TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh · Dec 16, 2003

Further to Allen

Oops!

I forgot to post one that is rather glaring.

According to Dave Arneson the "Egg of Coot" was created from the name "Gregg Scott," the chap who ran the MicroArmor casting company some years back. Gregg dismissed fantasy games as childish and claimed wargaming was "manly."

Coot indeed!

Heh,
Gary

mistere29 · Dec 16, 2003

Col_Pladoh said:
Yes, we had a cavalier character in the Greyhawk Campaign, just about every one of the classes in the rules, and the same for demi-human characters. I once played a half-ord cleric-assassin, as a matter of fact.

How did you generate attributes in your games?

Indeed, we played weapon specialization even before i wrote it up in Dragon
Magazine. By the time that article hit a couple of PCs in the campaign were doubly-specialized...

Were you trying to up the power of the warrior classes in D&D. Between WS and Full/Feild plate armor, fighters and cavaliers got a pretty big got a pretty big boost. If so, why?

I was a play-tester in of the working draft of the Lost City of Gaxmoor module written by my sons Ernie and Luke. I played in about a dozen or so sessions that lasted an average of six hours each. I determined then and there that I'd never DM the new D&D system.

Anything specific that caused this decision. I know you don't want to compare systems, but i don't think telling about your personell experince in a D20 campaign is neccsarilly a comparsion.

Col_Pladoh · Dec 16, 2003

Holiday Cheer

mistere29 said:
How did you generate attributes in your games?

in 1972 we all rolled 3d6, but later when AD&D made the stats more meaningful, players would keep rolling until they got more viable numbers, so then we switched to various systems--roll seven or eight times with 3d6 and keep the six best totals or roll d4d and throw out the lowest die.

After all, the object of the game is to have fun, and weak PCs aren't much fun for most players. Even fine role-players want characters with at least one or two redeming stats...

Were you trying to up the power of the warrior classes in D&D. Between WS and Full/Feild plate armor, fighters and cavaliers got a pretty big got a pretty big boost. If so, why?

Absolutely so. Magic-users were very potent, so it was time to beef up the fighter class.

Anything specific that caused this decision. I know you don't want to compare systems, but i don't think telling about your personell experince in a D20 campaign is neccsarilly a comparsion.

Well, after being at RPG activity since 1972, I finally realized something that should have been evident to me a couple of decades ago. When I GM I prefer to "wing it" much of the time, and ignore rules that get in the way of the flow of the adventure. The same is true when I play a character, prefering to use logic and imagination in preference to hunting up rules. In short, I do not like rules-heavy systems. Rule-playing is worse than roll-playing. I can enjoy a good deal of hack & slash, but even a bit of rules lawyering makes me want to go and find something else to do.

Additionally, I find no soul in the new D&D game, no archetypes, just seek and destroy play and too much of the comic book superhero in characters.

It is no reflection on those who enjoy the game, just my personal taste that leads me elsewhere.

Yuletide best,
Gary

Flexor the Mighty! · Dec 16, 2003

Hi Gary!

I was wondering if you are a gun owner/collector, do any hunting or recreational shooting, etc? If so what is your favorite to shoot?

Col_Pladoh · Dec 16, 2003

Flexor the Mighty! said:
Hi Gary!

I was wondering if you are a gun owner/collector, do any hunting or recreational shooting, etc? If so what is your favorite to shoot?

Heh, Flex'...

Guess my comment on Political Corectness pegged me, eh?

Yes I own a number of handguns and shoulder weapons. I got my first BB pistol when I was about 10, a Daisy BB gun when I was 11, and my first .22 rifle, a single-shot, bolt action Winchester for my 12th birthday--thanks to my grandfather, for mother was not keen on that. I loved plinking and hunting, and how badly I wanted a .25 lever action carbine I used to gaze at in the local Gamble's store is difficult to express in words. Never did get it. I did get a fine lemonwood bow made by Bear Archery, though. It had only a 38-pound pull, so my range was only about 120 yards with a hunting arrow.

However, over the next few years I did add several more .22 rifles, a bolt-action, three shot Mossberg 16 gauge shotgun, a old single-barreled 12 gauge, and a .32 pistol. The rifles were used for squirrel, rabbit, and varmint hunting, the shotguns for pheasants, ducks, and geese, and the revolver for target shooting.

In later years I got rid of the old weapons, added a 7.62 Argentine Mauser, a 30-30 carbine, and variuous other rifles, shotguns, and quite a few handguns. Years later, when I used to get death threats because of D&D I always had a .357, 9 mm, or .45 caliber pistol handy. If those were too conspicuous, a little .32, .25, or .22 derringer from Defender Arms was around. Sure glad I didn't need to use them...

Damned if I ever did manage to line up a buck whitetail in my sights, but I tried a couple of times.

These days my leg injury keeps me pretty much out of what I used to love to do--hike for miles with or without a firearm. One of the chaps in my gaming group just returned from deer hunting, bagged a 10-point buck

Cheers,
Gary

mistere29 · Dec 17, 2003

Col_Pladoh said:
Holiday Cheer

in 1972 we all rolled 3d6, but later when AD&D made the stats more meaningful, players would keep rolling until they got more viable numbers, so then we switched to various systems--roll seven or eight times with 3d6 and keep the six best totals or roll d4d and throw out the lowest die.

After all, the object of the game is to have fun, and weak PCs aren't much fun for most players. Even fine role-players want characters with at least one or two redeming stats...

What about attribute requirements for classes. Did you hold your players to them?

Absolutely so. Magic-users were very potent, so it was time to beef up the fighter class.

Why just the fighter, or where the other classes getting beefed up too?

MerricB · Dec 17, 2003

G'day Gary!

Col_Pladoh said:
When I GM I prefer to "wing it" much of the time, and ignore rules that get in the way of the flow of the adventure. The same is true when I play a character, prefering to use logic and imagination in preference to hunting up rules. In short, I do not like rules-heavy systems.

Col_Pladoh said:
"Storytelling" games are not RPGs. Neither are "diceless" games.

An RPG creates a story, does not follow a script. That's a play, possibly improv theater. In a real RPG the GM develops a backstory and plot, sets the scenes, and then the PCs interact with those and by their actions create the actual tale, the events and conclusion of which are indeterminate until that occurs.

As in real life, chance and random occurrances must be a part of an RPG adventure. As a matter of fact you and I do not know what will happen in the next minute. As is oft quoted, "There's many a slip between cup and lip." to ignore random events, not allow chance into play, is to consign the game to predestination. For example, the best golfer might be stung by a bee at the moment he is about to make an easy putt, thus miss it. Who knows when a tire will blow out? Can anyone predict with certainty that a sudden gust of wind won't blow an obstructing object onto a windshield? throw off the course of a missile?

That's an interesting balance between the two - no rules and it's not a RPG, too many rules and it turns into something which more resembles a board-game or similar where imagination is hobbled by the minutae.

And of course, the point of balance is different for each person and group!

###

Gary - just wondering: have you had any chance to play in (rather than DM) a game in the past year?

Cheers!

diaglo · Dec 17, 2003

MerricB said:
Gary - just wondering: have you had any chance to play in (rather than DM) a game in the past year?

i know i offered to run an OD&D at DragonCon which gary wasn't going to make. he then mentioned going to Biloxi with Chris Clark to me. and then bagged out on it.

so i'm curious too.

Col.Playdoh said:
After all, the object of the game is to have fun, and weak PCs aren't much fun for most players. Even fine role-players want characters with at least one or two redeming stats...

are you saying people can't have fun playing the game as written?

i beg to differ. we did for 10+ years.

Col_Pladoh · Dec 17, 2003

mistere29 said:
What about attribute requirements for classes. Did you hold your players to them?

But of course! Usually that meant the player with a specific class in mind about to create a character would roll up quite a few before one fit the bill, but that was considered part of the fun

Why just the fighter, or where the other classes getting beefed up too?

IMO the other classes needed no strengthening. The fighter was played a lot, and the class had turned out to be the weakest of the lot, lacking anything potent to make it unique. So weapons specialization came into the rules.

Yuletide best,
Gary

Col_Pladoh · Dec 17, 2003

Harry Holidays Merric

MerricB said:
G'day Gary!

That's an interesting balance between the two - no rules and it's not a RPG, too many rules and it turns into something which more resembles a board-game or similar where imagination is hobbled by the minutae.

And of course, the point of balance is different for each person and group!

Quite so. Of course the group might well enjoy a game that is an exercise in amateur theatrics, or a combat simulatuon. that isn't in and of itself anything to fault, but what they are engaging in isn't an RPG, for the game form has more elements.

Gary - just wondering: have you had any chance to play in (rather than DM) a game in the past year?

Cheers!

Bah! One time only, and that for only a couple of hours. I have fudged a bit and played an Avatar in my own LA game compaign. It is an exercise in self-restraint and really allows little but combat participation, so it isn't very satisfying.

During that same time period several persons who were going to come and run a game here have crapped out.

Of course when I am a guest an a convention there's really no time for me to play. I am there to be seen, socialize, interact, speak and run games for others.

A couple of years back son ALex and I attended a con in Milwaukee as gamers only, played in an RPGA-run game of CoC. Alex's PC panicked and ran off at the end, taking the skraelings off after him, so the rest of us survived. I am pleased to say that the team voted me the best role-player, and I aced a lot of the enemy characters too, including their shaman, but my character ended up with a permanently gimpy leg

Cheers,
Gary

TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

mistere29

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Flexor the Mighty!

18/100 Strength!

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

mistere29

First Post

MerricB

Eternal Optimist

diaglo

Adventurer

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Similar Threads

Related Articles

Latest threads

AD6_gamerati_skyscraper

Recent & Upcoming Releases