Ernie Gygax Jr., Who Helped Shape Early D&D, Has Died

Ernie Gygax Jr.—son of Gary Gygax, and an early playtester of what would become Dungeons & Dragons—has passed away after battling health problems. The news was confirmed by Gygax Jr.’s brother, Luke, on Facebook.

Gygax Jr. was perhaps best known for his own contributions to early Dungeons & Dragons as part of his role as a playtester for his father’s early iterations of what would become the biggest tabletop roleplaying game on the planet. Among several early mechanical contributions to D&D‘s systems, Gygax Jr. brought the character of Tenser to D&D‘s lore: his first player character, a Wizard (and an anagram of “Ernest”), Tenser would go on to a prominent part of the world of Greyhawk, a powerful archmage and frequent ally of Bigby and Mordenkainen. Several spells still in use in the latest iteration of D&D, like “Tenser’s Floating Disk” and “Tenser’s Transformation” were named after the character.

Gygax was the first manager of the Dungeon Hobby Shop in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and later on in life published Gygax Magazine, a short-lived periodical alongside his brother Luke, as part of a revived TSR in 2012. Gygax Jr. departed the revived TSR with the closure of Gygax Magazine following legal disputes with Gail Gygax, Gary Gygax’s second wife, and would go on to help support the founding of a third company also named TSR, alongside Justin LaNasa and Stephen Dinehart, in 2021.

At the time, Gygax Jr. came under fire for several public appearances to promote the third TSR—itself already in dispute with the second TSR over repurposing of the company’s name—where he made disparaging racist and transphobic remarks and decried Wizards of the Coasts’ ownership of Dungeons & Dragons, accusing the publisher of kowtowing to pressure as it tried to address the game’s historic relationship to racial stereotypes. The second TSR, managed by Jayson Elliot, publicly distanced itself from Gygax Jr. and the third TSR, ultimately changing its name to Solarian Games, and Gygax Jr. left social media after issuing an apology to the backlash.

“He always made time for young gamers and encouraged them. He treated them as gamers who could figure out a way through the challenges and he didn’t pull any punches,” Luke Gygax wrote in an extensive tribute on Facebook. “Likely the first time these young people had a chance to interact on equal footing with adults (or older teens anyways). Those young folks loved the game and would come and talk and game with Ernie often. He kept that open and friendly demeanor all through his life.”

Gygax Jr. is survived by his wife Donna, who he married last year, his brother Luke, and three sisters, Elise, Heidi, and Cindy.

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