Gary Gygax
The man who turned wargaming into storytelling — and built the foundation every role-playing game still stands on.
Ernest Gary Gygax (1938–2008) was the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and a founder of TSR, Inc. More than any other individual, Gygax is responsible for inventing the role-playing game as a commercial and cultural form.
Working with Dave Arneson in 1974, Gygax systematized Arneson’s freeform Blackmoor campaign into a publishable ruleset. Where Arneson conceived the concept, Gygax built the architecture — classes, levels, alignment, the dungeon as a structured environment, and the referee as a neutral arbiter of rules.
He spent the late 1970s expanding D&D into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, producing some of the most influential adventure modules ever written — including the Giants series, the Drow series, and the World of Greyhawk.
1974 — TSR
The original three-booklet set that launched the entire role-playing game industry. Gygax and Arneson’s collaboration gave players characters to inhabit, a referee to build the world, and an open-ended structure that had never existed in games before.
1977–1979 — TSR
Gygax’s solo expansion of D&D into a fully systematized RPG — the Monster Manual, Player’s Handbook, and Dungeon Master’s Guide defined the standard that every RPG after it was measured against.
1980 — TSR
Gygax’s personal campaign setting, the first fully realized fantasy world built for RPG play. It introduced the concept of a shared setting with history, factions, and geography designed to support open-ended adventure.
“The creation of Dungeons & Dragons didn’t just invent a game — it invented an entire mode of play that games, films, and fiction are still drawing from fifty years later.”