TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

BOZ said:

just remember, gary: vecna cares...

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I still have to laugh when I hear about the Head of Vecna

Cheers,
Gary

Our group got tired of a power gamer who expected to find artifacts in every adventure and was put off when he didn't get a souped-up magic item in every dungeon. His habit of shouting "MINE" whenever magic was detected was annoying, too. So after an encounter with zombies, one of our PCs cut off a zombie's hand, cast Nystul's Magic Aura on it and said "It's radiating incredibly powerful magic!" at which point the jackass decided it was for him -and we agreed.

So one of us volunteered to chop off his PC's left hand (the fighter was right-handed), did so, and we tied uh, Vecna's Hand on with a piece of rope. Of course there was no magic and one of the other players said "You have to use your sword hand to get Vecna's powers." So we chopped off his right hand, too. Then the player was getting worried. His munchkin PC had got both his hands cut off and the "Hand of Vecna" wasn't doing anything. Finally the DM couldn't contain himself and said that in order to activate this "Hand of Vecna" the fighter would have to "find the mightiest tree in the forest and chop it down wiiiiiiith...

...a HERRING!"

The dummy didn't get the joke and said "But I don't have any hands!"

At which point we all had a collective BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA! at his expense. He shaped up after that.

Elfdart said:

...
The dummy didn't get the joke and said "But I don't have any hands!"

At which point we all had a collective BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA! at his expense. He shaped up after that.

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In the same vein os the Head of Vecna and most amusing.

As the saying goes about being conned, "You can't cheat an honest man." That applies to players as well in regards to power-gaming greed as opposed to reasonable desire for progress.

Cheers,
Gary

Col_Pladoh said:

As the saying goes about being conned, "You can't cheat an honest man." That applies to players as well in regards to power-gaming greed as opposed to reasonable desire for progress.

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That's why it's pretty easy to con Player Characters.

I pulled a "pigeon drop" on the players in Boot Hill once, getting them to put up their claim and some cash into escrow with the fake authority figure to get ahold of the fake "found" treasure map. Of course, the PC's dummied up a claim, so they didn't lose too much of their grubstake.

Are there any classic stories of cons in old Lake Geneva? It seems like the "Spanish Prisoner" con (nowadays most popularly seen in Nigerian emails) is a natural for D&D. "If only we could borrow your magic items to free the princess, the rewards would be enormous!"

Tenser was conned by a hill giant, and I tried to dupe several PCs into get-rich-quick wagers. Sadly for me, the regulars were all too canny after being burned by my various ploys, so...

I did, though, manage to con Robilar into entering a cave with a sleeping red dragon, the "helpful" thief that brought him to the place waiting outside until Robilar was well inside, then yelling "LOOK OUT!" at the top of his lungs. Unluckily for dragon and thief, Robilar offed both although he was near death at the conclusion of the fray.

Cheers,
Gary

Col_Pladoh said:

Tenser was conned by a hill giant, and I tried to dupe several PCs into get-rich-quick wagers. Sadly for me, the regulars were all too canny after being burned by my various ploys, so...

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I can imagine they'd have to be pretty wary to survive.

Col_Pladoh said:

I did, though, manage to con Robilar into entering a cave with a sleeping red dragon, the "helpful" thief that brought him to the place waiting outside until Robilar was well inside, then yelling "LOOK OUT!" at the top of his lungs. Unluckily for dragon and thief, Robilar offed both although he was near death at the conclusion of the fray.

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Good old Robilar. He's the only character from the Rogue's Gallery I've used in my own campaign. The way I played him was ruthless but about fair play and respectful of/gracious to honorable oppoonents (such as my PCs). I had him as the secret leader behind the slaving going on at the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, and after the PC's took the slavers' ship, he came and got it back, knocking them out with poison gas. He sold them into slavery on a volcanic Aztec island in the Dramidj Ocean (where I ran Slavepits of the Undercity, or whatever the adventure is where you start out naked in the dark of a dungeon, condemned to death by dungeon crawl), but when they finally made it out underwater and the island was blowing up, he helped hold off the bad guys while they made off with a ship. I think he was everyone's favorite villain.

Col_Pladoh said:

Tenser was conned by a hill giant, and I tried to dupe several PCs into get-rich-quick wagers. Sadly for me, the regulars were all too canny after being burned by my various ploys, so...

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By curious happenstance, I just a couple of months ago obtained a copy of the article from the Great Plains Game Players Newsletter which chronicles the tale. Slightly before my RPGing time, but only slightly. I was still plying my hand at SPI and AH hex-and-counter games at the time. But neato torpedo to se something from the very distant mists of time, when wilderness adventures were still played on the AH "Outdoor Survival" board.

If you don't mind, I have yet more questions with which to pepper you. (And I will once again thank you for your previous replies to my doubtless-tedious questions, and thank you in advance for any information you are able and willing to give.)

How does it feel to see characters who you have developed over the course of decades being, in essence, appropriated and developed by others? I refer specifically to TSR/WOTC's use of the famous such as Mordenkainen and Tenser, but I must humbly confess that I, too, have tried to breathe life into such famous figures as Melf, Biff, and so forth, based on their presentation in the 'Gord the Rogue' novels. Is there any sort of resentment? Or do you see it as a natural part of creating something and giving it forth to others to use?

Speaking of which, a minor mystery; is not Melf (nee Prince Brightflame) a scion of the royal house of Celene?

I am a great fan of the "From the Sorceror's Scroll" articles from the pages of Dragon magazine in the early 1980's, which detailed the movements of armies and such across the Flanaess. They were obviously written with the mind of a miniatures gamer. I was just wondering if any of the battles described therein were ever played out by the local crew up there in LG?

Again, speaking of which, was the Battle of Emridy Meadows (which of course forms the backdrop to the venerable T1 "Village of Hommlet") ever actually played out? For that matter, where are the Emridy Meadows, anyway?

And following the stream-of-consciousness post which I seem to inadvertently be making, I would ask you to clarify the rather curious statement found in T1, to the effect that if harm came to Lareth the Beautiful, the Demonness Lolth would take it ill. Was she somehow involved in the rise of the Temple? It's resurgance? It seems to be something of a contradiction with the Gord novels, which posit a link between Zuggtmoy and Graz'zt (and, by connection, Eclavdra), who if anyone is, is not in Lolth's good graces.

And, last one for this post; do you have any philosophical take on the difference between adventures whose goal is to prevent depredations of the innocent (a la G1-3), as opposed to those whose goal is to kill things and take their stuff (a la Castle Greyhawk, S1, S4, etc.). I realize the nature of tournament modules makes the former somewhat easier to plot, but in a campaign setting, do you have any insights on the nature of those two sorts of adventures?

Again, my thanks for reading my ramblings.

Thulcondar

Thulcondar said:

By curious happenstance, I just a couple of months ago obtained a copy of the article from the Great Plains Game Players Newsletter which chronicles the tale. Slightly before my RPGing time, but only slightly. I was still plying my hand at SPI and AH hex-and-counter games at the time. But neato torpedo to se something from the very distant mists of time, when wilderness adventures were still played on the AH "Outdoor Survival" board.

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Did the hand-written portion, the note from the hill giant, appear in the GP2 version of the tale? (Blamed if I can recall, and Jim Lurvey isn't handy for me to querry him.) The reason I ask is that Grodog recently sent me a copy of that account, and I had to laugh again at the ploy I had the giant use to dupe his mark--then a young teenager, of course, so it was quite unfair of me

If you don't mind, I have yet more questions with which to pepper you. (And I will once again thank you for your previous replies to my doubtless-tedious questions, and thank you in advance for any information you are able and willing to give.)

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I have a busy day ahead of me, so likely the replies will be terse.

How does it feel to see characters who you have developed over the course of decades being, in essence, appropriated and developed by others? I refer specifically to TSR/WOTC's use of the famous such as Mordenkainen and Tenser, but I must humbly confess that I, too, have tried to breathe life into such famous figures as Melf, Biff, and so forth, based on their presentation in the 'Gord the Rogue' novels. Is there any sort of resentment? Or do you see it as a natural part of creating something and giving it forth to others to use?

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With regard to commercial exploitation, irritation in that the PCs names, as was so much else, were taken essentially by force from me by TSR. As for players using and expanding.differentiatinf, I find that quite proper, as I design for players, to make the material presented accommodating in that regard.

Speaking of which, a minor mystery; is not Melf (nee Prince Brightflame) a scion of the royal house of Celene?

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Melf was the PC of my son Luke. He had no such fol-de-rol in mind when he created and played that PC...

I am a great fan of the "From the Sorceror's Scroll" articles from the pages of Dragon magazine in the early 1980's, which detailed the movements of armies and such across the Flanaess. They were obviously written with the mind of a miniatures gamer. I was just wondering if any of the battles described therein were ever played out by the local crew up there in LG?

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Sadly, no. As a sort of military historian, board and tabletop wargamer, I used my imagation only to create those accounts.

Again, speaking of which, was the Battle of Emridy Meadows (which of course forms the backdrop to the venerable T1 "Village of Hommlet") ever actually played out? For that matter, where are the Emridy Meadows, anyway?

Click to expand...

See above.

And following the stream-of-consciousness post which I seem to inadvertently be making, I would ask you to clarify the rather curious statement found in T1, to the effect that if harm came to Lareth the Beautiful, the Demonness Lolth would take it ill. Was she somehow involved in the rise of the Temple? It's resurgance? It seems to be something of a contradiction with the Gord novels, which posit a link between Zuggtmoy and Graz'zt (and, by connection, Eclavdra), who if anyone is, is not in Lolth's good graces.

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I was intimating that Lolth had taken a shine to Lareth, as he was beautiful, regrrdless of where his loyalties, if you will pardon the misapplication of the concept, lay. Lolth too can covet another's property...

And, last one for this post; do you have any philosophical take on the difference between adventures whose goal is to prevent depredations of the innocent (a la G1-3), as opposed to those whose goal is to kill things and take their stuff (a la Castle Greyhawk, S1, S4, etc.). I realize the nature of tournament modules makes the former somewhat easier to plot, but in a campaign setting, do you have any insights on the nature of those two sorts of adventures?

Again, my thanks for reading my ramblings.

Thulcondar

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Of course. the former are for heroic play, the latter sort of adventures are for sheer entertainment...and for building up PCs so as to make them more effective in heroic deeds of derring-do.

BTW, S1 was a test of ability, not a module to kill things

Cheers,
Gary

Thulcondar said:

By curious happenstance, I just a couple of months ago obtained a copy of the article from the Great Plains Game Players Newsletter which chronicles the tale. Slightly before my RPGing time, but only slightly.

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I'd be happy to compare notes, if you have similar goodies in your GH hoard, Thulcondar

Col_Pladoh said:

Did the hand-written portion, the note from the hill giant, appear in the GP2 version of the tale? (Blamed if I can recall, and Jim Lurvey isn't handy for me to querry him.) The reason I ask is that Grodog recently sent me a copy of that account, and I had to laugh again at the ploy I had the giant use to dupe his mark--then a young teenager, of course, so it was quite unfair of me

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It does indeed have the hand-written note. Jim Lurvey was kind enough to send me a .pdf of the article. Ah, innocent days of yore.

And yes, Grodog, I would be happy to compare notes any time; I would consider it an honor. I'll send you my email via PM.

Thul