scadgrad said:
Mr. Gygax,
As so many have said before, thank you for this game. It has brought me so much joy over the past 27 years. Additionally, your list of suggested reading was invaluable to those of us with no peer group to make such recommendations in the dark days of 1980. East Tennessee in those days was not exactly chock-full of fantasy literature fans.
You are welcome, and I am happy to have provided some fun and enjoyment. i was fortunate to have several close friends who were great F&SF fans, so little escaped out notice back in the 1950s, and I remained avidly reading in the genres through the 1960. Thereafter I had less time to read, did more historical reading as well/
I'm curious about the origins of a few of the original monsters from the MM; the Gnoll in particular and later, the Flind. I've heard that these have an origin in fantasy literature, but for the life of me I can't imagine which series one might find them featured in. As a follow up to that question, of the monsters in that early tome, and in fact quite a few beasties of OD&D and AD&D, there are a good number which were entirely made from whole cloth, name and all. Of those, is there one, or a group, which you're particularly pleased with? I've always found the idea of the Puddings to be just wildly imaginative and appreciate the way that such strange, original creatures have become part of our shared experience.
I took the general name from a short story in The Magazne of Fantasy & Science Fiction, "The Man who sold Rope to the Gnoles". everything else i made up to suit the game
The flind is not my creation, it was done by a Brit, and first apeared in White Dwarf magazine, then in the Fiend Folio.
And finally, one last question concerning level-draining, the latest edition makes this setback considerably less problematic than in the original. Personally, I prefer something closer to the original ruling, but I'm wondering, did your original players detest this rule as much as one might imagine (God knows my players always loathed it)? And, was this simply a very real method of instilling a sense of dread and fear into the players when confronted by powerful Undead? It always seemed cruel to me, but boy, it made those encounters tense and perhaps that was the point all along.
Continued good health to you Sir and looking forward to what you and the Trolls do w/ Castle Xagyg.
How I detest namby-pamby whiners that expect to play a real RPG without threat of character death or loss of a level, stat points, or even choice magic items! Without such possibilities, what it the purpose of play, a race to see which character can have the greatest level, highest stats, and largest horde of treasure? That is just too flaccid for words.
As an aside, level draining is less cruel that house rules I have heard about that cause loss of sight or appendages.
You pegged the reason for my adding that to the system. The threat is potent, yet does not actually kill the PC. There is even a clerical restoration possible, that costing much in the way of monetary and magical items likely, thus getting them out of play and giving more reason to PC to keep adventuring.
That said, when I was playing I dreaded seeing level-draining undead monsters, and thus they added as much excitement to the situation as might a death-dealing dragon
Cheers,
Gary
