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]

Gary, this was mentioned over at the acaeum.com so I reckoned I'd ask where you could see it...

How did MAR Barker's EMPIRE OF THE PETAL THRONE come to be published by TSR and what was his relationship with the company during the printing of that first edition of the game?

Also, we note that the game featured a full-color vinyl map, comb-bound rule booklets (A4 sized at that) and that the overall price for EMPIRE OF THE PETAL THRONE was a princely $25.00 back in 1975, which would be the equivalent today of charging $100 or more for a single RPG boxed set. Can you shed a little light on the decision to go ahead with such an expensive product?

To be concise:

Phil Barker contacted me as he was concerned that his use of some of the emchanics from the D&D game might infringe on TSR's rights. I looked at the game ms. played it with Dave Sutherland as the GM, and told Prof. Barket that TSR would be happy to publish EPT as a premier RPG. All the bells and whistles were to make the game as close to that Phil presented to his players. We liked the game a lot, and a carload of TSR people, myself included, drove up to the Twin Cities to see the Professor at his house, play an EPT adventure with him as the GM. All oif that is why it came out as it did. I doubt that we lost money, likely made a minor profit in fact, but sales tapered off so we could not afford to do a repring when the stock ran out.

It was a feather in TSR's cap to produce such an RPG.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[thedungeondelver]

To be concise:

Phil Barker contacted me as he was concerned that his use of some of the emchanics from the D&D game might infringe on TSR's rights. I looked at the game ms. played it with Dave Sutherland as the GM, and told Prof. Barket that TSR would be happy to publish EPT as a premier RPG. All the bells and whistles were to make the game as close to that Phil presented to his players. We liked the game a lot, and a carload of TSR people, myself included, drove up to the Twin Cities to see the Professor at his house, play an EPT adventure with him as the GM. All oif that is why it came out as it did. I doubt that we lost money, likely made a minor profit in fact, but sales tapered off so we could not afford to do a repring when the stock ran out.

It was a feather in TSR's cap to produce such an RPG.

Cheerio,
Gary

Fascinating.

I, during better financial times, bought a complete set from that era from a private seller to scavenge material for my D&D ('74) game. Sadly, I found that while EMPIRE OF THE PETAL THRONE is a quite complete game unto its own, it wasn't very compatible with the GREYHAWK campaign I was building.

Hmm, perhaps someday if the adventurers find the spaceship in S3 EXPEDITION TO THE BARRIER PEAKS I'll make some kind of link then

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Fascinating.

I, during better financial times, bought a complete set from that era from a private seller to scavenge material for my D&D ('74) game. Sadly, I found that while EMPIRE OF THE PETAL THRONE is a quite complete game unto its own, it wasn't very compatible with the GREYHAWK campaign I was building.

Hmm, perhaps someday if the adventurers find the spaceship in S3 EXPEDITION TO THE BARRIER PEAKS I'll make some kind of link then

Phil also did War of Wizards, a somewhat complex but entertaining two-player game of spell combat on a board similar to a football field. TSR sold a few thousand copies of that game.

As for EPT, it was IMO a lot of fun to play but very difficult to GM. With a knowledgeable GM the game was an exotic blast. When GMed by someone less than expert it was a toingue-twisting bore.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just thought I'd pass this along to brighten your day...

A younger buddy of mine just returned from a tour in Baghdad, all safe & sound.

While he was over there, one of his squadmates came up with a way for them to pass their downtime. He turned him and some others onto RPGs- specifically, D&D 2Ed. Apparently, it was somewhat of a Monty Haul campaign, but it was a great stress reliever.

I know- not really your game, but I thought you'd like to know that the hobby you helped create is still growing, and in places that may not seem to be gaming-friendly.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Just thought I'd pass this along to brighten your day...

A younger buddy of mine just returned from a tour in Baghdad, all safe & sound.

While he was over there, one of his squadmates came up with a way for them to pass their downtime. He turned him and some others onto RPGs- specifically, D&D 2Ed. Apparently, it was somewhat of a Monty Haul campaign, but it was a great stress reliever.

I know- not really your game, but I thought you'd like to know that the hobby you helped create is still growing, and in places that may not seem to be gaming-friendly.

Right on!

When my son was in the Middle East with 1st Armored for Desert Shield/Desert Storm, he said thay played a good deal of a bastardized version of AD&D...mainly because nobody had any rules books.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, depending on your FLGS, you (and the rest of us, of course) may be able to rectify that for others.

The Lone Star Comics chain in Dallas/Fort Worth has been accepting donations of books to send to the troops.

When my dad was called up to serve in Desert Storm (in Germany- he's an MD), he was bored stiff- very little engaging English-language entertainment to be had- and he speaks some German! I sent him tapes of his favorite music...

So I knew the troops in the Middle East must be bugging out bored- so I sent a LOT of books. I go every couple of months to Half-Price Books and buy up $50-100 worth of sci-fi/fantasy/horror/mystery anthologies and self-contained novels (ie, nothing that's part of a series) to send...

Then I asked (prompted by a thread on these boards) if they'd take gaming material. They asked their USO connection, and said yes. I sent them about 4 sets of dice and a bunch of RPGs- HERO 5th, The D&D 3.5 Core books + some Oriental Adventures stuff, Mutants & Masterminds, some Deadlands stuff, GURPS 3Ed and so forth. Some was new, some from Half-Price Books, but always at least the core stuff needed to play the game.

I'm sure they'd take about anything relatively portable, really- playing cards, boardgames- just ask around. (I wouldn't send anything electronic, though- from what I understand, they don't fare well in the desert heat & sand.)

 

[Mycanid]

As for EPT, it was IMO a lot of fun to play but very difficult to GM. With a knowledgeable GM the game was an exotic blast. When GMed by someone less than expert it was a toingue-twisting bore.

Cheerio,
Gary

Got that straight. :\

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I have sent a note to Troll Lord Games about game donations for the troops in Iraq.

I was never quite up for GMing the EPT game, but I did have fiun playing it/

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[haakon1]

When my son was in the Middle East with 1st Armored for Desert Shield/Desert Storm, he said thay played a good deal of a bastardized version of AD&D...mainly because nobody had any rules books.

Two of the guys I game with were in Desert Storm. The ranger was a tank commander (now a Finance guy) and the wizard was a medical technician (now a pharmacist).

That's the good thing about the 30-something generation (I think we used to be called Gen X when we were 20-something) . . . a lot of us have AD&D hard coded to our brains, so we don't need no stinking rules to play it. Well, I haven't played it in 10 years, due to player demand for the latest version, but I figure it's still in there somewhere.

A longsword costs 15 gp, does 1-8, plate mail with a shield is AC 2, etc.

 

[Moggthegob]

This may have already been asked a long while back.But what was the deal with Robilar? Did you turn him into a villain after the guy who played him stopped playing or was that something out of your control. The source of this question is what happens when two guys talk for 10 hours about campaign settings....