D&D General Whom has had a greater impact on D&D? Gygax or Greenwood?

[Zsong]

Greenwood, Weiss and Hickman. Not even in the ball park. The next after Gygax and arneson would be someone like Tom moldvay and zen cook. Or even Jeff grubb. Or some other early contributors like marsh or winters. Lots of great people.

zero disrespect intended for Greenwood, Hickman, or Weiss

 

[Zsong]

3e was the era of Eberron and the Adventure League used Living Greyhawk. The official setting of 4e was Nentir Vale and only 2 published adventures took place in FR.

The OP should have been worded differently if the author wanted a different result.

I suspect Greyhawk may be one of the 3 classic settings that will get reedited this year. After the excellent Saltmarsh it would be fitting that Gygax's setting gets more attention.

(Tom Moldvay should also be in the top positions. His rewrite of the Holmes basic set was very important in communicating better how the game should be played.)

I will add that many so called forgotten realms adventures in 5E are rewrites of adventures that took place in greyhawk.

 

[Oofta]

Which one? There are at least a half-dozen people who could be credited as the inventor.

In fact, a comparison of Gygax to Ford is quite apt, since while there are a lot of people who could be credited with inventing the RPG, it was clearly Gygax who made it a mass phenomenon.

Was it though? Depending on who you believe, Arneson was just as fundamental to the game. Gygax had few organizational skills and the game changed constantly and was largely improvised. His rules were haphazard and contradictory at times. While very creative, I don't know that TSR would have gotten off the ground without the help of others. Little mention is ever made of the playtesters and people who actually made the game work.

Which is not to minimize his work in any way, he was important to the process. But would RPGs have happened without him? Who knows. It's like how we give Edison credit for creating the lightbulb. He didn't ... he did set up a lab and hired smart people who helped him improve the lightbulb. I think it's quite possible we'd have a different foundational RPG if it wasn't for Gygax, he was just the guy who got the spotlight.

 

[Guest User]

3e was the era of Eberron and the Adventure League used Living Greyhawk. The official setting of 4e was Nentir Vale and only 2 published adventures took place in FR.

The OP should have been worded differently if the author wanted a different result

I had no desired outcome when I started this thread other than conversation.
Nor, am I surprised that Enworld's Grognards voted overwhelmingly for Gary,
(I would have been surprised if the opposite had happened, frankly).

Eberron may have been introduced in 3e, but the setting was introduced later in the development cycle. Eberron is a much, much better fit for 5e.

3e was thirsty for feats, and the Dragonmarked feats, often required an investment of 2 or more feat selections. 5e bypasses this, by developing interesting "race" alternatives.
5e also puts a greater emphasis on roleplaying, and less emphasis on constantly increasing "your numbers".

Adventure League, RPGA Network, Tournament Games....most players, even hardcore players, don't play in 'official' organized play.

My innate response to cries of "What about A.L.?"
is similar to my response when people exclaimed "What about the children?"
in the period of the late 80's/Early 90's.....typically I want to mock them.
My alignment is Neutral Good,(with naughty word tendencies)

 

[Guest 85555]

In terms of helping D&D reach a larger audience, I think you could argue that R.A. Salvatore was instrumental. As were Weis and Hickman. Still I think Gygax and Arneson are the two big founders and influencers of the hobby. Everything that came after was built on that foundation.

 

[Shardstone]

Dunno.

I personally think Matt Mercer is more important at this point. Or whoever on the WotC team figured out that tapping celebrities would make the game balloon. Or Mearls/Crawford for putting 5E back on top again since it was declining in 4E.

Gygax hasn't been influencial on the game since he was kicked out. The Forgotten Realms is nothing like what Greenwood envisions it anymore. D&D is so far removed from its roots in all but name that its hard or me to consider someone having a bigger influence beyond the people who've made the game the mega-hit it is now.

I realize I'm younger than >50% of this forum, but from my generation's perspective (like I'm some kind of voice for the people...lol), Gygax and Greenwood are pretty far removed from what D&D is now.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I realize I'm younger than >50% of this forum, but from my generation's perspective (like I'm some kind of voice for the people...lol), Gygax and Greenwood are pretty far removed from what D&D is now.

“But what have the French ever done for cuisine, anyway!”

Do you play a game called Dungeons and Dragons?

Do you use classes?

Do you use armor class?

Do you roll dice, specifically a d4 - d20, with d10 used as percentiles?

Do you use six standard abilities?

Magic items? Artifacts? Have you heard of fireballs and magic missiles? Of Tasha and Mordenkainen and Melf?

Does the name Vecna ring a bell? How about tomb of horrors and Acererak?

What about the outer Planes and the denizens there? How about core creatures like Drow?

Why are the core three books of each edition called the PHB, the DMG and the MM?

Spells go up to nine- why not eleven, like spinal tap?

I could keep going, but sure, what has Gygax and the other olds ever contributed to D&D, anyway?

 

[Zsong]

Dunno.

I personally think Matt Mercer is more important at this point. Or whoever on the WotC team figured out that tapping celebrities would make the game balloon. Or Mearls/Crawford for putting 5E back on top again since it was declining in 4E.

Gygax hasn't been influencial on the game since he was kicked out. The Forgotten Realms is nothing like what Greenwood envisions it anymore. D&D is so far removed from its roots in all but name that its hard or me to consider someone having a bigger influence beyond the people who've made the game the mega-hit it is now.

I realize I'm younger than >50% of this forum, but from my generation's perspective (like I'm some kind of voice for the people...lol), Gygax and Greenwood are pretty far removed from what D&D is now.

I kinda agree and disagree. They tripe of settings that will be developed in the future will be greatly different I think. But the classic pseudo medieval setting will I think always have an appeal.
But what gygax and arneson brought to the game is still core to d&d. That is hp, classes, spell system, names of spells, names of magic items. The way we look at dragons, chromatic and metallic, still important to the game. And there are still a lot of 1E players out there. I can jump into a 1E game online easily. OSR has not waned one bit.

 

[Maxperson]

So whom do you think has made the greatest impact on D&D?

At this point, given the role The Forgotten Realms has played in D&D over the decades, I think Ed Greenwood, has made more of an impact on the hobby than Gary Gygax. What do you think?

Without Gygax all Greenwood has is a story and a lot less fame.

 

[Shardstone]

“But what have the French ever done for cuisine, anyway!”

Do you play a game called Dungeons and Dragons?

Do you use classes?

Do you use armor class?

Do you roll dice, specifically a d4 - d20, with d10 used as percentiles?

Do you use six standard abilities?

Magic items? Artifacts? Have you heard of fireballs and magic missiles? Of Tasha and Mordenkainen and Melf?

Does the name Vecna ring a bell? How about tomb of horrors and Acererak?

What about the outer Planes and the denizens there? How about core creatures like Drow?

Why are the core three books of each edition called the PHB, the DMG and the MM?

Spells go up to nine- why not eleven, like spinal tap?

I could keep going, but sure, what has Gygax and the other olds ever contributed to D&D, anyway?

Oh man, I'm sorry, this is going to sound rude, but I really don't care. I don't know who Melf is. To me, Tasha and Mrdenkainen are NPCs with really weird snippets of lore throughout their books.

I know Gygax and Greyhawk set all this up but man, that was 40 years ago, and the game is radically different now. Yes, Gygax was influencial, but his influence isn't so much that it could save D&D during the 4E years, now was it?