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.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Both New Sun and Viriconium describe very old Earth.

The Book of the New Sun is set in a very far future which bears some resemblance to Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" in that the Sun is getting dim. The strange and prehistoric creatures were evidently brought from the past by time travelers.

 

[haakon1]

Okay, I do enjoy RPGing some other games as well, but no one here runs campaigns of same. Those include Warriors of Mars, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Gang Busters. Paranoia, and CoC.

Do you like Boot Hill and Top Secret more on the gritty historical side, or the glitzy Hollywood side?

For spies, are you more into something like James Bond, or something more cerebral and realistic? If you saw it, what did you think of the new Casino Royale? (If you didn't, I think it's an interesting compromise between a Bond movie and a "real" spy movie, with the best Bond since Sean Connery.)

And do you think fantasy medieval the best setting for RPG's, or do we just all play it because everyone plays it? :\

 

[Baduin]

The Book of the New Sun is set in a very far future which bears some resemblance to Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" in that the Sun is getting dim. The strange and prehistoric creatures were evidently brought from the past by time travelers.

I meant "old Earth" literally - Earth is very old. I did not mean it happened long ago. And prehistoric animals were reconstructed by genetic engineering - it is explained somewhere in the book.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I meant "old Earth" literally - Earth is very old. I did not mean it happened long ago. And prehistoric animals were reconstructed by genetic engineering - it is explained somewhere in the book.

I thought I remembered reading something about animals from the past being literally brought to the future. Genetic engineering makes sense, and I don't dispute it, but given that time travel does actually figure into the story as a whole, that also seems a possibility.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

My guess is that Mr. Fisher is referring to C&C.

Ah well, I treat that the same as AD&D

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Do you like Boot Hill and Top Secret more on the gritty historical side, or the glitzy Hollywood side?

However a good GM wants to present an operation. For the Wild West I favor something akin to the old cowboy movies mixed with spaghetti Westerns. For espionage I do like the settings of the Orient Express or an ocean liner...

For spies, are you more into something like James Bond, or something more cerebral and realistic? If you saw it, what did you think of the new Casino Royale? (If you didn't, I think it's an interesting compromise between a Bond movie and a "real" spy movie, with the best Bond since Sean Connery.)

As it is a game, I expect the agents to be rather of the super-spy sort. I did not see the new Casino Royale film, but as I know it was nothing at all like the book, and I am an Ian Fleming fan, I do not intend to see it.

And do you think fantasy medieval the best setting for RPG's, or do we just all play it because everyone plays it? :\

Fantasy medieval is the most accessable and imaginative miliey for the RPG. There are many others that are enjoyable, but finding players interested in them is more difficult than for the quasi-medieval, which seems to resonate with more people.

As a gamer, I am ready for nearly any genre that promises the weird or exotic, action and adventure, a good deal of imagination as one mentally explores the milieu, seeks to overcome its challenges, all presented by an able and enthusiastic GM.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Blair Goatsblood]

Gary, do you have any antectdotes or commentary regarding the artist Erol Otus and his works?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary, do you have any antectdotes or commentary regarding the artist Erol Otus and his works?

Other than that I told him his work was too cartoonish for my taste, no.

My idea of exciting fantasy illustration is more akin to the sort of wotk Dave Trampier did, as well as the later TSR top artists such as Caldwell, Elmore, etc.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Blair Goatsblood]

.... top artists such as Caldwell, Elmore, etc.

Ah, so you like having some eye-candy in your fantasy illustration...

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Ah, so you like having some eye-candy in your fantasy illustration...

Such illustrations are in the same vein as Li'l Abner in the newspapers, what graced the covers and interiors of the old pulp magazines I loved so well, Virgil Finlay's wonderful art especually, not to mention the EC comics line and Wallace Wood's illustrations, the Frazetta and Hildebrant covers. All part of action-adventue fandom I should suppose

Cheerio,
Gary