute war, killing, and violence to film, TV, and role-play games is to fly in the face of thousands of years of recorded history.”

Violence Mankind Human Nature Gamer Gaming Role Playing Role Play Role Playing Games

Book:Role-Playing Mastery

Source: Role-Playing Mastery

“Do not be sidetracked. A good referee will have many ways to distract an expedition, many things to draw attention, but ignore them if at all possible.”

Role Playing Game

Book:Players Handbook

Source: Players Handbook

“If you are an inventor, then you are destined for blood, sweat and tears.”

Ifs Blood Tears Sweat Destined Inventor Sweat And Tears Blood Sweat And Tears

Author:Gary Gygax

“One more thing: don't spend too much time merely reading. The best part of this work is the play, so play and enjoy!”

Play Reading Enjoy Too Much

Author:Gary Gygax

“The idea that a game is anything more than a game... You know, there are people who are basically unbalanced who are going to misuse a game and have bad results. If a golfer who insists on playing during a lightning storm gets hit by a stroke of lightning and is killed nobody says, 'There's golfers dying by the droves being hit by lightning!' You can overdo what you really like, and if you're unbalanced you go overboard.”

People Ifs Knows Ideas Games Results Dying Storm Lightning Strokes Golfers Misuse Overboard Unbalanced

Author:Gary Gygax

“The books I write because I want to read them, the games because I want to play them, and stories I tell because I find them exciting personally.”

Want Writing Book Play Stories Games Exciting

Author:Gary Gygax

“Pen-and-paper role-playing is live theater and computer games are television. People want the convenience and instant gratification of turning on the TV rather than getting dressed up and going out to see a live play. In the same way, the computer is a more immediately accessible way to play games.”

“I think a lot of what I was taught, gathered, and learned is worth keeping. Heritage and "wisdom" and simply personal family and local history enrich the one able to tap such information. As it is I wish I had garnered more from my grandparents and parents.”

Thinking Able Wish Parent Information Taught Locals Heritage Grandparent Local History

Author:Gary Gygax

“Gaming in general is a male thing. It isn't that gaming is designed to exclude women. Everybody who's tried to design a game to interest a large female audience has failed. And I think that has to do with the different thinking processes of men and women.”

Thinking Men Different Games Process Interest Audience Design Men And Women Female Males Gamer Gaming Thinking Process

Author:Gary Gygax

“The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules.”

Knows Needs Should Secret

Author:Gary Gygax

“There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you’re involved in, whether it’s a fantasy game, the Wild West, secret agents or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things.”

Character Values Games Winning Secret Fantasy Involved Losing West Genre Win Or Lose Wild West Imagining Yourself Wild Wild West

Author:Gary Gygax

“Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!”

World Facts Enjoy Magic Fantastic

Author:Gary Gygax

“You are not entering this world in the usual manner, for you are setting forth to be a Dungeon Master. Certainly there are stout fighters, mighty magic-users, wily thieves, and courageous clerics who will make their mark in the magical lands of D&D adventure. You however, are above even the greatest of these, for as DM you are to become the Shaper of the Cosmos. It is you who will give form and content to the all the universe. You will breathe life into the stillness, giving meaning and purpose to all the actions which are to follow.”

World Giving Action Form Purpose Universe Magic Land This World Adventure Masters Mark Breathe Setting Settings Fighter Cosmos Courageous Usual Stillness Users Thieves Entering Dungeons Stout

Author:Gary Gygax

“Games give you a chance to excel, and if you're playing in good company you don't even mind if you lose because you had the enjoyment of the company during the course of the game.”

Ifs Giving Mind Courses Games Loses Chance Company Enjoyment Playing Games Good Company

Author:Gary Gygax

“The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own.”

Opportunity Player Worthy

Author:Gary Gygax

“Send anyone claiming that their RPG activity is an art form my way, and I'll gladly stick a pin in their head and deflate it just to have the satisfaction of the popping sound that makes. One might play a game artfully, but that makes neither the game nor its play art.”

Way Art Play Might Form Games Sound Activity Sticks Satisfaction My Way Pins Popping Rpgs

Author:Gary Gygax

“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.”

World Remember Guy Games Fun Enjoyed Remember Me Pastime Playing Games

Author:Gary Gygax

“There's a call to adventure. It's something in the inner psyche of humanity, particularly males.”

Humanity Adventure Travel Males Funny Travel

Author:Gary Gygax

“Of course as children, we all, in all cultures and societies, learn behavior from observation, imitation, and encouragement of various kinds. So by the suggestion made, we all 'pretend' most of the time.”

Kind Children Made Culture Courses Behavior Encouragement Various Observation Imitation Suggestions

Author:Gary Gygax

“The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience.”

Games Roles Groups Essence Playing Games Transcendentalism Cooperatives Role Playing

Author:Gary Gygax

“As a typically ambitious player, I did what all others of that ilk do: Everything I could do to gain advantage for my PCs and rise in level as rapidly as possible.”

Levels Player Gains Advantage Ambitious

Author:Gary Gygax

“I wasn't popular in the home office because I wasn't chicken. I'm just a risk taker. I have gut instincts.”

Home Risk Office Instinct Guts Chickens Gut Instinct Home Office

Author:Gary Gygax

“I foresee online gaming changing when there are good audio-visual links connecting the participants, thus approximating play in a face-to-face group.”

Play Faces Groups Visuals Online Links Connecting Face To Face Participants Gamer Gaming Audio Audio Visual

Author:Gary Gygax

“Random chance plays a huge part in everybody's life.”

Play Chance Huge Random Chance

Author:Gary Gygax

“Outside of the mindless sitcoms that the networks thrive on, people able to think generally consider most entertainment is escape in one form or another.”

People Thinking Able Form Entertainment Thrive Sitcom Mindless

Author:Gary Gygax

“Somebody said they threw their copy of Dungeons and Dragons into the fire, and it screamed. It's a game! The magic spells in it are as real as the gold. Try retiring on that stuff.”

Trying Said Real Games Stuff Fire Magic Gold Dragons Copies Spells Retiring Dungeons Dungeons And Dragons

Author:Gary Gygax

“Games give you a chance to excel.”

Giving Games Chance

Author:Gary Gygax

“Anyone wanna play Dungeons & Dragons for the next quadrillion years?”

Years Play Next Dragons Dungeons

Author:Gary Gygax

“When you master role-playing [gaming], you become immersed in an activity that is peerless among leisure-time pursuits.”

Roles Masters Activity Pursuit Leisure Gaming Leisure Time Role Playing

Author:Gary Gygax

“Some of the roots of role-playing games (RPGs) are grounded in clinical and academic role assumption and role-playing exercises.”

Games Roles Exercise Roots Assumption Academic Grounded Playing Games Clinicals Role Playing Rpgs

Author:Gary Gygax

“Role-playing games are contests in which the players usually cooperate as a group to achieve a common goal rather than compete to eliminate one another from play.... Role games ... bring players together in a mutual effort.”

Play Together Games Goal Common Effort Roles Player Groups Achieve Mutual Contests Playing Games Common Goal Role Playing

Author:Gary Gygax

“When AI approximates Machine Intelligence, then many online and computer-run RPGs will move towards actual RPG activity. Nonetheless, that will not replace the experience of 'being there,' any more than seeing a theatrical motion picture can replace the stage play.”

Play Running Moving Seeing Stage Activity Computer Machines Online Being There Theatrical Motion Pictures Stage Play Rpgs

Author:Gary Gygax

“I hated school, didn't like the discipline.”

School Discipline Hated

Author:Gary Gygax

“I'm just a risk taker. I have gut instincts.”

Risk Instinct Guts Gut Instinct

Author:Gary Gygax

“Role-playing isn't storytelling. If the dungeon master is directing it, it's not a game.”

Ifs Games Roles Masters Storytelling Dungeons Role Playing

Author:Gary Gygax

About the Author

Born: July 27, 1938
Died: March 4, 2008
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 35

Related Topics

Games Play Role Playing Roles Playing Games Dungeons Gaming Ifs Activity Chance

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Players HandbookRelated source material

Role-Playing MasteryRelated source material

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