the buzz log

Attention dwarfs, elves, gnomes, halflings, and humans: David Lance Arneson, the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, is dead. The inventor of the original role-playing game leaves a legacy that involved character creation, fantasy, and, perhaps most importantly, an outlet for geeky teenage boys everywhere.

Word of the game inventor's death caused searches to surge on "dungeons and dragons" and "gary gygax," the other ledgendary creator of the fantasy game who died last year.

The game involves a team of fictional characters, an adventure that can last hours or days, and a Dungeon Master who oversees the complicated rules. Whether the party succeeds in its task depends on rolls of the multi-sided dice, another first in the game world.

While it's hard to imagine, there was a time before nerds ruled the actual world (take a bow, Bill Gates). But now the whole world's gone gaga for geeks. Stars like Vin Diesel and Stephen Colbert are D&D fans. And the '70s version of the game has since spawned video games, a cartoon, novels and a movie. In honor of the loss to the fantasy-game community, embrace your inner geek, and embrace your nearest geek.