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]

It's not bad. There's a good mix of classic stories brought back and some good new ones as well and the new ones aren't "weirdness-for-weirdness's-sake" crap as written by my barista or anything. Tanith Lee still contributes short stories to it, as well as others.

Thanks for the information.

Seems as if I need to get to somewhere around here that sells magazines...no easy task these days.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Thanks for the information.

Seems as if I need to get to somewhere around here that sells magazines...no easy task these days.

Cheers,
Gary

Mmm! Your best chances would be a subscription, as I've found...the hard way. :| But I should go look around at the magazine stores we have in town as well.

 

[JamesM]

Gary,

Perhaps you can shed some light on what you see as the quintessential differences between the cleric and the paladin. Somewhere or other you once stated that the cleric was modeled on religious knights from the Middle Ages, like the Templars and Hospitallers, (correct me if I'm mistaken) but the level titles for the class -- not to mention how it was portrayed in published materials -- suggest that it was more priest than knight. Paladins seem to be the opposite side of the coin, more knight than priest but still with a touch of both.

Is this correct? I ask mostly because, nowadays especially, there seems to be a strange dislike for both the cleric and the paladin classes and it's sometimes argued that either they're redundant of one another or somehow inappropriate to D&D. Obviously, I disagree on both counts, but I'd be interested in knowing what you imagined when you added both into the game.

Thanks.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Mmm! Your best chances would be a subscription, as I've found...the hard way. :| But I should go look around at the magazine stores we have in town as well.

For some reason I dislike subscribing to any periodical...

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary,

Perhaps you can shed some light on what you see as the quintessential differences between the cleric and the paladin. Somewhere or other you once stated that the cleric was modeled on religious knights from the Middle Ages, like the Templars and Hospitallers, (correct me if I'm mistaken) but the level titles for the class -- not to mention how it was portrayed in published materials -- suggest that it was more priest than knight. Paladins seem to be the opposite side of the coin, more knight than priest but still with a touch of both.

Is this correct? I ask mostly because, nowadays especially, there seems to be a strange dislike for both the cleric and the paladin classes and it's sometimes argued that either they're redundant of one another or somehow inappropriate to D&D. Obviously, I disagree on both counts, but I'd be interested in knowing what you imagined when you added both into the game.

Thanks.

Actually the cleric was based losely on Bishop Odo, brother of Duke William of Normandy, the fictitional Friar Tuck, and a religious proscription against the shedding of blood.

The paladin was likewise loosely drawn from the Paladins of Charlemagne and the Code of Chivalry.

Changes in both archetypes were mandated by the game system for which they were designed. As they two are quite different archetypes, criticism of these classes on grounds of similarity is fatuois. The purpose of each class in the campaign milieu is quite different.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Prince of Happiness]

For some reason I dislike subscribing to any periodical...

Cheerio,
Gary

Not to mention one, where in its current incarnation, you haven't read.

 

[rossik]

I am in agreement with you, although a fledgling m-u will likely be a good deal older than a 1st level fighter. So for beginning PCs I suggest age 18 or so for a fighter or thief, age 21 or so for a cleric, and age 25 or thereabouts for a magic-user.

Cheers,
Gary

wow, tx gary!

so simple and and feel so right!
also, if you see a 80 years old mage, maybe you are in big trouble!
but if you see a 80 yo fighter....

 

[JamesM]

Actually the cleric was based losely on Bishop Odo, brother of Duke William of Normandy, the fictitional Friar Tuck, and a religious proscription against the shedding of blood.

That's interesting; I don't believe I've ever heard mention of the Odo of Bayeaux connection. It makes sense in retrospect, although Odo doesn't have the best reputation historically, being something of a schemer, even against his own kin.

I take it then, from published sources such as Greyhawk materials, that you envisioned clerics (the character class) working as priests as well as semi-warriors? Hommlet, for example, is serviced by clerics at its temple to St. Cuthbert. I presume this means you saw no need for a non-cleric "priest" class or something similar?

 

[haakon1]

About all that I am not fond of in literature are the classics and best sellers

What? No "Prisoner of Zenda", "White Fang", or "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" for you? (I'd forgotten I'd read these classic adventure tales as a kid!)

Or are you referring to heavy-weight classics, like Shakespeare (he was a pretty good writer!), "War and Peace", and "Moby-Dick".


"It doesn't have to be old to be classic." -- Slogan of "I-95" radio (WRKI), Brookfield, CT in the mid-1990s.

"It doesn't have to be classic to be old." -- Slogan of a competitor station who's not good enough to remember the call letters of.

 

[Raven Crowking]

The DMG makes mention of The Tempest in the play sample....surely you can't be against Shakespeare!

What about The Count of Monte Cristo and writers like H.G. Wells?