Gary Gygax, co-creator of the popular fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was 69.

Gygax had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.

Along with Dave Arneson, Gygax created the original D&D game in 1974 that spawned a phenomenon still thriving today and also co-founded the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR), which published the first D&D game. After breaking with TSR in 1985, Gygax went on to create Dangerous Journeys and Lejendary Adventure RPGs, as well as a number of board games. He also wrote several fantasy novels.

I’m sure that all of you reading this know what a loss this is to the Geek world and how significant Gygax’s contributions were to the fantasy genre as well as the game-playing world. Growing up in the ’80s, gathering for a D&D campaign — LONG before the Internet — was commonplace. All you needed was a pencil, multi-sided dice, and your imagination .. oh, and a Dungeon Master to outline your adventure (oh when life was simple). Everyone I knew bowed before the altar of Gygax and creating characters and adventures from the numerous D&D and Advanced D&D books (which I still have) was a way to hang out with friends, have fun, and believe it or not — stay OUT of trouble. Ironically, D&D had a real bad rep in the mainstream at the time: the media touted it as a bad influence on kids, especially teenaged boys, saying it led to Satan worship and criminal acts. Because of its mythical and magical elements, organized religions came down on the game. Back then, if a kid stabbed or shot someone and/or commited suicide, D&D got the blame (along with Heavy Metal, of course).

But to the legions of D&D fans, many of whom would stop by Gygax’s home (to his enjoyment), Gygax was a hero and his game a salvation. Despite his declining health, Gygax as recent as this January was hosting weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons. “It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, what he gave them,” Gail Gygax said. “He really enjoyed that.”

Funeral arrangements are pending. Besides his wife, Gygax is survived by six children.

Here’s a great Q&A TheOneRing.net did with Gygax where he talks about what influenced his creations and his thoughts on the whole Satanism accusation.

[Source: CNN]