The Ravens Nest

Today is a sad day for all of us in the tabletop RPG space. As of this morning, Ernie Gygax Jr. has passed away.

I wouldn’t blame some of you if you weren’t aware of who this man is. He’s the son of E. Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons.

I speak a lot on tabletop games, recommending Castles & Crusades highly but what you might not know is that Ernie Jr. and Luke Gygax have been very active both in the production of games and in conventions.

He first came to my attention when the Nu-TSR had made it’s presence known and Giant Lands was in production to hit the market. See, WoTC had let some of their copyrights go (though there is still debate over this) and Ernie was in there, my opinion here, for the express intent of making cool games. That wasn’t his only gig though. He also did stuff for Castles & Crusades like Marmoreal Tomb and this one…the only bit of his work that I have which he worked on with his brother Luke.

I haven’t played this but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I’ve always wanted the C&C version of this but who knows if that’s ever going to come now. I truly don’t know if it will. However, I can convert it to run on C&C if all else fails but I digress.

Ernie had health issues. They weren’t specified as far as I know but one day, all news of Ernie dropped. Until the last couple of days when it was announced that Ernie’s own doctors advised him to not go to DaveCon this year. We all wished him a speedy recovery. Then, we got a screenshot of a facebook post from Luke saying he was flying to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to be with Ernie. The whole family was flocking to his bedside. That’s when we knew, things got serious.

This morning, I woke up to this…

Ernie has gone to play at his father’s table. My heart, thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies go out to the Gygax family. This is a sad day for gaming. I’d also just seen a post where someone pointed out that little did you know that when you and your friends hung out that it would be the last time you ever hung out.

That’s true. Some have even pointed out that the last gaming session you might have had could very well be the last gaming session you ever have with someone. That’s also true. Little did some know that the last time they’d ever meet Ernie would be the last time. For me, I never got the pleasure of meeting him though, from the accounts of people who met and knew him, he was one of the best people to meet. The world is much poorer without Ernie. We can all take comfort that Ernie has earned his rest and that he’s no longer in pain. It’s what the rest of us will carry in his stead.

Hail to you, Ernie. May your table in the next world be a happy one and may you forever have the game you’ve always wanted to play.