Although TSR and WotC had each in turn owned the official rights to the World of Greyhawk since the first folio edition was published in 1980, the two people most responsible for its early development, Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz, still had most of their original notes regarding the fifty levels of dungeons under Castle Greyhawk.

In those early days, there was no " Flanaess "; the world map of " Oerth " was developed by Gygax as circumstances dictated, the new cities and lands simply drawn over a map of North America.

Sahuagin were created by Steve Marsh, a gamer who invented many of the game's early aquatic monsters ( Gygax 1977, p.

In the afterword, Gygax mentions that Dungeonland was an early part of the Greyhawk dungeon, and that his players visited it multiple times.

In the early 1970s, when Gary Gygax was using the dungeons beneath Castle Greyhawk to playtest the game that would become known as Dungeons & Dragons, he did not include any references to any organized religion.

Gary Gygax later recalled an amusing incident during those early days of role-playing:

Gary Gygax was born in Chicago within a few blocks of Wrigley Field on July 27, 1938.

He was the son of Swiss immigrant and Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Ernst Gygax.

Gygax dropped out of high school in his junior year and worked at odd jobs for a while, but he moved back to Chicago at age 19 to attend night classes in junior college.

During the 1960s, Gygax worked as an insurance underwriter for the Firemen's Fund in Chicago.

Shortly after the release of the boxed set, Gygax discovered that while he had been in Hollywood, TSR had run into serious financial difficulties.

Gygax's novel Saga of Old City, released in November 1985, and Artifact of Evil, released two months after Gygax's departure from TSR, proved to be popular titles, and in 1987, TSR hired Rose Estes to continue the series, albeit without Gord the Rogue, to whom Gygax had retained all rights.

However, this adventure was canceled after Gygax left TSR, and the catalog number WG7 was reassigned to a new adventure, Castle Greyhawk, released in 1988.

However, Gygax and TSR published the Mars book without permission from ( or payment to ) the Burroughs estate, and soon after a cease and desist order was issued and Warriors was pulled from distribution.

Gygax granted exclusive rights to Games Workshop to distribute TSR products in the United Kingdom, after meeting with Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson.

Gygax tried to have the sale declared illegal ; after that failed, Gygax sold his remaining stock to Williams and used the capital to form New Infinity Productions.

Cook was proud of the work he did on the new Dungeon Master's Guide, especially after Gary Gygax gave his comments to the team as feedback on the book: " He said that the material in the new DMG would help him become a better DM ... That was really cool – and satisfying in a ' completion of the circle ' sort of way.

Gygax began writing T2 soon after the publication of T1, but often stopped to work on other products, such as The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth ( Gygax 1981 ).

Gary Gygax intended to incorporate the material from Oriental Adventures into revised versions of the Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide, but left TSR shortly after announcing the project.

Gygax even suggested the name " Robilar ", after a minor character in The Gnome Cache, a novella Gygax was writing that eventually would be serialized in the first few issues of The Dragon starting in June 1976.

However, after Gygax was ousted from TSR in 1985, the company took over creative control of the published Greyhawk setting, and took it in directions Gygax had not envisioned, including remaking Rary into a major Greyhawk personality.

Although a small adventure entitled ' Temple of the Frog ' was included in the Blackmoor rules supplement in 1975, the first stand-alone D & D module published by TSR was 1978's Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, written by Gygax.

These were expanded by Gary Gygax, whose additions included a fantasy supplement, before the game was published as Chainmail.

Gygax maintained that he was influenced very little by The Lord of the Rings, stating that he included these elements as a marketing move to draw on the popularity of the work.

Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008 ) was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons ( D & D ) with Dave Arneson.

In 2005, Gygax was involved in the Castles & Crusades role-playing game, which was conceived as a hybrid between D & D's third edition and the original version of the game conceived by Gygax.

Gygax was married twice and had six children.

The Dragon debuted in June 1976, and Gygax commented on its success years later: " When I decided that The Strategic Review was not the right vehicle, hired Tim Kask as a magazine editor for Tactical Studies Rules, and named the new publication he was to produce The Dragon, I thought we would eventually have a great periodical to serve gaming enthusiasts worldwide ... At no time did I ever contemplate so great a success or so long a lifespan.

Barker was a Professor of Urdu and South Asian Studies at the University of Minnesota during the period when David Arneson, Gary Gygax and a handful of others were developing the first role-playing games in the Twin Cities and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Before Saga of Old City was released in November 1985, Gygax wrote a sequel, Artifact of Evil.

Gygax then provided some errata for the boxed set in the September 1985 issue, which was the last mention of the Greyhawk world in Dragon for almost two years.

However, different visions of TSR's future caused a power struggle within the company, and Gygax was forced out of TSR on December 31, 1985.

Written by Carl Sargent and Rik Rose, this was not the city created by Gygax and Kuntz, but a new plan built from references made in previously published material.

Although this was not the Castle Greyhawk of Gygax and Kuntz, it was the first serious attempt to publish details of the castle.

Gygax became active in fandom and became involved in play-by-mail Diplomacy games, for which he designed his own variants.

Kuntz quickly grew impatient with play when it involved more than a couple of players, often playing solo adventures one-on-one with Gygax ; their constant ( almost daily ) play meant that Robilar rapidly gained power and possessions.

Having partnered previously with Gygax on Don't Give Up the Ship !, Arneson introduced Gygax to his Blackmoor game and the two then collaborated on developing " The Fantasy Game ", the role-playing game ( RPG ) that became Dungeons & Dragons, with the final writing and preparation of the text being done by Gygax.

After leaving TSR in 1985 over issues with its new majority owner, Gygax continued to create role-playing game titles independently, beginning with the multi-genre Dangerous Journeys in 1992.

His interest in games, combined with an appreciation of history, eventually led Gygax to begin playing miniature war games in 1953 with his best friend Don Kaye.

As teenagers Gygax and Kaye designed their own miniatures rules for toy soldiers with a large collection of and figures, and they used " ladyfingers " ( small firecrackers ) to simulate explosions.

In 1967, Gygax co-founded the International Federation of Wargamers ( IFW ) with Bill Speer and Scott Duncan.

Together with Don Kaye, Mike Reese, and Leon Tucker, Gygax created a military miniatures society called Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association ( LGTSA ) in 1970, with its first headquarters in Gygax's basement.

Early that same year, Gygax published Chainmail, a miniatures wargame that simulated medieval-era tactical combat, which he had originally written with hobby-shop owner Jeff Perren.

Gygax also collaborated on Tractics ( WWII to c. 1965, with Mike Reese & Leon Tucker ) and with Dave Arneson on the Napoleonic naval wargame Don't Give Up the Ship!

Gygax left Guidon Games in 1973 and, with Don Kaye as a partner, founded the publishing company Tactical Studies Rules ( later known as TSR, Inc .) in October.

Gygax worked on rules for more miniatures and tabletop battle games, including Cavaliers and Roundheads ( English Civil War, with Jeff Perren ), Classic Warfare ( Ancient Period: 1500 BC to 500 AD ), and Warriors of Mars.

In the same year, Gygax created the magazine The Strategic Review with himself as editor, and then he hired Tim Kask to assist in the transition of this magazine into the fantasy periodical The Dragon, with Gygax as writer, columnist, and publisher ( from 1978 to 1981 ).