Dungeons & Dragons’ fans will surely be saddened by the fact that Gary Gygax, the popular game’s first edition’s co-creator, died today.

Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most popular role-playing game franchises of all times! Also known as D&D, the game was originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and first published more than thirty years ago, in 1974.

Dungeons & Dragons has always remained in the hearts of its players, who had to create characters that were then starting all kinds of imaginary adventures within fantasy settings. The first edition of the game was highly successful and this led to a proliferation of similar titles, such as Tunnels and Trolls, Traveller or RuneQuest.

With no less than four editions launched during all these years, D&D remains the best-selling and best-known RPG franchise, with approximately $1 billion in book and equipment sales.

However, despite the game’s success, Gary Gygax died on Tuesday morning after he had been suffering for a long a time from different health problems. He was 69 years old and died at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Fortunately for him, Gary Gygax managed to leave behind a highly popular game, which will be always remembered by many generations of fans.

Dungeons & Dragons inspired not only other video games, but also books and movies, and Gary Gygax has started to be considered the grandfather of fantasy RPGs. Gygax was survived by his wife.