[Tim]

heh, I think I could have guessed you weren't a big D&D guy. You and my mother would have gotten along swimmingly when it came to the things kids should have been doing in the 80's

For my part, I tried a few times and didn't really get it... more of a reflection of my friends (and myself) than the game. When the video games came out, though, I was all over them. Eye of the Beholder still has good appeal for me

[GrimGriz]

D&D was group escapism in it's infancy...whereas books and stories had been single player escapism for long before that

[Tim]

Escapists Unite!

[Ambrosius]

Originally Posted by Jump

I think it was more of a marketing genius thing. As there were many aspects of D&D around in various little games and such long before but no one really put it all together as a package and made it popular. And that's what he did. I'm not sure it was good thing overall but it was popular.

Definitely NOT a marketing "genius." He was passionate about RP gaming and he was lucky. TSR almost went bankrupt in the early/mid 80s (only about a year after I passed on the job there) because of cash flow problems when they moved from hobby store distribution to mega store/chain toy store disribution. TSR never figured out how to make big-time distribution work, and just eked along until they were sold (ultimately to Hasbro, who had the marketing/distribution know-how).

[Ambrosius]

Very good ARTICLE on E.G.G.

[Pyrophred]

He did one very important thing. He took the game board off the table and put it in people's heads.

Most games, from Chess/checkers through Monopoly/Life all the way to Risk and some of the more detailed strategy games out there need a map of some sort to move the pieces around on. He just took the map away and added alot of details to the pieces.

His influence is undeniable, even if you never heard of him before now.

[Sinupe]

I guess some of us really are old geezers

Yeah D&D wasn't a big success by a mile. Nor was it LOTR when it came out since you mention it.

The fantasy worlds played a big role in the creation fo D&D with many elements drawn from them. Still it doesn't really take away the merits of (like Pyro stated above) removing the board and having people using their imagination.

I played (A)D&D and enjoyed a full day of drinks, junk food and general obnoxious talk and the complmentary disputes about loot and "WTF did that fracking pianno come from from?!".

This said I was a sports jock with a couple basketball national titles, smoked enough Marlboro (and other sweet herbs) and drunk enough scotch to drown a whale. Despite the achievements in Basketball my favourite sport was obviously sex and geting married and divorcing every every 3 years to keep things lively. My main method of transportation a CBR 1100XX.

I also joined Nazgul at some stage of my Jumpgate career.

SO if you even dream of calling me a nerd you better think twice

Great loss.

[GrimGriz]

closet case.