TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Heathansson · Jul 16, 2006

Hello, Mr. Gygax.
First off, thanks for inventing that which made 26 years of enjoyment on my part possible.
You make up, bar none, the best monsters. I remember getting S4 22 years ago and being in abject bliss.
I think the last major Gygax monster infusion for me was Necropolis.
Any other recent offerings I should know about, for my conspicuous consumption?

Col_Pladoh · Jul 16, 2006

genshou said:
This is a good answer. I especially like the last sentence. Elegant is not the term I chose, but rather that of the OP in that thread. I didn't think it was a good word either, but to some people role-playing is an art. They would not enjoy the same games I do.

Anyone that claims playing a "Let's Pretend" game formalized by rules, no matter what it is called, is an art form is deluded, or else attempting to delude theaudience.

Cheers,
Gary

Col_Pladoh · Jul 16, 2006

Heathansson said:
Hello, Mr. Gygax.
First off, thanks for inventing that which made 26 years of enjoyment on my part possible.
You make up, bar none, the best monsters. I remember getting S4 22 years ago and being in abject bliss.
I think the last major Gygax monster infusion for me was Necropolis.
Any other recent offerings I should know about, for my conspicuous consumption?

Greetings Heathansson,

Thanks for all those good words.

My latest batch of fearsome critters is for the Lejendary Adventure RPG and is titled Beasts of Lejend. The book is out of print, although the last few copies are being sold off. Relatively soon a supplement called More Beasts of Lejend will be published by Troll Lord Games, then the two volumes wlll be revised and published as a single hardbound book as part of the revised game. To the point, the creatured in the system are not similar in stats to those used in the D&D games, but many are unique.

Cheers,
Gary

seskis281 · Jul 16, 2006

Not to mention that the LA Essentials box set currently available comes with the Essential Bestiary of nifty critters both familiar and unique.

John Maddog Wright

Col_Pladoh · Jul 16, 2006

seskis281 said:
Not to mention that the LA Essentials box set currently available comes with the Essential Bestiary of nifty critters both familiar and unique.

John Maddog Wright

True...

And the Living the Legend (sic) module adds some more monsters as well, but the BoL book and MBoL book to come have many more.

Cheers,
Gary

Heathansson · Jul 16, 2006

Thanks a lot.
Stats aren't a problem; square peg+round hole+whittling knife=D&D monster (or whatever system is in use at the time). Go on enough safaris to Barsoom and Pellucidar as a youth to add to the menagerie, you learn how to whittle.

dcas · Jul 17, 2006

Heathansson (and whoever else might be interested), you can get Beasts of Lejend from Inner City Games at http://www.fuzzyheroes.com/. Highly recommended, with lots of unique creatures and novel (for an RPG anyway) interpretations of our favorite traditional monsters.

Col_Pladoh · Jul 17, 2006

dcas said:
Heathansson (and whoever else might be interested), you can get Beasts of Lejend from Inner City Games at http://www.fuzzyheroes.com/. Highly recommended, with lots of unique creatures and novel (for an RPG anyway) interpretations of our favorite traditional monsters.

Heh-heh-heh...

When I made up the stats and such for the monsters in the D&D game most of them were absolutely novel. After some 30 years, though, many have become standards, so any differing take on them will likely be viewed as novel or non-conforming

Cheers,
Gary

Gray Mouser · Jul 18, 2006

Col_Pladoh said:
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.

Hey Gary, I know you've said that notes for classes you were planning on (such as the Savant, Jester, and Montebank, IIRC) were lost after your exodus from TSR but I was wondering if you've since designed any new classes for use in your own personal A/D&D campaign. If so, I'd be very interested in hearing about them.

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

This fact is easily discernible to anyone who reads even a page or two of any of the 2e rule books. The difference in writing styles is marked. 2e seemed to talk down to the player whereas 1e assumed you had a rateable I.Q.

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

Lo, sons are a heritage from the LORD,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the sons of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has
his quiver full of them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Gray Mouser

tzor · Jul 18, 2006

Col_Pladoh said:
Anyone that claims playing a "Let's Pretend" game formalized by rules, no matter what it is called, is an art form is deluded, or else attempting to delude theaudience.

Cheers,
Gary

In one sense it depends on how you define "art" although few people who would claim a relationship between art and role playing would define it in such a way that might make sense. Art can be defined as opposed to science; the former being the "skill acquired by experience, study, or observation," as opposed to science which is "a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study." Thus we have the "Art" of rhetoric.

So in that way, while it is silly to call role playing in general art, it is proper to consider the art of various aspects of role playing. Are good DMs good because of a systematized knowledge or because of experience, study and observation? Is there a science of good DMing or an art of good DMing?

Of course I'm convinced some people these days have quite a science to character generation. Makes we wish for the days when character creation was neither art nor sciene, but a series of superstitions on what to do before you rolled your attributes.

TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Heathansson

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

seskis281

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Heathansson

First Post

dcas

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Gray Mouser

First Post

tzor

First Post

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