What is Gygaxian?

[tetsujin28]

I think this has gone WAAAY over the simple answer it needs:

Anything "Gygaxian" means something penned by Gary Gygax. It's that simple.

Indeed, and it's what I was attempting to get across. No-one else can be "Gygaxian", as only one person is Gary Gygax.

 

[radferth]

I don't know what Gygaxian game play is (have never played with Gary). My experience with Gygaxian posting leads me to belive it has much to do with good-natured discussions over minutia of gameworlds that likely have little effect on play.

I have read many of Gygax's dungeon modules. I would consider a written adventure to be Gygaxian based on the following traits:

Desriptions rather verbose with often obscure vocabulary
The adventure does not have any sort of innate plot
Actual dungeon area just a description of encounters, not much overview on how it fits together
Encounters often extremely challenging tactically
Monsters often guard treasure relating to their special abilities (e.g. basilisk guards protection from petrification scroll)
Often a large foe at the end that may be extremely difficult to find and extremely difficult to defeat

Of the 3rd ed adventures I have purchased, Forge of Fury is the most gygaxian. It basically a big cool dungeon to explore, with a tough BBEG at the end who need not be fought or even found. Compare to Sunless Citadel, in which the players much make it to the end of the adventure and defeat the bad guy to suceed.

 

[Shadowslayer]

I'm sorry...when did the term Gygaxian even become a descriptor? Admittedly, I just jumped into this thread, but it looks like everyone's trying to find a new way to pigeonhole stuff.

Course, Im not a hardcore message board guy...I'm still trying to figure out what the letters RAW stand for. (I get the gist of what it means...just don't know what the letters mean)

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I'm sorry...when did the term Gygaxian even become a descriptor?

As soon as something happened that wasn't, and people needed a way to explain the difference.

I'm still trying to figure out what the letters RAW stand for. (I get the gist of what it means...just don't know what the letters mean)

Rules As Written.

As in, the rules you find in the rulebooks, as distinct from house rules.

 

[Henry]

I'm sorry...when did the term Gygaxian even become a descriptor? Admittedly, I just jumped into this thread, but it looks like everyone's trying to find a new way to pigeonhole stuff.

Course, Im not a hardcore message board guy...I'm still trying to figure out what the letters RAW stand for. (I get the gist of what it means...just don't know what the letters mean)

I don't know if it's true, but I myself may have been one of the first people to use it on these forums, many years ago. I use it because it sounds neat. "It's an adventure of GYGAXIAN proportions!"

And as Patryn indicated, it is indeed "Rules As Written." Been around since the early days of the rec.games.frp.dnd newsgroups, too.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I don't know if it's true, but I myself may have been one of the first people to use it on these forums, many years ago. I use it because it sounds neat. "It's an adventure of GYGAXIAN proportions!"

And as Patryn indicated, it is indeed "Rules As Written." Been around since the early days of the rec.games.frp.dnd newsgroups, too.

Damn, that rings a bell.

I think I heard the term in a Dragon review, it came about as a benchmark; equal to/similar to Gygax but could have been the above post.

 

[lukelightning]

For me, "gygaxian" means:
1) Mostly dungeon crawling.
2) Less roleplaying, more combat.
3) Lots of cool names. Sure, some of you may scoff at "friend's name spelled backwards" but thinking of a character's name is one of the hardest things for me. Drawmij and Zagyg are perfect D&D names; perhaps Ekul the Gnome would work. And don't forget the best names ever in D&D: Fonkin Hoddypeak and Beek Gwenders of Croodle!
4) More situations resolved by DM arbitration rather than dice rolls (e.g. puzzles, traps, etc. that require player decisions as opposed to character skill checks).
5) Classic monsters. Even ones inpired by little plastic toys....bulette, rust monster, etc.

I don't see any overwhelming problem with a "gygaxian" game or module; it seems that this style is better for non-campaign play, such as one-shot modules, or a series of adventures that are not interconnected.

 

[Hussar]

Umm guys, note the little smilie at the end of my post? That was meant to be a joke. Sorry, I thought it was funny, even if I ripped it off of a Dork Tower comic from a few years back. Yeesh, people are touchy.

 

[Desdichado]

This isn't true for a lot of people, I being one of them. I doubt you ever truly understood what Gygaxian ever was.

Do you understand what Gygaxian is? The word is generally used one of two ways; 1) in regards to a gaming style that is heavy on random dungeons, puzzle-solving, and a heavy element of "this is a game" rather than this is roleplaying or 2) overblown, pretentious prose.

You talking about playing deep motivation characterizations, or whatever it is you're saying you played in a "Gygaxian" game mean that you don't understand the usage of the word Gygaxian. You may have been playing a game written by Gary Gygax, but that's not Gygaxian style play.

 

[Shadowslayer]

And don't forget the best names ever in D&D: Fonkin Hoddypeak and Beek Gwenders of Croodle!

Gleep Wurp "the Eyebiter" was way cooler than those other two.