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]

For a while I have wondered that althought Finnish roleplaying scene is very productive in creating articles and interviews few look back to history of the hobby and persons that started this all, at least to my knowledge in various finnish language media, fanzines, community websites and magazines there has not yet been any interviews of the most well known person in the hobby, Gary Gygax.

How should I contact you if I would like to do an interview through e-mail for example?
Would you be willing to answer some questions I have prepared?

Jonas Mustonen

jonas.mustonen(at)kolumbus.fi

Heh...

My eamil addy is no secret: ggygax@genevaonline.com

I no longer do extensive Q&A sessions, though. I've had my fill of them over the years, I am semi-retired, and my life rights for a movie have been optioned (unlikely to be made into a film, of course) and an agent is seeking a biographer to develop the autobiographical material I have written. Both of the latter meant/will mean, endless question and answer sessions :\

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hiya, Gary!
While we seem to be on the topic of the divine, here's another query: now, I realise as you stated previously that BECMI D&D was Frank's baby and all, but how come there was never really any inclusion of a pantheon of gods in that setting like in Greyhawk? Personally, it never bothered me at the time (nor does it now ) but it's something I've been curious about in recent years, as I've considered running an AD&D 1e campaign there and saw that only immortals are presented as a pantheon, so to speak. Thanks, as always Gary!

Short answer:

The material was kept as generic as possible by not dictating or even suggesting a pantheon. Such information was available elsewhere, eh?

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Oh, you mean constant missing and the fly dying of old age while it buzzes around your head?

Pish & Tosh,

More like the "Little Tailor," Seven with One Blow. A normal person can easily swat a fly with a fly swatter, and my challenge it to kill them with hands only...which I do with some facility

Cheers,
Gary

 

[John Drake]

Short answer:

The material was kept as generic as possible by not dictating or even suggesting a pantheon. Such information was available elsewhere, eh?

Cheers,
Gary

Gotcha...

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gotcha...

Yuppers...

Boost the sales of Deities & Demigods

Cheers,
Gary

 

[John Drake]

Yuppers...

Boost the sales of Deities & Demigods

Cheers,
Gary

Well it certainly worked! So, Gary, as this topic of deities and such continues, I'm curious as to which mythology or pantheon you have a soft spot for, out of real-world mythologies? My personal fav has always been the Norse, followed by Celtic and Egyptian.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Well it certainly worked! So, Gary, as this topic of deities and such continues, I'm curious as to which mythology or pantheon you have a soft spot for, out of real-world mythologies? My personal fav has always been the Norse, followed by Celtic and Egyptian.

Well...

I likely have spent more time with Egyptian than any other, and I find the material regarding the Duat fascinating, compelling; but otherwise I enjoy virtually all the well-detailed mythologies equally.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[airwalkrr]

Since I like talking about deities, I'm wondering other things now. (kick me if I start asking too many questions, Gary) LOL

So how did you get the idea that D&D should be a game of pantheonistic religion? It is rare to encounter monotheistic or even dualistic religions in D&D campaign settings and most home campaign DMs I have played with use pantheons as well, either mythological, adapted ones, or their own creations.

Also, did the Greyhawk deities have any mythological origins or did you create them using nothing more than your imagination and your subconscious?

Thanks!

 

[MutieMoe]

Live roleplaying or LARPing is one of the popular forms of roleplaying in Scandinavia at the moment (I don't know about United States), did you foresee the coming of LARPing, and have you taken part in live roleplaying games?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Since I like talking about deities, I'm wondering other things now. (kick me if I start asking too many questions, Gary) LOL

So how did you get the idea that D&D should be a game of pantheonistic religion? It is rare to encounter monotheistic or even dualistic religions in D&D campaign settings and most home campaign DMs I have played with use pantheons as well, either mythological, adapted ones, or their own creations.

Also, did the Greyhawk deities have any mythological origins or did you create them using nothing more than your imagination and your subconscious?

Thanks!

Heh...I am here to answer questions, no?

Pantheons of deities are the usual in authored fantasy, and they suit a role-playing game in that genre well. That is why I adopted the concept so as to have a reason for and empower the clerics in the game.

The World of Greyhawk deities came directly from my creative imaginings, or those of a few others such as Len Lakofka and Roger Moore.

Cheers,
Gary