Gary Gygax a man beyond words.  You will be missed but never forgotten.  Thank you Gary you changed my life.

To gary,

A man whom I owe my great imagination, a man who helped me be a part of something bigger than myself.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for every book i've collected to every game i've ever played.

I never had the privilege of meeting Gary Gygax but he changed my life for the better. When I first got to know about D&D, I was a geeky 13-year old kid who talked too much and didn't know what to do in life. The skills and attitude I picked up since then brought me through the university, through law school and beyond. Now I have a family and kids who I look forward to sharing D&D (and role playing games in general) with.

Thank you so much Gary.

Hail now, hail to the king...

I'm sad when I'm writtig this because I know that whatever I'll wrote, it wont be enought:(

Thank you Gary, because you find a way to show us, funny guys with a colourfull dreams, that we are not alone. That there is a lot of us.

And the bard song will remain.

Like many countless other gamers, I can say that Gary had a profound and positive effect on my life.  Through D&D, I have met new friends, learned different ways of meeting challenges and developed a more acute sense of what is right.  I have spent, probably, thousands of hours in the last twenty years enjoying his work and his imagination.  In the process, I have expanded my own imagination.  From that first boxed set of basic D&D that a friend brought back to the UK from America, all the way to our self-made dungeons; Gary has played a part in the enjoyment of my leisure, the closeness of my comrades and more laughter than you can shake an Orc at.

He will be fondly remembered every time we get the dice out and go hunting dragons.

He helped make heroes of us all.

Oooh, Gary has given me so much in my life, throughout my life. He never met me, I never met him, but there are very few people on earth who can have reached so far into the hearts of others and revealed so much creativity.

I am very jealous of Stefan for the commission to do the sculpture. As a sculptor myself, I would have loved to have had the chance to put something back. But then again this has given me the impetus to maybe do my own piece anyway....hmmm

something from England to show how much he changed us all for the better

Something caused me to look for Gary on the internet today, and I found my way here. AD&D was such an important part of my formative years and my youth. I love the game still.

What a beautiful gift he gave us, to drive our imaginations and give us a place to go.

I was in Secondary school (not sure the American equivalent) and would be about 13. I'd picked up an interesting looking magazine from the newsagents the day before called White Dwarf ... id never seen the like before, i gazed in wonder at words like THACO and hit points without any knowledge of what they were.

A friend of mine Graham Shields asked me if i knew what it was all about. I said no and he told me. I had my first game od AD&D that weekend .... hooked ... instantly and permanently.

His work improved my command of the English language (though I was often told off for using American spelling in English lessons), kept my maths skills up to scratch and encouraged me to look beyond, to research .. first to improve my game world and then just for the pleasure of knowing.

Gary's work inspired me and many hundreds of wonderful adventures have been had with the worlds he allowed us to create. Roleplaying games have been the one constant in my life through tweo marriages and onto my third (and last), through many house moves, good times, bad times, my working life and beyond.

Through Gary Gygax I have been inspired enough to create my own works of fantasy. I set up my own games company, and work to keep roleplaying games alive, in my own small way.

Sadly I never met Gary Gygax. Maybe when I pass beyond the veil I can sit at his table and enjoy tales of adventure crafted by the master of gaming.

R.I.P. Gary, you gave us so much.

It was 1979 and i had just turned 11, i will never forget that day. I saw the basic set for sale and used my allowance to purchase it. From that date forward D&D had me hooked. I tried AD&D, and while it was ok, i went back to my box sets. Later, 2nd edition came out and once again i went back to the box sets. Recently, 3rd and 4th have been released, 3rd and 3.5 was good and i still sometimes play it, 4th is Dungeons the gathering and i won't touch it, so back to my box sets. In the end garys imagination has lasted over 30 years of my life and it's still going strong. I played so much when i began DM'ing i quit using modules and just made a map with notes and ran with it. hmm i think i need to get my box sets out again, Thank gary!

I first bought the basic D&D set a few months before my 15th birthday, back in 83. I remember running a game for 5 friends and being pleasently surprised when they all rushed out and bought their own copies. From there the floodgates just opened. We quickly progressed onto Expert D&D and then AD&D.

Since that day, I have played for 1000s of hours with many different people, made many friends along the way (including my future wife) and now run a campaign that includes my son. I can't actually quantify the impact that roleplaying has had on my life, other than to say that without it, I would not be the person that I am today.

I never actually physically met Gary, but he was there for me in every tavern and adventure in every campaign and he met me a 1000 times over, every time a fan awkwardly introduced themselves to him and stuttered their thanks.

I was saddened to hear of his passing, men like Gary are few and far between, the world is a poorer place for their leaving. That being said, Gary inspired a legion of fellow adventurers and we will carry his torch proudly forward to inspire new generations to join us on our never ending quest.

R.I.P. Gary and thanks for all that you have done.

Although I got a D in 7th grade English I did have over 100 graph paper dungeons completed for the Summer game season. That was 1983 and I still enjoy designing crawls for my group. Thanks G.G. for keeping my grey matter bubbling all these years.

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I found Gary Gygax's Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual in a bookstore when I was nine years old, and it enthralled me. I understood that D&D was a complicated game that I didn’t know how to play, but that didn't matter: I had to have that book. I had always loved monsters--reading about them, watching movies about them, drawing them--and it seemed I had finally found a book written by someone who loved them as much as I did.

Gary didn't invent D&D by himself or in a vacuum, but nobody did more to make me want to play it, and games like it. Much of the appeal of his books was his writing: he could explain difficult concepts without talking down to the twelve-year-old ambitious enough to open the AD&D manuals. He trusted his audience, but he also challenged them. Gary used big nouns (phylactery, miscibility) and big adjectives (vacuous, slatternl

Thanks Gary for everything -- e.g. D&D et. al.

I remember meeting Gary when I was in middle school in Los Angeles, California.  His younger son and I were friends in school and Luke would occasionally have a bunch of us over for a day.  When Gary was home he would occasionally sit down with us and talk - whether about D&D or what ever struck his fancy.  He was a friendly, gracious fellow to our crowd of rowdies, and I have long appreciated the thought of having a small tie to the Patriarch of D&D. 

There are pioneers in our world that find front place at all the "who is important" dinners and functions.

I not only want to comment the man on fact that his works opened my eyes towards the limitlessness of my own imagination, but also recognize the influence he has had on our society at large.

With a background including marketing analysis, college teaching, corporate finance and now math teaching, it is amazing still to think back on how D & D changed the way I thought about everything from statistics to geometry.  I hope the monument has multi-sided dice that spin in the wind, because the way he brought math into our imaginations was perhaps the most remarkable thing of all!

All I can say is that without the things Gary did, I would never have come to love the friends and neighbors I've made through his contributed work in the field of hobby gaming.

I am a Civil Designer with an Engineering Firm and I would like to offer my services as a CADD Designer with experience in creating the engineering drawings that the city may request for this.  I know from reading the article you posted from the City that they require a detailed map of the location.  I am willing to donate my time in providing that assuming someone there can get me pictures and measurements.

I'd like to offer my 3d services for rendering your monument design. I can incorporate it with location photos too. I'm sure it would hepl with your fundraising efforts.

Living just south of Lake Geneva I had the good fortune of running into Mr. Gygax a few times in town. I would spend a few minutes chatting, not wanting to take up too much of his time, and even though I'm sure I was interrupting what he was doing he was so gracious with his time and would spend the few minutes to entertain a fan. One of the nicest and most humble men I had ever met.

i  met mr. gygax once, at a tolkien thing in new york.  wonderful man - a man who changed all of our lives.

I learned how to play RPG, specifically D&D in college back in 1979.  Later we all learned how to play AD&D.  I developed some very deep friendships with the people I played with over the years through role playing games.  Because of RPG I learned that many people working together could overcome any obstacle.  The 'group mind' was always more powerful that any single 'genius'.

Starting with the D&D red box, roleplaying was the vehicle through which I developed. Math was made fun, statistics was made approachable, and my imagination was fired. 

I owe most of my positive childhood and teenage memories to this man and his creativity.  D&D, Top Secret, Gamma World and Boot Hill were my escape from a tumultous household with parents who were involved in constant verbal abuse toward each other and their children.  It gave me an opportunity to be whatever my imagination could invent.

My 3rd grade teacher taught me how to play D&D. Im 37 now and I play with my kid. I thank Mr. Gygax for that.

Dungeons and Dragons.  Gary Gygax.  When I was starting middle school, I had recently moved to a big city from a quiet suburb.  Added to the awkwardness of age, was my being "the new kid."  I endured a year of torture, teasing and general hell.  Then, one afternoon, near the end of the school day, a classmate told me to meet him in the school library at 2:15.  I thought, "How strange.  They're going to beat me up in the library this time."  Resigned to my fate, I went. 

Man, this is tough... Gary Gigax was an amazing person. I never met him, never
spoke to him, but I understood him on a level that I share with too few people...
Summer of 1997, me and my buddy got a hold of his older brothers AD&D
2nd Edition Starter Box (ya know, the one with the audio CD that narrated the
adventure! With the ambient sounds and the cool, Shakespearean narrator,
YEAH!)... That memory is indelible. Gary Gigax, all the people involved over
the years and the whole concept of D&D as an escape, a meditation, a secret
identity or what have you, have and still do help me and my fellow gamers find
joy in life. To the family of Gary Gigax I, and the world, morn the loss of a man
who was no doubt as great a Husband, Father, Brother or Uncle as he was a
pioneer, adventurer and poet.

I never met Gary though I talked to him online a few times, yet he changed my
life profoundly. I was an eight year old kid when my best friend's older brother
let us sit in on a D&D game. The door to my imagination was opened. Hours of
enjoyment with my friends creating worlds,acting and having fun were the result.
Gary's creation got me into reading, it caused me to meet people who would be
my closest friends through life and it gave me so many good memories. Thank
you Gary and God Bless.

I'm not really sure how to start this. I guess I can start out by talking about how
Gary Gygax first inspired me during the turbulent period of my teenage years,
how he provided direction and inspiration to many young boys and girls when
they needed it most. I guess I could say something about how he stoked and
fueled the fires of imagination in millions of people around the world, how he
dared people to dream, and because of this, allowed them to aspire to greater
heights in their lives and to make those "dreams" a reality. The truth is, no
matter what I could say about Gary, the words would not due him the justice he
deserves. So few people make the kind of impact on others that Gary did, and
for his impact on me, I can only say thank you. I still read his works daily, and still
play several of his games on a regular basis. I feel a terrible sense of loss at the
fact that Gary is no longer here to guide us down the path he pointed out to all
of so long ago, but I know it's because he is busy forging ahead on yet another,
different path, that one day we will follow him on again.

I grew up in New Zealand, and I was always a geeky kid, building things and
designing games. By the time Gary Gygax released D&D in the early 1970s I
was a table top war gamer, as Gary himself had been. One day some of the
younger kids started bringing fantasy figures in and running battles on a hex
board. I remember the first moment I saw this new activity in the club. One player
was advising another party member to hit an intimidating looking black caped elf
with as many arrows as possible before he closed. The elf’s player whined “Not
fair!”. I was in my early teens, and I remember some older war gamers looking
disparagingly upon this new development, but I thought it was fascinating, seeing
those strange mythical creatures and wondering at their exotic powers. Even
the hex board stirred my imagination. The club split and I stayed with the war
gamers. Years later I put it together that I had seen D&D arrive.
It wasn’t until finishing university in 1984 that I got into D&D. My girlfriend
introduced me to a friend of hers who had been playing for a couple of years,
and he loaned me a very well thumbed Players Handbook. I was immediately
hooked. I joined the group without the slightest idea that it was a good idea to set
watches at night, and found myself playing the Sergeant leading a patrol for the
army of Gran March. I learned so much about people. I learned the game from
that group, played with them for about 15 years and joined another group when I
changed city, but my original group is still together. Now I have spawned my own
group – 5 young rookies who can’t wait for the weekly session. In this way Gary’s
game brings us together, and lets us learn from each other. Players and DMs
have a lineage – Big Al got me started as a DM, and in the fullness of time I shall
help one of my rookies to take over, I hope – I wan

I remember still that first day that I opened that small little red box that
contained the original dungeons and dragons game. From that small little box
to my "Gaming" library from which I have had countless hours of fun and delight
as a youth to that of a father teaching his children the same game he learned as
a child. For this treasure I will also hold Gary Gygax as a esteemed mentor and
educator for his games have helped me with reading and mathmatics as it does
now with my own children. You will be forever in my prayers Gary Gygax.

Put simply enough, Gary is ultimately responsible for thousands and thousands
of hours of the fun in my life. I can't thank him enough for the good things that
have resulted in my life due to Dungeons and Dragons, including most of my life
long friends. I wish I had thanked him while he was still on the prime material
plane.

No one man has ever effected the course of my life like Gary has. I was 9 in
1980 and played in my first game. He inspired works of art, short stories, books,
and even a college report for me over the last 30 years. Much of pop culture
today can be traced back to his works and is completely taken for granted. He
helped me come to terms and even be proud with being a geek! I never met the
man in person, but as with countless others, I felt the loss of a close friend when
he left us to start the ultimate adventure. He is loved and missed.

It's because of Gary that I have had an everlasting hobby. He was very nice
to answer an email that I had sent to him years ago with concerns about the
game we so love and cherish. He seemed to be a warm soul and he continues
to inspire me with all his written works. I was probably only 10 years old when I
discovered the old AD&D books and I am 39 now. I am using the old books as
a basis for a new fantasy world inspired by the old style. Gary's approach to life
and having fun will always be a beacon of light in my life.

Gary helped my imagination come alive from 1980 on. Thanks to him I gained a
renewed interest in history and literature. Thank you Mr. Gygax, wherever you
are I'm sure adventure is with you.

I got in to Dungeons & Dragons in middle school. It was 2000, so right between
the switch from AD&D2nd to 3.0. A friend of mine knew how much I loved
roleplaying games on computers (specifically Baldur's Gate) and consoles and
told me about this incredible game where you can do everything you could dream
of and even make your own weapons. I asked him where such a game could be
purchased. He handed me the AD&D1 monster manual (The pegasus and red
dragon cover) and said "Keep it". I read the book secretly during class, having
no idea what the stat blocks meant, but found them extremely entertaining.
That day I told my friend I'd be interested in the game. Shortly after, we made a
character during lunch. He did a fairly simply roleplaying run with me the next day
with a few combat moments. I was hooked. After a few weeks of hoarding my
lunch money, I purchased the 3.0 Players Guide and DMG. A week after that, I
purchased the MM. To this day I joke that "The only reason I have for a job is for
my supplements". Gygax, you were a great man who did a great many things.
Your creation has provided me with many many hours of fun and excellent
adventures. I have recruited many new players along the way. I will never forget
the magic of my first game when I first cast a die to fight an orc at that lunch table
ten years ago. I look forward to the day I have children with my fiance (also a
gamer) so I might pass the tradition on to them.

My gaming life and interest in the fantasy RPG genre began with the discovery
of the magenta D&D Basic Starter Set in 1981 when I was 11 years old. After
several years of playing different versions of D&D, I had the pleasure of meeting
Gary twice; once at a book signing for one of his novels at a Walden Books,
and more recently at a GenCon some years ago. On each occasion he struck
me as a very down to earth, warm, and encouraging person. His life's work and
words of encouragement continue to inspire me creatively, contributing to my
fierce interest in reading and writing. Today I re-read his modules and novels for
fun and I am constantly reminded of his positive spirit. Sadly I do not get to play
D&D anymore due to preoccupations with work and family, but I hope to play
again with my kids when they are older so they can experience the game and
the journey for themselves. Thank you Gary for creating worlds that were, and
remain, so much fun to play in. Thank you, Good Sir!

Gary didn't just affect my life like any ordinary gamer. He brought my life anew.
I was a mere 9 years old when I started playing D&D. It was all because my
mother purchased a "book" that I would be intrested in. That book was a player's
handbook for 2nd edition D&D. I got so into this book that I started to get my
friends into it. I soon started my first D&D session was with 3 friends of mine who
are still with me today. Because of that fated meeting with my orginal "party", I
still hold those friends close to me to this day. Soon my life changed like I never
would have expected it. I went into High School knowing no one but my close
friend. But thanks to Dungeons and Dragons, I met people who were intrested
in the same thing. And they became my friends quite quickly. Over time my
friendship circle grew and grew and I have so many people close to me that I
don't have time to see them all in a month. But most of all, I have to be thankfull
for the Wonderfull woman I met through gaming. I cannot express my gratitude
and heart felt appreciation enough to Gary for (unknowingly) having me meet
my soon to be wife. Thank you Gary Gygax. Thank you for the game you have
created but most of all, thank you for the great person you've created within me.
You've shaped my life for the best. I will love and miss you gary.

I never really liked reading until I purchased my first basic Dungeons and
Dragons books at a yard sale when I was 11 or 12. I fell in love with the art work
then I read the first few pages. I was hooked after that! Every time we traveled
to our nearest mall I stopped into the hobby shop to see the books. A little later I
began reading the novels that were coming out. The reading and research I did
while involved with a Dungeons and Dragons Character improved my grades,
kept me out of trouble, and improved my school work. I would have liked to have
me Mr. Gygax to thank him for such an entertaining game.

Gary codified and championed a social format that brought people together
to play an adult version of "Let's Pretend". People opened up and shared
their imagination and aspirations, their fears and desires. While the game and
camaraderie at the time were great fun, the friendships from those shared stories
and events have lasted years after the game. All our lives have been made richer
and fuller because of his work.

I remember picking up a used Dungeons and Dragons starter game as a 10 year
old. I don't play D&D anymore, but I have played Magic:The Gathering for over
15 years and Magic would not have been possible without Gary's games and
literature opening up the creative minds of people like Richard Garfield. As a
resident of Indianapolis and a regular GenCon attendee since it came to our city,
we are proud to call Indy the home of GenCon. Thank you Gary. You will never
be fogotten.

I turned 14 in 1978 and since then, the works of E. Gary Gygax have brought me
thousands of hours of joy, relaxation and good camaraderie with friends made
around the world.

So much of my childhood was defined by staying up late and reading or playing
the works of Mr. Gygax. Even today, when I see the products of the OSR/
retroclone movement, I get very excited and nostalgic.

Gary made geeks become friends with each other and make them feel
worthwhile - it's not all about getting picked first for the football team any more.

Mr. Gygax was the influence on so many parts of my life it is hard to express
them. I owe him my sense of honor, my ethics, my career, and most importantly
the idea that I am a hero. Designing dungeons and castles to game in as a child
is probably why I am an architect today. If you need help with ideas or designs
for his memorial I would be honorbound to assist. R.I.P.

Roleplaying games have formed the bedrock of my social life for the past 20
years, and Mr. Gygax helped lay the foundation of that hobby. Through his work I
have made life-long friends; men and women whom have enriched my life. None
of that would have been possible without the contribution of Mr. Gygax and his
contempories to a pasttime with it's roots deeply embedded in the innate human
desire to tell our friends stories.