TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

This is the multi-year Q&A sessions held by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax here at EN World, beginning in 2002 and running up until his sad pasing in 2008. Gary's username in the thread below is Col_Pladoh, and his first post in this long thread is Post #39.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I'm not the person who sent that wine...

However, I was recently buying some and the sommalier told me that the vintages of 2001, 02, and 03 were particularly good. I went with his suggestion and picked up a German White from 02, and I must say that it tasted like a wine with another decade under its cork.

Some of the best from those years are already going for over $1K/bottle.

Get 'em while you can!

Good show!

I do not particularly care for sweet white wines, save perhaps for a Chateau Yquem or a four azu Toaky or perhaps a trokenbeeren auslese for desert--and pardon any spelling errors do

Dry French wines from Bordeau or Burgundy top my list, and I will note the years mentioned, thanks

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Mighty Veil]

Dragon magazine is asking me for a Gord the Rogue short story

If you do. Maybe you'll write up the characters for gameplay use too? I'm not familiar with Gord but I always enjoyed seeing game stats of characters from books, etc.

Hey yeah. Don't suppose you have the stats of the characters from the D&D cartoon handy? ;-) j/k

 

[Quasqueton]

AD&D: Why were the modifiers for Strength score different for to hit and damage?

16 Strength was +0/+1 - to hit/damage
18/51 Strength was +1/+3
18/00 Strength was +3/+6
Etc.

There were also magic weapons that had different bonuses on to hit and damage. "This weapon gives no bonus to hit, but gives +2 to damage rolls."

I've always wondered about the reason for the difference.

Quasqueton

 

[haakon1]

AD&D: Why were the modifiers for Strength score different for to hit and damage?

It made sense to me.

Why does STR help you hit anyhow? Slightly better chance of going through armor or overpowering a parry. Why does it do more damage? That's more obvious -- cuts that sword deeper into the side of beef you're whacking.

I'm always more interested in hitting something than in doing extra damage, so I think the hitting part should be more difficult. (In 3e, I've often taken Power Attack to get the Cleave feat, but I've never transfered points from To Hit to Damage -- tagging the enemy is the most important thing. If it bleeds, I can kill it. If I miss, I die.)

 

[Gray Mouser]

Well Put!

Dragon magazine is asking me for a Gord the Rogue short story, and I might see about it in the autumn when the weather turns chill here. Meantime, Troll Lord is planning yo do a hardback reprint of the whole series of Gord books cming this winter.

Cheerio,
Gary

Nice! Any ideas of the time line of the possible short story?

As for the reprints, are the Troll Lords planning on keping the character and place names as they are (being changed in the latter volumes due to contractual problems with TSR), or will they all be standardized throughout the books?

Gray Mouser

 

[Rakin]

Wow this thread looks way over my head, but I'm going to take a stab at it anyhow. I just have a request for some advice. What is the best way to pull a player into their character? And into your world that you've put your blood tears and heart into for that matter? Are there tricks to teaching someone to love the game or in your experiences are there only a certian type of people? I have tried to introduce a few people to the game and I've either had people get addicted to it like a drug or people that fall out after a few sessions. I like to think I don't play favorites and I try to give everyone some face time (especially the ones that feel shy about instigating things on their own). Sometimes I get really discouraged and nervous that my DMing doesn't meet par and that the adventures I "write" don't meet par. I've been told that it's not the case, but you know how people are...I guess there's no way to prove something like that here. Well, any suggestions? (based on that my adventures aren't one sided and lame) Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Happy Birthday Gary!

 

[Gray Mouser]

Indeed, Happy Borthday, Colonel! And many more!

Gray Mouser

 

[Henry]

Gary's birthday? Cool!

Many happy regards and wishes for more birthdays in the future, good sir!

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Happy Birthday Gary!

On the subject of wines maybe you guys can help me out. My aunt a few years ago gave me a bottle of some wine I had never had before or since. It was a red wine, and my dad at the time said it was an "unaged" Italian wine. It wasn't too sweet or too dry and had a full flavor that was fruity but not overly so. I haven't been able to find this wine since and it was just wonderful. Knowing my aunt it probably wasn't too cheap either. But I cannot find the type since I can't recall the type of wine it was. Any ideas? I'm not a huge wine drinker, but this was just great stuff.