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
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
The Swiss pikemen really kicked a lot of medieval butts,, until the landsknechte fought atop a parapet at Biacocca and the Spanish developed the sword and buckler tercio.Jupp said:Hehe yeah we were available in six-packs back then...Too bad that trade stop in 1815 happened. We were quite successfull exporting ourselvesImagine today you would get a multiclassed Banker/Chocolatier/Mercenary Swiss...we wage war while earning money and producing chocolate...YAY for the Swiss!!
Yay for the Swiss, but don't cross them...or expect to get a loan without security and paying interest
Cheers,
Gary
Angel of Adventure
First Post
Tomb of Horrors Question
Morning Colonel (on the West Coast, anyway),
Please forgive me if you've already answered similar questions on this, but I want to go to the source regarding DMing the Tomb of Horrors.
I just finished reading thru it, as part of the Return ttToH, and my other gamin' group even successfully completed that Box Set without any permanet casualties. (OK, I'm bragging, but trust me, our DM didn't water it down at all. If anything, he gave it multiple steroid shots!)
Anyway, per the original Tomb, what general advice would you have about running this? Your advice in the original manuscript is very good, but I wanted to know if you had any other recommendations based on having seen this adventure in play over the many years since you first published. How can I best challenge my PCs, keep them horrified, but keep them excited to see it all the way thru?
Thanks,
AoA
P.S.: The Agitated Chamber gets my vote for the best room!
Morning Colonel (on the West Coast, anyway),
Please forgive me if you've already answered similar questions on this, but I want to go to the source regarding DMing the Tomb of Horrors.
I just finished reading thru it, as part of the Return ttToH, and my other gamin' group even successfully completed that Box Set without any permanet casualties. (OK, I'm bragging, but trust me, our DM didn't water it down at all. If anything, he gave it multiple steroid shots!)
Anyway, per the original Tomb, what general advice would you have about running this? Your advice in the original manuscript is very good, but I wanted to know if you had any other recommendations based on having seen this adventure in play over the many years since you first published. How can I best challenge my PCs, keep them horrified, but keep them excited to see it all the way thru?
Thanks,
AoA
P.S.: The Agitated Chamber gets my vote for the best room!
Col_Pladoh
Gary Gygax
To be forthright, it has been a decade since I subjected any players to the demands of the S1 module. Thus I haven't anything cogent to add to my original advice. The best I can say is that thinking is required at all times, and caution will serve the PCs well.Angel of Adventure said:
As an aside, I really enjoy the consternation of the party when negotiating the initial hallway entry, the many pits and the fiendish maw at the end
Cheers,
Gary
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Frank Mentzer
First Post
Hey, leave Mary out of it.
btw, I'll be at the LG con as well.
Frank
btw, I'll be at the LG con as well.
Frank
grodog
Hero
Hola Gary---
I think you missed my last question:
I spoke with Tadashi yesterday to see if Different Worlds may attend the LG convention; he's mulling it over....
I think you missed my last question:
Gary, I have a set of related GH queries for you, and this one takes a bit of a preamble to get going.
I've heard variously among the GH diehards that Zagyg and Xagy were actually different beings, and that Xagy was Zagyg's evil twin. I don't recall offhand where I read this, it was likely either in one of your Q&A sessions with Paul Stormberg, in an earlier thread here on ENWorld, or in passing conversation with Scotty, Gene, or somesuch GH grognard.
Joramy and Xagy helped to create Queen Ehlissa's Marvelous Nightingale, according to Mordy (he could be wrong, of course....). I've also read (somewhere) that Joramy was evil in your original GH campaign, which would explain her willingness to work with Xagy to create the artifact. In Eldritch Wizardry, Dave Sutherland's image of Orcus being summoned in the presence of the Nightingale (though no obvious influence via the Nightingale is shown) is particularly interesting, in light of Xagy and Joramy's possible evil alignments.
Given all of that, my questions to you are several fold: Was the illo in EW a picture of Ehlissa summoning Orcus, and if so, was she evil (for some reason, I'd always assumed that she was good, perhaps because she reigned for several centuries, which---in combination with her name---made me think she was olven). Is Xagy a different person from Zagyg? What is Xagy's relationship to Zagyg? Is Xagy also a deity, or is he long dead by 576 CY? If he's alive, does Xagy oppose Zagyg? Lastly, will Xagy appear in any of the Castle Zagyg publications?
If that looks as nonsensical as I think it does, I'm sure that Zagig would be well-pleased
I spoke with Tadashi yesterday to see if Different Worlds may attend the LG convention; he's mulling it over....
Col_Pladoh
Gary Gygax
That as grasping at a pun as I vave Ever seen... Maw...Frank Mentzer said:
The Trolls have you listed as a GoH I believe.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Gary
Col_Pladoh
Gary Gygax
Perhaps "ignored" is a better wordgrodog said:
Xagy is a relative of Zagyg.
Okay... but all of this is no longer my business. The world setting in question is the IP of Wizards.
I can say that the illustrator used considerable artistic license not inferred from the item in question or supplied by the one who devised it for game use.
Yes
A great uncle.
No, not deital and now gone on to his reward.
No.
It was reasonable, so Zagyg was not a little displeased. Mentzer's pun attempt was more amusing
Whoa, and if DW comes all the way to LG for a mini-con I'll be totally astonished!
Cheers,
Gary
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Col_Pladoh
Gary Gygax
Well Grodog...
Questions such as you posed are warning to all authors of fiction:
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive.
Heh, and people look at me most oddly when after being asked what I do for a living I inform them that I tell lies
Heh,
Gary
Questions such as you posed are warning to all authors of fiction:
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive.
Heh, and people look at me most oddly when after being asked what I do for a living I inform them that I tell lies
Heh,
Gary
Gray Mouser
First Post
Col_Pladoh said:
It's interesting that the Law/Chaos aspect was used by Moorecock as well as in the Amber series (which I didn't know about). But let's not forget Three Hearts, three Lions either. While the Colonel may have been influenced specifically by Moorecock the idea itself seems to be somewhat widespread in the literature of the time.
Gray Mouser
- Status
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