TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh · Jun 25, 2007

The unexpected is a god part of adventuring fun

Cheers,
Gary

thedungeondelver · Jun 26, 2007

OK, Gary, it's been too long since I've done this to you so -

AD&D question time! Slow Poison versus Neutralize Poison. The former is pretty clear on what it does and how it works - brings the stricken back from the brink of a lethal dose of whatever poison laid them low, within a set amount of time, etc.

Neutralize Poison, however, says that it "detoxifies the victim" touched (or poisons them if you cast the reverse). Was the intent for Neutralize Poison to otherwise function as Slow Poison (e.g., bring the stricken back from "death")?

Doesn't say so, but I wanted to see if you had any thoughts on that.

increment · Jun 26, 2007

Hi Gary,

First time caller here - let me say off the bat, wow! The amount of information contained in this 5-year thread is staggering. This is really an amazing gift to posterity. People interested in the history of gaming will have their work cut out for them just organizing all of this. Thanks so much for taking this time to engage with fellow gamers - I'm sure it pays big dividends for the hobby overall to have someone like you showing such dedication to the fan-base.

I've got a couple of pretty obscure historical questions for you, but at least they might not actually have been asked in this thread before:

Did you play Fight in the Skies back in the early days of GenCon (or in that general era)? If so, do you have any tales of memorable pilots or exploits you can recount? The origins of these traditions are fascinating...

Were you a member of any of the colorful Dippy clubs of the mid-60s prior to the USCAC? And speaking of the USCAC, what if anything do you remember of its activities?

Thanks again for your attention not just to these questions but to, well, everyone's!

Col_Pladoh · Jun 26, 2007

thedungeondelver said:
OK, Gary, it's been too long since I've done this to you so -

AD&D question time! Slow Poison versus Neutralize Poison. The former is pretty clear on what it does and how it works - brings the stricken back from the brink of a lethal dose of whatever poison laid them low, within a set amount of time, etc.

Neutralize Poison, however, says that it "detoxifies the victim" touched (or poisons them if you cast the reverse). Was the intent for Neutralize Poison to otherwise function as Slow Poison (e.g., bring the stricken back from "death")?

Doesn't say so, but I wanted to see if you had any thoughts on that.

Err...

Where does it say that Slow Poison brings someone back from death? It only keeps the victim alive longer until a Neutralize Poison can be cast to rid the toxins from the subject's body.

Gary

Col_Pladoh · Jun 26, 2007

increment said:
Hi Gary,

First time caller here - let me say off the bat, wow! The amount of information contained in this 5-year thread is staggering. This is really an amazing gift to posterity. People interested in the history of gaming will have their work cut out for them just organizing all of this. Thanks so much for taking this time to engage with fellow gamers - I'm sure it pays big dividends for the hobby overall to have someone like you showing such dedication to the fan-base.

As a true gamer, not to say game nerd (whoch I am), it is great fun for me to interact with my fellows both in parson and on boards such as this one

I've got a couple of pretty obscure historical questions for you, but at least they might not actually have been asked in this thread before:

Heh...and not at all obscure to me :lol:

Did you play Fight in the Skies back in the early days of GenCon (or in that general era)? If so, do you have any tales of memorable pilots or exploits you can recount? The origins of these traditions are fascinating...

I played FitS mainly with Mike and the TSR crew. Somehow my machine gun(s) always jammed, so I had to leave the dogfight, or get shot from the skies

Were you a member of any of the colorful Dippy clubs of the mid-60s prior to the USCAC? And speaking of the USCAC, what if anything do you remember of its activities?

Alan Calhammer attended GenCon III IIRR.

I was a regular of Boardman's Graustark magazine, played in a couple of his games. I also subbed to Rod Walker's Dippy zine--the name of which eludes me at the moment--and was one of the seven players that were lined up to play in his Design your Own Nationand I'll fill in the rest of the Board game that never got off the ground. I turned in my nation, Wonderland, with the Fleet being the Walrus and Carpenter, armies Tweedledum and Tweedledee and the second the Cards.

The USCAC, formed by Bill Speer, with whom I am still in touch, was a PBM boarding club that sent and accepted challanges from other board wargamers. It was not really a club, so I convinced Bill and his V.P. Scott Duncan to form the IFW to replace it.

Thanks again for your attention not just to these questions but to, well, everyone's!

My pleasure.

Cheerio,
Gary

thedungeondelver · Jun 26, 2007

Col_Pladoh said:
Err...

Where does it say that Slow Poison brings someone back from death? It only keeps the victim alive longer until a Neutralize Poison can be cast to rid the toxins from the subject's body.

Gary

In the PLAYERS HANDBOOK : "even causing a supposedly dead individual to have life restored if it is cast upon the victim within a number of turns less than or equal to the level of experience of the cleric after the poisoning was suffered..."

srsly, though, does neutralize poison function like that too?

I mean, it's no big deal, just curious. (Or perhaps "cure-ious"

)

-Bill

Col_Pladoh · Jun 26, 2007

Bringing back from the brink of, or actual, death due to poison is not a cure. The SP spell slows the effects of the poison, but it will not stop them. Only a NP will do that. How long the victim of poisoning will remain alive under a SP spell effect is up to the DM, but I allowed a full 24 hours.

Cheers,
GAry

increment · Jun 27, 2007

Thanks, Gary, for your lightning-fast reply. By Rod Walker's zine, maybe you mean Erehwon? I know he went on to more professional magazine work...

Col_Pladoh said:
Heh...and not at all obscure to me

Sounds like my questions were too easy for you! Well, if that didn't tax you too much, perhaps I can sneak in a couple more...

How did the term “role-playing game” come to be the label for this genre of games? The term doesn’t seem to have been much used until 1976, and then suddenly it’s everywhere. Did it start from anywhere in particular, that you can remember?

What prior wargames would you say had the biggest influence on the system mechanics of OD&D (and Chainmail, where OD&D takes its lead from there)? Of course there really was no wargame like D&D, but it must have a few evolutionary ancestors you found valuable.

Thanks in advance again!

Col_Pladoh · Jun 27, 2007

increment said:
Thanks, Gary, for your lightning-fast reply. By Rod Walker's zine, maybe you mean Erehwon? I know he went on to more professional magazine work...

Yuppers! It was indeed backwards Rod's Erehwon to which I also subscribed.

Have you seen my story that was, I think, in Erehwon? It was about John Bedpan, Cheif Orderly at the Bronx Home for Criminally Insane Physicists. He was a secret agent under the direction of Rod Perambulator, had a secret office behind the cleaning supplies room off the men's bathroom. IIRR after all these years, Perambulator was thrown into the arena by Ming the Merciless, there to face the terrible, one-horned anthropoid monster, the Treadikoid. However, Flash Gygon leaped unexpectedly into the pit, tore the clever mask from the Treadikoid to reveal the treacherous John Bedpan, and thus saved Rod from a hideous fate. :lol:

Sounds like my questions were too easy for you! Well, if that didn't tax you too much, perhaps I can sneak in a couple more...

How did the term “role-playing game” come to be the label for this genre of games? The term doesn’t seem to have been much used until 1976, and then suddenly it’s everywhere. Did it start from anywhere in particular, that you can remember?

The initiator of the well-coined name is unknown to me. At best I spoke of players assuming the role of a character in the game. Whomever it was deserves a laud, as it was a boon to the game genre.

What prior wargames would you say had the biggest influence on the system mechanics of OD&D (and Chainmail, where OD&D takes its lead from there)? Of course there really was no wargame like D&D, but it must have a few evolutionary ancestors you found valuable.

Thanks in advance again!

No game I had played before I devised the Man-to-Man rules for the Chainmail rules book influenced that design. I made it all up off the top of my head, just as I did the Fantasy Rules section. Inspirational sources were historical for the former, mythical for the latter.

It is noteworthy, though, that the radius of a fireball and the stroke of a lightning bolt corresponded to a heacy catapult's area of attack effect and that of a cannon in the 1:20 Chainmail rules.

Cheerio,
Gary

increment · Jun 28, 2007

Col_Pladoh said:
Have you seen my story that was, I think, in Erehwon? ...

A ripping yarn! I guess things must have been simpler in the early days - the Alex Raymond estate probably wasn't banging down your door looking for a cut. I hadn't known of that story before, but I'm sure now collectors will be scrambling to find a copy... and there's probably more where that came from, I imagine.

Col_Pladoh said:
It is noteworthy, though, that the radius of a fireball and the stroke of a lightning bolt corresponded to a heacy catapult's area of attack effect and that of a cannon in the 1:20 Chainmail rules.

I previously had read that in your introduction to an edition of Wells' wargaming rules. A neat motivation for those seminal spells. Who could have guessed, back then, that they'd become so commonplace across so many games?

TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

thedungeondelver

Adventurer

increment

Explorer

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

thedungeondelver

Adventurer

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

increment

Explorer

Col_Pladoh

Gary Gygax

increment

Explorer

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