Alan De Smet photo

Gary Gygax at at the gaming convention Gen Con Indy 2007 last Aug. 16.

Dungeons & Dragons co-creator dies at 69:

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and is widely seen as the father of the role-playing games, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69. He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.

Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies....

Gygax dropped out of high school but took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago for a while... He was working as an insurance underwriter in the 1960s, when he began playing war-themed board games.

But Gygax wanted to create a game that involved more fantasy. To free up time to work on that, he left the insurance business and became a shoe repairman....

Gygax also was a prolific writer and wrote dozens of fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series of adventure novels.

Rocco Pier Luigi photo

A Dungeons and Dragons game in progress.

The official D&D site has gone dark

Penny Arcade's comic section leads with a weeping dragon

Thanks to my colleague Paul Parker for the heads-up.