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Morrus, As a memorial to Col Pladoh, how about collecting all of his posts (not just the Gygax Q & A) here at ENworld and put them in a sub-forum? That way future generations can find Gary's anecdotes, musings, puns, etc. all in one place? There's also quite a bit of historical gold in some...

In older editions of D&D, a spellcaster could attempt to read a scroll of a spell higher level than normally castable. The chance of success or failure was dependent on how many levels of difference there were between the minimum caster level for the scroll and the actual level of the caster...

While my daughter is only 4 years old at the moment, I'm planning ahead for when she is ready to play D&D. Which version of D&D would you recommend for young children? Basic D&D? Which version? Or is OD&D (1974) the One True Game™ for all ages?

If Elves can breed with Humans, and Orcs can breed with Humans then why not Elves and Orcs? Why no Elveorcs or Orcelves? I should think an Orc/Drow combination quite potent.

I've been playing D&D for 30 years and have come to the conclusion that D&D is unfun for the following [tongue-in-cheek] reasons: Level Drain: Whether from undead or lifestealing swords, losing levels is unfun. When my character loses levels I have to refigure the character sheet. And losing...

Just for fun, I thought I'd write up a list of monsters that as far as I can tell were created by Gygax and not borrowed from another source. Using this criteria, rust monsters are in (inspired by a cheap plastic toy) but the gorgon is out (the bull form appears in a late Medieval bestiary)...

Inspired by the biggest homebrew thread, I am once again attempting to organize my Grymwurld™ material for publication both on the web an in .pdf format. Speaking from the perspective of a player, what do you look for in a home brew on the web and/or in .pdf files (free or purchase)? I guess I...

Just for fun, let's imagine the following: A group of adventurers kill some monsters and bring home their carcasses along with some exotic flora and tell their chef to cook it. Now you as the cook are very well paid by these adventureres and they have sophisticated palates. What do you cook...

What was the name of the maggot-deity in the original [OD&D 1975/76] Tekumel game? Something like Sarku, Sarcu, Sarqu, Sar'ku, Sar'cu, Sar'qu?!?

What do you call an illiterate wizard? … A sorcerer! :p Seriously, what do you do for pre-literate scholarly spellcasters? In RL ancient history, bards, druids, and Vedic priests would memorize vast amounts of hymns, poetry, rites, and rituals. For a long time, there was a persistent belief...

First off, I'll state that I believe every serious player and DM should own a copy of the complete OD&D set if for no other reason than to understand the history of the game and to see the original artwork and rules for the iconic classes, monsters, spells, magic items, etc. The new OD&D boxed...

From the article, “Development Doesn’t Like Much, part II” Sean K. Reynolds had mentioned doing the same thing for his campaigns. Does anyone have access to this list from Chris or Sean? Or do they have their own? And do you think this will make its way into 4th Edition? Inquiring minds...

WOW! I recently bought the Robin of Sherwood DVD boxed set (US released in March) and find it highly inspirational with lots of things to put into my campaign. A brief background: Robin of Sherwood was a TV show broadcast in the UK around ’83–’85 and later in the US on Showtime in the late...

Below is my skills, feats, & sanity wizard which I call the Magus. My attempt is to present a scholarly magician with a Mediæval flavour, albeit with sanity as the price to pay rather than one’s soul. In addition I believe that scholars would have lots of skill points to invest and that they...

A poster in another thread (which I can't find at the moment) posited a comment along the lines that the members of the Fellowship of the Ring carried multiple magic items. I thought it was very few, but perhaps the experts of the ENworld community could elabourate. Gandalf carried glamdring...

Scenario You are the king of a prosperous kingdom and like most kings, engage in wars with your neighbors from time to time. Some of your children wish to become knights of renown (or maybe wizards, clerics, &c.). Naturally you encourage their career choice but you want to ensure that your...

In Grymwurld™ I’ve used the following magical healing rules ever since 1st ed. AD&D: All magical healing is empathic and vampiric. When a cleric casts Cure Light Wounds (or any other healing spell), the cleric incurs damage equal to the amount healed. This takes one hand. The cleric may inflict...

Are you so geeky that you gave your kids fantasy or mythic names? My daughter's middle name is Brynhild and my son will have Beowulf as his middle name. One of my players named his first son Alexander and the second son Arthur. Another player named his daughter Raven. Not quite the same, but...

I've seen a number of references here and of course OoTS for Dwarves with Scottish accents. What is the origin of this stereotype? The LotR movies featured John Ryhs-Davies as Gimli. John spoke with his native Welsh accent. Baldur's Gate II featured an NPC Dwarf with a Scottish accent? Is...

Throughout the years playing Grymwurld,™ I've alluded to a primordial sentient race of saurian humanoids. Children of Ophion and ancestors of the Yuan-ti and Lizardfolk. Off the record, I've told my players that this primordial race is heavily influenced by the Sleestak (and their Altrusian...