Eternalknight said:
Gary, here are a few questions as I won't be able to make the chat.
1) How long did it take you to write the original version of D&D? Or, in other words, when did you come up with the idea and how long did it take to get it into print?
2) I have been reading your Up On A Soapbox colums in Dragon and really enjoy them. Your commentry on some of your gaming sessions brings back memories about when i first started playing. Unfortuneatly, I can't seem to get that same 'feeling' now when i DM. Any advice?
3) Would you consider D&D (in any of its incarnations) as your favourite game? If no, which game would be your favourite?
Well, here you are, answers a day late, but hopefuly not short...
1. The initial 50 page draft of what was to become the D&D game took me only about two weeks to write--around November of 1972. After all, most of the material was drawn from the CHAINMAIL Fantasy Supplement, so it wasn't a real challenge. I then sent the draft around to a dozen or two of my wargaming comrades. The positive response was overwhealming, and from my own play-testing and the many letters and phone calls received from the other testers, I revised the initial material into a draft of some 150 pages--essentially what appeared in the three booklets of the boxed D&D set. That revision took place in the early spring of 1973. When Tactical Studies Rules was formed as a partnership by Don Kaye and I in October of 1973, we produced a military miniatures rules set as the first product, as that was all we could afford. Then, when we took in a new partner, the D&D ms.went to the printer's, so the game was published and sold in January 1974. By that time I was working on the new material thyat appeared in the GREYHAWK Supplement some considerable time later.
2. Go back to playng OAD&D, perhaps. I find that when I D< using the old material I am as enthused as ever--of course I still enjoy DMing OAD&D with the same zest as I did "way back when." If you want to change systems, take a peek at the LA material. It is now my system of choice because I find it facilitates my sense of wonder in regards to fantasy gamning.
3. Actually, see above for my feelings in regards to :favirite." While i love games, and the one I am playing at the time is the current "favorite," most likely, for long-term involvement I place the LA game, OD&D/AD&D, and METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA at the top. Of course I would like to try to get in some other genres there too, and when I have less writing to do, more playing time, I'll do that
Gary
