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]

Just do what the rest of us do, Gary: Read the newspaper, and mix and match plot points.

How about the National Inquirer?

Of course having so much ediing work to see to does sort of dry up one's creative juiced


Gary

 

[Henry]

How about the National Inquirer?

Gord fights the Bat-Boy!

Nostradamus tells Gord... you have three weeks to live! (Gord says... been there, done that.)

Oh, waitaminit, you said Nat'l Enquirer...

Gord meets up with an alluring cat burglar named Angelina, and he helps her kill off the Evil Overseer of her training at the Thieves' Guild, Brad the Underacted. They rescue a young waif named Jessica in his stable of prostitutes, but not before Mary-Kate the famine-spirit catches up with Gord to settle the curse he enacted when he plundered her long-forgotten tomb.

Damn! It writes itself!

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Well...

How about:

"Gord and Elvis sighted gambling in Las Vegas"?

"Gord is a victim of alien abduction"?

I...can't...go..on...


Gary

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Gary, did you intend that Prismatic Sphere be usable only for defense?

A common tactic (well, any casting of Prismatic Sphere was very uncommon, but anyways) was for the caster to stick his hand through the Sphere and fire spells, with 90% cover as a result (or, if applicable, he could stick his hand out the OTHER side of the Sphere from his opponents, and cast a spell that did not require direct line-of-sight.)

Could, however, a mage simply sit totally within the Prismatic Sphere and cast, with his spells passing freely out of the Sphere? (the most powerful interpretation, of course.)

And ...

(humor)

How come, when the Prismatic Sphere was created, that it did not immediately disintegrate the soil it touched (half the Sphere goes into the ground), thus causing the soil above and within the Sphere to fall into it, and thus eviscerating all the soil the mage was standing on, until he was standing on his own Sphere? (of course, this would have been bad for the mage's fellow party members, who would have fallen INTO the Sphere, and thus suffered all of it's effects, and ...)

 

[haakon1]

How come, when the Prismatic Sphere was created, that it did not immediately disintegrate the soil it touched

'Cause it's magic.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary, did you intend that Prismatic Sphere be usable only for defense?

Absolutely intended as a a defensive spell. If any player suggested his PC was sticking a hand or head outside the sphere, regardless of the direction, I'd allow any spell cast against the sphere to penetrate it where flesh replaced its surface

I won't comment on the part where the workings of magic seem to be misunderstood

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

'Cause it's magic.

That, sir, is precisely the correct answer

Cheers,
Gary

 

[mythusmage]

(humor)

How come, when the Prismatic Sphere was created, that it did not immediately disintegrate the soil it touched (half the Sphere goes into the ground), thus causing the soil above and within the Sphere to fall into it, and thus eviscerating all the soil the mage was standing on, until he was standing on his own Sphere? (of course, this would have been bad for the mage's fellow party members, who would have fallen INTO the Sphere, and thus suffered all of it's effects, and ...)

Because a Prismatic Sphere is activated by the morphic field unique to living things. This includes inanimate objects associated with a living things, such as rocks thrown by the living, or sticks held by the living. For all intents and purposes this includes golems, constructs, and animated items since they mimic the living. Since dirt etc. is not living, and has no association with the living, Prismatic Sphere has no affect. Though it does play hob on earthworms and soil bacteria. Fortunately, being extremely thin, the sphere has no real effect on terrain. Though early versions often left what came to be known as "Prismatic Sphere Divots" in the ground. Some as deep as 5'.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Yah, tha's it... What Mythusmage said

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Just meant as humor. Obviously, no mage and his party sank due to a Prismatic Sphere! Not in any game I was in, at least.