Gary Gygax: When First we Met

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I reached out to Gary Gygax for the first time in the late summer or early fall of 2000 and we began talking about projects to do together. After a few months of wrapping up technical legal stuff we signed and began working on the Canting Crew and Gaxmoor for him and the World of Aihrde for TLG. In the meantime we converted to d20 and began releasing a few modules. I had never actually seen or met Gary. I had no image of him in my mind as I had no pictures of him that I knew of, internet searches were no where in my thought process.

The first time I met Gary Gygax in person was 2001 at Gencon. We were setting up the booth, a small 10 x 10 tucked away on some forgotten isle somewhere. It was our second time to exhibit and was all chaos with some cardboard POPs (I think that is the correct terms, point of purchase displays, but I've never been good at remembering all the terms marketing and business people give things, its all terribly exhausting), a big banner, tubes of the map for the world of Aihrde and books. I believe our new releases were The Malady of Kings and Dzeebagd. We hadn't yet released any material of Gary's. We had converted some of the books from the previous Gencon to d20 from our own, now defunct, game of Swords and Sorcery. 

The only real plan we had for Gary -- because we didn't have any books -- was for him to sit in the booth and and sign material people brought up.

It was Wednesday and we were very busy. Davis was out and about and Todd and I were throwing things around the booth trying to make it look professional. People we had met were stopping by to chat...and there was a lot of that. The d20 explosion was in full swing and people were jumping on with new companies popping up everywhere. There was an indescribable energy in the hall, as if some intellectual dam had burst and the corridors were rivers of gold for all our collective imaging. 

As I'm busy putting the table together this gentleman walks up and stands for a moment and asks if I wanted to get a smoke. He was smiling a bit. I had no idea who he was. I smoked in those days, marlboro reds, and looked up and thought, what in the name of hellfire is this about. He was a little taller them, with the weight of a comfortable man around his belt, a hairline that was lost in a pony tail and short, groomed beard. He was holding a pack of unfiltered camels.

My next thought was, yes I do want a smoke, but I have no time for this and I started to make small, polite chatter as one does. He listened and didn't say a word but watched me be uncomfortably polite when at last, after what in my memory seems to have been a great long while but was probably fairly fast, I saw his name tag. 

Gary Gygax.

He saw it immediately. My recognition and I'm sure laughed or smiled and I proceeded to exitadly come out from behind the ramshackle table and introduce myself with a firm handshake and eye contact as one does. He returned and said something about "the offer still stands" so I deserted Todd and wandered out the loading dock and sat down with Gary and we promptly began talking about history, a passion we both shared. I don't think we mentioned games or game design or publishing or our recent agreement once in that first sit down. It was really cool.

I later found out that he knew who I was, where we were and that I probably didn't know what he looked like, as he had run into Davis, my brother, on the same loading dock and they smoked together for awhile and Davis didn't know who he was either. Gary being a bit more astute had already figured this out.

I remember that smoke break. Him sitting in that chair, me sitting down a little from him just chatting like people do. It's a fond memory.

Next I'll talk about Gary's signing, at that table and the young lady he was so insanely gracious to.

This pic has nothing to do with Gary really, but it cracked me up as it is Davis and our first customer at that Gencon!

Gary Gygax Bails Out the Road Crew

Be sure to read Gary Gygax, Puns & Me

Troll Lord Games fell together rather quickly back in 2000 and 2001 and Gary Gygax was a huge part of that. We debuted with a smattering of adventures and a world setting and soon after signed Gary to do the Gygaxian Fantasy World series: a collection of books for RPG enthusiasts and world builders. We eventually published 7 in the series, but there were at least another 4 in the queue he wanted to get out the door. There was so very much more. 

After Gencon moved to Indianapolis in 2003 or 04 or whatever year that was, there was a sudden deficit of cons in the Lake Geneva area. Gary was a little older and didn't care for long car rides so trekking to Indiana wasn't something he contemplated with any degree of joy. We had done a few shows in Little Rock and were musing on whether we should do more and then of course, the idea of doing one up in Gary's neck of the woods was floated. But before we could do anything a con was launched, GameFest, that promised to bring Gencon madness back to Milwaukee. 

We were all quite satisfied. This was the year we were releasing Gary Gygax's The Hermit (I loved this adventure, still one of his best). A monstrous tome of lists that any CK/DM/GM should have. Editing and laying it out alone made my vocab jump through the roof, something Gary found rather amusing. 

(Gary had this great way of smiling, that softened the lines of his face. It favored the one side of his mouth more than the other and involved no outlandish motions like myself or brother Davis have when we laugh. It was very comforting.)

So that summer Davis and I loaded up the truck and lumbered north to Gamefest. Peter Bradley, our artist at large, met us there as did Casey Christofferson (now with Frog God Games) and other folks. 

But  en route Davis and I got distracted at a variety of bars in East St. Louis and we discovered, as many have before us, and many will after, that money doesn't last nearly as long as one's appetite. So we plundered the Troll Lord Games till and spent it as well (we were very loose with money in those days).

Once our health returned we hit the road and continued our journey to Milwaukee. Scrambling, we got set up for Gamefest only to discover that someone had plundered the till. Memory served and we had to scramble to find cash. People were already meandering into the booth to buy the aforementioned World Builder and we had no way to get change. 

Well there was Gary. Sitting in his Hekaforge Booth (with Chris Clark) and so having no other options I went to borrow some from the GM DM. I told him our tale of woe and he smiled as it unfolded (there were more details there than I'll put here) and even chuckled a little, dug into his wallet and produced enough cash for us carry on, shaking his head, amused, all the while. It gave him quite a few laughs for the rest of the convention. 

I think he rather appreciated our unorthodox methods, they were so different than many companies he had dealt with before - though I know at times it drove him nuts. Our approach had an honesty of purpose that I think he appreciated and I found Gary himself, in all our dealings, to be scrupulously honest.

Gary Gygax, Puns, and Me

 As many may or may not know, Troll Lord Games was Gary Gygax's last publisher. We worked with him from 2001 until his passing in 2008. He and I talked almost daily and at conventions (we threw 7 for him up in Lake Geneva) we inevitably met for dinner or when in Lake Geneva, on his front porch in the evenings and afternoons and often at dinner. It was a fantastic 8 years, where I got to know the man who created Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and consulted on our own game of Castles & Crusades and who played such a pivotal role in creating such a gigantic gaming community that thrives today. 

For those who know me, they know I don't do puns. My brain sees things a little differently, more in concrete terms. Double entendre, puns, word play, most of it rolls right over me. It takes me a minute or so to catch up with the speaker. Gary, on the other hand, absolutely loved puns. It seems, to my memory, that he made a pun out of almost everything. He enjoyed word play. His vocabulary was massive and included many archaic terms, so he could have a lot of fun with a lot of words. 

Rare was the table conversation that didn't include some pun, spoken in his rather calm, almost soft voice, with focused gaze to see who would see his word play. 

It didn't take long for him to realize that I never got them. Or at least, I got them later than everyone else. 

We worked together all the time. Sometimes we agreed, sometimes we didn't. We talked movies and history as well, both of us enjoying each subject (books as well). He was clearly more experienced and knowledgeable than me, being very new to publishing, but he always deferred to me because it was my company (except once, he really insisted and was right in the end), he did this even when he knew I was wrong. (as a side note, he never gloated when I would tell him. "Well Gary, you were right...").

But once he discovered my weakness he enjoyed watching me squirm. It amused him, I suspect as much as his puns did! I remember distinctly sitting at the table, we were drinking a shot of that Serbian whiskey he loved so much, and he fixed my gaze and canted out some pun about something I can't remember. He was smiling before he finished it because he could see the wheels in my wheelhouse turning. I looked back at him trying to decipher the word play and it took me far too long.

All the while his eyes were patiently smiling. 

I absolutely loved working with Gary. 

Word (Scottish) of the Day -- Kenspeckle

Every once in a while I get an email from this site, wordgenius.com.  It's usually about a particular word or a phrase but this time it was about Scottish words, in particular some of those words that those of us in the states might not know.  I knew a few of them but was totally lost on this one:

Kenspeckle -- Good luck flying under the radar in Scotland. A particularly recognizable or conspicuous person is known as kenspeckle.

It comes from mid 16th century: of Scandinavian origin, probably based on Old Norse kenna ‘know, perceive’ and spak-, spek- ‘wise or wisdom’.  I'm sure you all will recognize these kenspeckles: