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.

 

[Beale Knight]

Of course PC are supposed to defeat the antagonists, solve the riddles, and succeed in the quests. That should be understood by all,

What is absoilutely counter to the concept of the game is the PCS destroying a significant part, let alone the whole, of the campaign base. That is not only vandalism, but the mark of bad DMing in my view. To allow such a thing to happen after the DM has worked long and hard to create a place for adventuring is just plain wrong.

The KotDT comic strip has used this as a theme in a number of their stories, because laughter comes form discomfort. Ruining a campaign is not really amusing at all.

Ah - that sheds a little more light, and makes that stand alone sentence ("why allow the players to mess up the campaign setting") more sensible to me. I see messing up the setting as a step in and part of changing it. Destroying ala KotDT is *not* the style I'm encouraging. I'm pushing the players to have their characters change the world, not destroy it, and I expect things to get a little messed up in the process. I just don't want a static world where the pc go adventure, come home, go adventure, come home, and nothing really changes because of it.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

... I see messing up the setting as a step in and part of changing it. Destroying ala KotDT is *not* the style I'm encouraging. I'm pushing the players to have their characters change the world, not destroy it, and I expect things to get a little messed up in the process. I just don't want a static world where the pc go adventure, come home, go adventure, come home, and nothing really changes because of it.

That's is a truism for all campaigns that are dynamic. The GM lays out the initial backdrop for the adventuring, and the interaction of the PCs with that setting then develops events, often in a direction not anticipated by the GM, but surely as valid as any other result of sich interaction.

What is not permissable is the descruction of the campaign base by the players' characters, even if the possibility were inadvertantly presented to them by GM error--Lord knows we all make plenty of those :\

Cheers,
Gary

 

[BOZ]

i recently ran the first of the Against the Giants modules. in it, the PCs did astoundingly well until they met up with Nosnra - the PCs fled when half of them were killed, and returned to the nearby dwarven town to recuperate, resurrect, and plan. of course, it would be silly to think that the giants would just wait there for them to come back and try again, so Nosnra gathered up all the giants he could find in nearby lands and went to assault the city with siege weapons. the PCs managed to incapacitate the cheif in the resulting battle, but their initial failure caused much death and destruction in the dwarf city - the dwarves were none too happy that their "champions" had brought the fight back to them.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

When I ran AGtG, my players tied a frontal assault, whipped the hill giants pretty badly, but a goodly number of them went through the portal and were posted at the entrance to the frost giant citadel, along with the frost giants, and the players got their asses handed to them. Sometimes a frontal assault is a no-no.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

i recently ran the first of the Against the Giants modules. in it, the PCs did astoundingly well until they met up with Nosnra - the PCs fled when half of them were killed, and returned to the nearby dwarven town to recuperate, resurrect, and plan. of course, it would be silly to think that the giants would just wait there for them to come back and try again, so Nosnra gathered up all the giants he could find in nearby lands and went to assault the city with siege weapons. the PCs managed to incapacitate the cheif in the resulting battle, but their initial failure caused much death and destruction in the dwarf city - the dwarves were none too happy that their "champions" had brought the fight back to them.

Boz,

That's what I would rate as excellent improvization

What has astonished me is than no group I know of has ever attemptet of impersonate young giants in the G1 adventure. I set it up so that could be done and would likely be effective too...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

When I ran AGtG, my players tied a frontal assault, whipped the hill giants pretty badly, but a goodly number of them went through the portal and were posted at the entrance to the frost giant citadel, along with the frost giants, and the players got their asses handed to them. Sometimes a frontal assault is a no-no.

Yes indeed,

I set up the scenario so as to reward stealth and surprise, punish the bull-rush.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

(considers all of the posts above)

Based on your posts, I doubt you'll care much for the IR. I'm afraid that in this particular case, the entire campaign world was altered beyond recognition pretty quickly. My question at the start set the precedent (the Canon Forgotten Realms setting would have had to have altered massively in the first place, for my first post to be the reality in FR) and the other posters took it from there. I doubt you'd approve.

Please remember what I said before: the question was not meant to start a game, nor did it take itself seriously. It was meant entirely in frivolty. I was depressed, and asked a nonsensical question.
The actual Canon FR Setting is heavily controlled by the deities and powerful NPC forces therein, and they would never permit anything close to the situation that my first post indicated, much less the situation that followed.

Yours Sincerely
Edena_of_Neith

 

[Col_Pladoh]

(considers all of the posts above)

Based on your posts, I doubt you'll care much for the IR. I'm afraid that in this particular case, the entire campaign world was altered beyond recognition pretty quickly. My question at the start set the precedent (the Canon Forgotten Realms setting would have had to have altered massively in the first place, for my first post to be the reality in FR) and the other posters took it from there. I doubt you'd approve.

Honestly, my approval, or that of anyone else doesn't matter if you and the players had a good time

Please remember what I said before: the question was not meant to start a game, nor did it take itself seriously. It was meant entirely in frivolty. I was depressed, and asked a nonsensical question.
The actual Canon FR Setting is heavily controlled by the deities and powerful NPC forces therein, and they would never permit anything close to the situation that my first post indicated, much less the situation that followed.

Yours Sincerely
Edena_of_Neith

Heh, and I don't take gaming play seriously, save as seriously enjoyable. (I do take game writing seriouslt, as I always try my best to provide something that my fellower gamers will enjoy, have fun with.)

Of course you can alter any seting to suit tour group, and as long as you don't hold it up as the only true way, no one can say you nay.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[SuStel]

Based on your posts, I doubt you'll care much for the IR. I'm afraid that in this particular case, the entire campaign world was altered beyond recognition pretty quickly. My question at the start set the precedent (the Canon Forgotten Realms setting would have had to have altered massively in the first place, for my first post to be the reality in FR) and the other posters took it from there. I doubt you'd approve.

Edena,

On the one hand, you seem to be talking about PC-instigated setting-changes, whereas on the other hand I believe Gary was referring to a situation like one in which an entire dungeon is eliminated without the PCs actually adventuring in it.

There is nothing game-breaking about the PCs being powerful forces for change. As long as the adventure is still challenging, you're not doing anything wrong. The advice here is that if your PCs are about to eliminate the adventures you had planned for them without actually adventuring in them, you need to come up with a way to fix the problem. After all, no adventure means no fun.

Exciting adventures do not necessarily depend on having a particular political force in power, or anything like that. If your PCs suddenly get it into their heads that the king and his entire family are dopplegangers and assassinate them, they've just opened up a whole can o' adventure worms. This isn't game-breaking—it's just really dumb on their part. They've just handed you a big pile of adventure material.

 

[Greylock]

Destroying ala KotDT is *not* the style I'm encouraging. I'm pushing the players to have their characters change the world, not destroy it, and I expect things to get a little messed up in the process.

We're awfully sorry about that hobgoblin camp business. Honest.