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]

Hey Gary, here's a question I don't remember anyone asking yet: what's you're favorite movie?

And in case it's not an obviously D&Dish movie, do you have a favorite in the swords & sorcery genre?

Picking a favorite film is quite an impossoible task for me. I can give you a list of some of the flicks I always enjoy watching though

In no particular order:

Harry Potter films
The Rings Trilogy
The Deep
Zulu
Emperor of the North Pole
King Kong (1938 version only)
Godfather Trilogy
Enter the Dragon
Flesh and Blood
Dances with Wolves
Zardoz
Alien (first film only)
The Thing (original version only)

There are some others than don't spring to mind now, but the above are a good sampling of the films I really enjoy

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[gideon_thorne]

Zulu

*chuckles* You and my dad. I can't even count how many times I have seen Zulu and Zulu Dawn. He's got to dig em both out any time anyone new comes over. ^_~`

 

[Col_Pladoh]

*chuckles* You and my dad. I can't even count how many times I have seen Zulu and Zulu Dawn. He's got to dig em both out any time anyone new comes over. ^_~`

Gail finds other amusement when I watch most of those flicks...

Zulu is near the very top of my list, and I think it more entertaining than Zulu Dawn.

Good old Jeff Perren has a 30mm scale model of Roarke's Drift, the Zuku warrior and British infantry figurines inthe same scale. What a fun recreation to play!

Cheers,
Gary

 

[gideon_thorne]

Good old Jeff Perren has a 30mm scale model of Roarke's Drift, the Zuku warrior and British infantry figurines inthe same scale. What a fun recreation to play!

Cheers,
Gary

Now that would be interesting to look at. My dad and I used to make such things back in the day as well.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Well, Gary, I downloaded the Menzter Red Box a while ago, and somebody gave me a copy of the (O)D&D cyclopedia. You can't get as simple as that. Well, except maybe the Blue and White books.

I've read somewhere to do simple D&D with your kids. At least, that's a quote on what you said. So, I stashed said products on one of my CDs and hope to introduce them to my offspring when they come of age (around 8 to 10, maybe I should expose them to He-Man cartoons first; that's what really got me connected to D&D).

Actually, if your kinder enjoy fantasy...and most children do...you can make up a simple game using just a couple of different kinds of dice and some plastif figures. Story adventures where they are the heroes, have aarmor that absorbs most hit damage, deal out fell blows with their weeapons, perhaps gain some simple magic items allowing invisibility, magic missiles, etc. are a good way to start off with children of around 5 to 7 years of age.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Wow. I'm new here, so forgive me if this has been asked before. I think it's incredibly cool of you to field questions like this though. Thank you!

I'm a new-time DM, having just run his first two game sessions of D&D. I came into the hobby with AD&D 1st Edition, but never got to play back-when (just got to oggle the books), and re-entered the hobby with actual play in the mid-90's with White Wolf stuff. So I'm not very experienced with D&D, which has a much different play-style than other RPGs I'm used to.

Do you have any advice for a newbie DM such as myself?

That's a difficult thing to do succinctly, but here are some salient tings a GM must do to have a successful campaign:

Pay attention to what the player group finds most interesting, and provide adventures that reflect this preference.

Do not let the rules get in the way of play; be the arbiter of the game so that the adventure continues on without unnecessary interruptions, and the immersion of the players in the milieu remains complete.

Do not make the group face impossible challenges, and keep the rewards as reasonable as possible (that is modest), so that there is always someting more to seek after.

Well developed villains are usually very compelling to players, and the longer these antagonists remain alive and thwarting the PCs, the more exciting the adventures.

Mix up the adventure settings so that play is not always in the same dort of place. A town adventure leads to a wilderness trek, that brings the party to a subterranian setting for example. From there they might have a waterborne or earial mission.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Now that would be interesting to look at. My dad and I used to make such things back in the day as well.

If you have retained any of such gaming sets, by all means bring same to the LGGC, and you, Mick, and I can round up a fourth and have at it!

Cheers,
Gary

 

[rossik]

...keep the rewards as reasonable as possible (that is modest)...

like what, mr gygax?

 

[RedFox]

That's a difficult thing to do succinctly, but here are some salient tings a GM must do to have a successful campaign:

Thank you. That's good, solid advice. I've heard or read pretty much all of that before but that makes it no less useful.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

like what, mr gygax?

Potions and scrolls as appropriate, those mainly of the healing sort. When magic items of greater value are in order, keep them low initially, and only as the PCs eise in level should the power of such objects rise--say at 4th level, 8th level, 12th level, etc.

Watch out giving potent magic items to NPCs and monsters to use, for the PCs usually end up with them.

Cheers,
Gary