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.

 

[MoxieFu]

I never did find the fourteenth face.

Oh, and I loved the little text blurbs writting on the individual days. Lots of little nuggets of humor hidden in there. Oh and the UFO sightings too. Lots of UFO sightings...

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I never did find the fourteenth face.

Oh, and I loved the little text blurbs writting on the individual days. Lots of little nuggets of humor hidden in there. Oh and the UFO sightings too. Lots of UFO sightings...

while I did find all 14 faces, what with having the original art here to examine, I had completly forgotten about the notes for individual days that were on the calender. Now i am doubly sad I have somehow lost it...or it is packed away in a storage box in the attic, left for posterity :\

Cheers,
Gary

 

[John Drake]

And has my all time favorite Bond exchange: "You're all wet!" "But my martini's dry.")

Actually, I believe that was from "Never Say Never Again", between Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) and Bond when she slides in to a bar in the Bahamas from water-skiing.
But while I'm here, I'll ask a question. Gary, just curious, and I know this is well after the fact, but in your opinion, did AD&D really need a new edition? Personally, I liked it just as it was (with UA too, but good ol' 1E rocked), but I understand that things change and "new" editions sell well and so forth. I do apologize if this has been asked of you before, but I either hadn't read it or just plum forgot about what you may have said on the matter. Thank you, yet again!

 

[Baduin]

The Araminta Station series by Jack Vance is as follows:
1. Araminta Station
2. Ecce and Old Earth
3. Throy

The main site about Vance, with bibliography, excerpts, concordance of words etc:

http://www.integralarchive.org/index.htm

As for style - Wolfe lacks Vance's dry wit (or, rather, not so dry), but his style is perfect. Vance is an observer, Wolfe is a philosopher - what one likes more is a matter of preference. Wolfe loves paradoxes - His stories are like puzzles. Sometimes you must read them a few times to understand the riddle.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

...
But while I'm here, I'll ask a question. Gary, just curious, and I know this is well after the fact, but in your opinion, did AD&D really need a new edition? Personally, I liked it just as it was (with UA too, but good ol' 1E rocked), but I understand that things change and "new" editions sell well and so forth. I do apologize if this has been asked of you before, but I either hadn't read it or just plum forgot about what you may have said on the matter. Thank you, yet again!

Actually, yes, as I wanted to remove some things from the AD&D rules--weapon speed factors, weapon vs. armor, and psionics for sure. then I would have added some new classes, new spells for the new spell-using classes and the existing ones as well, and cranked in a much inproved skills section rather akin to what I did for the C&C game. I also wanted to revise the MM (and all like books) into two volumes, roughly A-L, and M-Z.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Grazzt]

I also wanted to revise the MM (and all like books) into two volumes, roughly A-L, and M-Z.

Cheers,
Gary

But would monsters have ability scores (Str, Dex, Con, etc) like characters?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

The Araminta Station series by Jack Vance is as follows:
1. Araminta Station
2. Ecce and Old Earth
3. Throy

The main site about Vance, with bibliography, excerpts, concordance of words etc:

http://www.integralarchive.org/index.htm

As for style - Wolfe lacks Vance's dry wit (or, rather, not so dry), but his style is perfect. Vance is an observer, Wolfe is a philosopher - what one likes more is a matter of preference. Wolfe loves paradoxes - His stories are like puzzles. Sometimes you must read them a few times to understand the riddle.

Thanks.

I am partial to Trullion: Alastor 2262 as IIRR it mentions Lord Gygax. I told Jack I would have preferred to be a vicious Starmeter

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

But would monsters have ability scores (Str, Dex, Con, etc) like characters?

Only humanoid ones of exceptional sort and very exceptional other sorts. Who wants to spend forever figuring out what monsters' stats are and then have to employ them in the game?


Gary

 

[Mycanid]

Only humanoid ones of exceptional sort and very exceptional other sorts. Who wants to spend forever figuring out what monsters' stats are and then have to employ them in the game?


Gary

Yeesh ... boy, do I agree with your sentiments on THIS one. :\

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Yeesh ... boy, do I agree with your sentiments on THIS one. :\

In my opinion the best wat for a DM to manage monsters is to know what their type is, generaly what an average one of that sort can do, and then...WING IT!

Cheerio.
Gary