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]

Your first point is well taken, Hasbro does indeed own the D&D brand. As far as your say not being official; Well, you're just plain d*mn wrong. To thousands (if not millions) of gamers around the world, it doesn't matter who owns the name, you'll always own The Game. You created it and too many people count your opinions on it as LAW.

I guess you've not been to RPGNet

In regards to OAD&D, I suppose I am as well versed as most in regards the mechanics even though I haven't played the system as I did back through the mid-80s, have dabbled maibnly since 1986.

Your opinions on things long out of print are very important to a lot of people, so don't be afraid to anwser questions you don't think matter. If they didn't matter, they wouldn't have been asked you.

Afraid? Not bloody likely. Reticent and lazy, perhaps

When it comes to OOP material, Habro/WotC simply doesn't care (i.e. we can't get such anwsers from them).
Oohhh, I feel much better now. Hope I didn't sound too harsh, Colonel; My venting valve just gave way

In my seldom humble opinion Hasbro.\/wotC doesn;t give a tinker's damn about the whole system, save as a cash cow, or else they would never have done what they did, including divestature of GenCon, the Dragon magazine, and not producing modules. I will leave the new game to speak for itself.

Do check out the C&C game....and maybe Lejendary Adventure too

Cheers,
Gary

 

[thufur]

Cash Cow

I so want to go on a rant about WoTC and Hasbro.

Instead, the terrasque. I asked you a while ago about the moondog and you mentioned most of the MM II creatures are yours - if so, where did you come up with the idea for the terrasque? Did any of your campaigns have to deal with it? Is dropping green slime on it the only tactic that works?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

In my seldom humble opinion Hasbro.\/wotC doesn;t give a tinker's damn about the whole system, save as a cash cow, or else they would never have done what they did, including divestature of GenCon, the Dragon magazine, and not producing modules. I will leave the new game to speak for itself.

Could a company that didn't do all this remain solvent?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Could a company that didn't do all this remain solvent?

Yeah, and why all the hate?

Surely GG should know that hatred leads to the Dark Side, eh?

I guess, I don't know, this is my joking way of scratching my head and saying, "Huh." I mean, after all, I have a blast getting together and playing D&D with my friends. I've done so for how many years, now? Well, a lot (though not as many as others, of course), ever since I started playing one fateful night on a Boy Scout camporee - having only had console RPG* experience up until that point, my axe-wielding human Fighter wanted to know if the wolf whose head he'd just split was carrying any gold.

It's a bit disconcerting (if you'll forgive the analogy) to have the father of RPGs look at you like a red-headed by-blow because you like the current edition.

Of course, I address this not to any specific, personal comments, but rather to the general tenor of this thread and its ilk. :\

* - Early NES, Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, to be specific.

 

[Llaurenela]

Yeah, and why all the hate?

Surely GG should know that hatred leads to the Dark Side, eh?

I guess, I don't know, this is my joking way of scratching my head and saying, "Huh." I mean, after all, I have a blast getting together and playing D&D with my friends. I've done so for how many years, now? Well, a lot (though not as many as others, of course), ever since I started playing one fateful night on a Boy Scout camporee - having only had console RPG* experience up until that point, my axe-wielding human Fighter wanted to know if the wolf whose head he'd just split was carrying any gold.

It's a bit disconcerting (if you'll forgive the analogy) to have the father of RPGs look at you like a red-headed by-blow because you like the current edition.

Of course, I address this not to any specific, personal comments, but rather to the general tenor of this thread and its ilk. :\

* - Early NES, Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, to be specific.

If you are not a munchkin, with all perfect numbers across the board and every possible feat etc added to your character and you don't whine when a character gets killed off, then I would not take anything you mentioned as being directed at you.

There is nothing wrong with the current edition, if you like a rules heavy game with everything defined and spelled out. On the other hand if you like to let you imagination roam free and you like being able to roll up a new character in under 5 minutes and be ready to play as soon as the ref (DM) can fit you back in the game then try Original Dungeons and Dragons the way it was played back in the mid 70's and the way thousands of people still play. To each his or her own. To my mind 3.0 and 3.5 take so much time and paperwork that there is too little time left to play. I like rules lite fly by the seat of your pants. I find it more fun. If you have fun playing the current edition, then continue to do so. The fact that some of us may wonder how you can have fun doing it is not your problem and we don't think about it except when someone brings it up anyway, we are too busy having more fun with the older version.

Llaurenela

 

[gideon_thorne]

On the other hand if you like to let you imagination roam free and you like being able to roll up a new character in under 5 minutes and be ready to play as soon as the ref (DM) can fit you back in the game then try Original Dungeons and Dragons the way it was played back in the mid 70's and the way thousands of people still play. To each his or her own.

And you can do the same thing with Castles and Crusades. *shameless plug*

 

[Devall2000]

Gary,

How often do you or did you drink during gaming sessions? I read an old post recently where it sounds like you were drinking whiskey and used the occasion as an opportunity to take away two vorpal blades from a PC.

I drink a beer or two every now and again during a session. Although, there was that time we played until 5 in the morning where I had more than 2.

BTW, I liked what you had to say about Nut Brown Ale. I've considered buying it in the past while looking around for something and intend on getting it the next time I see it in the store. I didn't see it this evening so I decided to get some Hefe-Weizen.

Finally, is it still possible to get the LA Quickstart PDF off of www.lejendary.com? I've looked around a little but haven't seen it.

thanks,
Jamie

 

[Steverooo]

Pish!

The scrap from iron battleships would feed all the Oerth's rust monsters for a century, that without considering automobile junkyards

Heh,
Gary

Ah, Pish-tush, Sirrah! Very few of ANY of those, on Oerth!

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I so want to go on a rant about WoTC and Hasbro.

Instead, the terrasque. I asked you a while ago about the moondog and you mentioned most of the MM II creatures are yours - if so, where did you come up with the idea for the terrasque? Did any of your campaigns have to deal with it? Is dropping green slime on it the only tactic that works?

Bah!

I said MOST, not ALL!

Actually the terasque is the creation of Francois Marcela Froideval, and if there are other ways to wipe one out, he alone is likey to know. What a brute! *Take your choice in regards the subject of the last statement...)


Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Could a company that didn't do all this remain solvent?

You can't be serious...

Of course such a company would bE solvent, for the fans would surely support it. hoiwever, it wouldn't likely meet the bottom-line demands of a big publicly held toy company such as Hasbro.

TSR got into trouble when it stopped serving the needs of its consumer base. In 1982 it made over $16 million gross, with about 25% of that pre-tax profit, and long term debt was about $1 million--easily payable with an average month's receipts. at that time DRAGON was not making any profit. GenCon paid for itself, but dislocated production for a week or two. Adventure modules were profitable SKUs.

Cheers,
Gary