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.

 

[mistere29]

Hi Boz,

Right you are about reward for effort. Especially nowadays, that just ain't going to happen as time and energy are limited resources.

Surely you have no problems with 2E, as it was your fisrt FRPG It did lose about half the AD&D audience for TSR, though, and that's a fact.

Cheers,
Gary

Well 2e was my first edition of D&D. Looking back now that i have the first edition books as well, I can say that is just as different from 1st as 3rd is.

The design team definately had the idea that "The DM should let the player Win" and "Sessions should look like a fantasy novel." Two things that Gygax argued against even back in the day.

While the rules look similiar, there are DOZENS of little changes made to the rules to facilate the new style. Plus plus they got rid of almost everything from unearthed arcana, which was supposed to be the prototype for gary's 2e .

Normally i wouldn't post this for fear of starting and edition war, but Boz did bring it up first. I firmly belive that "old timer" complaints are legimtate and not just nostalgia, as people commonly beleive.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Well

...

Normally i wouldn't post this for fear of starting and edition war, but Boz did bring it up first. I firmly belive that "old timer" complaints are legimtate and not just nostalgia, as people commonly beleive.

Hail1

Edition wars are the height of foolishness. Who can argue with someone's personal taste in entertainment of any sort? Disputing which game or variation thereof is superior is much the same as arguing about what food tastes best or what color is the most pleasing, is it not?

Over and above that, in general gamers have more in common with each other than do non-game buffs, so why fight amongst ourselves about games. Now politics are a different story alrogether

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Gray Mouser]

Your guess is as good as mine, but the old saw about if it ain't broken don't fix it likely applies.

Cheerio,
Gary

Boy, Colonel, this is an extremely good insight. I was one of those people who went along with the conversion to 2e and DM'ed a campaign for a while. Some of the changes in the game mechanics I liked, but more often then not they fell into two categories: 1) they revised something in the game that I didn't fully understand in the first place, or 2) they simplified something in a way that seemd to talk down to the players. This second criticism was made even clearer to me recently when I had the opportunity to peruse my old 2e PHB and DMG at my parents' house. Reading it I felt like I was reading a 4th grade primer! Definitely not the reaction I had when I read 1e stuff (even when I was in 4th grade, heh!).

The final nail in the 2e coffin for me was with all the class-related splat books, however.

Anyway, YMMV, but 2e seems to have meant well (in some respects) but to have been an experiment that ultimately failed. I didn't even know about 3e until about a year before the 3.5 revision and by that time I was well on my way back to 1e, anyway.

Gray Mouser

 

[Col_Pladoh]

...

The final nail in the 2e coffin for me was with all the class-related splat books, however.

TSR was short on sales bacause of the loss of consumer base, so they tried to make up for that by producing a plethora of unnecessary products. That simply drove away more of their customers.

Anyway, YMMV, but 2e seems to have meant well (in some respects) but to have been an experiment that ultimately failed. I didn't even know about 3e until about a year before the 3.5 revision and by that time I was well on my way back to 1e, anyway.

Gray Mouser

IMO the revision was mainly malicious, and there's no question it is what brought down TSR.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[BOZ]

Normally i wouldn't post this for fear of starting and edition war, but Boz did bring it up first. I firmly belive that "old timer" complaints are legimtate and not just nostalgia, as people commonly beleive.

don't go blaming me now.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

don't go blaming me now.

Well Dude!

As a Chicagoan by birth, I'll not blame you. Mayor Dailey is another matter...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Mark]

You'll have to leave HizzJunior out of it. No politics allowed...

Congrats on the new release of Hall of Many Panes D20 but what's up with www.gygax.com ?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

You'll have to leave HizzJunior out of it. No politics allowed...

Congrats on the new release of Hall of Many Panes D20 but what's up with www.gygax.com ?

Heh, and I recall my father complaining about the Kelly Machine running the city. After about three-quarters of a century of Democratic rule, the old days were nothing, eh? give me the days of Big Bill Thompson and the Everleigh Sisters

You are on top of things, Mark! It was just last evening that I heard from the Trolls that the final production steps were moving forward on the Hall of many Panes boxed set. Its release should save me answering a lot of email...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[mythusmage]

Gary's quest?

The perfect pun. The play on words so right, so devastating Humanity is rendered speechless and reality can advance to the next stage. When that happens he advances to 5th level and gets a special GMing Feat.

 

[Gray Mouser]

TSR was short on sales bacause of the loss of consumer base, so they tried to make up for that by producing a plethora of unnecessary products. That simply drove away more of their customers.



IMO the revision was mainly malicious, and there's no question it is what brought down TSR.

Cheers,
Gary

Not to start a gripe session or anything, Gary, but do you mean that the revisions in 2e were doneto basically make things in AD&D less Gygaxian?

If that's the case then there was a great deal of success in that regard (for the worse, imho). Additionally, you certainly seem to be correct regarding 2e being the downfall of TSR.

Gray Mouser