Gary Gygax Day Date in the current year: July 27, 2024

Gary Gygax was born on July 27, 1938 in Chicago, but when he was seven, his family moved to his mother’s family home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. During his childhood and teen years, Gygax developed an appreciation for fantasy and sci-fi literature and a love of games, including make-believe games (now known as live-action role-playing games) and miniature wargames.

Gygax continued to play wargames well into adulthood and wrote many magazine articles about them. He co-founded the International Federation of Wargaming in 1967 and organized the first Lake Geneva Wargames Convention (now known as Gen Con) in 1968. After losing his job at an insurance company, Gygax decided to monetize his love for wargames and created the medieval miniature wargame Chainmail, which was released by Guidon Games in 1971.

It was Chainmail that served as the basis for Gygax’s most notable achievement, the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Gygax and his collaborator, Dave Arneson, used the rule system of Chainmail, but deviated from traditional wargaming by allowing players to create their own characters instead of playing with military formations, and letting these characters embark upon adventures in a fictional setting created and managed by a dungeon master.

The original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set was published in 1974. It featured only some of the elements for which D&D is known today and assumed that players were familiar with Chainmail. Nevertheless, it was well-received and soon became popular not only among wargamers but also among a wider audience, consisting mostly of high school and college students.

The publication and early success of D&D is widely recognized as the birth of the modern role-playing game industry. The game also heavily influenced the video game industry, especially the RPG genre, which uses much of the same settings, game mechanics, and terminology as D&D and other early tabletop RPGs.

Gygax left TSR, the original publisher of D&D, in 1986, but continued to work in the gaming industry, creating new games independently. He suffered two serious strokes in 2004 and was subsequently diagnosed with abdominal aortic aneurysm. Gygax refused to consider surgery out of fear of dying on the operating table and passed away in March 2008.

Upon Gygax’s death, D&D fans designated his birthday as Gary Gygax Day, sometimes also referred to as Dungeons & Dragons Day or D&D Day. This amazing holiday pays tribute to Gygax’s contribution to the development of modern gaming. In 2023, Gygax’s birthday was officially declared as Gary Gygax Day in his hometown of Lake Geneva at the initiative of the Gygax Memorial Fund.

There are many ways to celebrate Gary Gygax Day. You can play Dungeons & Dragons with friends, buy D&D merchandise, plan a trip to a gaming convention, and spread the word about the holiday on social media with the hashtag #GaryGygaxDay.