Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax (born 1938) Author of the Gord the Rogue series and co-creator (with Don Kaye) of the most well-known role playing game (RPG) Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Gygax and Kaye started their own company called Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) and published the first version of D&D in 1974. He still takes an active role in D&D, and writes a section in Dragon Magazine.
Another of his creations was DragonChess, a three-dimensional fantasy chess variant, published in Dragon Magazine #100 (August 1985). It is played on three 8x12 boards stacked on top of each other - the top board represents the sky, the middle is the ground, and the bottom is the underworld. The pieces are characters and monsters inspired by the Dungeons and Dragons setting: King, Mage, Paladin, Cleric, Dragon, Griffin, Oliphant, Hero, Thief, Elemental, Basilisk, Unicorn, Dwarf, Sylph and Warrior.
After leaving TSR he created Dangerous Journeys which was an advanced RPG spanning multiple genres. He began work in 1995 on a major new RPG, originally intended for a computer game, but in 1999 released as Lejendary Adventure which some consider to be his best work to date. A key part of its design was to keep the gaming rules as simple as possible, as Gygax felt that RPGs were becoming too complex and discouraged new users.
Novels
- Saga of Old City (1985)
- Artifact of Evil (1986)
- City of Hawks (1987)
- Night Arrant collection (1987)
- Sea of Death (1987)
- Come Endless Darkness (1988)
- Dance of Demons (1988)
- The Anubis Murders (1992)
- The Samarkand Solution (1993)
- Death in Delhi (1993)