The Dungeon Delver: When you look back at Dungeons & Dragons as a whole, back in those early days did you think to yourself “This is going to have a huge impact,” that is, did you think that Dungeons & Dragons would become synonymous not only with Role Playing Games in general but synonymous with the Fantasy/Science Fiction subculture as a whole?
Gary Gygax: Not exactly. Matter of fact, nobody was thinking of role-playing as the emerging, soon-to-be dominant form of hobby gaming. I looked at the D&D game with my partner, Don Kaye, as likely to be the most popular of the various “hobby games”; the military, you know, board games and so forth played with military miniatures. We were pretty sure that this would sweep through the whole of the wargaming community, and expand then in to science fiction and fantasy fans and the reading audience, too. And in fact, early ads by TSR did hit many science fiction magazines, and, you know, fanzines.
So, we expected that. Did we have any idea the first couple of years that it was going to become the sort of phenomenon it became? Not until the end of about 1975 did that really strike us. We knew it was getting bigger but we had no idea it would reach millions of players...
More of this interview is coming soon! I discuss the fate of TSR, Gary's other projects, and exactly how in the world his wife feels about living with the world's greatest curry chef...!