Michael Hartford

The stuff I know, the geeky stuff, is the stuff you and everyone else has to know now, too.

So notes Wired editor Adam Rogers in a reflection on the passing of Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and Dragons. Rogers argues that the complex fantasy world that Gygax gave us the tools to build in our rec rooms and basements, was the precursor for the complex and self-referential worlds of media hits like “Lost”, “Heroes”, and the Harry Potter franchise. And the people who can navigate this world of byzantine rules–the nerds who mastered hit points and mapping imaginary worlds on graph paper–are the ones best prepared to thrive in the world that Gygax wrought.

I’m not that much of a consumer of the new media–my television viewing is limited to the Tom & Jerry cartoons the kids love, the scary “Mysteries of the ER” shows my wife watches, and the occasional Nova or National Geographic special caught in snippets off the TiVo–but I sure was a consumer of the Gygax worlds. I came to Dungeons and Dragons in 6th grade, on the heels of a marathon inhalation of The Lord of the Rings (I didn’t so much read it as swallow it whole), and for about five years I was a devoted adventurer and Dungeon Master. I could spend hours building continents on taped-together sheets of hex paper, writing deep histories of imperial clashes and the fall of dynasties, and crafting adventures that led a team of intrepid halflings and dwarves around a globe fraught with orcs and werewolves and trolls. Oh, the glories!

And what did I learn? Well, I picked up a little math (probability is a huge part of D&D), a little history (my world was cribbed from the War of the Roses, the conquests of King David, and Norse legend), a little literature (everything was fodder for the campaign: Beowulf, Milton, Bullfinch, Hamilton, and more really abysmal fantasy novels than I care to consider). I learned a little acting–as Dungeon Master I had to play everyone from the occasional inn keeper to the evil wizard who dogged the adventures around the world–and a little storytelling. I had to keep the world more or less consistent, tape over the seams in the plot and fill in the logical gaps, and communicate just enough to keep the players interested without giving away too much. And, in a room full of pubescent male egos, I learned a little negotiation and peacemaking to keep things in line.

I eventually moved beyond D&D, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for that time. And I still have the books and maps and notes that kept my world running. I don’t know that D&D shaped the world we all live in, but it certainly shaped mine.