Hey there. I've been working in some of the info from the "longbio" source. I'm not going to use everything from it, since some of it is info about his family and some of it simply doesn't belong in a bio. Some of it I may just post here on the talk page for the curious, but I'll have to use my judgment to avoid posting stuff that he would have preferred not to have up here.
It begins with a timeline, most of which was already in the article, so I just added the parts that weren't. If I added anything that seems too trivial, feel free to edit out. There are a couple of things that I have no idea how to work in:
1988-94 Creator/author under contract to Omega Helios Limited
1995-on Creator/author under contract to Trigee Enterprises Corporation
BOZ (talk) 21:56, 18 December 2008 (UTC)
The next section after the timeline is a list of works, from which the list of works formerly in the article was apparently derived. About the only items mentioned in longbio that weren't in the article at some point, if you think they might be worth mentioning, are (note that some of the "pending publication" items may have been printed since this was written in 2005):
Creative Works
WARRIORS OF MARS Game (Science Fantasy, with Brian Blume)
CODEX ERDE Search for the Lost City introductory adventure for THE LOST CITY OF GAXMOOR D20 adventure module (Ernie & Luke Gygax with David Moore) Troll Lord Games, 2002
THE LEJENDARY ADVENTURE™ PROJECT (current)
Role-Playing Games, Accessories, & Adventure Scenarios:
ENCLAVE (Chris Clark), Adventure module editor, Hekaforge Productions, 2000
LEJENDARY ASTEROGUES Fantastical Science LA RPG Genre Expansion, currently (2005) being developed for publication in 2006 or thereafter
LEJENDARY ELDER WORLDS Core Rules and World Setting base for a Science Fiction Genre Expansion of the LA Game, currently (2005) being developed for publication in 2006 or thereafter
LEJENDARY WILD WEST Fantasy Western LA RPG Genre Expansion, currently (2005) being developed for publication in 2006 or thereafter
Pending Publication:
LEJENDARY EARTH World Setting, Parts 4-5 (coming in 2005-6), Hekaforge Productions
SHAMANISM & WITCHERY Core Rules expansion for the LA RPG, Troll Lord Games
TOME OF KNOWLEDGE Core Rules additions for the LA RPG, Troll Lord Games
MORE BEASTS OF LEJEND Core Rules additions for the LA RPG, Troll Lord Games
LEJENDARY PANTHEONS book of LE world Setting Deities for the LA FRPG, Troll Lord Games
KEY OF SAND Lejendary Earth sourcebook
MALEDICTED Lejendary Earth sourcebook
LEJENDARY PANTHEONS Lejendary Earth sourcebook(s)
WELL OF SHADOWS Lejendary Adventure/Lejendary Earth module
GENERIC and “D20 Open Game License” (* indicates+ LA Game) RPG WORKS
Gary Gygax’s Essential Places for the fantasy milieu, “Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds, Volume VIII”, Zane McCarthy (to be released), Troll Lord Games, 2005
Gary Gygax’s Fantasy Fortifications for the fantasy milieu, “Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds, Volume X”, Robert A. Nolan (to be released), Troll Lord Games, 2005=6
Gary Gygax’s Fantastic Folk & Mythical Monsters for the fantasy milieu, “Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds, Volume XI”, Craig Peters (to be released), Troll Lord Games, 2005-6
Gary Gygax’s High Seas Fantasy for the fantasy milieu, “Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds, Volume XII”, Kelly Doherty (to be released), Troll Lord Games, 2006
Possibly several other books in the “Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds” series are slated for production in 2007-7, Gary Gygax series editor,
The Hermit*, dual-stat d20/LA game adventure module, Troll Lord Games, August 2002
Castle Wolfmoon* (Chris Clark with Gary Gygax) D20/LA game adventure module (to be released later by), Inner City Game Designs (spring-summer 2006)
Board Games
War of Empires (Science Fiction, authored with Tuillo Proni), privately produced and managed PBM-only Science Fiction wargame
Diplomacy® Game Variants (non-commercial game variants)
Conanomacy
Khanomacy
Rajomacy
Chess Game Variants
Various others in a work, 21st Century Chess Variants, that are available in electronic format on my website
Development
LANKHMAR (TSR) Fantasy Board Game — rules and playing board
Play Testing
(ask and I'll list them)
Alternate History:
Victorious German Arms, with Terry Stafford (T-K Graphics. 1973)
“Swords of Eternity” (Fantasy short story based on Fritz Leiber’s “Lankhmar” universe, featuring Sheelba, Ningauble, Fafhrd, and the Gray Mouser—still unpublished.)
Articles Authored
Amateur and professional game and hobby publications (several dozen, including: The Avalon Hill GENERAL, DOMESDAY BOOK, CAMPAIGN, DRAGON, EL CONQUISTADOR, EUROPA, GREAT PLAINS GAME PLAYER'S NEWSLETTER, INTERNATIONAL WARGAMER, LA VIVANDIER, PANZERFAUST, TROLL, SHADIS, SPARTAN, SPARTAN INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY, WARGAMER'S DIGEST, WARGAMER'S NEWSLETTER.
Consultation for Computer and Paper Game Publishers
Various consulting work for computer game producers as to game content and interactive play elements, of which I am not at liberty to discuss the specific nature of the work or the companies for whom I did it. The same is true in regard to consulting work done for paper game publishers.
Computer Game Design
Of the score or so of designs and design proposals that have been developed, three were optioned—one fantasy and two science fiction games. All three, however, were not to see production for various reasons beyond the author’s control, including the sale of the production entity and cancellation of all projects not in full development in the case of the last such game Gygax authored.
The Lejendary Adventure Game as a Massively Multiplayer Persistent Online RPG
As of this date Dreams Interactive has been licensed to produce the LA MMPO RPG, and work is proceeding well.
One can check into this at http://di.gamepoint.net/lejendary/en/index.php?page=about to see where things are currently at. Gygax is intimately involved in the development of this game, and it promises to offer not only the best graphics ever seen in the medium, but also many new features to set it apart from all other similar online offerings. Beta testing is expected to commence in late 2003.
BOZ (talk) 01:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
Special Awards
Most of the stuff in this section also came from "longbio", and here's some more that isn't currently in the article:
SPECIAL AWARDS…
…in addition to being a Member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels:
1981 Origins Game Convention Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame
1984 GAMES Magazine GAMES Hall of Fame
1994 GAMA Game Manufacturers Association Honor of for long- term contribution to industry Service Award
2004 Origins Award Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame Honors
BOZ (talk) 02:11, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
Miscellaneous
PUBLIC SPEAKING APPEARANCES (not a comprehensive list - covers numerous appearances from 1980-2005; I'll post if you want to see)
ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION APPEARANCE
Dexter’s Laboratory: Honorable mention of “Gygax” name for Dexter’s character
NEWS MEDIA COVERAGE
Dozens of interviews in newspapers nationwide, and on various radio and television shows both local and national in scope. Highlights include the following: (It is impossible to list the appearances of articles or news stories about Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games, as they have appeared in the majority of newspapers in the country.)
Television
Entertainment Tonight
Livewire
PM Magazine
60 Minutes
Tom Snyder Show
National German Television
Radio (many shows* including)
Michael Jackson Show ABC Network
WJR Detroit
Stations in France and the United Kingdom
- Approximately one hundred radio interviews done in regard to role-playing and games, and some dozen for the “L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future” contest, the last of those in 1991.
Magazines
DRAGON
FORBES
GAMES
ICON
INC. Magazine
JEUX de CARTE (France)
MILWAUKEE Magazine
NEWSWEEK
PEOPLE
POLYHEDRON Newszine
SALON
TIME
US
Newspapers
Wall Street Journal (exclusive feature)
Most major metropolitan newspapers, including:
Chicago Tribune
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
USA Today
Washington Post
Others in Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Japan
Interviews have centered on creativity, authorship, computer games and entrepreneurial business, recently the history of the role-playing game, the effects of computer and online role-playing games, and the Lord of the Rings movie.
Two Mentions that fall into the “No Comment” Department
Trivial Pursuit (original version): Gary Gygax as the answer to a question therein.
Time Magazine, 24 November 2002: Gary Gygax as being influenced by the work of Tolkien.
SCHOLARLY COVERAGE
OXF0RD ENGLISH DICTIONARY
Entry of Gygax name under that for Dungeons & Dragons as of 13 March 2003:
“Dungeons and Dragons, n.
”A proprietary name for: a fantasy role-playing game set in an imaginary world based loosely on medieval myth, in which players' characters undertake (individual) quests at the direction of a player in the role of the Dungeon Master, who dictates the nature of their environment, the obstacles they are to overcome, etc.; abbreviated D & D. Also allusively: a situation or undertaking likened to a game of Dungeons and Dragons, esp. in involving a complex and unpredictable sequence of events, out of the control of the protagonist.
”1974 E. G. GYGAX & D. ARENESON (title) Dungeons & Dragons: rules for fantastic medieval wargames campaigns playable with paper and pencil and miniature figures. 1979 N.Y. Times 8 Sept. 10/2 An elaborate version of a bizarre intellectual game called Dungeons and Dragons. 1982 London Rev. Bks. 30 Dec. 7/3 Dungeons and Dragons, with its whole spin-off family of Role-Playing Games, is much easier to categorise. 1987 New Yorker 20 Nov. 110/2 His Global Project reads like an elaborate boys' gamea revolutionaries' Dungeons and Dragons. 1991 Vanity Fair Dec. 90/1 He was slowly, then rapidly, sucked into a kind of covert-ops version of Dungeons & Dragons, with that memo as his guide and Michael Riconosciuto as his Dungeon Master. 1994 Etc. Montréal 15 Feb. 39/1 At the IFFM, beneath a long black leather coat.., Tarantino sports a goth-rock, dungeons-and-dragons type t-shirt, plus jeans and sneakers. 2001 Toronto Star (Electronic ed.) 9 Apr., Computer cousins to paper-and-pen games like Dungeons and Dragons, role-playing video games involve player-created characters moving through fantasy landscapes.”
BOZ (talk) 02:21, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
Personal Facts & Stories
The rest of the "longbio" (about half of it) is taken up by various things, most of which I shouldn't really post here. :) Some of it may be OK to share, depending on what it is, but I'll be conservative as far as that goes. Included are information on his birthplace, parents, wife, children, grandchildren, religion, hobbies, interest in history, special likes, earliest memories, what he liked as a boy, radio programs, music, cooking, some grudging admissions, entertainment, some favorite books, some favorite films, jobs he's worked, favorite magazines, former residences, foreign countries he's visited, states he's missed, monumental historical events in his lifetime, and paranormal experiences. He also describes what it's like for him at work, and some other ambitions. Like I say, I won't post most of that here, but I'll consider some of it.
If I didn't mention it somewhere in this thread, and it hasn't already been in the article, then it's not in "LONGBIO". :) The end. ;) BOZ (talk) 02:30, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
- Sounds good! -Drilnoth (talk) 02:41, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
- I just remembered, I have an interview with GG somewhere in the house from White Dwarf 14 I will try to dig up. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 03:21, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
from WD 14 Interview
OK - from White Dwarf 14 (Aug/Sept 1979) article: White Dwarf Interviews Gary Gygax (pp 23-24) author Ian Livingstone. All points below sourced from this article. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 04:01, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
- Interests - classical music, reading, writing, walking, stamp collecting and tropical fish. He followed the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears in the football.[1]
- Bought obscure variants of chess from age 14, and bought his first boardgame Gettysburg at age 21.
- About 90% of readers who tried the fantasy rules for Chainmail liked them.
- Also cites Dungeon! as an influence on the development of D&D.
- Cool. :) BOZ (talk) 04:28, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
References
Livingstone, Ian (August–September 1979). "White Dwarf interviews Gary Gygax". White Dwarf (14). London: Games Workshop: 23–24.