TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

airwalkrr said:

Curious... Except for the Against the Giants result, that sounds fairly like a FTA Greyhawk.

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It's somewhere in between. Some of the other differences:
- Greyhawk City didn't absorb Hardby and environs. Instead, they are unhappily allied.
- The Wild Coast was not destroyed and desolated.
- Furyondy-Veluna are more-or-less one country, because Prince Thrommel survived the Temple of Elemental Evil
- Iuz never went on the FTA rampage. The Bandit Kingdoms, the Shield Lands, and Stonefist remain intact, as Gary wrote them. These areas were quite interesting, and FTA vandalized them, IMHO. On the other hand, Iuz is a danger, specifically conquering the Horned Society and decimating the Rovers of the Barrens.
- Ivid the Evil had some great stuff in it, so I preserved the general idea (GK consumed by war), but I got rid of the spikey-armorish bits, like "demons stalking the land" and armies of undead. Instead, I think of the 30 Years War -- mankind creating hell on Oerth without the help of special effects from beyond. Incidentally, Rel Astra in my campaign uses the City State of the Invincible Overlord.
- Bissel, where the main action of the campaign takes place, never was overrun. Instead, it's strong Border Companies and many allies helped it hold over the Kettites and their allies -- with lots of PC involvement.

Col_Pladoh said:

Troll Lord Games is in process of readying the seven books for reprint as hardbacks. I am not sure when the first will be released, but I think it will be in the late autumn of this year

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I always wondered, why all the re-writes on the Gord series? Stuff like whether or not he buried the "old woman" who raised him (in the first version he leaves her body in the street, in the second he returns to bury her), his origins (guttersnipe to Bastard-Prince of the Cat-Lord), etc. I know this was Post-T$R, but why the changes to the tale?

Jdvn1 said:

Hey, Gary.

Have you read/seen Da Vinci Code? How much of pop culture do you follow? What books and movies do you like?

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Heh...

As a Christian I scoff at the foolishness of the whole matter, book and film. It is insulting to the intelligence of anyone knowledgeable in regards the subject. In short it is preposterous.

I read quite eclectically--mainly history, historical fiction, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction. Jack Vance is my favorite author, but I can happily read the stories of Robert E. Howard's "Conan," Robert van Gulik's "Judge Dee", Rex Stout's "Nero Wolfe," C.S. Forrester's "Hornblower", Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe", and so on.

I mainly enjoy action adventure films. Just saw Aeon Fluxx on DVD (we have a big screen TV and surround sound) and was disappointed in that I thought the animated series that was on MTV years back was far better. The new King Kong was better that the de Laurentis abomination but much inferior to the original. I want to see X-Men 3, and I hope to go to the theater with my youngest son, Alex, soon. Of course I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy and love the "Harry Potter" flicks.

BTW, although I mostly watch the History Channel, Discvery Channels, Science Channel, A&E, and the Military Channel, I do usually watch Fox News and have been hooked on 24, watched the last two series and intend to tune in next January when the show airs again with new episodes. I tune into the SC Channel now and then but the new Dr. Who hasn't grabbed me.

Cheers,
Gary

Steverooo said:

I always wondered, why all the re-writes on the Gord series? Stuff like whether or not he buried the "old woman" who raised him (in the first version he leaves her body in the street, in the second he returns to bury her), his origins (guttersnipe to Bastard-Prince of the Cat-Lord), etc. I know this was Post-T$R, but why the changes to the tale?

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Heh...

There were no re-writes at all

Changes? No way. I consider them elucidations of partially detailed scenes as viewed from a different and more comprehensive perspective. The information relayed in City of Hawks is revelation that supports the overall storyline, elements therein that would have been incongruos in the initial two novels.

Cheers,
Gary

Gary,
Glad to see you're still active in the gaming world and communicating regularly with fans. I hope you are able to do so for many more years.

Without getting into a religious discussion, how did you feel about the accusations and attacks on D&D by religious groups back in the 80's ? Were you ever contacted by any of them in a sincere effort to find out about the game or to discuss it? Has time changed your view of the situation any?

On a lighter note, I thoroughly enjoyed playing Necropolis using the 3 edition D&D rules. Have you published other adventures that are 3e compatible and/or do you plan to write more?

Dear Col_Pladoh,

You are my hero...can I have your autograph?



Seriously though, I was curious, have you read Ken Hite'smost recent article about where the game industry should head? What do you think about it?

Valdur said:

Gary,
Glad to see you're still active in the gaming world and communicating regularly with fans. I hope you are able to do so for many more years.

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Thanks

As I am semi-retired, don't do as much creative work as I did previously, I have more time for posting on boards and to my email list groups.

Without getting into a religious discussion, how did you feel about the accusations and attacks on D&D by religious groups back in the 80's ? Were you ever contacted by any of them in a sincere effort to find out about the game or to discuss it? Has time changed your view of the situation any?

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Only one such group contacted me personally, whichever one it is that published the magazine, Cornerstone. the young lady that interviewed me was very sincere, polite, and reasonable. Although the subsequent article was not favorable to the game, it was written feirly from a basically fundamentalist position, did not attack me personally, rather came near to praising me with faint damns

Otherwise, all of the so-called mental health advocates and their ilk stayed far away as well.

All of it was a load of rubbish, of course. either the detractors could not tell the difference between make-believe and reality or else they were cynically exploiting the ignorance of others in order to gain from attacking the game.

On a lighter note, I thoroughly enjoyed playing Necropolis using the 3 edition D&D rules. Have you published other adventures that are 3e compatible and/or do you plan to write more?

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The only other D20 adventure modules I have done are dual system with the LA game. You might find The Hall of Many Panes an interesting campaign-length one for your players, although some adjustment in what is encountered might be necessary when having D&D PCs exploring therein. I no longer enjoy rules intensive systems, prefer rules-light skill based games, and the module worked perfectly for about a year of play using the Lejendary Adventure system. I had the D20 sections added because I know that a number of 3E fans wanted to have a go at the module.

You might also have a look at The Hermit module, another dual system one.

Cheers,
Gary

KaosDevice said:

Dear Col_Pladoh,

You are my hero...can I have your autograph?

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Actually, I am quite pleased, feel honored, to provide my autograph to fellow gamers whenever I am able to do so

Seriously though, I was curious, have you read Ken Hite's most recent article about where the game industry should head? What do you think about it?

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No, I haven't seen the article. Shooting from the hip I believe that the paper RPG field would most benefit if the one company large enough to manage the challenge went all out to recruit new, mostly young players. The grreatest competition for in-person gaming are computer games, including online ones. Of course paper RPGing is a niche market, not expanding currently, and very much suffering from overcrowded retail shelves, as there are too many games and support products being produced for the number of consumers.

Cheers,
Gary

Hi Gary. I am so happy to see you still here chatting and answering questions.

I would consider it a pleasure and an honor if you pop over this to thread and cast your vote:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=164316

...and then come back here and tell me what you voted for.

P.S. You ever going to return to Higgins Armory in MA, or anywhere else in New England? We really enjoyed your visit and speak of it fondly to this day.

Thanks for the response Cap'n G, you da man. The article I was talking about can be found here.

Take care and all the best.