I started with 2nd Ed AD&D, moved on to Middle Earth from there, but yeah I own a debt of thanks to Gary Gygax.
I used to play Middle Earth a lot too and forgot about it thanks for reminding me
As for the number of death announcements recently I'd like to add a couple of points.
Though pretty unknown these days he was somebody who to a certain extent walked away from the stardom thing. He could have been at least as influencial as SRV but put music ahead of show business. I commented cos I had totally forgotten about him for several years but heard that he was due to play on the Jools Holland show in a couple of months. I was in the process of trying to aquire a ticket for that show through some media contacts that I still have
As for Gary Gygax, for children of the 70s & 80s he had a huge (and direct) influence. After those years he influenced almost every computer / console game that had any sort of a coherent story because the story telling & use of stats where decended from D&D
Considering the interests of the folks around here both of these deats are worth a mention (if not always a comment)
