I decided to write about this one because I had never heard of the guy. Turns out he’s the inventor of Dungeons and Dragons, which I have heard of but also know little about.

Gygax was born in Chicago, but apparently when he was 9 his dad decided the mean streets were too much and hauled the family north to Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. That’s where Gygax met Don Kaye, who would be a longtime collaborator.

Growing up, it sounds like Gygax was (unsurprisingly) a bit of nerd. He was into card games, board games, and make-believe adventures that Gygax himself would later work to develop as formal live-action role-playing games. He was into sci-fi and fantasy, but also into history, which led him into playing wargames.

After his dad died, Gygax dropped out of high school and joined the Marines, of all choices. But then he developed walking pneumonia and was discharged, so he moved back in with his mom and got a job as a clerk in Chicago. It was around this time that he learned about a new wargame, Gettysburg, and immersed himself in the game, which might put him among the pioneers of video game addicts—pretty sure we all know at least one of those guys. Thanks, Gary!

Still, Gary managed to hold down a job, get married, have a mess of kids, and pay his rent. On the side, he started wargaming clubs and in 1967 he held the first gathering of what would become Gen Con, which is now one of the largest game gatherings in the United States. In 1970, Gygax lost his job—in one version, he quit; in another, he got fired for working on games instead of doing his job. Gygax tried to parlay his hobby into his own game-selling business, but it didn’t go well, and certainly wasn’t going to keep five kids in shoes. So he became a cobbler to augment his income. Then he got hired on at Guidon Games, a publisher of wargames.

One of Gygax’s big contributions was to upgrade from using six-sided dice in making decisions to using a spinner with 20 sections or a coffee can with 20 numbered poker chips. This eventually morphed into the 20-sided dice that quite frankly were my favorite part of those games.

In the winter of 1972–73—of course it was winter, what better incentive to play indoor games than live through winter in Wisconsin?—Gygax and Dave Arneson began working on “The Fantasy Game” that would eventually evolve into Dungeons and Dragons.

The thing that I really love about this story is that Gygax was not shy about his wide array of influences and inspirations. It’s an adage that if you want to become a better writer, you read EVERYTHING. Clearly, that advice extends beyond just writing. Chances are you’ll be a better and more adventurous gardener if you read about Versailles, or you’ll be a better salesman if you read up on psychology. Gygax leaned on a lot of different fantasy writers for his game: Jack Vance, Tolkein, Stoker, and a bunch of others.

Needless to say, he hit the big time—more than once. And then he had some tremendous plummets from those great heights—Gygax’s life really should be made into a movie. He made a bundle, lived a life of excess in Hollywood. He lost his company and his wife. He made great contributions and terrible business decisions. He died in 2008. Check him out!