TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

foehammerx · Feb 6, 2005

Ok Gary,
Here it comes.

I still DM and will always DM your original D&D world. But I basically consider everything that TSR/Wizards did after you left, someones personal house rules. So i wonder what would have become of things had they gone on under your orginal inetentions

Is Mord LG and if so why does he strive to maintain balance with his group of wizards. Or is he manipulting the others to do good under the guise of mainatining nuetrality.

Vecna, Is he your creation. Is he the first lich, Was he arround or involved with the Twin Caticlisms.

Is Graz the father of Iuz?

Do you still run games in your original D&D world and if so, IN YOUR HOME GAME what has become of The overking of the really great Kingdom?

What about The mayor/head of theives guild of the big city?

What about the 8 wizards and mord?

What about the demon ruler in the north?
And the demons witch mother?

Who do you think is the best game designer other then you?

What about Monte Cook?

What are Immortals of the 5 spheres and what is their relation to dieties?

Who is the oldest and greatest power in the multiverse, is there THE ONE?

What do you consider the best source of what actually occurred in the twin catyclisms?

What do you consider your very best Module?

Is there a better place for me to aquire these answers?

PS: Eternal thanks for opening the portal to endless adventure

Col_Pladoh · Feb 6, 2005

Gray Mouser said:
Not to start a gripe session or anything, Gary, but do you mean that the revisions in 2e were doneto basically make things in AD&D less Gygaxian?

If that's the case then there was a great deal of success in that regard (for the worse, imho). Additionally, you certainly seem to be correct regarding 2e being the downfall of TSR.

Gray Mouser

It was done so as to remove my name and have a "derivative" game for which no royalties were payable to me per agreement. to save 2.5% they wrecked the company...

Cheers,
Gary

Col_Pladoh · Feb 6, 2005

foehammerx said:
Ok Gary,
Here it comes.

I still DM and will always DM your original D&D world. But I basically consider everything that TSR/Wizards did after you left, someones personal house rules. So i wonder what would have become of things had they gone on under your orginal inetentions.

Who knows? i surely can't say...

Is Mord LG and if so why does he strive to maintain balance with his group of wizards. Or is he manipulting the others to do good under the guise of mainatining nuetrality.

No. Mordenkainen is Neutral, although he tends to prefer Good over Evil, Chaos over Law.

Vecna, Is he your creation. Is he the first lich, Was he arround or involved with the Twin Caticlisms.

Brian blume made uo the artifacts with the name "Vecna." All after that was devised by who knows which persons. In any event, as the term "lich" is found in dictionaries, Vecna could not be the first of that sort.

Is Graz the father of Iuz?

I hardly think so.

Do you still run games in your original D&D world and if so, IN YOUR HOME GAME what has become of The overking of the really great Kingdom?

No, seldom if ever do i run O/AD&D game sessions on the WoG. Once the setting passed from my hands I lost interest in it.

What about The mayor/head of theives guild of the big city?

What about the 8 wizards and mord?

What about the demon ruler in the north?
And the demons witch mother?

See above

Who do you think is the best game designer other then you?

I don't make that sort of value judgement. It is best left to others.

What about Monte Cook?

He has many avid fans.

What are Immortals of the 5 spheres and what is their relation to dieties?

I give up.

Who is the oldest and greatest power in the multiverse, is there THE ONE?

Depends on whose campaign setting is in question. As for any that i have done there is no such individual.

What do you consider the best source of what actually occurred in the twin catyclisms?

I don't consider the matter at all. That is up to WotC.

What do you consider your very best Module?

That question is very much akin to asking which os my favorite child...

Is there a better place for me to aquire these answers?

For some of the questions that's quite likely!

PS: Eternal thanks for opening the portal to endless adventure

Think nothing of it. It was my pleasure to share the enjoyment.

Cheers,
Gary

Tuzenbach · Feb 6, 2005

OK, I've got one. Please forgive me if this has been asked before, but I'm just too damned lazy to look through all the "Gary Gygax Q&A" threads.

Tomb Of Horrors: What were you thinking? Don't get me wrong, I love it. However, this module has got to be the antithesis of dungeons for all those D&Ders who insist upon "role-playing" as opposed to "roll-playing". I mean, you play this thing "in character" and you die. Period. Was it, therefore, your way of indirectly dictating *how* D&D was to be played? It's been suggested by others that TOH was just your way of "weeding out" the average, bad, and good players from the truly great players, if such a thing can even be defined. Well, what gives?

PS: Congratulations on the creation of The Tomb Of Horrors. All dungeons should aspire to its scheming level of challenge and thought.

MeiRen · Feb 6, 2005

First off, let me thank you for coming into this Q&A. I've been loving D&D since I was 12 or so, its exciting to see you here.

Two questions: I'm a student of East Asian History. I've always been curious, when you wrote "Oriental Adventures", what sources did you use? What was the overarching theme/idea behind the book? Why did you write it the way you did?

On a related note, I've always like the historical flavor of the earlier D&D products. I'm not sure what it is about the old books, but it does feel quite a bit like Dark Ages Europe. Now that we've got the OGL, I've been thinking of writing some historical flavored games of my own, simply as a hobby. (I'm not trying to make money.) Any advice?

Again, thanks for coming in. Sorry if you've had these questions many, many times in the past!

Alex Lampros, aka "Meigan Ren".

johnsemlak · Feb 6, 2005

MeiRen said:
Two questions: I'm a student of East Asian History. I've always been curious, when you wrote "Oriental Adventures", what sources did you use? What was the overarching theme/idea behind the book? Why did you write it the way you did?

Alex Lampros, aka "Meigan Ren".

I don't presume to speak for him, but I'll try to save the good Mr Gygax some time by pointing out a well-known fact: the AD&D Oriental Adventures, while bearing Gary Gygax's name on the front as the author, was actually written mostly by designer David Cook (this has been discussed recently in this very thread actually; go back a page or two).

Krieg · Feb 6, 2005

foehammerx said:
I still DM and will always DM your original D&D world. But I basically consider everything that TSR/Wizards did after you left, someones personal house rules.

As opposed to Gary's personal house rules? lol

foehammerx · Feb 7, 2005

Hello again Gary,

It appears to me that you are perhaps not comfortable answering questions pertaining to WoG. I am more curious about the campaign as you ran it and not the published stuff.
But if its simply a matter of absolutely zero interest in revisiting concepts from over 20 years ago. I will leave you in peace.

What Level was Mordenkainen when last you played him as PC or NPC?

In your home WoG campaign what was the biggest most high level epic extravaganza you ever ran?

Was Orcus the father of IUZ in your campaign? (If not, who?)

If all your creative works were destroyed and all that remained was one adventure. Which adventurer would you prefer it be?

Do you have any opinions on Living Greyhawk?

You say you still DM OD&D and AD&D, what world/setting do you use?

Is there anything Wizards has done with D&D that you really liked. (Planescape?,)

And finally heres an important one for everyone reading this. Basically, what recent stuff do you have out now we can buy. Castle wolfmoon?, Yggsburgh?, Novels? Kidneys?

PS: Enormous thanx for your time and patience

Col_Pladoh · Feb 7, 2005

Tuzenbach said:
OK, I've got one. Please forgive me if this has been asked before, but I'm just too damned lazy to look through all the "Gary Gygax Q&A" threads.

Tomb Of Horrors: What were you thinking? Don't get me wrong, I love it. However, this module has got to be the antithesis of dungeons for all those D&Ders who insist upon "role-playing" as opposed to "roll-playing". I mean, you play this thing "in character" and you die. Period. Was it, therefore, your way of indirectly dictating *how* D&D was to be played? It's been suggested by others that TOH was just your way of "weeding out" the average, bad, and good players from the truly great players, if such a thing can even be defined. Well, what gives?

PS: Congratulations on the creation of The Tomb Of Horrors. All dungeons should aspire to its scheming level of challenge and thought.

Forget the business about role-playing. It is as boring as rule-playing and roll-playing are when made the focus of the game. Notice that I stress game, as that's what is the main operative word in the description of the activity. The majority of persons engaged in RPG activity love to go on dungeon crawls, so the ToH was designed to challenge the best of that lot.

That's the gist of it

Cheers,
Gary

Col_Pladoh · Feb 7, 2005

MeiRen said:
First off, let me thank you for coming into this Q&A. I've been loving D&D since I was 12 or so, its exciting to see you here.

Thank you. My pleasure.

Two questions: I'm a student of East Asian History. I've always been curious, when you wrote "Oriental Adventures", what sources did you use? What was the overarching theme/idea behind the book? Why did you write it the way you did?".

Zeb cook wrote the OA book, not me, so you'll have to direct those questions at him. I was totally occupied running TSR at the time the work was written and had no time for creative efforts

On a related note, I've always like the historical flavor of the earlier D&D products. I'm not sure what it is about the old books, but it does feel quite a bit like Dark Ages Europe. Now that we've got the OGL, I've been thinking of writing some historical flavored games of my own, simply as a hobby. (I'm not trying to make money.) Any advice?

Again, thanks for coming in. Sorry if you've had these questions many, many times in the past!

Alex Lampros, aka "Meigan Ren".

A lot of my time has been spent pursuing history, military and otherwise, of the ancient period and middle ages...

If you develop new games don't be surprised if you can find no players outside your own group. The audience for RPGs is relatively small, the number of games available is relatively large, and all require a GM. Most GMs have no time or interest in learning yet another new system

Cheers,
Gary

TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

foehammerx

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Tuzenbach

First Post

MeiRen

First Post

johnsemlak

First Post

Krieg

First Post

foehammerx

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Similar Threads

Related Articles

Latest threads

AD6_gamerati_skyscraper

Recent & Upcoming Releases