While He Created Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax's Wife Thought He Was Cheating

By | July 23, 2019

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Left: Cover of the first Dungeons & Dragons Player's Manyal. Right: Gary Gygax. Sources: Amazon.com; Pinterest

In 1974, wizard Gary Gygax brought Dungeons & Dragons to the masses, and role-playing games have been a massive phenomenon in the decades since. Gygax (and his TSR partner Dave Arneson) created a world of kobolds, beholders, mind flayers, owlbears, driders and other fearsome monsters. But Gygax's story is a quest in itself, with twists, turns, and a snooping wife who thought her man was running around behind her back when he was really just playing with dice.

Before he created the board game that completely revolutionized the world of tabletop gaming, Gary Gygax was just a guy living in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and playing war games with his friends while working for an insurance company. On his way to designing the immensely popular Dungeons & Dragons, Gygax had an entire life. He married and had children, never thinking that he was destined to create of one of the most beloved games in the world.

The hero’s journey that Gygax went on to create Dungeons & Dragons is the classic tale of a boy who’s destined for great things but doesn’t know it until he’s staring destiny in the face. 

Gary Gygax Met His Publishing Partner When He Was Only Eight Years Old

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Source: (pinterest.com)

Gygax was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1938, and at the age of seven he joined up with a group of young toughs called the Kenmore Pirates who got into a dust-up with another group of boys. To keep his son out of trouble, Gygax’s father moved the family to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. After moving to Lake Geneva Gygax met Don Kaye, a local boy who would be connected to Gygax for the rest of his life.

In 1972, Gygax and Kaye formed Tactical Studies Rules, the company that distributed the initial copies of Dungeons & Dragons. They worked together until Kaye's death in 1975.