This is the multi-year Q&A sessions held by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax here at EN World, beginning in 2002 and running up until his sad pasing in 2008. Gary's username in the thread below is Col_Pladoh, and his first post in this long thread is Post #39.
TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax
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This is the multi-year Q&A sessions held by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax here at EN World, beginning in 2002 and running up until his sad pasing in 2008. Gary's username in the thread below is Col_Pladoh, and his first post in this long thread is Post #39.
Col_Pladoh
Gary Gygax
Why bother with that? I don't care about such things. Enough I post herepalleomortis said:
Cheers,
Gary
Gray Mouser
First Post
Howdy, Colonel. I have a question regarding The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth for you. I know it's been quite some time since you wrote this module but I was hoping you could clarify a few things for me.
Booklet #2 contains several new monsters (which later made their way into the MM II), among them Valley Elves and Cooshee (aka "elven dogs"). The Cooshee are listed as "normally found only with sylvan or valley elves." In the wilderness encounters at the beginning of the module there are a couple that involve elves (oone a border patrol from Perrenland where there are elf scouts with the human troops) and another encounter with an "elven warder band." This later group specifically has 3 cooshees along for the ride.
My question is this: are one or both of these groups meant to be valley elves? The type of elf involved isn't specified for either encounter. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say the elven scouts with the band from Perrenland would be High Elves from the Quagflow River region (see p. 31 of the World of Greyhawk setting). While the Elven band of warders could also be High Elves this would make their cooshee companions quite an exception. Wood Elves could be possible but they'd be a far distance from the Vesve Forest and Valley Elves would be quite a distance from the Valley of the Mage.
Any input on a relatively obscure topic would be greatly appreciated
Gray Mouser
Booklet #2 contains several new monsters (which later made their way into the MM II), among them Valley Elves and Cooshee (aka "elven dogs"). The Cooshee are listed as "normally found only with sylvan or valley elves." In the wilderness encounters at the beginning of the module there are a couple that involve elves (oone a border patrol from Perrenland where there are elf scouts with the human troops) and another encounter with an "elven warder band." This later group specifically has 3 cooshees along for the ride.
My question is this: are one or both of these groups meant to be valley elves? The type of elf involved isn't specified for either encounter. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say the elven scouts with the band from Perrenland would be High Elves from the Quagflow River region (see p. 31 of the World of Greyhawk setting). While the Elven band of warders could also be High Elves this would make their cooshee companions quite an exception. Wood Elves could be possible but they'd be a far distance from the Vesve Forest and Valley Elves would be quite a distance from the Valley of the Mage.
Any input on a relatively obscure topic would be greatly appreciated
Gray Mouser
Gray Mouser
First Post
Hey Coloonel, another question from The Lost Caverns... for ya
The module contains several new spells that make their appearance in the Demonomicon of Iggwilv, both Clerical and Magic-User spells. As far as I can tell all of these spells made their way into Unearthed Arcana except for the 7th level cleric spell "Henley's Digit of Disruption." I'm wondering if this ommision was an editorial over sight or did you specifically decide not to include the spell for some reason? (Looking at the chart of cleric spells, if it was included that would have put the number of 7th level spells at 13 instead of the current 12. Perhaps this had something to do with the decision as randomly generating a number between 1 and 13 would be difficult given the platonic solids used for dice.)
I also find it interesting as "Henley's" is the only named clerical spell that I am aware of ("Serten's Spell Immunity" doesn't count as it was named after a Cleric but is a Magic-User spell! )
Thanks in advance!
Gray Mouser
The module contains several new spells that make their appearance in the Demonomicon of Iggwilv, both Clerical and Magic-User spells. As far as I can tell all of these spells made their way into Unearthed Arcana except for the 7th level cleric spell "Henley's Digit of Disruption." I'm wondering if this ommision was an editorial over sight or did you specifically decide not to include the spell for some reason? (Looking at the chart of cleric spells, if it was included that would have put the number of 7th level spells at 13 instead of the current 12. Perhaps this had something to do with the decision as randomly generating a number between 1 and 13 would be difficult given the platonic solids used for dice.)
I also find it interesting as "Henley's" is the only named clerical spell that I am aware of ("Serten's Spell Immunity" doesn't count as it was named after a Cleric but is a Magic-User spell!
)Thanks in advance!
Gray Mouser
Col_Pladoh
Gary Gygax
Lengthy question, short replyGray Mouser said:Howdy, Colonel. I have a question regarding The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth for you. I know it's been quite some time since you wrote this module but I was hoping you could clarify a few things for me.
Booklet #2 contains several new monsters (which later made their way into the MM II), among them Valley Elves and Cooshee (aka "elven dogs"). The Cooshee are listed as "normally found only with sylvan or valley elves." In the wilderness encounters at the beginning of the module there are a couple that involve elves (oone a border patrol from Perrenland where there are elf scouts with the human troops) and another encounter with an "elven warder band." This later group specifically has 3 cooshees along for the ride.
My question is this: are one or both of these groups meant to be valley elves? The type of elf involved isn't specified for either encounter. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say the elven scouts with the band from Perrenland would be High Elves from the Quagflow River region (see p. 31 of the World of Greyhawk setting). While the Elven band of warders could also be High Elves this would make their cooshee companions quite an exception. Wood Elves could be possible but they'd be a far distance from the Vesve Forest and Valley Elves would be quite a distance from the Valley of the Mage.
Any input on a relatively obscure topic would be greatly appreciated
Gray Mouser
Wood (sylvan) elves are the ones I had in mind. They are found in small woodlands as well as dense forests, of course.
Cheers,
Gary
Col_Pladoh
Gary Gygax
A very good question and commentary, yours!Gray Mouser said:Hey Coloonel, another question from The Lost Caverns... for ya
The module contains several new spells that make their appearance in the Demonomicon of Iggwilv, both Clerical and Magic-User spells. As far as I can tell all of these spells made their way into Unearthed Arcana except for the 7th level cleric spell "Henley's Digit of Disruption." I'm wondering if this ommision was an editorial over sight or did you specifically decide not to include the spell for some reason? (Looking at the chart of cleric spells, if it was included that would have put the number of 7th level spells at 13 instead of the current 12. Perhaps this had something to do with the decision as randomly generating a number between 1 and 13 would be difficult given the platonic solids used for dice.)
I also find it interesting as "Henley's" is the only named clerical spell that I am aware of ("Serten's Spell Immunity" doesn't count as it was named after a Cleric but is a Magic-User spell!
Thanks in advance!
Gray Mouser
First I must say that I can't recall why I named the spell "Henley's"...
I did not knowling make the decision to not include it. I suspect I overlooked the spell in the haste of getting the material together for the UA ms. however, you are correct in that I would not have listed 13 spells, so maybe it was a subconscious decision so as to avoid having to create three more 7th level Cleric spells. Let's see...
Frodik's Finger of Finagling
Thubbard's Thumb of Insulting and Traveling
and...
Nope!
I can't think of a 16th
Heh,
Gary
Gray Mouser
First Post
Col_Pladoh said:Lengthy question, short reply
Wood (sylvan) elves are the ones I had in mind. They are found in small woodlands as well as dense forests, of course.
Cheers,
Gary
Thanks Gary!
Gray Mouser
Gray Mouser
First Post
Col_Pladoh said:
Heh, thanks
First I must say that I can't recall why I named the spell "Henley's"...
I did not knowling make the decision to not include it. I suspect I overlooked the spell in the haste of getting the material together for the UA ms. however, you are correct in that I would not have listed 13 spells, so maybe it was a subconscious decision so as to avoid having to create three more 7th level Cleric spells. Let's see...
Frodik's Finger of Finagling
Thubbard's Thumb of Insulting and Traveling
and...
Nope!
I can't think of a 16th
Heh,
Gary
How about "Tenser's Terrible Two-fingered Salute"? After all, since Serten got a Magic-User spell it's only fair that a Mage get a Clerical spell
Heh, and I just noticed that both Serten and Tenser were PC's of Ernie's!
Gray Mouser
Last edited:
Hey, Gary!
I was wondering how much of a new dungeon you create (for your own DMing, not necessarily for publication) before your players enter it for the first time. This isn't a level-of-detail question, mind you, it's a quantity question. Do you just map and key a single level, several levels, or the entire dungeon all at once? How long (cumulatively) do you typically spend on this pre–first-adventure process?
I was wondering how much of a new dungeon you create (for your own DMing, not necessarily for publication) before your players enter it for the first time. This isn't a level-of-detail question, mind you, it's a quantity question. Do you just map and key a single level, several levels, or the entire dungeon all at once? How long (cumulatively) do you typically spend on this pre–first-adventure process?
Col_Pladoh
Gary Gygax
That's all very well for you to urge, but i am still stuck on "Henley"...Gray Mouser said:Heh, thanks
How about "Tenser's Terrible Two-fingered Salute"? After all, since Serten got a Magic-User spell it's only fair that a Mage get a Clerical spell
Heh, and I just noticed that both Serten and Tenser were PC's of Ernie's!
Gray Mouser
Gary
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