You, perhaps more than any other, taught me how to explore the mind, by providing a simple framework whereby my imagination could know no bounds. How fitting that you, the original game master, should choose this day dedicated to the craft you wrought…

Thank you for your life’s work sweet man.

…These rules are strictly fantasy. Those wargamers who lack imagination, those who don’t care for Burroughs’ Martian adventures where John Carter is groping through black pits, who feel no thrill upon reading Howard’s Conan saga, who do not enjoy the de Camp & Pratt fantasies or Friz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pitting their swords against evil sorceries will not be likely to find that these rules are the answer to their prayers. With this last bit of advice we invite you to read on and enjoy a “world” where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!

E.Gary Gygax
TSR Hobbies, Inc.
1 November 1973
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin