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Learning More about Gary Gygax
Jun. 12th, 2024 10:28 amOn Sunday we drove out to the bucolic small town of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, about 45 minutes from my sister's house. Our plan for the day was to see things related to the history of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and role-playing games (RPGs) in general.
"What does any of that have to do with a small midwestern town?" you might wonder. Well, if you're a D&D player or RPGer from way back, you know. You know Lake Geneva as the headquarters of TSR, Inc., the pioneering RPG publisher, the first location of Gen Con, the biggest boardgame convention in the US, and the home of Gary Gygax— co-creator of the concept of RPGs, co-author of D&D, founder of Gen Con, and co-founder of TSR, Inc.
The four of us adults in the group are all D&D players from way back. My sister and I first played D&D in 1982, and my spouse and I still play D&D. Visiting some of the D&D related sites in Lake Geneva was like a pilgrimage for us. Plus, it was an opportunity for a pleasant walk on nice summer afternoon in Wisconsin.
Our first stop on the day's itinerary was the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. Coincidentally it's in the building where TSR's headquarters was for several years. Unfortunately it wasn't open yet for the day when we arrived. (Its hours changed recently and were not well advertised aside from the small, hand-written sign in the window. 😅) Thus we proceeded to the next stop on our itinerary: visiting the house where Gary Gygax lived when he created D&D.
"OMG, you visited a guy's house," you might wonder, "That he hasn't lived in for decades. Isn't that kind of obsessive/creepy?"
The answer is No/No. It wasn't our main purpose for the trip. The main things for us were to visit the museum and to see the other thing Lake Geneva is known for, the beautiful lake. Gygax's old house is merely something that came up when we were searching for other things to do in town to help fill out a day's activities. And it was pretty much on the route for walking from the museum to the lake shore next to downtown Lake Geneva.
For example, when I was an adolescent D&D player in the mid 1980s I imagined Gary Gygax as being in his early 30s at the time. That image came from noting that D&D dated to 1978* and me figuring that Gygax had created it with his buddies from college while they were in their early 20s. I made that assumption based on the types of people I saw playing D&D. Nearly none of them I'd met were older than college/grad student age. Plus, the dedication to this kind of fantasy creation just seemed like something post-college hangers-on would have the interest— and, frankly, the time— to create.
I first learned that my image of Gygax was wrong just a few years later. Friends and I saw a TV interview clip with him in the late 1980s, maybe 1988. "OMG, he's 50?!!?" we all marveled. It was revelatory that a middle-aged man could be so into RPGs. Virtually nobody over 30 in my orbit could even understand RPGs, even when it was patiently explained to them. And it wasn't just Gygax's age. In that brief TV clip we saw he was a jovial, smiling, well-spoken man; not some dweeb with a creepy laugh and poor personal hygiene— things which were dominant stereotypes of RPG players at the time.
Walking a mile in Gygax's hometown further changed my understanding of him and the environment from which he came. Gygax was not some kid dwelling in his parents' basement long after he should have moved out on his own, nor was he a college hanger-on living in a seedy apartment with empty pizza boxes stacked on the floor and posters of hard rock bands dressed in leather, spikes, and face paint to look satanic covering the walls. (More dominant stereotypes of D&D and RPG players for years.)
Instead Gygax lived in his own house, a house he moved into in 1966, in a charming small-town America spot that looks little different today from what it likely did in 1966. He raised 5 kids there with his wife. (Gygax later had a sixth child, after he remarried following his first wife's death.) Oh, and they were all active in their Christian faith in this midwestern small town— quite a contrast with the pervasive stereotype throughout the 1980s that D&D and those who played it were, at best, un-Christian and at worst satan-worshippers.
The ideas of D&D predate its first publication in 1978 as "D&D" by many years. Gygax was a table-top war gamer since the 1960s. The idea for role-playing grew out of wargaming.... It's often credited to Dave Arneson, a friend and colleague of Gygax's, who suggested, "What if instead of simulating the movements of whole armies in a battle we play out the actions of individual heroes?" (Heavily paraphrased.) That, combined with Gygax's early work on extending wargaming to medieval settings via the Chainmail game he published in 1971, led to a dungeon-delving game called Castle Greyhawk he created and ran on his dining room table in 1973. The first players were his wife and older kids.
Something I gained appreciation of Gygax for from this walk through his hometown, aside from how ridiculously middle-American the setting is, is how determined Gygax had to be to maintain all the connections with other creative people. He did not live in a big city. There would've been no local club full of fellow gamers from nearby he could find inspiration at. And with the technology of the 1960s and 70s there was obviously no Internet to stay connected with. He had to travel around to different cities, finding out about conventions and meeting other people, and they stay in touch with all those people via phone— and more likely snailmail letters as well.
"What does any of that have to do with a small midwestern town?" you might wonder. Well, if you're a D&D player or RPGer from way back, you know. You know Lake Geneva as the headquarters of TSR, Inc., the pioneering RPG publisher, the first location of Gen Con, the biggest boardgame convention in the US, and the home of Gary Gygax— co-creator of the concept of RPGs, co-author of D&D, founder of Gen Con, and co-founder of TSR, Inc.
The four of us adults in the group are all D&D players from way back. My sister and I first played D&D in 1982, and my spouse and I still play D&D. Visiting some of the D&D related sites in Lake Geneva was like a pilgrimage for us. Plus, it was an opportunity for a pleasant walk on nice summer afternoon in Wisconsin.
Our first stop on the day's itinerary was the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. Coincidentally it's in the building where TSR's headquarters was for several years. Unfortunately it wasn't open yet for the day when we arrived. (Its hours changed recently and were not well advertised aside from the small, hand-written sign in the window. 😅) Thus we proceeded to the next stop on our itinerary: visiting the house where Gary Gygax lived when he created D&D.
"OMG, you visited a guy's house," you might wonder, "That he hasn't lived in for decades. Isn't that kind of obsessive/creepy?"
The answer is No/No. It wasn't our main purpose for the trip. The main things for us were to visit the museum and to see the other thing Lake Geneva is known for, the beautiful lake. Gygax's old house is merely something that came up when we were searching for other things to do in town to help fill out a day's activities. And it was pretty much on the route for walking from the museum to the lake shore next to downtown Lake Geneva.
Learning about the Man behind the Game
I always find it insightful to learn about where and how a notable person lived. That's because people are partly the product of their environment. In addition, the things people create are also partly the product of the environment in which they're created. And sometimes the things we assume about a creator from the creation are inaccurate.For example, when I was an adolescent D&D player in the mid 1980s I imagined Gary Gygax as being in his early 30s at the time. That image came from noting that D&D dated to 1978* and me figuring that Gygax had created it with his buddies from college while they were in their early 20s. I made that assumption based on the types of people I saw playing D&D. Nearly none of them I'd met were older than college/grad student age. Plus, the dedication to this kind of fantasy creation just seemed like something post-college hangers-on would have the interest— and, frankly, the time— to create.
I first learned that my image of Gygax was wrong just a few years later. Friends and I saw a TV interview clip with him in the late 1980s, maybe 1988. "OMG, he's 50?!!?" we all marveled. It was revelatory that a middle-aged man could be so into RPGs. Virtually nobody over 30 in my orbit could even understand RPGs, even when it was patiently explained to them. And it wasn't just Gygax's age. In that brief TV clip we saw he was a jovial, smiling, well-spoken man; not some dweeb with a creepy laugh and poor personal hygiene— things which were dominant stereotypes of RPG players at the time.
Walking a mile in Gygax's hometown further changed my understanding of him and the environment from which he came. Gygax was not some kid dwelling in his parents' basement long after he should have moved out on his own, nor was he a college hanger-on living in a seedy apartment with empty pizza boxes stacked on the floor and posters of hard rock bands dressed in leather, spikes, and face paint to look satanic covering the walls. (More dominant stereotypes of D&D and RPG players for years.)
Instead Gygax lived in his own house, a house he moved into in 1966, in a charming small-town America spot that looks little different today from what it likely did in 1966. He raised 5 kids there with his wife. (Gygax later had a sixth child, after he remarried following his first wife's death.) Oh, and they were all active in their Christian faith in this midwestern small town— quite a contrast with the pervasive stereotype throughout the 1980s that D&D and those who played it were, at best, un-Christian and at worst satan-worshippers.
The ideas of D&D predate its first publication in 1978 as "D&D" by many years. Gygax was a table-top war gamer since the 1960s. The idea for role-playing grew out of wargaming.... It's often credited to Dave Arneson, a friend and colleague of Gygax's, who suggested, "What if instead of simulating the movements of whole armies in a battle we play out the actions of individual heroes?" (Heavily paraphrased.) That, combined with Gygax's early work on extending wargaming to medieval settings via the Chainmail game he published in 1971, led to a dungeon-delving game called Castle Greyhawk he created and ran on his dining room table in 1973. The first players were his wife and older kids.
Something I gained appreciation of Gygax for from this walk through his hometown, aside from how ridiculously middle-American the setting is, is how determined Gygax had to be to maintain all the connections with other creative people. He did not live in a big city. There would've been no local club full of fellow gamers from nearby he could find inspiration at. And with the technology of the 1960s and 70s there was obviously no Internet to stay connected with. He had to travel around to different cities, finding out about conventions and meeting other people, and they stay in touch with all those people via phone— and more likely snailmail letters as well.
