Just heard the news a little bit ago.

Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragon and one of the fathers of tabletop role playing games, died today at the age of 69. He had suffered from heart problems.

The news was first announced on the message board of Troll Lord Games, the publisher of Gygax’s most recent works. It has since been directly confirmed by the company, which will post an announcement on its web site later today.

Gygax was best known for helping create Dungeons and Dragons and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and pioneered tabletop role playing games. The first D&D rulebooks were released in 1974 by TSR, Inc, and since then produced three full-fledged sequels, numerous revisions and updates, and dozens upon dozens of additional rulebooks, settings, and campaigns. While Gygax hadn’t had much direct involvement with D&D for many years, he developed and contributed to many role playing games, Troll Lord Games’ Gary Gygax’s Fantasy Worlds.

It’s been years since I played D&D — I think the last time was in junior high, where I ran with the world’s most obnoxious bunch munchkins and power-levelers around. (I got a magic user up to somewhere around Level 1,000, no kidding) But I’ve kept my old D&D books, including my old boxed set, if you remember that one. Looks like I’ll be digging the old books out tonight to read through ’em.

How ’bout you? Did you ever play D&D? And what are some of your favorite stories about playing?

UPDATE: Here’s the AP story…