Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons

More Praise for Empire of Imagination

"Like most of my generation, I played D&D in high school, and I still play to this day. Still, I hadn’t appreciated the genius and the madness of Gary Gygax until I read Empire of Imagination. This story of Gygax, D&D, and TSR has all the elements of the best dungeon crawls: courage, treachery, triumph, inspiration, and treasure. The only thing missing is Beholders." —Christian Rudder, cofounder of OkCupid and bestselling author of Dataclysm

"For fans of role-playing games, and D&D specifically, the book is required reading." —Booklist

"Empire of Imagination is an absolute blast! The narrative is fast-paced, while the depth of research made me feel like I was reliving the life of one of the most creative forces of our time. Witwer had me reaching for my twenty-sided dice!" —Ben Mezrich, bestselling author of Bringing Down the House and Once Upon a Time in Russia

We live in a time when the most important people in sports are using data—statistics, analytics—to make decisions with billion dollar consequences. We live in a time when digital gaming may be more influential in our culture than sports and movies combined. In short, we live in a world perhaps only Gary Gygax could have imagined decades ago. If you want to know where it all began, this book is as good a place as any to start. —Mike Greenberg, cohost of ESPN’s Mike & Mike and bestselling author of My Father’s Wives and All You Could Ask For

Gary Gygax showed us that games could not just be fun, but a common ground for ‘uncool’ kids to find each other. Witwer’s book does a great job of conveying why Gary’s life mission meant so much to people like me. —Ken Levine, creator of BioShock

"Empire of Imagination tells the story of the emperor himself, at times brilliant, sometimes tragic, but ultimately victorious." —Peter Adkison, founder and former CEO of Wizards of the Coast, owner of Gen Con

"In vignettes which vividly illustrate Gygax’s key role in the invention of modern gaming, Empire of Imagination shows us the rise of Dungeons & Dragons through the eyes of its most famous father. Gygax could not have hoped for a more attentive and sympathetic biographer." —Jon Peterson, author of Playing at the World

[A] brilliant book. —Ian Livingstone CBE, cofounder of Games Workshop

"I highly recommend Empire of Imagination to anyone interested in gaming and the creative process." —Chris Perkins, D&D principal story designer at Wizards of the Coast

"The work of Michael Witwer is all I could have hoped it would be! If you want to know what it was like back when D&D was being born then this book is a must-have." —Ernest Gary Gygax, Jr.

Not a dry, rigorous biographical tome—quite a fun read. —Frank Mentzer, former TSR designer and creative advisor to Gary Gygax

Witwer’s respect for Gygax is evident throughout … Informative … Well-researched. —Kirkus Reviews

"Witwer cleverly sorts the narrative into ‘levels’ rather than chapters; each level opens with a D&D-style scene that both foreshadows and entertains." —Library Journal

A great achievement, a foundational biography, an important story to tell … You don’t need to roll a d20 to find out whether you should buy this book. If you even know what I meant when I wrote ‘d20,’ the answer is yes. —Bookgasm

Gary Gygax went on a long, treacherous and challenging journey in both his personal and business life and, after reading Michael Witwer’s book, I feel as though I’ve been on a part of that journey, too … The book left me feeling warm and yet somewhat sad, but it was definitely a most satisfying read … Most highly recommended. —Jonathan Hicks, RPG.net

If you are a gamer, live with a gamer or ever had the urge to understand why gamers, geeks and nerds do what they do, you must read this book. —d20radio.com

Successfully tackles the monumental job of following Gary from birth (July 27, 1938) to his taken-from-us-too-soon death (March 4, 2008) and beyond … Very interesting reading! —GeekDad

If you have any interest in the origination of our hobby, read this book … Amazingly entertaining and informative. —Geeks and Geeklets

"A biography worthy of the creator of D&D … This is an excellent and enjoyable read." —Black Gate

A book no geek or role player of any sort should miss out on. Get it! It is an excellent read and you owe it to the creator of the genre to read the story of his life. —Metapunk

The most complete portrayal of Gary Gygax the man done to date. —Fat Goblin Games

"If you’re remotely interested about the history of D&D, Gary Gygax or the hobby of roleplaying, this is a great read." —Natural 20

If you have a love for RPGs and would like to know their creator better, I recommend the book whole-heartedly. —Expertise Dice

A fascinating and well-researched book. —Scott Thorne, ICv2

Much of what I read I have known for years but seldom have I read the account told in such an engaging way. —Under Siege

Well written, well researched, and hard to put down. —Platypus Gaming

For Kalysta, Vivienne & William

Contents

Author’s Note: Telling the Story of a Storyteller

Foreword

Introduction

Prologue: Memory Lane

LEVEL 1

+1:    Midwestern Mischief

+2:    Fright Night

+3:    Checkmate

+4:    Here, There Be Dragons

+5:    Tomb of Horrors

+6:    No One at the Wheel

+7:    Low Times at Lake Geneva High

LEVEL 2

+8:    The Real World

+9:    Dueling Passions

+10:  Another Woman?

+11:  The One That Got Away

+12:  Sunday in the Park with Gary

LEVEL 3

+13:  Playing Games

+14:  Fateful Encounter

+15:  Tactical Studies, Anyone?

+16:  Chainmail

LEVEL 4

+17:  Genesis

+18:  The Muse

+19:  Bedtime!

+20:  Publishing: A Catch-22

+21:  The Art of Making Art

LEVEL 5

+22:  Casualties of Wargaming

+23:  A Makeshift Solution

+24:  Kask Strength

+25:  Fun and More Games

+26:  Gary’s Other Job

+27:  It’s Like Dungeons & Dragons, but Advanced

LEVEL 6

+28:  Trouble in Paradise

+29:  A Devastating Loss

+30:  The Dictator

+31:  Parting Ways

+32:  There’s No Business Like Show Business

+33:  The Coup

+34:  Trojan Horse

LEVEL 7

+35:  New Beginnings

+36:  Dangerous Journeys

LEVEL 8

+37:  Justified

+38:  Silver and Gold

+39:  King of the Nerds

+40:  The End of the Road

LEVEL 9

+41:  The Legacy

+42:  The Butterfly Effect

+43:  The Road Goes Ever On

+44:  A Man for All Seasons

Acknowledgments

Appendix A: Gary Gygax Timeline

Appendix B: Gary Gygax: A Life’s Work

References and Selected Bibliography

Notes

Index

A Note on the Author

Author’s Note

Telling the Story of a Storyteller

Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons is the dramatic story of the creator of one of history’s most influential games. While the story’s narrative is based on an extensive research and interview process, I have also used a bit of imagination and informed judgment to fill in the gaps of this dynamic yet largely unknown story, making it as complete and cohesive as possible. In many cases, scenes and dialogue have been re-created, combined, and in some instances imagined to best support the known documentary record. Many of the events described are controversial and told from personal perspectives that reflect the beliefs of the individuals involved, and are not necessarily shared or endorsed by this author. Ultimately, it is my hope that the reader will come away not just with a clear picture of Gary Gygax’s achievements but also with a sense of his personality—a picture of his life. Nonetheless, a great effort was made to be as conceptually accurate and precise as possible in the descriptions of these events, and in all factual details of this work.

I have, however, provided a way for those who would like to be able to distinguish actual quotes and writings from those that have been editorialized, re-created, or imagined in the course of this work. Quotes or strings of quotes that are immediately followed by a note reference number are derived from actual comments and writings; the associated note provides relevant source and contextual information. Notes are also used to provide source information on particular accounts (especially those that are otherwise controversial or contested), to credit sources for various information, or to provide further details on a particular topic. A more extensive bibliography with complete information on the sources cited in the notes is provided at the end. The quotes that appear without an accompanying citation are, as acknowledged above, editorialized, re-created, or imagined within a factual context. Out of respect for those who were present at the time of these events, I feel it is important to reiterate that great lengths were taken to be as factually accurate as possible, but I also believe the dramatic aspect of the narrative is fully in line with detailing a remarkable life such as Gary’s.

One challenge of gathering accurate information about and from such a creative and imaginative group of individuals is that in many cases recollections of events tend to be just that, creative and imaginative. This, coupled with a range of personal feelings around these people and events, not to mention many years of distance, no doubt explains the significant discrepancies that exist in the historical record. Gary himself was known to speak off the cuff, probably not foreseeing that his words might someday be chronicled and assembled as part of historical research. For example, he was often inexact—and sometimes inconsistent—with dates, facts, and figures in interviews conducted at different times about the same event. To this end, and as part of the research process, I used primary sources wherever available and practicable in order to eliminate factual conflicts, especially those that occurred in later interviews and in poorly controlled published sources. In this respect, Jon Peterson’s Playing at the World proved especially helpful and deserves special recognition, as its research is largely based on hard-to-find primary sources and effectively functioned as a factual control for my research. This is not to leave out all the individuals who generously donated their time in the form of interviews and other correspondence for this effort, a complete list of which is available in the acknowledgments and bibliography.

This is a story—the story of the vibrant and dynamic life of Ernest Gary Gygax. From all I have come to understand of my subject, I believe he would want his story told in precisely this way.

Foreword

by John Romero

The first time I played Dungeons & Dragons was in 1979. My friend Christian Divine had the first three books of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) line: the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the Player’s Handbook, and the Monster Manual. Little did we know those three books were setting the stage for decades of role-playing game design in both analog and digital domains, and changing the world of games forever.

First, we were playing through a variety of modules. Gygax’s Tomb of Horrors was, quite simply, the most terrifying and complex environment ever conceived. Thanks to its incredible design and influence, an amazing set of five books was created by rival role-playing game publisher Flying Buffalo with the series title, Grimtooth’s Traps. (So loved were these books that a recent attempt to resurrect and reprint them was carried out in a Kickstarter campaign that needed $17,000 to accomplish the feat. The campaign raised $170,509, underscoring the significance of ingenious trap design within a game environment, but more importantly the impact of Dungeons & Dragons.)

As the AD&D universe was expanded by TSR, we went with it—reveling in the company’s range of games and settings such as Gamma World, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Gygax’s Greyhawk, and Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor. The variety was incredible, the creativity was unprecedented, and the potential was limitless. We knew endless adventures could be had within these realms and we spent years crafting and playing through our own creations, always obeying the anchoring rules that provided the correct balance needed for a fair session.

Before long, home computers were introduced and games were a huge part of the attraction. By the early ’80s, arcades were in full bloom and many home computer games were mirrors of their arcade big brothers until the popularity of D&D began to inform more interesting creations starting with Temple of Apshai, Beneath Apple Manor, Wizardry and Akalabeth—all precursors of what would become an avalanche of digital role-playing games that would greatly inflate the nascent computer and console game segments into a $100 billion industry.

As the Wizardry series and Ultima series of games marched on, both with franchise entries that continue to this day, their influence begat newer role-playing series such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Warhammer, and many others. The market has been expanding due to this chain of influences for decades, with Dungeons & Dragons at its core.

At id Software in 1990, in addition to creating PC games, we used to play Dungeons & Dragons in a world created by John Carmack. His world was unlike any previous world we had played in; he had an entire planet, dozens of high-level characters that governed parts of the world and conspired against one another, and various factions scattered throughout. It was amazing to play in a world where combat wasn’t the sole focus, but where politics, intrigue, and mystery held our attention for hours on end. This was another unforeseen consequence of D&D’s influence—that eventually the combat systems would become not an end in themselves but a means for enriching a world of complex emotions and changing alliances. The focus of our adventures became the story, the characters, and the power they had, while the D&D role-playing system held it all together.

During the earliest brainstorms for our 1993 game, DOOM, we decided to mine our D&D adventures for inspiration. Our D&D world had been destroyed by a seemingly infinite amount of demons flooding onto the Prime Material Plane thanks to a tragic error on my part (I mean my chaotic neutral character’s part). I gave the Demonicon, a book that held demons under its control, to a powerful demon in exchange for a +l5 Ancient Daikatana and a Ring of Vampiric Regeneration. I thought those items would keep me alive forever, but I didn’t foresee that a world without all those interesting characters would also make for a life not worth living.

Alas, the destruction of our D&D world by an overrun of demons gave us the perfect storyline for a doomed space marine on Mars’ moon Phobos. A reckless megacorp called Union Aerospace Corporation was experimenting with a new teleportation technology and mistakes were made. Demons poured forth and killed all personnel stationed at the base. As the last space marine to find out, you fight your way through the attacked base to the source of the onslaught, and beyond into Hell. This became the story of DOOM. The user experience of DOOM critically depended on its second-to-second, real-time gameplay—a high-speed version of the D&D dice-rolling combat mechanic, but instead of fighter-with-sword against sorcerer-with-spells, it was space marine-with-guns against demons armed with Hellish magic. The dice-rolling is almost nonstop in DOOM as combat is the major function of the game. Upon its release, DOOM became one of the most influential games in history, thanks to what is actually the most influential game: Dungeons & Dragons.

It cannot be overstated how impactful the work of Gygax and Arneson was and continues to be. Except for the earliest text adventures, a game that has statistics of any type for its characters is a descendent of Dungeons & Dragons. This includes the Grand Theft Auto series, the Saints Row series, the Age of Empires series, and every game created by Blizzard Entertainment, including World of Warcraft, the biggest D&D game of them all.

All told, the gaming concepts put forth by D&D inspired the earliest groups of gamers and computer programmers, and set into motion a revolution of creative and technical innovation. From immersive world building and trap design, to realistic combat mechanics and character advancement, the pillars of D&D have become some of the most essential and pervasive devices in the gaming universe. As imaginary digital worlds get broader and more complex, it’s humbling to remember that it all started at the most pedestrian of locations: the tabletop.

It really is a Dungeons & Dragons world after all.

Introduction

In 1974, a small-town Wisconsin cobbler stumbled on an idea that would forever change the face of popular culture: a role-playing game. The cobbler was Gary Gygax, and the game was Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). Within a few years, this geeky counterculture game had become a worldwide phenomenon, but it was ultimately stifled amid chilling accusations of psychological dangers, allegations of Satan worship, costly lawsuits, broken partnerships, and suspect business decisions, forever relegating the game to the fringes of the mainstream. But perhaps this often overlooked and misunderstood game had a larger impact than previously believed …

When I first started looking into Gary, I was stunned to find that a complete biography had not already been written. Beyond his creating D&D, the first role-playing game—a hobby enjoyed by roughly six million people in the United States alone—one can argue that his creation led to some of today’s most important pop culture phenomena. If you have ever played a first-person shooter video game like Call of Duty, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMO) like World of Warcraft, or a computer role-playing game like Final Fantasy; if you have ever logged on to an online virtual world like Second Life or experienced the wildly popular Game of Thrones television series and books, then you are already tangentially familiar with the work of Gary Gygax. Simply put, his seminal game made these later multibillion-dollar pop culture phenomena possible. But unlike other innovators who laid the foundations of today’s popular culture—luminaries such as Steve Jobs and Walt Disney—Gygax and his esoteric game are relatively unknown to the mainstream, yet revered by the geeky faithful.

Gary changed the world, but in ways far more abstract than his better-recognized peers. His game assembled and inspired an early group of nerds who became the computer programmers, fantasy writers, video game designers, and film stars of today—the leaders and masters of the Information Age. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Having grown up a role-playing gamer, it was Gary’s work that led me to the idea of taking on a biography. But I soon discovered that his personal life was equally intriguing. It had all of the high-concept elements of a rags-to-riches-to-rags story: small-town man makes it big, forgets who he is, falls hard, and finds redemption late in life. It was also the close examination of his childhood that helped me realize that D&D didn’t begin on a single day in 1974 when Gary’s company, TSR, published its first one thousand copies. It began when Gary played his first game of chess, experienced his first haunting, read his first pulp novel, roamed the tunnels of the local abandoned insane asylum, and so forth. This is largely why the biography is comprehensive, spanning from Gary’s early days to his death in 2008.

So who was this man so admired by the likes of Stephen Colbert, Vin Diesel, Jon Favreau, Anderson Cooper, the late Robin Williams, and scores of other pop culture icons and innovators, not to mention millions of role-playing gamers around the world? Perhaps more important, why does any of this matter?

I hope Empire of Imagination will answer these questions and others about the man who was ranked number one on Sync magazine’s list of the fifty biggest nerds of all time. And in an era when it is chic to be geek, Gary Gygax is king, making his story as relevant today, arguably more so, as it was when D&D was the great game of the 1980s.

PROLOGUE

Memory Lane

DUNGEON MASTER: You stand aboard the deck of a pirate ship. You’ve just vanquished several brigands, who lay slain at your feet. What do you do?

PLAYER (SIR EGARY): I search the bodies, starting with the captain.

DUNGEON MASTER: You make your way over to the edge of the deck, where the body of the brigand captain is lying. As you rummage through his things you find a number of your effects that had been stolen, including the Key of Revelation. Just as you pick up the key from the captain’s pouch, an arrow shoots down from the crow’s nest of the front mast and … [DM looks down at the character sheets in front of him and rolls a twenty-sided die] hits you square in the chest, penetrating your platemail armor. [DM rolls a six-sided die] This, on top of the wounds you sustained earlier, leaves you very badly injured.

PLAYER (SIR EGARY): I take cover behind the crates on deck.

DUNGEON MASTER: You try to make your way over to the crates … [DM rolls a twenty-sided die] but you are losing a lot of blood and your vision is starting to tunnel. Before you make the crates, you stumble back and begin to fumble the key off the side of the ship.

PLAYER (SIR EGARY): I try to recover and catch the key before it falls into the water.

DUNGEON MASTER: [DM rolls a twenty-sided die] You look over the side of the ship just in time to see the key hit the surface of the water and sink. The Key of Revelation is lost to the depths of Shadow Lake …

It was a bleak and blustery October evening as a graying, portly man hastily exited a light-industrial office building in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He stood motionless for several moments, his bearded face expressionless, his steely brown eyes glazed through his thick, horn-rimmed glasses.

How could I let this happen? he thought.

He wanted to shout at the top of his lungs, but he couldn’t seem to move at present. He felt numb, empty, and entirely speechless.

As the man stood in the building’s portico recovering from his temporary paralysis, he noticed something of a commotion behind him. Regaining his focus, he turned to peer into the building’s entrance, from which emanated an unnatural fluorescent glow. It was no surprise that more than one shadow stood in the lobby returning his gaze. These were his former employees and friends.

As if by instinct, he drew a pack of Camel unfiltered cigarettes and a gold-plated Zippo from his coat pocket. He quickly lit his cigarette and lumbered away from the entrance with his first exhalation, all the while pondering questions of how and why. He was not a man of ambition, at least not in a worldly sense. He certainly wasn’t a corporate type. He just wanted to create and play games. He just wanted others to love and play games, as he did. How had his love of gaming led to this?

The year was 1985, and the man was Ernest Gary Gygax, creator of the world’s first role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons. He was also, up until minutes ago, the president and CEO of TSR Inc., the publisher and owner of Dungeons & Dragons and many of his other creations. His leadership at TSR had ended, however, as he had just been ousted by its board of directors in a takeover orchestrated by the company’s new majority shareholder, Lorraine Williams.

By 1985 Dungeons & Dragons, commonly referred to as D&D, had become a worldwide phenomenon, with distribution in twenty-two countries and annual sales peaking at $30 million. The subject of both a monthly magazine and popular CBS cartoon, D&D had created a unique category of table game known as a role-playing game (RPG). D&D, now one of many RPGs on the market, paired the tactical qualities of tabletop miniature war games with the flexibility and imagination of group storytelling. Led through these imaginary adventures by a referee called the Dungeon Master, each player in D&D developed a customized character, complete with a unique persona and set of tangible attributes, to be guided through the adventure cooperatively with other players. Furthermore, unlike common board games that were meant to be played and concluded in one sitting, in D&D both your character and the adventure were ongoing and upgradable, creating a more intense and lasting sense of continuity for players and Dungeon Masters alike.

Gary plodded over to the driver’s side of a blue Cadillac Seville with tinted windows that was parked nearest the entrance. The car’s license plate read TSR 1.¹ He didn’t enter the car, but knocked on the driver’s-side window. As the dark window descended it revealed the rugged face of Gary’s former gardener turned driver and bodyguard, Jim Johnson.

You can go home, Jim. I’m gonna take a walk into town. I’ll call you when I need a pickup, said Gary, mustering as much coolness and indifference as he could manage in the face of the humiliation he had just experienced.

To this, Jim nodded and closed the car window.

Usually Johnson would have asked for further direction, as these were very unusual instructions from his employer, but Jim had worked for Gary for several years and could sense that he was not in the mood for explanation. In fact, it was well understood by all of Gary’s employees that he was not to be crossed when in a mood, as he clearly was now.

What struck Jim as particularly unusual, though, was that Gary rarely walked anywhere these days, whether for leisure, exercise, or otherwise. A bad knee, paired with a slightly overweight physique and smoker’s lungs, precluded Gary from taking the frequent walks he had been accustomed to as a younger man. In fact, before Gary had achieved extraordinary success with TSR and Dungeons & Dragons, walking was often his mode of transportation, since he had never been issued a driver’s license. Thus the need for Johnson’s chauffeuring services.

Gary slowly made his way through the parking lot and its remarkable fleet of more than seventy cars and trucks owned or leased by TSR. The vehicles had once been used by a local staff that numbered nearly four hundred, but had since dwindled to a skeleton crew of ninety-five. This oversupply of vehicles served as a poignant reminder to Gary of where things had started to go wrong on the business front.

He swore under his breath as he began to