TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh · Jul 8, 2006

haakon1 said:
Or a shudder . . . remembering the "Puppets" adventure from post-Gygax TSR's short-lived Greyhawk line.

I found the Castle Greyhawk module rather silly myself...

Gary

haakon1 · Jul 8, 2006

smootrk said:
You definitely seem to be the 'Stan Lee' of TSR/WotC.

More like the Steve Jobs. Lejendary founder of Apple, kicked out by morons who "just didn't get it", founded his own company (Next), was brought back to save a floundering company and created a miracle comeback.

Well, we can dream about the second half of the story. :heh:

Erekose · Jul 8, 2006

Col_Pladoh said:
Howdy Erekose,

No problem, and I'll answer as best as I can

I was indeed planning a revised edition of the AD&D game with several new classes included. that never came to fruition, of course, as I parted ways with TSR at the end of 1985. As my settlement agreement forbad me to so anything pertaining to D&D or AD&D, I scrapped whatever notes I had for the revsion. Under the circumstances I have no further comment on what I planned.

The 2nd Edition of AD&D was done after I left the company, and I had nothing to do with it.

Children are marvelous, even if they do disrupt most everything and demand a lot of time. Enjoy the blessing

Cheers,
Gary

Thanks Gary!

I have to say that our first child, Beth, who is now 3.5yrs old is fantastic. It's amazing how bleak established parents seem to paint the picture of having children (at least that's my experience in the UK) - almost as if it is so obviously such a great thing having children that they can just focus on the bad side.

Just one final question - were you involved with either the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide or the Wilderness Survival Guide?

Both were good books on their particular subject but began what I feel was the slippery slope towards the 3E skills and feats system with the introduction of "nonweapon proficiencies". I just wondered if you aproved or didn't aprove of this additional complexity to AD&D? Would your 2E AD&D have introduced a more refined version of this?

Presumably Lejendary Adventures would give me a clue but I haven't yet had the opportunity to look at that game.

Col_Pladoh · Jul 8, 2006

haakon1 said:
More like the Steve Jobs. Lejendary founder of Apple, kicked out by morons who "just didn't get it", founded his own company (Next), was brought back to save a floundering company and created a miracle comeback.

Well, we can dream about the second half of the story.

Well, Stan has surely come back with considerable success :lol:

Cheers,
Gary

Col_Pladoh · Jul 8, 2006

Erekose said:
Thanks Gary!

I have to say that our first child, Beth, who is now 3.5yrs old is fantastic. It's amazing how bleak established parents seem to paint the picture of having children (at least that's my experience in the UK) - almost as if it is so obviously such a great thing having children that they can just focus on the bad side.

That is something I can not understand either, for to my mind children are just plain marvelous...if often difficult and worrisome :\ I would gladly have more--if I were younger :lol:

Just one final question - were you involved with either the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide or the Wilderness Survival Guide?

Absolutely not.

Both were good books on their particular subject but began what I feel was the slippery slope towards the 3E skills and feats system with the introduction of "nonweapon proficiencies". I just wondered if you aproved or didn't aprove of this additional complexity to AD&D? Would your 2E AD&D have introduced a more refined version of this?

Frankly, I thought them as splat books cranked out to generate revenue, not truly serve the gamer. See below regarding skills.

Presumably Lejendary Adventures would give me a clue but I haven't yet had the opportunity to look at that game.

The Lejendary Adventure game is skill-bundle-based, rules light, and although it has the same spirit as AD&D, it is quite different, with no character classes, archetypical avatars created by choosing an Order, and otherwise complete freedom to build a game persona of vitrually any sort.

For an example of what I would have done regarding skills in a revsied addition of AD&D, check out the C&C game's skills, for I added those to the rules when I wrote the Castle Zagyg, Yggsburgh book a couple of years or so back. These are skill bundles also, can be purchased with XPs, and for NPCs some confer levels in class as well as conveying skills.

Cheers,
Gary

ColonelHardisson · Jul 8, 2006

Col_Pladoh said:
Yggsburgh is pronounces "EGGS-burg"

I was actually wondering about that. By the way, I just bought Yggsburgh from the Trolls, and am awaiting its arrival in the mail.

Col_Pladoh said:
I found the Castle Greyhawk module rather silly myself...

Same here. I could forgive it for that, but after waiting for a long time, it was so disappointing to find it wasn't a "real" Castle Greyhawk module that it still leaves a sour taste.

Col_Pladoh said:
That sounds a good deal similar to the C&C game

I'd be careful of saying that around the OSRIC loyal. Some of them seem to feel C&C is not a good alternative to AD&D, and only OSRIC will do to satisfy them. Personally, I find the OSRIC project to be quite interesting from the perspective of seeing just how ingenious fans can be when it comes to ensuring something they love survives. I hope it finds success. I also find C&C to be a really nice addition to the spectrum of games with their roots in D&D.

Geoffrey · Jul 8, 2006

Gary, how modular is Lejendary Adventure? For example, could the Judge in his LA campaign decide (for example) that sorcery and psychogenics are the only forms of "magic" in his campaign (thus excluding necrourgy, geourgy, etc.)? Would the LA system still work with these elements taken out?

Second, Lunamancer on dragonsfoot wrote:

a 1st and 12th Rank LA Avatar aren't so different in power levels that they can't adventure together. In general, LA has this recurring theme of total access. A starting Mage in LA, for example, can begin play knowing and using even the most power mortal magics, including Heart's Desire (the LA equivalent of Wish). The magic-system is organized a bit differently to allow such choices. Similarly, any monster from Beast of Lejend will be an appropriate challenge for a starting party. I'm not saying you can walk up to anything, fight it, and win. I'm saying that if the LM does decide to toss an elder drake your way, you've got a good sporting chance of running away to tell the tale. The main idea is, you get to play the whole game from day 1. You don't have to wait 'til level whatever to use this nifty spell or to encounter a particularly cool monster.

Does that sound about right? In my opinion, it's a very appealing thing about LA.

Col_Pladoh · Jul 8, 2006

ColonelHardisson said:
I was actually wondering about that. By the way, I just bought Yggsburgh from the Trolls, and am awaiting its arrival in the mail.

I do hope you willfind it interestiing!

I'd be careful of saying that around the OSRIC loyal. Some of them seem to feel C&C is not a good alternative to AD&D, and only OSRIC will do to satisfy them. Personally, I find the OSRIC project to be quite interesting from the perspective of seeing just how ingenious fans can be when it comes to ensuring something they love survives. I hope it finds success. I also find C&C to be a really nice addition to the spectrum of games with their roots in D&D.

Understood. I must say, though, thet the C&C game is sufficiently suitable in my books to use as the system for a version of the original Greyhawk Campaign as created by me with Rob Kuntz

Cheers.
Gary

ColonelHardisson · Jul 8, 2006

Col_Pladoh said:
I do hope you willfind it interestiing!

I look forward to it very much. I think I'll alter some of the place names, if you take my meaning...

Col_Pladoh said:
Understood. I must say, though, thet the C&C game is sufficiently suitable in my books to use as the system for a version of the original Greyhawk Campaign as created by me with Rob Kuntz

Gosh, if something like that were made available for sale, I'd certainly buy it...

Col_Pladoh · Jul 8, 2006

Geoffrey said:
Gary, how modular is Lejendary Adventure? For example, could the Judge in his LA campaign decide (for example) that sorcery and psychogenics are the only forms of "magic" in his campaign (thus excluding necrourgy, geourgy, etc.)? Would the LA system still work with these elements taken out?

That will work fine, although the LM would have to do a lot of adjusting for creatures that use Extraordinary Abilities.

As an aside, in the Lejendary AsteRogues FS RPG genre the only "magical" Ability is Psychogenics.

Second, Lunamancer on dragonsfoot wrote:

a 1st and 12th Rank LA Avatar aren't so different in power levels that they can't adventure together. In general, LA has this recurring theme of total access. A starting Mage in LA, for example, can begin play knowing and using even the most power mortal magics, including Heart's Desire (the LA equivalent of Wish). The magic-system is organized a bit differently to allow such choices. Similarly, any monster from Beast of Lejend will be an appropriate challenge for a starting party. I'm not saying you can walk up to anything, fight it, and win. I'm saying that if the LM does decide to toss an elder drake your way, you've got a good sporting chance of running away to tell the tale. The main idea is, you get to play the whole game from day 1. You don't have to wait 'til level whatever to use this nifty spell or to encounter a particularly cool monster.

Does that sound about right? In my opinion, it's a very appealing thing about LA.

Yes, it is on target.

My group of relatively moderate-power Avatars playing in Jon Creffields Dance of the Fairy Ring module managed to slay the slime drake there in only three rounds of combat...by incredible luck. The Avatar attacking it leaped into its pool, struck thrice with his dagger, bypassed the drake's armor all three times by special successes, and rolled two natural 20s for Harm, so both of those blows scored around 30 points each off its Health total.

Of course, there is a lot more that combat involved in the system, and the more experienced Avatars are able to use more Abilities thus as well as deliver more certain hits and greater Harm.

Cheers,
Gary

TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

haakon1

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Erekose

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Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

ColonelHardisson

What? Me Worry?

Geoffrey

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

ColonelHardisson

What? Me Worry?

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Gary Gygax

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