General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
At this year's Arisia convention in Boston (Arisia 2009 | The Fabric of Science Fiction), it looks like I've been tapped to moderate a panel on Gary Gygax, "his life, accomplishments and legendary influence on gamers everywhere."
If you were going to such a panel at a convention, what topics would you like to see covered?
It'd be interesting to see/explore how Gygax's contributions to table top RPGs extended into the CRPGs, and maybe trace the same threads into film (if they exist).
Who do you have on the panel? It must be tough to get "authoritative" sources.
__________________ ENworld OAF (Old-school Admirer of 4th edition)
The history, health, and livelyhood of his largest contribution of course: Dungeons & Dragons.
And then culture of gaming grown up for the last 30+ years in the pen and paper community.
A very large part will have to deal with the computer roleplaying simulation games and their enormous success.
Plus, his influence on authors and screenwriters bringing their homebrewed gaming worlds to the storytelling mediums of print and screen.
__________________ Apparently Reagan never played RPGs ...but he liked to watch.
Spoiler:
Participants in the Pentagon simulations were sometimes of very high rank, including members of Congress and White House insiders as well as senior military officers. The identity of many of the participants remains secret even today. It is a tradition in US simulations (and those run by many other nations) that participants are guaranteed anonymity. The main reason for this is that occasionally they may take on a role or express an opinion that is at odds with their professional or public stance (for example portraying a fundamentalist terrorist or advocating hawkish military action), and thus could harm their reputation or career if their in-game persona became widely known.
(cut)
...former US president Ronald Reagan was a keen visitor to simulations conducted in the 1980s, but as an observer only. An official explained: "No president should ever disclose his hand, not even in a war game". Para,6
whenever i think back on my time in gaming and egg comes to mind i find myself humming the song by the indigo girls: galileo
how did a man of faith come to terms with all the negativity from the establishment and yet witness all the good/potential that his work could do or did do?
Who do you have on the panel? It must be tough to get "authoritative" sources.
Considering how small a con Arisia is, by today's standards, yes. Authoritative sources are hard to come by. I honestly don't recognize the names of any of my panelists, and they haven't given me pedigrees. As the panel moderator, I can't expect to lean on any of them to carry the discussion.
Thus the question to the collective mind - I can go prepared with a bunch of topics to discuss, and if/when one runs dry, move on to the next.
Parenthetically, photostat copies of the manuscript rules were made, and when the commercial game was published, fans not willing or financially unable to expend the princely sum of $10 for the product did likewise, copying the material on school (mainly college/university) machines. We were well aware of this, and many gamers who had spent their hard-earned money to buy the game were more irate than we were. In all, though, the 'pirate' material was more helpful that not. Many new fans were made by DMs who were using such copies to run their games. - Gary Gygax
Last edited by thedungeondelver; 31st December 2008 at 04:13 AM..
How much of the game was actually his invention and how much grew out of the creativity of others?
The evolution of the game from its earliest beginnings (wargames?) to Chainmail to 1st Ed. AD&D. What they decided to add to each previous incarnation of the game, and why.
If Gary were alive, I'd like to ask him: In retrospect, would you have formed TSR or would you have continued simply filling orders from your basement?
Who's on your panel already, and does Arisa have a travel budget for the show? Since it's over Presidents Day weekend, I could perhaps offer my services if they'd be useful?
Given that Arisa appears to be a SF show, I imagine that some portion of the panel discussion would cover Gary's fiction writing??
__________________ grodog
----
Allan Grohe
Editor and Project Manager Black Blade Publishing
I'll throw out a few ideas. I would first ask yourself to define your role as moderator. This sounds easier than it really is. My experience with moderators stems mostly from medical conferences with experts presenting either research, discussing cutting edge treatments, or best practice guidelines. In most of these, the moderators do very little except move the conversation along by asking poignent questions and maybe a few comments. I would define them as being mostly "passive" as they do not present anything directly to the audience. However, they do set the stage by establishing the topic the panel will discuss.
A few suggestions:
1. Figure out who your panelists are. Have them shoot you an BRIEF email on what Gary meant to them. Ask what their role is in the industry. Hopefully they will have given you people with different perspectives. You said you couldn't lean on them, but someone somewhere chose them for a reason. They have to know something. The key is to flesh it out before hand.
2. Establish the format you will have the panelist present in. Is this a round table discussion? Will they prepare some sort of powerpoint slides? Is it a question and answer session?
3. Decide your role...active or passive? If passive you should contact everyone ahead of time and tell them what to expect at the session and what you expect of them?
4. Have you been to this con before? If not, ask them to put you in contact with someone who has and clarify the setup/format.
5. Perhaps contact some of Gary's family, previous WOTC employees, or search old blogs for posts around the time of his passing to see what they think of Gary's legacy.
A few things I think would be cool:
1. A history of Gary presentation....how it all started, his days at TSR, his days after TSR. Many people off the net probably don't know what happened to him after he left TSR.
2. Depending on the expertness of your panel, A debate on Gary's legacy....One side takes the position that he is the founder of DND and the other side is he is the creator of a whole genre of CRPG/literature/art. Mind you this is not to diminish Gary's legacy or in away take away from the man after his death. It would be a discussion of how far do you believe his influence extends. (This topic is a bit difficult to make clear on a post but something comparable to people saying every piece of fantasy lit since Tolkien is a cheap imitation...etc.)
3. Another debate topic: SciFi/Fantasy literature influencing DnD or DnD influencing Fantasy lit.
4. The mysteries of EGG unraveled. What do we know of Gary's personal game. Who played which characters, explain castle Zazyg, etc. What other parts of Gary's game world became Dnd/Greyhawk.
I'll think of more.....just give me a bit.
__________________ "I don't want to kill you and you don't want to be dead." -Malachi 'Mal' Johnson
If I was to attend a panel on EGG, I would like to hear about :
1. Who played what character in classic Greyhawks stories. It may be a well known subject, but I know nothing of it.
2. Early DnD modules, such as the Tomb of Horrors. Do they have their place in today's gaming?
Well, I know a few of the early characters since you asked. Mordenkainen was Gary's main character played mostly in Rob Kuntz's game. Tenser was Ernie Gygax's character as well as Erac's cousin. Robilar was Rob Kuntz. Otis was my first D&D character, although Melf is my favorite. Who else do you want to know about?
I'll throw out a few ideas. I would first ask yourself to define your role as moderator. This sounds easier than it really is. My experience with moderators stems mostly from medical conferences with experts presenting either research, discussing cutting edge treatments, or best practice guidelines. In most of these, the moderators do very little except move the conversation along by asking poignent questions and maybe a few comments. I would define them as being mostly "passive" as they do not present anything directly to the audience. However, they do set the stage by establishing the topic the panel will discuss.
A few suggestions:
1. Figure out who your panelists are. Have them shoot you an BRIEF email on what Gary meant to them. Ask what their role is in the industry. Hopefully they will have given you people with different perspectives. You said you couldn't lean on them, but someone somewhere chose them for a reason. They have to know something. The key is to flesh it out before hand.
2. Establish the format you will have the panelist present in. Is this a round table discussion? Will they prepare some sort of powerpoint slides? Is it a question and answer session?
3. Decide your role...active or passive? If passive you should contact everyone ahead of time and tell them what to expect at the session and what you expect of them?
4. Have you been to this con before? If not, ask them to put you in contact with someone who has and clarify the setup/format.
5. Perhaps contact some of Gary's family, previous WOTC employees, or search old blogs for posts around the time of his passing to see what they think of Gary's legacy.
A few things I think would be cool:
1. A history of Gary presentation....how it all started, his days at TSR, his days after TSR. Many people off the net probably don't know what happened to him after he left TSR.
2. Depending on the expertness of your panel, A debate on Gary's legacy....One side takes the position that he is the founder of DND and the other side is he is the creator of a whole genre of CRPG/literature/art. Mind you this is not to diminish Gary's legacy or in away take away from the man after his death. It would be a discussion of how far do you believe his influence extends. (This topic is a bit difficult to make clear on a post but something comparable to people saying every piece of fantasy lit since Tolkien is a cheap imitation...etc.)
3. Another debate topic: SciFi/Fantasy literature influencing DnD or DnD influencing Fantasy lit.
4. The mysteries of EGG unraveled. What do we know of Gary's personal game. Who played which characters, explain castle Zazyg, etc. What other parts of Gary's game world became Dnd/Greyhawk.
I'll think of more.....just give me a bit.
This seems like very good advice to me. I hope you do a great jib and have a fruitful and interesting discussion.
Who's on your panel already, and does Arisa have a travel budget for the show? Since it's over Presidents Day weekend, I could perhaps offer my services if they'd be useful?
This is for a one-hour panel discussion in one small room, not a major piece of the programming for the con. I don't get to bring in other guests on the con's dime.
Well, I know a few of the early characters since you asked. Mordenkainen was Gary's main character played mostly in Rob Kuntz's game. Tenser was Ernie Gygax's character as well as Erac's cousin. Robilar was Rob Kuntz. Otis was my first D&D character, although Melf is my favorite. Who else do you want to know about?
Thanks for the info, Luke. I'm working on an update to my Anagrams and Homages page @ Gygax's Greyhawk Anagrams, Puns, and Homages so if you have any corrections/additions you think would be worthwhile, I'd love to hear them (via email: grodog@gmail.com).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Umbran
This is for a one-hour panel discussion in one small room, not a major piece of the programming for the con. I don't get to bring in other guests on the con's dime.
Oh well, it can' hurt to ask
__________________ grodog
----
Allan Grohe
Editor and Project Manager Black Blade Publishing
As I noted at the beginning of the thread - I'm moderating a panel on your husband's memory and legacy, at Arisia on Sunday, January 18th. Any information you'd like to volunteer, myths you'd like to dispel, or statements you'd like me to present to the attendees, would be thoroughly appreciated. Your input could go a long way to helping us do this properly.
You are, of course, free to post whatever you'd like here in this thread. If you'd prefer, feel free to contact me by e-mail: arnis_public at comcast dot net.
You should go through all of the Ask Gary threads and archive the stories he told into a single DOC file so that they could be easily searched by keyword on a laptop on site.
Well, I know a few of the early characters since you asked. Mordenkainen was Gary's main character played mostly in Rob Kuntz's game. Tenser was Ernie Gygax's character as well as Erac's cousin. Robilar was Rob Kuntz. Otis was my first D&D character, although Melf is my favorite. Who else do you want to know about?
I hope this isn't considered a thread jack, but more of a bump. Out of the old guard, who did you find to be the best player and the best DM?
__________________ My Involvement:
Spoiler:
Player of Doral Kinsman the Beguiler in Who Wants to Be a Wayfinder IC
I hope this isn't considered a thread jack, but more of a bump. Out of the old guard, who did you find to be the best player and the best DM?
That is a matter of opinion- I never played with Rob or Terry Kuntz as DM except when I was 4 or maybe 5 years old. Obviously I am partial to my Dad's style of DMing because that is what I cut my teeth on. My Dad was a very good player too, but my brother Ernie was pretty sharp and very lucky with the die rolls. Rob Kuntz was an exceptional player from my Dad's stories. He was devious and could map dungeons in his head w/o getting lost (not bad if you ever played in Castle Greyhawk). My Dad recalled with great relish how he designed the Tomb of Horrors specifically to consternate Rob- and sure enough he managed to get a dead orc in the bottom of every pit in the ToH Note: Robilar was a CE fighter that often used his humanoid minions as canon fodder when dungeoneering.
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
