They really did buy the company for all the wrong reasons.
It is Swiss or something, and means “giant.”
That’s straight from Gygax’s mouth, at the aforementioned lunch.
He was kind of braggy.
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He was also a Jehovah’s Witness, just like Prince! It takes all kinds to put good things into this world.
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That’s interesting.
How did he pronounce it?
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I have heard he held some very unsavory views, but I only have second hand accounts.
You think this is tenuous, you should listen to Tim Kask’s recounting of their involvement with law enforcement during the “Steam Tunnel Incident”:
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Explains why he lived in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, although Geneva is in the Francophone part of Switzerland, and “Gygax” appears to be a surname primarily within the German-speaking population.
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I’ve been DMing, semi-regularly, since I was 14 years old. The one truth I’ve learned? It’s about the story first.
A good DM will avoid making story decisions based solely on rolls, and will instead have several ideas in mind depending how the campaign is going. Dice rolls aren’t needed just because the rules say they are available, either - attempt a victory by defenestration? Damn right you’re rolling on that. Random conversation tonight been about wanting to face aparticular creature that’s on your encounter tables and not crazy rare? Sure, you can have that.
Part of this is setting expectations, of course - you need to shut down rules lawyering and narrative-by-dice-roll while learning the art of telling a good story. Players take cues from you, so if you put the story first, but know where and when the element of chance (and therefore, dicerolls) is needed, you will have an awesome experience regardless.
Also! Your DM knowing the rules well enough to determine when they should come into play, and knowing the characters in the party well enough to know when their skills might come in handy goes a long way towards making this work - it lets you have an NPC, say, remind the party of a rule or limitation in-character, rather than proceeding down a path only to have a player raise their hand and quote rules at you, which breaks everyone out of immersion and is a great way to have people hating on the rules themselves.
It’s a lot of work, but then, that’s why DMs are DMs. 
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The system I’m currently writing for: Tunnels & trollies. Which is ludicrously simple, but you need a good & flexible GM to round things out.
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He was a Chicago area native. Lake Geneva is where a lot of us go for a quick weekend getaway. I never really cared for it much, but I don’t fault him for wanting to live there.
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Aren’t all rangers archer-types?
I’ll get my coat…
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A generation knows what you just said, and why that’s physically implausible, because of him.
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I thought the Vorpal Sword was +5, with the added effect of decapitation on a natural 20.
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For at least a decade now. Hasbro owns both Avalon Hill and Wizards of the Coast (who bought TSR, who previously bought SPI).
This explains why I have not received any Dragon Magazines lately. I just thought the mail was real slow.
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Here’s a follow up piece from today that mentions the missing pages, other FBI tracking of games companies, and a FOIA lawsuit to force the FBI to update its search software.
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Like many things D&D, it depends on the edition.
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Yeah, I’m playing in both a 5e and a Pathfinder campaign these days. Different flavors of good.
Started out in the first Basic edition when the world was new. Man, that was a crappy set of dice in that box.
Omg, that was 40 frickin’ years ago. Jeebus.
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The man did love his polearms.
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You’re talking about his penis right?
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They were afraid he was a serial TPKiller…
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