Gary Ernest Gygax, who co-created the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, died Monday, March 5 in his home at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, following several years of health problems including an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was 69.

Along with Dave Arneson, Gygax developed Dungeons & Dragons in the early 1970s. They founded TSR. The game was played by millions and spun off magazines, books, movies and video games which lead some of those enthusiasts to read fantasy literature by authors such as Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and others. Many of todays authors credit Dungeons & Dragons with inspiring them to start writing.

Gygax wrote several associated books, as well as many fantasy novels, including the Greyhawk Adventures Series of novels and the Sagard the Barbarian sequence which were written with Flint Dille. Gygax's first fiction novel was an alternate history written with Terry Stafford titled Victorious German Arms: An Alternate Military History of World War II.

He is survived by his wife, Gail Carpenter Gygax, and 6 children.

Posted March 5, 2008