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]

Question for you sire, from a fellow player I forwarded your GenCon adventures to:

"At the risk of losing geek-cred points, I have a question:

Why does Gygax post under “Col Pladoh”? (Which I am translating as “Colonel Play-Doh” rather than something arcane in Welsh or something…)"

For myself, I always assumed Col as in "Colonel", as in old-school war gamer, and genteel benevolent dictator/aristocrat/chicken magnet, and Pladoh, as in Play-Doh, for reasons my Int is too low to resolved.

Please tells us the anagram, pun, or lack thereof, should such telling amuse you. And if not, fair enough!

And here I had tought I had covered this ground amply in the past...

I use Col Pladoh to poke a bit of fun at myself. The Colonel part comes from my always playing Colonel Mustard in Clue gamesbecause I liked the starting position, and the fact I am a Kentucky Colonel. the Pladoh part is a spoof on the wisdom of Plato and the silliness of Playdoh.

I do not use some high-falutin' fantasy handle because they seem pretentious to me. Posting as i do, or as "Gary Gygax," suits me just fine

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Self effacing humor.

The gamer pappy doesn't take himself as seriously as others take him. ^_~`

Just so, Peter, just so.


Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

G'day, Gary!

From what I understand, Hasbro doesn't actually have the rights to all the old AH games. The situation is a bit... confused. It certainly confuses me. There are a few old AH games that have been republished or soon will be...

ASL is licensed by Hasbro to Multi-Man Publishing

Titan's rights have been picked up by Valley Games; they're doing a reprint later this year or early in 2008. They're also doing a reprint of The Republic of Rome

Dune's rights have been gained by Fantasy Flight Games, along with Cosmic Encounter (the latter not a AH game, but a classic). CE will be reprinted first, then Dune (and later Borderlands). Unfortunately, the actual rights to do a "Dune" game are not available, but the mechanics will be done in a new setting...

Oh, and there's a recent discussion about your variant to Rail Baron on Boardgamegeek...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/168817



Cheers!

As someone that sold a game to THAC, I find it hard to believe that most of their wargames could not be reprinted with no contractural difficulties, some likely needing a new contract, but so what? I know that a number of their titles were designed in house, so the Hasborg certainly owns all rights to those games. Others such Rail Baron, Diplomacy, Kingmaker, etc. might require cutting new agreements before re-publishing. that is hardly an impediment to a company that actually desired to get good games back into print to serve that segment of their market.

As for the quick end system I suggested for the RB game, we now skip the RR values i set, just use their actual costs. The "Rover Play" business is not exciting as the one chap asserts in the pasts there on the Gamegeek website. A thinking player simply accumulated an additional $50K before heading to his home city for a win, thus protracting the end game even more. In addition, the rule is silly because it is so completely unrelated to the theme of the game. Why would passing over the train of one of the players cause that individual to lose the stated sum?

Finally, IMO the games you note being back in print are not the greats from TAHC :\

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[haakon1]

And here I had tought I had covered this ground amply in the past...

I use Col Pladoh to poke a bit of fun at myself. The Colonel part comes from my always playing Colonel Mustard in Clue gamesbecause I liked the starting position, and the fact I am a Kentucky Colonel. the Pladoh part is a spoof on the wisdom of Plato and the silliness of Playdoh.

I do not use some high-falutin' fantasy handle because they seem pretentious to me. Posting as i do, or as "Gary Gygax," suits me just fine

Cheerio,
Gary

Well, thanks for answering it again, and it's good to know we guessed right.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Well, thanks for answering it again, and it's good to know we guessed right.

Col Pladoh

 

[rossik]

hi gary, how r you doing?

im having trouble trying to explain something to a friend...it all starts with a "a fighter can roll on the ground , as this seems vary basic to me. no need to be a expert to do so"

and he says that a fighter cant do that...that he must have skills for it, and bla bla bla

i even create a topic about this (no need to read, dont worry )




in the begining, d&d was inspired by medieval europe (french tales?) and others, but
rpg is about fantasy, right?

or ate least about what we whant it to be (sound confused? i cant find the right words!! damn you, babelfish and collins gem! )

so, my point is:


do you think that skills, feats, etc, makes the players less criative (generally speaking)?

(oh, and if you can give me your opinion on the "roll on the ground is basic for fighter-if the DM agree" issue, i would apreciate very much!)

 

[MerricB]

G'day, Gary!

What are the great Avalon Hill games?

Need to see if my friends have them.

Cheers!

 

[Col_Pladoh]

hi gary, how r you doing?

im having trouble trying to explain something to a friend...it all starts with a "a fighter can roll on the ground , as this seems vary basic to me. no need to be a expert to do so"

and he says that a fighter cant do that...that he must have skills for it, and bla bla bla

i even create a topic about this (no need to read, dont worry )




in the begining, d&d was inspired by medieval europe (french tales?) and others, but
rpg is about fantasy, right?

or ate least about what we whant it to be (sound confused? i cant find the right words!! damn you, babelfish and collins gem! )

so, my point is:


do you think that skills, feats, etc, makes the players less criative (generally speaking)?

(oh, and if you can give me your opinion on the "roll on the ground is basic for fighter-if the DM agree" issue, i would apreciate very much!)

Well...

As a general fule for all GMs, it should be assumed that any action that an actual average human can do in real life, an RPG persona can likewise do. As very younf chiuldren have the ability to roll on the ground, a D&D character can assuredly do the same...even if in full plate armor, although there would be a good deal of effort required and theroll would be ponderous save when on a declining surface.

As for skills, that sort of a system is in my critical design view superior to the plain dlass-based game. However, if the skill-based system is very specific, it does tend to end innovation and creative thinking in favor of reliance on a dice roll. Feats are strictly for a comic book superhero game IMO, anthough special abilities of minor sort are a fine addition to the scope of character definition.

All of the above is well set forth in my Lejendary Adventure game, BTW

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

G'day, Gary!

What are the great Avalon Hill games?

Need to see if my friends have them.

Cheers!

Ho there!

IMO:

Most of the old board wargames based on historical battles or campaigns (excluding Anzio, Guadalcanal, Guns of August, Jutland) then their non-wargame titles such as Stock Market and Rail Baron, and the games they picked up from other publishers--Diplomacy (which TSR attempted to acquire just after THAC managed to to so) and Kingmaker.

FWIW,
Gary

 

[seskis281]

Ho there!

IMO:

Most of the old board wargames based on historical battles or campaigns (excluding Anzio, Guadalcanal, Guns of August, Jutland) then their non-wargame titles such as Stock Market and Rail Baron, and the games they picked up from other publishers--Diplomacy (which TSR attempted to acquire just after THAC managed to to so) and Kingmaker.

FWIW,
Gary

I remember Sink the Bismark and Starship Troopers , and later during grad school we really got into Diplomacy