I'm sure by now most of you have already heard about the passing of Gary Gygax, the co-creator of the D&D saga, and everything it's become.

Gaming has been a large part of my life, as I'm sure it has many of yours. It helped me believe I could do the right thing, and achieve greatness in life, just from what I could achieve in a fabricated reality. Obviously not the same kinds of "literal" things, but still... it helped instill the idea that anyone, even me, if they put their mind to it, could do great things.

My earliest drawings, back when I was first learning how to put the stick figures together were of my first characters I created for D&D at the ripe age of 10, having gotten involved in playing with some older kids in the neighborhood. And it was history from there... Most of my drawings for many years were of nothing but RP characters, the kind created through both Gygax's vision and numerous others that were spawned by it.

Another thing I learned from this man was how to be able to create, and how to storytell. I've ran MANY successful multi-year campaigns for friends over the course, and it was all brought about by this man (and others), who showed us that we could REALLY create whatever we wanted to. And that we could be creative and have fun with it at the same time.

So, here's to you, Gary. *raises a glass and holds his original set of dice from ye ol' red boxed set of "D&D"*

Thank you for all the pleasure, pain and emotion.
Thank you for all the good times, and creating the ability to have life-long friends made through these games.
Thank you for helping to create the ability, for anyone, to become something greater than themselves.
Thank you for the imagination.
Thank you for the inspiration.
Thank you... for more than I can put into words right now.

May the dream of the game never die.