Gary Gygax and Don Kaye

Bio Summary:

Gary Gygax and Don Kaye are most notably remembered for the creation of the Company TSR or Tactical Studies Rules in 1973. Though mainly shouldered by Gary Gygax, the foundation of Role-playing and tactical gaming are credited to these two men. Gary Gygax created the Dungeons and Dragons, which was an expansion of the game Chainmail that Gygax had helped, develop. All the games Gygax developed were fantastical and based on medieval warfare, genres that had inspired him since childhood.

Early Life/Family:

Gary Gygax was born on July 27th 1938 in the city of Chicago. to a Chicago Orchestra Violinist, Ernest Gygax and Almina Emelie Burdick. Ever since he was young, Gygax played strategy and fantasy games that were the fore fathers of modern Role-playing games. In his younger years, he developed some of the more unique tools of strategy games such as Hexagonal mapping and six sided platonic dice. His father was very influential when it came to Gygax’s love of science fiction and fantasy by introducing him to Ray Bradbury stories, Pulp novels and Robert E. Howard’s Conan series.

Education/Training:

Gygax was a both an author and game designer. He is also credited as the founder of Gen Con Gaming Convention. Gygax’s game involvement started to take off with the creation of the International Federation of Wargamers in 1966. One of the first forums for war-gaming clubs it offered background in medieval history and overall promotion of the gamers community. Later Gygax held what was considered the first Gen Con or Gen Con 0 in his basement in 1967 with twenty or so fellow gamers. The tradition of a Gamers convention continued the next year in Lake Geneva and it now known as one of the largest annual game and hobby gatherings. At this time, Gygax worked as a shoe repairman so that he had as much free time as possible to dedicate to developing and authoring games. With his childhood friend Don Kaye as well as Mike Reese and Leon tucker, Gygax created the first miniature military society, the Lake Geneva Tactical studies Association. He finally began as editor in chief at Guidon Games in 1970. It was at this time that Chainmail gained its popularity with the addition of the fantasy element of other races based on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings as well as other classic fantasy. Traditional role playing spells were also added such as fireball, lightning bolt etc with the addition of the Wizard class. When Dave Arneson saw the development of Chainmail, he saw the potential of Role Playing games and it was at this time history was made with Gygax and Arneson’s creation of Dungeons and Dragons. Gygax then created with childhood friend Don Kaye TSR and Dungeons and Dragons grew phenomenally in popularity. Gygax lived the majority of his life in to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was married twice and had six children before he, sadly, died on March 4, 2008 from an inoperable abdominal aneurysm. He was 69 years old. He is quoted as saying ”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 (wikipedia.) When asked by Bryan Kaplan, creator of Futurama if he (Gygax) had created role-playing games, Gygax had responded modestly “No, As long as kids have been playing cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians, they’ve been playing role playing gamers”(wired.com).

Contributors To This Listing: Rebecca Kramp

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