TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Sir Elton · Mar 7, 2004

Col_Pladoh said:
Back around 1980 I directed TSR to advertise in professional educators' perioricals asking for the reader to registed with the company if ther were intersted in learning about RPG modules designed for classroom instruction, We received over 3,000 requests. In the course of this we hires a Ph.D in Educational Psychology to assist with the creation of the modules. Just as we were ready to begin prodiction, the Blumes canned the project

I'd appreciate receiving a copy of your essay.

Cheers,
Gary

Then I'll send a copy of the Final your way before I make a decision on sending it to GAMA or Pyramid.

Col_Pladoh · Mar 7, 2004

Okay Sir Elton!

When I get the ms. copy I'll read and pass along any critique I might have.

Cheers,
Gary

solomanii · Mar 8, 2004

Do you use a DM Shield or do you just let the players see all your rolls and whatever they can glean from your notes?

solomanii · Mar 8, 2004

And another question that just occured to me quoting you;

"That meant that their cleric would be dedicated to Boccob, and
the fighters and others, wanting the benefits of clerical ministrations
came along for the ride Boccob was never an active deity in play, and none
of the PCs was eager to have Zagyg intervene..."

So did the clerics not help party memebers of different beliefs?

Col_Pladoh · Mar 8, 2004

solomanii said:
Do you use a DM Shield or do you just let the players see all your rolls and whatever they can glean from your notes?

Cheers Solomanii,

I seldom use a screen, but I don't leave notes in view of the players--themap sometimes, but not other written material.

Your second post siad:

And another question that just occured to me quoting you;

"That meant that their cleric would be dedicated to Boccob, and
the fighters and others, wanting the benefits of clerical ministrations
came along for the ride Boccob was never an active deity in play, and none
of the PCs was eager to have Zagyg intervene..."

So did the clerics not help party memebers of different beliefs?

Yes, clerics of deities not honored by someone needing assistance were generally aided, but at the cost of a "donation" to advance the work of the particylar faith of the cleric.

The main fun was having clerics of different dieties argue theology, and debates between one of St. Cuthbert and another of Pholtus always ended up in a test of which would prevail by a bonk on the head or temporary blinding. The players had a good sense of humor :uhoh:

Gary

Gray Mouser · Mar 8, 2004

Colonel,

I was wondering about your own early forays into roleplaying. When I started out (as a wee lad of probably 10 ir so - the memory is the first thing to go!) I remember going through several PC's before being able to have one survive for any length of time! (Hey, I was young! Run into the goblin lair with swords brandished was the height of strategy for the first couple of adventures! And damn the Minotaur in KotB!) Anyway, me and my friends had a habit of rolling up characters as soon as possible after the orihginals died. Usually we would just stick with the same name and add "the seond," "the third," etc. Sometimes we wouldn't even bother with that and just had a line of "Borg the Fighter" over the course of the adventure.

My question is this: Did you experience the same sort of thing when starting out? I'm sure since you were older and an experienced wargamer there would be a major difference at least in rate of PC death, but I'm wondering if, for instance, the famous Mordenkainen or Yrag, et. al. are all originals or if he's actually "Mordenkainen III." ;-)

Gray Mouser

Manzanita · Mar 8, 2004

DMG I question

Hey Gary. It's Grant. You've answered a couple of my questions before. It's so much fun having you around. Here's another question I've had for decades & it just occured to me that I could ask you.

In the original DMG (which I still have and use) it has a sample combat on page 71. In this, Arlanni the theif uses a crossbow, and Balto the monk uses a sword, both of which were prohibited to those classes at the time. The mistakes seem so egregious that I can't believe they were just an accident. Were you experimenting with different rules at the time? It was a good combat none the less. Was it based on an actual DnD event?

thanks,
Grant

Col_Pladoh · Mar 8, 2004

Gray Mouser said:
Colonel,

...

My question is this: Did you experience the same sort of thing when starting out? I'm sure since you were older and an experienced wargamer there would be a major difference at least in rate of PC death, but I'm wondering if, for instance, the famous Mordenkainen or Yrag, et. al. are all originals or if he's actually "Mordenkainen III." ;-)

Gray Mouser

I never lost any of my main PCs, although most of them "died" at least once and were resurrected or wished back to life by their fellow adventurers. Even though I was over 30 then I did now and again get a bit rash. Once when the DM was really lousy, Yrag threw himself on his sword in disgust. Murlynd, Robilar, Tenser, and Terik brought his corpse back and had him resurrected...with another person as the DM :lol:

A fighter PC of mine in Brian Blume's campaign with a natural 18 strength, 17 constitution and 16 dexterity was killed before getting to 2nd level, lost and gone forever

The same is true of a half-orc cleric-assassin PC of mine, but he got to 3rd level before biting the dust.

Cheers,
Gary

Gray Mouser · Mar 8, 2004

Col_Pladoh said:
Even though I was over 30 then I did now and again get a bit rash. Once when the DM was really lousy, Yrag threw himself on his sword in disgust. Murlynd, Robilar, Tenser, and Terik brought his corpse back and had him resurrected...with another person as the DM

That's classic!

Hey! BTW, who played Murlynd? I'm assuming the PC version is different than the Quasi-Deity found in the Greyhawk Glossography.

Gray Mouser

Col_Pladoh · Mar 8, 2004

Manzanita said:
Hey Gary. It's Grant. You've answered a couple of my questions before. It's so much fun having you around. Here's another question I've had for decades & it just occured to me that I could ask you.

Hi Grant,

My pleasure to be posting here. I enjoy the fellowship!

In the original DMG (which I still have and use) it has a sample combat on page 71. In this, Arlanni the theif uses a crossbow, and Balto the monk uses a sword, both of which were prohibited to those classes at the time. The mistakes seem so egregious that I can't believe they were just an accident. Were you experimenting with different rules at the time? It was a good combat none the less. Was it based on an actual DnD event?

thanks,
Grant

To the best of my knowledge and belief, that particular example was added by the editors, thus slipped past and never got corrected.

From my current standpoint I would allow the thief to use a hand crossbow, and with magic swords reduced in power, open the use of that weapon to clerics, no specialization, of course. However, that ain't OAD&D.

Cheers,
Gary

TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Sir Elton

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

solomanii

Explorer

solomanii

Explorer

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Gray Mouser

First Post

Manzanita

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Gray Mouser

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

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