TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Dannyalcatraz said:

Thanks for your time and thought, Gary!

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And now I am late and my head hurts...


Gary

Col_Pladoh said:

And now I am late and my head hurts...


Gary

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We may need to amputate!

gideon_thorne said:

We may need to amputate!

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And create a new artifact: EGG Head.

EGG Head: It is said that the EGG Head is the pate of none other than Zagyg the Mad. Possessing a great white beard and ponytail, the head supposedly bestows the ability to create whole new forms of entertainment (complete with imitators and pointless "revisions"), whilst decrying girlie-men, espousing the virtue of Libertarian doctrine, dispensing opinion on various sorts of victuals, and generally using words nobody has uttered in a few generations.

To activate the EGG Head, the recipient's own noggin must be severed from the body, and the EGG Head attached to the stump within one melee round. One segment later, the EGG Head will animate, taking control of the body, and proceeds to magically conjure a die of 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 20 sides (determined randomly). It will then roll the die to determine his disposition to others standing about, watching the bloody spectacle.

In addition to the aforementioned abilities, the EGG Head has the following powers/effects:

3xI: ___________, _________, __________
2xII: ___________, _________
1xIII: ___________
3xIV: ___________, _________, __________
2xV: ___________, _________
1xVI: ___________

(with apologies to Gary, for my pale imitation, and a nod to Jolly for inspiration)

Col_Pladoh said:

Actually, IIRR the PCs from my campaign popped in...

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Gary, thanks a bunch for your insights.

francisca said:

And create a new artifact: EGG Head.

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After the whole Head of Vecna debacle, I doubt very many will be clamoring for this artifact.

Henry said:

After the whole Head of Vecna debacle, I doubt very many will be clamoring for this artifact.

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Gray Mouser

Rust-Makers

Okay, here's one I always wondered about (and I can't be the only one in the Universe):

Where are all the Metal-ters in the (A)D&D Universe(s)? I mean, with all of those blasted (or Magic Missiled) Rust Monsters running around, how is it that there is any metallic ore left on any of the (A)D&D planets, unless something's making it?!!

Col_Pladoh said:

Sadly, all of my special D&D library items were siezed by Loprraine Williams when she took over the company in 1984. I never got any of those books or games or other items back.

In short, I haven't the errate material. It should be in The Strategic Review, though, and those are on the PDf, no?

Cheers,
Gary

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Gary,
I got the errata sheet! I asked an ebayer that was posting a 3rd printing if he could send me a copy of the errata sheet since he indicated that he had one. He sent me a jpeg image that was a little blurry but readable and I got a second jpeg from a second listing for another 3rd printing (those things are expensive) it was also a little blurry (?).

Huge thanks to Finarvyn for typing this up from the blurry image that I received. I have gone ahead and annotated it for the 5th and 6th printings, I don't have a 4th printing so if anyone does and wants to check and see if the corrections were made in the 4th printing, please let us know .
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
--Correction Sheet--
A few added notes are in Italics! To the best of my knowledge, all of these changes are for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd printings since the errata sheet was inserted in the box for the 2nd and 3rd printing. The 4th printing may or may not have been corrected; I do not have one to check. All of these errata were corrected for the 5th and 6th printings, except as noted below.
MEN & MAGIC, Volume 1
Page 9: Add “Griffons” under the neutrality column. Delete the first listing for “Wights” under the Chaos column.
Page 11, line 35: “30% to 40%” should be 40% to 50%.
Page 22, line 21: The “T” cross index for Zombie/Adept should be 7.
Page 23, line 34: “…2+1), (“and” deleted) from 1-6, 3rd level types, and but 1 4th level type (up to 4+1 hit dice).”
Page 28, line 9: “each” should be east (it may be this in the 1st , 2nd, 3rd and 4th printing I do not have any of those to check. However, in the 5th and 6th printing the reference is page 27, line 18: “each” should be east and it was corrected.
MONSTERS & TREASURE, Volume 2
Page 3: Skeletons/Zombies hit dice should read 1/2/1 (read as one-half / one)
Page 14, line 24: “doing two, three or four dice of damage (depending on size)!” Refers to Balrogs description, which is not in the 6th printing.
Page 14, line 31: add Only magical weapons/attacks affect Gargoyles. In the 6th printing, this is Page 14, line 15
Page 14, line 33: add Only silver weapons or magical weapons/attacks affect Lycanthropes. In the 6th printing, this is Page 14, Line 18
Page 14 In the 5th printing and earlier Balrogs appears immediately after dragon treasure, but in the 6th printing Balrogs is replaced with an illustration.
Page 18, line 22: add Only magical weapons/attacks affect Elementals.
Page 24, SCROLLS: There is a 25% chance that any scroll of spells found will contain those useable by Clerics.
Page 32, Heroism: add The potion will cause fighters of 5th – 7th level to increase two levels, and 8th – 10th level to increase by one level of ability.
SCROLLS: N.B. After reading a spell from a scroll the writing disappears, so the spell is usable one time only! In the 5th and 6th printing, this correction was made except that the “N.B.” was not inserted.

THE UNDERWORLD & WILDERNESS ADVENTURES, Volume 3
Page 11: Balrogs should have “Die” 9. In the 6th printing “Spectres” were inserted in place of Balrogs.
Page 18, line 10: An Encounter occurs in a City on a 6. Actually, line 7, at least in the 5th and 6th printings, I don't know about the 4th printing or earlier.
Page 24, line 16: The missing word is ten. Actually, line 18, at least in the 5th and 6th printings and is inserted as the number 10. I don't know about the 4th printing or earlier.
Published by
Tactical Studies Rules
542 Sage Street
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin 53147

As you all can see from the errata sheet, there are some items that would effect play in a big way if they were missing. It is great to know that at least in the 5th and 6th printings the correction were made prior to printing and if anyone could let us know about the 4th printing it would sate our (my) curiosity!!

Cheers,

Llaurenela

Good morning Gary and everyone!

Yes, I had a sketch map of the remainder of the globe, to the east, west, north and south of Oerik. I had planned to have Len Lakofka and Francois Marcela Froideval do parts of the entire world, but that was coming after 1985.

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That's really interesting to read. I know Francois Marcela Froideval for being co-founder with Didier Guiserix of the magazine Casus Belli in France, and knew he was playing with you at some time.

Was Francois playing Whismerhill at your game table (I am not even aware if you know that character name)? I heard this was his character at some point before making it into the Chroniques de la Lune Noire comics series, but do not know if it was you or someone else who was DMing.

Another related question, but this time regarding T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil. It is specified in the introduction that Hommlet and its surroundings were designed for and modified by actual players of Greyhawk. It is also indicated that many of the followers of these PCs made it as NPCs in the module.

My question regarding this: Do you remember which NPCs were originally followers of the PCs you mention? Any specifics about these player characters or anecdotes of these game session worth sharing with us?

Edit - last question: There is a character that appeared in Casus Belli who was called "Gros Bill" (Big Bill). This was "the" powergamer collecting magical items and optimizing everything for efficiency in the game, and it still remains today the translation of "munchkin" in French. Gros Bill seems to have been one of the players at your game table. Does it ring any bell?

Thanks!

Llaurenela said:

Tactical Studies Rules
542 Sage Street
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin 53147

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You know, there is just something kinda cool about TSR having an address (albeit old) on Sage street.