The Grey Area

In Between Good & Evil.
The roots of inspiration for the world's most popular role-playing game are many. A number of the inspirations for the game are listed in Appendix N of the Dungeon Masters Guide. Some of the same sources are listed in Gary Gygax's Foreword to the original edition (White Box) Little Brown Books and include reference to "Burroughs’ Martian adventures where John Carter is groping through black pits... Howard’s Conan saga... the de Camp & Pratt fantasies...[and] Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser". Given the inclusion of so many creatures inspired by his work, it seems a notable absence that there is no mention in the Foreword to Tolkien's Middle-earth.
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien's great trilogy, is a story about good verses evil. The free peoples struggle against the forces of darkness who would bind and enslave them to an evil will. Did Gary Gygax reject this "good verses evil" premise in favor of a more "grey" tone for his game? The original edition refers to "evil clerics" and include magic spells to counter evil beings. "Protection from Evil" and "Detect Evil" certainly establishes evil as a valid concept in the game, yet, the alignment system included in this edition, the system whereby forces take sides against each other in the struggle for dominance inherent in the game, includes no "evil" axis.
I have recently completed my read-through of all the Conan tales published by Robert E. Howard and have found these stories to contain many terms, creatures and settings which are included in the original role-playing game. Conan is perhaps THE iconic "fighting man", a term Howard uses more than once to describe his protagonist. Though in many ways a noble barbarian fighting his way through a decadent civilization, Conan's conduct is not always what we would generally define as "good". He is first and foremost self serving. In his varied career Conan spends time as a thief, a mercenary, a pirate...all vocations of questionable "goodness".
The duo of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser appear in several stories written by Fritz Leiber, stories in which they pretty much define the grey morals and behavior of the anti-hero archetype. Many of their miss-adventures are accidental, and humorous, but Leiber seems to be exploring the concept of the reluctant hero whose self-serving actions may occasionally serve to further a positive outcome in the world, but seldom does so by intent.
Then there is Elric, the anti-hero creation of author Michael Moorecock. Together with his demon sword, Stormbringer, Elric brings doom upon his kingdom, his beloved, all of his friends and ultimately his world in some of the best fantasy fiction ever written. The Elric character even more than Conan or the Gray Mouser brings the grey morality of the anti-hero archetype into perspective. Elric is a tragic figure in every sense. His "struggle" can be seen as symbolic of the human condition we all find ourselves in. Yes, it is a nihilistic view, but a valid one shared by many. Whether Mr. Gygax personally ascribed to this view, I do not know, but his game included an alignment system which seems to reflect Moorecock's Law verses Chaos dichotomy.
It can be great fun to game an epic struggle to save the world, and many successful campaigns using the world's most popular role-playing game have involved just that. However, it seems Gary Gygax may have had a slightly more humble ambition in mind for the heroes of the original edition game. Wealth, power and fame are certainly motivators in our modern day, real world society and I believe they are reflected in the game's experience and level system. In the games I have personally run as referee, moral ambiguity is a frequent theme. Although I am not a fan of "evil" player characters nor evil campaigns, I have found much gaming enjoyment through friendly role-play which has explored various questions of morality and has frequently dipped into the grey areas to be found between absolute  good and evil.