TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Gentlegamer · Mar 29, 2005

Col_Pladoh said:
Speaking of tourists...

Frank Mentzer came by yesterday, and we had several hours to sit on the front porch here--the weather being great--and chew the fat. Speaking of chewing, this morinng I am devouring excellent bakery goodies Frank was kind enough to bring here from the Baker's House in Minoqua, or maybe they were from his new Baker's House store in Wausau

Frank mentioned that I needed to get busy and get more modules out, wouold I care to co-create with him? He was not pleased when I told him my creative energy is not great, so new material is going to be scarse. He then asked if there was any of my old adventure material available. As it turned out there is a DMG tournament module I created back in c. 1974, ran around 1976 or 1977 at the DMG con all by myself for groups of 20 gamers per team, 100 total in the tournament.

We are considering Frank fleshing it out for publication as a generic or perhaps a C&C game system adventure. It is mainly an outdor expedition and has eight fukll-page maps.

Cheers,
Gary

That would be terrific! Let's get the Gygax/Mentzer axis of adventure design back in business!

C&C would be the perfect system for it as it would take the least work in translation of game statistics and tone.

dcas · Mar 29, 2005

Col_Pladoh said:
Frank mentioned that I needed to get busy and get more modules out

That's funny -- exactly the same thing I was thinking about him!

Ralif Redhammer · Mar 29, 2005

Good afternoon, evening, or morning Mr. Gygax,

First, let me thank you for the decades of enjoyment that D&D has given me, in addition to a love of literature and imagination. I'm very much looking forward to the publication of the Yggsburgh series, as well as switching to C&C from our current D&D 3e campaign, to getting back to a closer vision of the game as it was when we first started gaming in the mid-80s.

Second, the actual question; what is your concept of the paladin's code? That seems to have been a particularly vexing problem in many campaigns, with paladin's slaughtering baby orcs, or alternately raising orcish children as their own, attacking thieves for the slightest infraction, or being guilty of enormous hubris and arrogance (Which goes against the high charisma required for the class).

Col_Pladoh · Mar 29, 2005

dcas said:
That's funny -- exactly the same thing I was thinking about him!

Well...

Frank can speak for himself, but from my persepctive it seems as if his real life affairs take up the vast majority of his time, so not much writing is likely to come from his pen. He is talking about putting his lone-rinning campaign on paper though

Cheers,
Gary

Col_Pladoh · Mar 29, 2005

Jyrdan Fairblade said:
Good afternoon, evening, or morning Mr. Gygax,

First, let me thank you for the decades of enjoyment that D&D has given me, in addition to a love of literature and imagination. I'm very much looking forward to the publication of the Yggsburgh series, as well as switching to C&C from our current D&D 3e campaign, to getting back to a closer vision of the game as it was when we first started gaming in the mid-80s.

What can I reply other than to say, it was my pleasure?

Second, the actual question; what is your concept of the paladin's code? That seems to have been a particularly vexing problem in many campaigns, with paladin's slaughtering baby orcs, or alternately raising orcish children as their own, attacking thieves for the slightest infraction, or being guilty of enormous hubris and arrogance (Which goes against the high charisma required for the class).

that sounds about right. The paladin is modeled on the medieval paladins of Charlemagne, and they were surely a conflicted lot. What is and isn't chivalrous and honorable is up to the DM, but slaughtering baby orcs isn't likely to fall into either class. Slaughterind adult orcs converted to Lawful Good is likely acceptable, as it sends them on to a better reward, prevents them from backsliding to evil ways.

Cheers,
Gary

Gentlegamer · Mar 29, 2005

I'm sure this question has been addressed in the many hundreds of posts of this ongoing Q&A:

Will the key for CASTLE ZAGYG include where to place DUNGEONLAND, LAND BEYOND THE MAGIC MIRROR, and ISLE OF THE APE?

NewJeffCT · Mar 29, 2005

Col_Pladoh said:
What can I reply other than to say, it was my pleasure?

that sounds about right. The paladin is modeled on the medieval paladins of Charlemagne, and they were surely a conflicted lot. What is and isn't chivalrous and honorable is up to the DM, but slaughtering baby orcs isn't likely to fall into either class. Slaughterind adult orcs converted to Lawful Good is likely acceptable, as it sends them on to a better reward, prevents them from backsliding to evil ways.

Cheers,
Gary

First - thanks to you and everybody else involved with D&D for the last 30 years for giving me thousands of hours of entertainment since the late 70s.

To take the paladin thing a bit further, we had a lengthy thread on here a few months back about whether paladins should be chaste/celibate, as in they do not engage in any sexual activity at all. I had started the thread because I was wondering why so many DMs seem to require paladins to be basically sexless when the various Player's Handbooks dating back to 1st Edition do not technically require it.

When you DM somebody playing a paladin, is this an unwritten part of your paladin code?

I will say that sex/love is not something that comes up every session in our games, but I was thinking about it a while back when a paladin PC of mine basically stood guard while the rest of the group was visiting our game's equivalent of the Castle Anthrax... And, I am also not saying that the paladin would be wildly promiscuous like a medieval era Wilt Chamberlin, but I could see a paladin in a committed monogamous relationship with a follower of the same deity.

MrFilthyIke · Mar 29, 2005

Col_Pladoh said:
Speaking of tourists...

Frank Mentzer came by yesterday,...Speaking of chewing, this morinng I am devouring excellent bakery goodies Frank was kind enough to bring here from the Baker's House in Minoqua, or maybe they were from his new Baker's House store in Wausau

Glad my tourist comment brought out that tidbit. I owe my getting into D&D more to Mr Mentzer's famous red box than any other book. Had that not been available to me, I mighta given up on trying to figure out D&D on my own.

Hope we see many more Gygax and Mentzer titled goodies, it keeps the frothing horde going.

Akrasia · Mar 29, 2005

Henry said:
My personal recommendation to Frank is to do it as C&C, for two reasons:

1) C&C is a currently supported game with a, *ahem* HUGE campaign setting that needs more support, and

2) It's easy to port from your OD&D stats, and I have this suspicion the Troll Crew would salivate greatly to work with him.

Good grief, I could not agree more!

Akrasia · Mar 29, 2005

Col_Pladoh said:
Well...

Frank can speak for himself, but from my persepctive it seems as if his real life affairs take up the vast majority of his time, so not much writing is likely to come from his pen. He is talking about putting his lone-rinning campaign on paper though

Cheers,
Gary

I would love to see a published version of Frank Mentzer's campaign!

TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Gentlegamer

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dcas

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Ralif Redhammer

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Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Gentlegamer

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NewJeffCT

First Post

MrFilthyIke

First Post

Akrasia

Procrastinator

Akrasia

Procrastinator

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