TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

PA · Dec 23, 2002

Hot Pot

Col_Pladoh said:
I have sent off to Dan at Dreams Interactive the jpg in which the saintly halo appears over my head as is proper. I thank you again for that work of true homage, Old Sport!

I... I don't see what you mean. I cannot remember. You must have been hallucinating, or you're actually thinking about another Frenchman. François, peut-être ?

Mark said:
I would think that, if railroading were the intention, it would be easier in a game with fewer built-in variables rather than more built-in variables, no?

It depends. I never said that it would be easier with dice, just... easy too. Rolls behind a screen can be fudged and, even without reaching to such lengths, if you want, for instance, that the party wins a fight, you just have to have the bad guys take decisions which are not exactly the best according to the circumstances.

Railroading is easy, dice or not; it may be harder with dice, since some rolls are not under your control, or it may be harder without, as players will be more watchful and more critical.

Col_Pladoh said:
Yes, when variables and outcomes are known, and the random number generation is done so all can see, there is no railroading--make that GM fudging--possible in regards the probabilities and the outcome. When the GM is able to pull "results" out of thin air, there goes a structured game.

You only pull "results" out of thin air if you don't really listen to your players. That's like if, when I have my students take an oral, instead of listening to them and judging their abilities, I just gave them a random grade.

Baraendur said:
I scoff at diceless roleplaying.

Since so many people scoff at roleplaying in general, you're in good company.

Baraendur said:
How is it any different than a bunch of grown individuals sitting around playing "Lets pretend?"

And dice make it suddenly so much more mature.

Col_Pladoh · Dec 23, 2002

Random Chance

The following is posted without further comment, and each gamer here can draw their own conclusions from what is written.

ON THE ELEMENT OF CHANCE

The following quote if drawn from a essay by George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language, 1946”. It can be fond in its entirety on the internet at http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html

…

"Here is a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes:

"I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

"Here it is in modern English:

"Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account."

Yuletide best,
Gary

Col_Pladoh · Dec 23, 2002

Baraendur said:
I scoff at diceless roleplaying. How is it any different than a bunch of grown individuals sitting around playing "Lets pretend?"

Seriously Gary, I completely agree with your point of view. You should know too since you invented roleplaying.

Now that I have brown nosed sufficiently, (and pardon me if this question has already been answered), what type of adventure do you find to be the most fun to run - the player killer adventure (Tomb of Horrors - Here's something evil in a big hole with lots of treasure - go kill it. Oh, did I mention it will be impossible?) or a more long-term adventure that involves lots of fights the characters can actually win and an actual plot, such as "Temple of Elemental Evil"?

Aside from these light hearted jabs at your expense (they are classics, you have to make fun of classics, you know...), I am curious which one you enjoy running more.

Happy Christmas!

As for the lack of ability of players to decide their destiny by use of random number generation--as opposed to being puppets of the "sotryteller," see my post immediately before this one. It ain't an RPG without chance entering into play

The sort of adventure that is best is that which most amused the GM and players at the time it is being played. At least that's how I see it. The one-off sort of killer adventure, such as the ToH, is great for a change of pace from the long and drawn out campaign kind that are found in the VoH-ToEE modules. Variery is indeed the spice of gaming life, eh?

It is interesting that you bring up this subject, as I have just finished the final polish of a very long and varied "super module" that contains just about every sort of adventure one might want...I hope. Hopefully, Troll Lord Games will find a way to publish it--the ms. runs to 515 ms, pages, plus maps. It is dual system, d20 and the LA game. My play-test group has been at it for months now and are not yet near the end. To make sure it was coherant, though, we had three developers working on it. and the double check of making it d20 first has confirmed the whole of the material.

Baraendur, if you eventually play the HALL OF MANY PANES, see if you find I favor a particular scenario type. Just remember that for the sake of a published module, I do include a lot of hack & slash, for that's clearly the most popular material

Yuletide best,
Gary

Col_Pladoh · Dec 23, 2002

Pot Shots

PA said:
I... I don't see what you mean. I cannot remember. You must have been hallucinating, or you're actually thinking about another Frenchman. François, peut-être ?

Allow me to refresh your memory, My Dear Friend. You provided that true portrait of me so as to elicit from me the assurance that I would dispose of another jpg you has sent to me in error. Now, seeing as how you are not positive I did that, perhaps you can better recall that you did indeed depict me with a bright and glowing halo crowning my head...

Since so many people scoff at roleplaying in general, you're in good company.

And dice make it suddenly so much more mature.

Thankfully, amateur theater is not the same as playing an RPG, and of course having random chance in full play is something that differentiates "Let's PRetend" from the game form, the actual RPG.

Dice do make the game, mature or otherwise.

Cheerie Christmas!
Gary

PA · Dec 23, 2002

Re: Random Chance

Col_Pladoh said:
The following is posted without further comment, and each gamer here can draw their own conclusions from what is written.

ON THE ELEMENT OF CHANCE

The following quote if drawn from a essay by George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language, 1946”. It can be fond in its entirety on the internet at http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html

…

"Here is a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes:

"I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

"Here it is in modern English:

"Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account."

Yuletide best,
Gary

I agree that chance has a lot to do with success in our world, for human beings. I don't agree it holds true with Amberites, though, as (1) Amberites and their likes are good/skillful enough (very high inborn abilities and centuries to perfect themselves) to reduce the chance factor to nearly nothing, and (2) as Corwin puts it, the worlds (Shadow) tend to bend to accomodate them. Some Amberites are more favored than others, here also I agree, but that's what the Good/Bad Stuff mechanics is all about.

PA · Dec 23, 2002

The Hole of Many Pains/Puns

Col_Pladoh said:
Allow me to refresh your memory, My Dear Friend. You provided that true portrait of me so as to elicit from me the assurance that I would dispose of another jpg you has sent to me in error. Now, seeing as how you are not positive I did that, perhaps you can better recall that you did indeed depict me with a bright and glowing halo crowning my head...

I still cannot remember. Cannot cannot cannot. Don't insist.

Col_Pladoh said:
Thankfully, amateur theater is not the same as playing an RPG, and of course having random chance in full play is something that differentiates "Let's PRetend" from the game form, the actual RPG.

The difference between amateur theater and diceless RPG is that, in the first case, the amateur actors usually follow a script, while in the second, YOU think they do.

Col_Pladoh said:
Dice do make the game, mature or otherwise.

Castle Falkenstein is no RPG either now... how sad... But Dragon Dice has become one!

Col_Pladoh · Dec 23, 2002

Panes, Pains, and Puns

Well, PA, one can not dispute that there are many sorts of games, but most do not masquerade, pretend to something they are not.

As for your header, indeed! The HALL OF MANY PANES module can inflict many pains on the rash and unprepared character. Even the best of players, though, can not escape the pain of the many puns included therein. Indeed one scenario centers on that very thing, the true grateness of the pun

Cheerie Christmas Wishes,
Gary

Drew · Dec 23, 2002

Since this massive thread is still alive, I thought I had might as well chime in with a question for Mr. Gygax.

Gary, during the now famous "Gary Gygax, Lurker?" thread in which you first appeared on ENWorld I asked you a small favor. My homebrewed D&D world has a god of magic that, at the time, was without a name. I asked you to please name my god for me, if only so that I could claim E. Gary Gygax created a tiny part of my world.

I wrote the name you gave me down in my campaign notebook, which mysteriously dissapeared a few days later. Due to a cruel failure of memory, the name you gave me is now gone.

If it isn't too much trouble, would you please rename my magic god? I don't care what you come up with...just anything off the top of your head. My homebrewed world is called Terren, and is a fairly typical D&D setting. The magic god is something of an outcast. He was banished for teaching the art of magic to mortals (much like Prometheus) and has been working in secret in another guise since then.

At some point in the future, the Magic God will be making a grand return to Terren. Before he can do so...he needs a name! So, if you don't mind, please rename my magic god once again. I'll be sure to put the name in a very safe place.

Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas!

Col_Pladoh · Dec 23, 2002

Drew said:
...
Gary, during the now famous "Gary Gygax, Lurker?" thread in which you first appeared on ENWorld I asked you a small favor. My homebrewed D&D world has a god of magic that, at the time, was without a name. I asked you to please name my god for me, if only so that I could claim E. Gary Gygax created a tiny part of my world.

I wrote the name you gave me down in my campaign notebook, which mysteriously dissapeared a few days later. Due to a cruel failure of memory, the name you gave me is now gone.

...

Whoa! Drew, that mysterious disappearance... Coincidence? I think not. You see, the Veiled Lord of Magic, Ahethon, must have had a hand in the matter. As he has many names, the one above is as good as one of the others. He pronounces it "Ah-HETH-un" BTW

Christmas best,
Gary

Joshua Randall · Dec 23, 2002

Re: Random Chance

Col_Pladoh said:
"I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Or, as Damon Runyon would have it:

"The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong -- but that's the way to bet it."

http://www.creativequotations.com/one/1452.htm

TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

PA

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

PA

First Post

PA

First Post

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Drew

Explorer

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Joshua Randall

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