Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Update – confirmations now trickling in from across the web.

Okay – this is oddly uncorroborated by larger news sources as yet, but as the sad tidings originated just hours ago as a posting from the head of Troll Lord Games, his current publisher, they’re very likely true.

Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, has passed away, aged just 69. He had been seriously ill for some time.

Would we ever have had PC RPGs without Gygax’s laying down of roleplaying foundations back in 1974? Oh, probably – in some form, anyway. But would we have had Ultima, Fallout, Diablo, World of Warcraft, even Deus Ex? Probably not. Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Planescape Torment? Definitely not.

This man gave a great deal to gaming. Bow your heads.

Photo by Alan De Smet.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been an avid Pen & Paper Tabletop roleplayer. Like – say- about sixteen or so. However, I’ve dabbled sporadically ever since and have tried to keep an occasional eye on the hobby, if only for old time’s sake. So I was aware that Wizards of the Coast had announced they were releasing a fourth edition of the D&D rules next year.

It wasn’t until someone who’d been following it a little closer talked to me about it last week that I realised it actually was something genuinely radical. Buried between the announcements of Swords Versus Scarabs +3 now being +4 and kobolds being pink rather than whatever colour kobolds are, Wizards have done something interesting and relevant to RPS.

They’ve turned it into a PC game.

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