Without Gary and Dave there IS no D&D, or dungeon masters. He also created GENCON. That alone, makes him an important figure of gaming history. I don't idolize anyone, but I DO appreciate what he and Dave has done. I give him credit, along with Dave for creating the game they did. A lot of good in gaming circles came from those two men. I have heard that Gary was very friendly and creative at the table, from a few people I know who were lucky enough to know him. I've never heard a bad thing about him at the table. He made a lot of people around him happy.
IMO, there is only one metric by which any DM can be judged: Are their players having fun? Same thing I say about a guild. We strive for the SAME CAMERADERIE in Tyrs Paladium.
Everything else is entirely subjective. Some tables don’t give a hoot about rules accuracy, nor highly descriptive language, nor verisimilitude (how immersive their world is). Some folks just want to throw dice so they can kill bad guys, take their stuff, and use it to kill more bad guys. Some folks want an opportunity to act entirely in character and pursue the interactions between those characters. Some folks just want a fun activity to do with their friends. There are many reasons that people play D&D, and if the style of game the DM runs doesn’t fit those players, it isn’t good D&D for anyone. Since there can be no one right type of DM to fit all players at all tables, none of that can be used as an objective metric by which to assess “quality” as you seem to be attempting with Gary.
Add to that the fact that, since I have never been a player at a table with Gary, I am in no way qualified to judge his skill whatsoever. IMO, the only people who have any right to give comment or pass judgement on any DM are the people for whom that DM has run games.
So yeah, I will post old school photos and such from D&D and computer gaming in this thread. We are a guild filled with old school gamers that were around in the 1960s and 70s and 80s to enjoy the games of their youth, and if I can rekindle some memories for them and myself, that's exactly what I'm going to do! That's actually the precise reason I created Tyrs Paladium.
