Interesting Story About E Gary Gygax

Linky.

I know, from my own experience, that role playing games saved my life.

It offered inclusion into a group and some escape from being the other of a new kid in school.

I'd have gone down a much rougher road without it.

Gaming distorted my choices to some degree.  Twilight: 2000 colored why I wanted to be a tanker, for example.

Gaming got me interested in math like no other thing.  Not just probabilities which are the core of any rules system, but into the math that solves many science questions.

I know how to calculate a transfer orbit, for example.  I learned that to answer a question at the gaming table.

I learned about Faraday cages.

That faster than light travel could be a time machine.

The difference between a spear, partisan and glaive.

I learned so much history!

I learned of cultures both real and imaginary (and imaginary made from the real).

I learned the difference between morality and ethics.

I made lifelong friends from gaming.

Gaming fueled my interest in guns and sorting the possible from the impossible with their employment and usage.

It showed me the perspective, via the encumbrance rules, to recognize that SLA Marshall was a genius!

It gave me experience in making an OK decision right away is often better than a perfect decision delayed.

It made me comfortable with making a decision and sticking to it, no matter where it led.