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.

 

[MerricB]

G'day, Gary!

I hope you are faring well.

Cheers,
Merric

 

[Gray Mouser]

Mordenkainen I pictured as tall, lean, with a pale complexion tanned by sun and weather. His features are sharp, eyes gray. His hair is rather byshy, with a long moustache but no beard. He favors garments of gray with black or bright blue accents--girdle and blouse for example. His age apears to be somewhere around 50.

Bigby I envisioned as of medium height, bald, with prominent nose and large, dark eyes. He is also around age 50, but as he is rather plump, Bigby has few wrinkles. his hands are large and long-fingerd. His clothing is generally of deep green.

That's enough of that

Cheers,
Gary

Very interesting, Colonel. The descriptions you gave of your two (Arch) Mages varies somewhat from that in Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure (at least from what I recall of the text and drawings!). Are your images of Yrag and Rigby different from those published in the module, too?

Gray Mouser

 

[Geoffrey]

Gary, do you enjoy playing the ancient Chinese board game Go?

(For the curious, here's some information on Go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(board_game) )

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Do you have any kind of ballpark estimate on when these come out?

The Trolls are working on release of More Beasts of Lejend this fall. I am not sure when the Tome of Knowledge is slated for publication, but I would suppose soon after the MBoL was in print.

Maybe a later check on the TLG website will reveal more

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hi Gary---

When you were designing the various monsters in Grenadier's "Action Art" Monsters set (#8002) that featured the drow captain, drider, EHP, bugbear chief, etc. (see http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290095678408 for reference), what level of design input did you have? Did you select the monsters, provide descriptions for the sculptors, review the greens and then request revisions, etc.?

Regardless of these, have you designed other miniatures lines (perhaps some for the Minifigs line @ http://web.archive.org/web/20050205204432/http://users.accesscomm.ca/lmec/fgo_mfwg.htm)??

Thanks, as always

Heh...

I did very little in regards the miniatures, as I make a fine copywriter as an art director. About all I did was suggest what figure types I thought would be appealing to consumers, give vague discriptions of what some of the figures should look like. Then the miniature figuring people would consult with another person or persona at TSR that could help them--artists and model makers.

I did much the same when working with Steve Carpenter of MiniFigs USA...only he and I would toast a bit with some single malt Scotch.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

G'day, Gary!

I hope you are faring well.

Cheers,
Merric

Howdy Merric,

Thanks, and I am doing right well, all things considered. My main complaint is that I have way too much work to do for someone that is doing their best to be semi-retired!

Trust all's well woth you

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Very interesting, Colonel. The descriptions you gave of your two (Arch) Mages varies somewhat from that in Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure (at least from what I recall of the text and drawings!). Are your images of Yrag and Rigby different from those published in the module, too?

Gray Mouser

As I was not consulted as to the appearance of my PCs by the illustrator of them in the module in question, it is hardly surprising that my envisoned depictions differ from those drawn. As I do not have a copy of the module anywhere handy, I can not say how different my description of Yrag and Rigby the Ready woule be from how they are drawn therein.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary, do you enjoy playing the ancient Chinese board game Go?

(For the curious, here's some information on Go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(board_game) )

I have played Go, have a cheap set around somewhere, but...

Playing that game drives me crazy. All those little stones of black and white, so many of them, so many intercises, and so fiddly the process. I grow impatient and tend to lose
I much prefer Chinese (or Korean) Chess to Go, and Japanese Chess, Shogi, is a game amongst those at the very top of my chess game favorites--the others my own version of Courier Chess and the original rules version of Double Chess, as set forth in the Boy's Own Book, 1890.

Dr. McKnight, a friend of Fritz Leiber, bequeathed his 1870 edition of that book to me because he knew I had the later version. I do not recall if it has the same rules as the 1890 erition or not.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Raven Crowking]

No question, just wanted to take the time to say "Thank you" for creating this game in the first place.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

No question, just wanted to take the time to say "Thank you" for creating this game in the first place.

Fun all around!

Cheers,
Gary