According to this forum on Troll Lord, Gary Gygax has passed away (I have since called Stephen, manager of Troll Lord and former friend of Gary’s to confirm).

Gary was the co-creator of numerous board and card games as well as fantasy Chess variants. But he is most well-known for co-creating and guiding the first major role playing game, Dungeons and Dragons, as well as the role playing studio TSR, Inc. Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) single-handedly started the RPG genre which continues to thrive successfully today (in fact, D&D 4.0 was just released).

D&D changed my life, as well as the lives of countless of other people. He will be missed.

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TED is an annual conference about the merging of technology, entertainment, and design, which attracts a wide assortment of creative geniuses. Kluster is one of their labs where they give themselves 72 hours to come up with something cool.

This week they brainstormed a “social awareness” board game. The source is rather sketchy in details about the game, and the details provided don’t look that special. Essentially the game provides a framework to let you add your own chance, discussion, and trivia cards.

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Hasbro has announced that they will be laying off about 40 of the 60 employees of party game company Cranium.  The eliminated positions are primarily in the sales, logistics, and finance areas. Hasbro, who acquired Cranium in January, will combine the eliminated jobs with existing positions over the next two months. 

Since almost 20 Cranium employees have resigned since the Hasbro takeover, this announcement leaves Cranium at about a quarter of its former size.

(Source)

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PlotStorming.com, a creative writing website for inspiration and mutual support, is running an open writing contest this month. Entries will be accepted in genre fiction, rpg material, non-fiction, poetry, or any other category. Entries are due March 30th and must contain between 2,000 and 4,000 words. Participant and independent judges will award prizes in the form of Amazon gifts for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place entries.

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War game-focused website, ConsimWorld, today launched a social networking platform. Features include blogs; photo, music, & video posts; forming groups; and building friends networks. Membership is free.

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