Missed saving throw against death

For those who did NOT grow up playing D&D, maybe you should skip down to the next post. For those who did, brace yourselves for the sad news...

The Godfather of roleplaying, Gary Gygax, passed away today at the not-so-old age of 69. I guess he missed his saving throw against heart problems.

I prefer to think that he reached such a high character level, that his GM couldn't think of any new challenging scenarios, and opted for divine ascension. I hope he gets to ride upon Golden Dragons in the afterlife, and drink from everfull goblets of Mead. Oh, and Valkyries. There should most definitely be some Valkyries to keep him company. With -10 AC bikinis. Old School style.

Maybe he's watching over us now, rolling die and mucking around with human fates.

Thank you, Gary, for all the good times, the late nights, the marathon weekend campaigns. My life would be much, much paler without your influence. I expect if I hadn't started playing D&D in 1979, I may have not have found a creative outlet for my inner medieval geek until much later in life. Thank you again for the kick my imagination needed at the time. To pay homage to you, I shall roll my special iridescent 20-sided battle die in honor of the man who made whole new worlds appear in my head as if from magic.

Hmmm...14. That's not bad. I mean with racial modifiers and all...at least I didn't roll a 1.

Update: From xkcd...comes the most fitting tribute I've seen.