I remember my first time just like it was yesterday. It was the early '80s and I was sitting on the floor of my friend's house in Pennsylvania. I was nervous -- I'd never done anything like this before. My hand shook for a moment before I opened it, releasing several dice onto the rug. "Nice," my friend said, "you picked the lock. The door swings open and there's nothing but darkness ahead." With that, I began my first journey into the world of Dungeons and Dragons.

Sadly, today marks the passing of Gary Gygax, co-creator of the popular role-playing system. He was 69. According to his wife, he had been suffering from health issues for some time now. By the sound of it, Gary was blessed to have made it as far as he did. Despite poor health, he was still entertaining fans at his home and hosting weekly dungeon crawls as recently as January.

Despite all the negative publicity the game has attracted over the years, many people attribute their career's successes to the game. Dungeon Masters, responsible for constructing elaborate maps of caverns and dungeons for their intrepid warriors, have found themselves interested in cartography. Tech professionals have cited the various calculations required for adding figures from dice rolls as being responsible for improving their math skills. Others have lauded the game for helping them to express and facilitate their creativity, initiative, leadership, and social interactions -- all of which they applied in their chosen professions.

Though I haven't played Dungeons and Dragons in many years, I'm still an avid gamer, playing other systems and modules with my friends. I attribute my own personal writing and love of the fantasy genre to those days of running in a panic from a pack of angry Orcs.

Thanks for the memories, Gary.

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