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.

 

[Nathal]

I believe that box set is terribly limited compared to the 1983 red box Basic set, and subsequent sets (Companion, Expert). I have many reasons for believing this, but I'll sum up by saying that Kids of a certain age (10 to 12) aren't as likely to jump from the basic set of which you speak and delve into the morass of rules that is the current edition. Certainly not when it competes against XBOX and collectable card games. 3rd Edition was marketed primarily to college aged kids, and remains strongly geared toward that age set.

The Basic set you site is insufficient to curb attrition from our hobby. It plays like a board game and does little to introduce kids to the real spirit and feel of what an RPG is. It's much more likely to get the kid interested in the minatures wargame if anything. I think the D&D game should be marketed to two different age groups, Basic for the young (but expanded far beyond the current box) and Advanced for the college age kids, or more mature teens.

I think Wizards would be wise to make D&D more modular in the 4th Edition. Begin with a basic game (ya know, like C&C...nix feats and prestige classes and layers upon layers of tactics), and then published advanced options for players that care about that sort of thing (with miniatures rules, feats, skills, prestige classes, etc).

D&D Basic Game:

It has been selling quite well at my FLGS.

A new edition of the Basic Game seems to be due out in June next year.

Wizards are giving away a copy of the Basic Game as part of a History Channel promotion with the Crusades: Crescents and the Cross program on Nov 6. (see here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/news/20051021a)

They also provide D&D Basic Games to libraries as part another promotion. I know there's been more discussion of this on ENworld, but I can't remember where.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/library

Cheers!

 

[dead]

Dear Gary,

What is the name of the world that Yggsburg is set on?

If Yggsburg is a town of 22,000 residents, how many residents would your vision of the City of Greyhawk have?

I was thinking of starting a new Greyhawk Campaign but I didn't want to use the TSR City of Greyhawk. Would Yggsburg be a good alternative or would it be too small?

Thank you

 

[Col_Pladoh]

D&D Basic Game:

...

It has been selling quite well at my FLGS.

So where is the advertising to push the game? Are they doing TV commercials? Color ads in any periodicals aimed at teenage males? If so, I stand corrected. If not, sales by osmosis don't cut the mustard when it comes to enlarging the audience.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Lake Geneva is still an okay place, nothing like it was when I was a lad, and from what I have been able to garner, LG in the 40s and 50s was nothing like what it was earlier, say in the 1900s through 1930 when all the millionaires summered here.

That said, the plpace has some charm remaining, there is still some excellent gaming, and some fine creative authors around here.

Come on and see for yourselves when the next Lake Geneva Gaming Convention rolls around next July.

See you at the porch party here ar my place on the Thursday before the con

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Dear Gary,

What is the name of the world that Yggsburg is set on?

I designed the Eastmark to be sma;; enough to fit on most campaign worlds, so the global situation is left in the able hands of GMs

If Yggsburg is a town of 22,000 residents, how many residents would your vision of the City of Greyhawk have?

In my campaign the city was over 100,000, a metropolis.

I was thinking of starting a new Greyhawk Campaign but I didn't want to use the TSR City of Greyhawk. Would Yggsburg be a good alternative or would it be too small?

Thank you

Yggsburgh is not meant to be a replacement for the City of Greyhawk, it being smaller in population than what the former was depicted as having.

Note that there is a large city downriver to the west of Yggsburgh...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[JoeGKushner]

So where is the advertising to push the game? Are they doing TV commercials? Color ads in any periodicals aimed at teenage males? If so, I stand corrected. If not, sales by osmosis don't cut the mustard when it comes to enlarging the audience.

Cheers,
Gary

What about sales by osmosis at Toys R Us? While many D&D core books and similiar books are found at Borders, this is the only D&D item I see at Toys R Us.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

What about sales by osmosis at Toys R Us? While many D&D core books and similiar books are found at Borders, this is the only D&D item I see at Toys R Us.

That isn't proof of anythiing more than the brand name recognition of D&D. Having space on a shelf does not equate to actively seeking to enlarge the audience for the product there at Toys R Us or any other consumer outlet, does it?

Cheers,
Gary

 

[ghul]

Mr. Gygax,

In the Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh book, the knights of Yggsburgh are all classified as fighters of various levels. I was wondering why this is. Shouldn't they just be standard C&C knights?

Also, I'd like to mention my Yggsburgh placement in Greyhawk. As you have helpfully suggested in another thread, I will be placing it between the Neen and Ery rivers. "Neen" and "Ery" are the official names listed on most maps found throughout the Flanaess, but for the locals of Yggsburgh, the names Neemo and Urt are used.

Also, Dunfalcon = Dyvers. Since Dyvers is about 300 miles west (of course, not by the flight of the crow), it only makes sense that road to Dunfalcon is in fact the road to Dyvers (despite the fact that dun-falcon in name seems to imply grey-hawk). And again, this would be an instance where locals of Yggsburgh refer to a city by a name not considered "official." For sake of verisimilitude, perhaps there are several Dyvers residents who refer to the city by the Yggsburgh designation.

IMC, Yggsburgh would have a strained relationship with the City of Greyhawk, relishing in its independence from the metroplis north. It is like a sort of sibling rivalry, and because of this, Yggsburgh traders and merchants actually enjoy a better business relationship with the more distant Dunfalcon, or Dyvers.

Any thoughts on these assertations, esteemed father of the game?

--Ghul

 

[haakon1]

Come on and see for yourselves when the next Lake Geneva Gaming Convention rolls around next July.

See you at the porch party here ar my place on the Thursday before the con

Mentally scheduling . . . yes, that sounds like a good idea.

 

[haakon1]

I will be placing it between the Neen and Ery rivers.

If it's independent, that wouldn't fit too well with the "current" (and I think back to the gawd-awful From the Ashes) version of Greyhawk that says Greyhawk owns the whole region, down to Hardby and beyond.

IMC, it wouldn't quite fit there, but I have Hardby as an independent -- but pushed around -- city, run by a Gynarchy, and dealing in spices, salt, drugs, and transfering cargo from sea-going to riverine craft. Works for me.

For Dyvers, from the old AOL Greyhawk boards, I have only vague ideas -- rival of Greyhawk, and center of the manufacture of "clockwork" items. I remember the economic stuff.