TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

BOZ · Mar 14, 2003

Col_Pladoh said:
I've loved Egyptology since I was about five years old and my father took me to see the large exhibit in the Field Museum in Chigaco.

they must have changed that exhibit a whole lot because i went there a few years ago and it was very different from what i remember as a kid - a whole lot was missing.

is there another mummy exhibit in chicago, or did the field museum just stash all that good stuff away?

Col_Pladoh · Mar 14, 2003

BOZ said:
they must have changed that exhibit a whole lot because i went there a few years ago and it was very different from what i remember as a kid - a whole lot was missing. is there another mummy exhibit in chicago, or did the field museum just stash all that good stuff away?

Darn, Boz...

I haven't been to the Field Museum in about 10 years, so I can't really say. The exhibit used to be very extensive, and when I was a lad one could even see an X-ray of a mummy

I do recall that the main hall was much changed the last time I was there--looked far less impressive to me than what had been on display.

Cheers,
Gary

BOZ · Mar 14, 2003

right, i think you see what i mean. i was first there in roughly 1988, and it looked like there was a lot less stuff there last year.

edit: even the dinos seem to be a lot less impressive... but the taxidermy exhibit is awesome.

Endur · Mar 14, 2003

Parties vs. Individual Heroes

Gary,

A lot of the Fantasy novels focused on a single hero (Conan, Tarzan, etc.) or perhaps a hero and a sidekick.

How did you come up with the idea of a whole party of characters adventuring in a dungeon?

Especially since D&D grew out of tabletop wargames, and tabletop wargames tended to be 1 on 1, or 3 vs. 3 types of scenarios. Most tabletop wargames (unless they involved hidden movement) don't have a referee.

Tom

Col_Pladoh · Mar 15, 2003

Field Mueseum

BOZ said:
right, i think you see what i mean. i was first there in roughly 1988, and it looked like there was a lot less stuff there last year.

edit: even the dinos seem to be a lot less impressive... but the taxidermy exhibit is awesome.

Boz, I still remember being blown away as a little lad when entering the main hall of the Field Museum. There before me were those huge bull loxodonts locked in battle, while behind them were the bronze stature of the Masai warriors readying their spears, on another pedestal a lion and lioness crouched and snarling, and the third with the speared lions and the warriors in jubilation, one at least with shield held overhead.

Right you are about the taxidermy exhibits there. That was where I spent most of my time as a boy, looking at them. We went to the museum about once a month, with a side jaunt to either the Shedd Aquarium or the Adler Planetarium.

Cheers,
Gary

Col_Pladoh · Mar 15, 2003

Re: Parties vs. Individual Heroes

Endur said:
Gary,

A lot of the Fantasy novels focused on a single hero (Conan, Tarzan, etc.) or perhaps a hero and a sidekick.

How did you come up with the idea of a whole party of characters adventuring in a dungeon?

Especially since D&D grew out of tabletop wargames, and tabletop wargames tended to be 1 on 1, or 3 vs. 3 types of scenarios. Most tabletop wargames (unless they involved hidden movement) don't have a referee.

Tom

Hi Tom

Fortunately I read in a lot of genres other than fantasy, including the historical war fiction one. Even there, though, crafting a story around a large cast of characters is difficult, and from such a number one or two main protagonists, and possibly an antagonist or two emerge.

In tabletop games, the LGTSA would have teams of players, sometimes as many as six on a side. There was usually one person as unpire or referee, the one who set up the game to be played, although that individual would sometimes play as well. When I ran my later games they were usually the "Man-to-Man" medieval ones, and as pretty common on the tabletop, each player had a command figure. A team of several defenders would plan and cooperate to try and defeat a like team of attackers.

It wasn't much of a leap from that to single "command figures" operating as an adventuring group. Do keep in mind that original D&D had provision for and pretty well assumed that each PC would hire a few men-at-arms--the old tabletop force of soldiery

In another thread someone was wondering how 1st level PCs in the original game survived. Some responses mentioned the "run away" tactic--the one we commonly used. None I read, though, considered the hiring of mercenaries to assist in the encounters. All the early play groups I knew of, those in 1972 and on through 1974 surely did that so as to give their low-level PCs a better survival chance. It worked very well. Yrag and Mordenkainen both began as 1st level, and Rob Kuntz, the main DM for their adventures, was not prone to cutting slack for anyone.

Cheers,
Gary

BOZ · Mar 15, 2003

Re: Field Mueseum

Col_Pladoh said:
Boz, I still remember being blown away as a little lad when entering the main hall of the Field Museum. There before me were those huge bull loxodonts locked in battle, while behind them were the bronze stature of the Masai warriors readying their spears, on another pedestal a lion and lioness crouched and snarling, and the third with the speared lions and the warriors in jubilation, one at least with shield held overhead.

there isn't much in the main hall anymore, but there is some nice statuary. i can't remember if the elephants are still there (i think they actually might be though - or at least one of them), but the only other item i remember is Sue the T-Rex - and she wasn't as big as they'd touted her to be. oh well, it's still worth a visit.

this month the museum has an exhibit on baseball.

Draxx · Mar 16, 2003

Mr. Gygax,

I was just wondering if you have had any contact with mortality.net and the mortality radio show. Adlon who hosts the show mentioned last year that he was going to try to get you on for an interview. I for one would be sure to listen. His show is excellent and is a lot of fun for the gaming community. It is a wonderful opportunity to hear from game designers and gamers from all over the globe.

Also, I was wondering have you had any recent involvement with any scripts or ideas for new fantasy TV shows. With the success of Buffy and Angel, Xena, etc. it seems the viewer market is there for more fantasy oriented programs or films.

Thanks again for many years of gaming fun.

Respectfully,

Draxx

Endur · Mar 16, 2003

Men At Arms

We used to hire as many (or more) NPCs for a party as PCs.

The ideal D&D session is sort of like a Star Trek show in a way. The PCs (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, etc.) get the spotlight. The unnamed crewman is just there to give McCoy the opportunity to say, "He's dead, Jim."

Problems set in when the GM starts spending time and effort on the NPCs and crowds the PCs out of the spotlight. So, we tend not to use as many men at arms as we did in the past, for dungeon crawls. Still might use them for dramatic effect or for battlefields or to hold horses and so forth.

Tom

Col_Pladoh said:
It wasn't much of a leap from that to single "command figures" operating as an adventuring group. Do keep in mind that original D&D had provision for and pretty well assumed that each PC would hire a few men-at-arms--the old tabletop force of soldiery

In another thread someone was wondering how 1st level PCs in the original game survived. Some responses mentioned the "run away" tactic--the one we commonly used. None I read, though, considered the hiring of mercenaries to assist in the encounters. All the early play groups I knew of, those in 1972 and on through 1974 surely did that so as to give their low-level PCs a better survival chance. It worked very well. Yrag and Mordenkainen both began as 1st level, and Rob Kuntz, the main DM for their adventures, was not prone to cutting slack for anyone.

Cheers,
Gary

Col_Pladoh · Mar 16, 2003

Draxx said:
Mr. Gygax,

Feel free to call me Gary if you like.

I was just wondering if you have had any contact with mortality.net and the mortality radio show. Adlon who hosts the show mentioned last year that he was going to try to get you on for an interview. I for one would be sure to listen. His show is excellent and is a lot of fun for the gaming community. It is a wonderful opportunity to hear from game designers and gamers from all over the globe.

Yes, the good people at Mortality.net were in contact with me some tme back. I forgot the reason why it was not possible, or perhaps convenient, for me to do an audio interview with them. I get email notices of their shows, so I should probably get beck in touch...

Also, I was wondering have you had any recent involvement with any scripts or ideas for new fantasy TV shows. With the success of Buffy and Angel, Xena, etc. it seems the viewer market is there for more fantasy oriented programs or films.

Thanks again for many years of gaming fun.

Respectfully,

Draxx

Sadly, if one isn't out on the West Coast--or in NYC--where the action is, that pretty well precludes being a participant in such productions.

Short answer: No.

Cheers,
Gary

TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

BOZ

Creature Cataloguer

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

BOZ

Creature Cataloguer

Endur

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

BOZ

Creature Cataloguer

Draxx

First Post

Endur

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

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