Founders of Roleplaying: E. Gary Gygax

One of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, E. Gary Gygax was born in Illinois and lived from 1938-2008. He along with Dave Arneson birthed a genre of Role Playing that has been alive and well since 1974, Dungeons and Dragons. Yet early one in his career, he had a love for minature wargames and was an avid player since 1967, especially with campaigns set during the medieval period. In 1972, he devloped his own rules set known as Chainmail. In the subsequent years that followed, he and Dave got together and used those rules with Dave's own setting Blackmoor. Thus, the world of Dungeons and Dragons was born.

By 1977 a new version of the game was developed and became the World of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This new setting was part of Gary's own world, which would come to be known as Greyhawk that would be published in 1983. He also created a series of novels, the Gord the Rogue (Oerth), which detailed more of the world of Greyhawk. During this time, he also became producer of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon show. Sadly though by 1985 due to some company wheeling and dealing between shareholders of the company, Gary was forced to leave TSR.

However, in 1986 he returned to the world of gaming with a new company and a campaign world related to Greyhawk. It would come to be known as Mythus, using his new Dangerous Journeys RPG system. It was on the world of Aerth which was one of five parallel worlds related to his original Greyhawk setting. He even wrote a line of novel supporting the world. He also continued writing the Gord series, which out of revenge... had the world of Oerth destroyed since being taken away from him back in 1985. Likewise he wrote another series, Sagard the Barbarian (Yarth). By 1999 he started another rule system and another campaign world, this time known as Lejendary Adventures.

Toward the end of his life, he worked closely with Troll Lords Games, writing a series of open source book (d20) on creating campaign worlds. He also attempted to bring to life his original version Castle Zagyg that was destroyed by TSR. This project was named Castle Yggsburgh, but sadly was never finished due to his death. E.G.G. was a beloved icon, and homages can be found in various media from video to literature.