ScottyG said:
from the author/editor team responsible for The Keep on the Borderlands...
Neigh I say (horse from a day of gaming) and nay again. This earns the obvious placement in the orb of a swine, but I am moved (by my prediliction to garrulous diversions no doubt) to clarify the matter.
I was spurned as a designer but nonetheless offered a staff position as a mere editor at TSR. I felt that the reasoning was less due to my minimal editing credits than to the feel for the essence of the game that I displayed during a long-distance telephone interview (with Mssrs. Schick and Johnson) in late 1979.
'twas thus 1980, and I was newly arrived in the legendary Lake Geneva. Tho not unwise in the ways of polite society, my position was still tenuous indeed in the service of the eminent publisher. I was not schooled in the behind-the-scenes behavior of the Great Ones, and my naivete hung o'er my desk in great invisible clouds seen only by those who had been flailed into paranoia and caution by the iron whim of certain local authors.
The introductory adventure "In Search of the Unknown" was contained within each and every D&D set, but this august work was slated for replacement by an a broader one containing a base of operations, with adventure potential oozing from every nearby cave. This Gygaxian endeavor, the aforementioned "Keep on the Borderlands", did arrive on my 'humble editor's desk by mere chance -- perhaps no other dared to risk the thunderous voice and furrowed brow of the company's near-mythic President, should errors be made -- and I was strictly admonished to correct blatant spelling errors only, with no development or rewriting allowed. And that I did, adequately I trust, but in the course of this simple task one glaring omission became obvious; the Keep contained multiple clerics but no chapel for their work. After considering the matter, especially the hectic schedule being kept by the Boss during this turbulent era, I took it upon myself to write up a suggested Chapel (if one must point out problems a solution should be included, if only as a shield usable in self-defense) and sent it over via interoffice mail.
When my actions were revealed to my comrades, they started making preparations for a farewell party, sure that I would be fricasseed by my temerity. It startled everyone that Gary's prompt response was so placid -- "Yup, I left that out, this is fine, run it" -- and thereafter I was treated with an extra milligram (no more) of respect, just for surviving the affair.
Although I later veered to the true border of dismissal when I failed to notice a major error in the Dungeon! boardgame reprint, I weathered that too, and Gary and I became acquaintances and eventually friends. I even work still at the same desk as when I edited KotB, a clunky old oaken thing upon which Gary first labored to type the manuscript for the first Dungeons & Dragons game.
But don't credit me for any part of the creation of "Keep on the Borderlands" -- at least, nothing but one small Chapel tucked away amidst the vast array of sites and challenges therein, and a routine bit of spellchecking that is nowadays easily performed by the least of computer chips.
FM
