Gary Gygax

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-11-02

Ernest Gary Gygax was born on July 27, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois, and died on March 4, 2008, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. An American game designer and author, he is best known for co-creating the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s he organized wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con convention, whose first event was held in Lake Geneva in 1968. In 1973 he co-founded Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) with Don Kaye, and TSR published Dungeons & Dragons the following year. He founded The Dragon magazine in 1976 and began developing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in 1977. His long-running campaign setting, Greyhawk, was published in 1980. After leaving TSR following conflicts with the company's new majority owner, he wrote the Gord the Rogue novels and continued designing independent role-playing games. He had two strokes in 2004 and died in 2008.

Universe(s)

Books

• Saga of Old City (1985) · Greyhawk Core Canon
• Artifact of Evil (1986) · Greyhawk Core Canon
• Sea of Death (1987) · Greyhawk Core Canon
• Come Endless Darkness (1988) · Greyhawk Core Canon
• Dance of Demons (1988) · Greyhawk Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 20 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 0 (None recorded)

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