D&D General I'm Too Sexy For This Game: Gygax, Signals, and Erudition in AD&D

Snarf Zagyg

Notorious Liquefactionist
Supporter
Dammit, Jim, I'm a bard-killer, not a writer of pointless essays that no one wants to read!
Somehow, in the comments on my last essay (about combining the Gauntlets of Ogre Power, a Girdle of Giant Strength, and the Hammer of Thunderbolts in AD&D) I managed to get sidetracked into possibly ... no .... DEFINITELY the nerdiest topic I have ever discussed on EnWorld. And given I've done deep dives into the history and origin of the Haste Spell and where saving throws came from ... that's saying something. But today, I am going to talk about something that not even most grognards dare speak of .... the use of signals in AD&D (1e).

Let me start with providing some basic background information. I'm going to be talking about "Gygaxian AD&D," aka "1e" - and more specifically, the original Player's Handbook ("PHB" ... the idol cover) and the original Dungeon Master's Guide ("DMG" ... the Efreet cover). Now I've previously discussed by love of "High Gygaxian" - that purplish verbiage that sparked my imagination (and so many rules fights). If you aren't familiar with High Gygaxian, here's one of the great examples (from D3: Vault of the Drow):

The true splendor of the Vault can be appreciated only by those with infravision, or by use of the roseate lenses or a gem of seeing. The Vault is a strange anomaly, a hemispherical cyst in the crust of the earth, an incredibly huge domed fault over 6 miles long and nearly as broad. The dome overhead is a hundred feet high at the walls, arching to several thousand feet height in the center. When properly viewed, the radiation from certain unique minerals give the visual effect of a starry heaven, while near the zenith of this black stone bowl is a huge mass of tumkeoite -- which in its slow decay and transformation to lacofcite sheds a lurid gleam, a ghostly plum-colored light to human eyes, but with ultravision a wholly different sight.

The small "star" nodes glow in radiant hues of mauve, lake, violet, puce, lilac, and deep blue. The large "moon" of tumkeoite casts beams of shimmering amethyst which touch the crystalline formations with colors unknown to any other visual experience. The lichens seem to glow in rose madder and pale damson, the fungi growths in golden and red ochres, vermillions, russets, citron, and aquamarine shades. (Elsewhere the river and other water courses sheen a deep velvety purple with reflected highlights from the radiant gleams overhead vying with streaks and whorls of old silver where the liquid laps the stony banks or surges against the ebon piles of the jetties and bridge of the elfin city for the viewers' attention.) The rock walls of the Vault appear hazy and insubstantial in the wine-colored light, more like mist than solid walls. The place is indeed a dark fairyland.

Indeed! If there was a dweomercraft in there somewhere, he could have dropped the mic. Now, I am not one to psychoanalyze Gygax, but ... others have, and others have said that Gygax was highly intelligent but may have ... overcompensated in his use of language due to a feeling that his life (insurance company, shoe repair, lack of formal education) did not match his internal image of himself. Maybe.

But if you've ever read the original PHB or DMG, you might have noticed these weird things, or more likely glossed right over them. Random scatterings of ... "q.v." These, and other markings, are signals. Since I haven't seen them described before, I will try and explain what they are, and why Gygax was using them.


A. What are Signals?
I'm going to start with a brief legal aside. In legal writing, there are a set of introductory phrases or words that are used before citations that let the reader know how the cited source relates to the preceding text. There are a number of different signals, but they fall into four categories- signals that indicate support, one signal that indicates comparison, signals that indicate contradiction, and one signal for background material.

That's vague, so here's some examples from supporting signals.

1. Green cars are better than red cars. My Sword v. Bard's Neck, 100 F. 3d 200, 203 (3d Cir. 1990).
[No signal] means the case directly supports what I wrote.
2. Green cars are better than red cars. See My Sword v. Bard's Neck, 100 F. 3d 200, 203 (3d Cir. 1990).
See means that the case clearly, but not directly, supports what I wrote.
3. Green cars are better than red cars. E.g., My Sword v. Bard's Neck, 100 F. 3d 200, 203 (3d Cir. 1990).
E.g. means that there are lots of cases that support what I wrote, but I'm lazy and I'm only giving you one.
4. Green cars are better than red cars. Cf. My Sword v. Bard's Neck, 100 F. 3d 200, 203 (3d Cir. 1990) (holding that blue cars are better than red cars).
Cf. means the case supports a different proposition, but I think it's good enough.

So that's a brief introduction to signals. Now, in academic formal writing, and even in informal writing, we see similar uses of signals, Latin, and abbreviations. Sometimes it is used for formal academic purposes, like when introducing a citation (See ...). Sometimes we use abbreviations in other contexts (e.g., i.e.)- often incorrectly .... but we all remember that i.e. is to provide a more precise explanation or clarification, while e.g. is to give examples, right? NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND! Sorry, I collect pet peeves like Pokemon.

With that background, let's turn to what Gygax uses in the PHB and DMG, what it means, and why he uses (and uses and uses and uses) them.


B. If Latin is Dead, Why is it All Over the PHB and DMG?
The PHB and DMG have the following signals (abbreviations) spread throughout:

cf.- Latin for "confer" meaning "compare." As noted above, the author is encouraging the reader to compare two claims (one provides a different perspective/support).
n.b.- Latin for nota bene, meaning "note well." It's the author saying, "IMPORTANT! PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!"
q.v.- Latin for quod vide, meaning "on this (matter, issue) go see" It's a way for an author to refer to something else in the book that deals with the same subject matter.
qq.v.- The plural of q.v., it's Latin for quae vide. It's the same as q.v., except that it's used to deal with multiple references.
see- No LATIN! This just refers the reader to support for the proposition.

Here's the thing ... Gygax LOVES ... absolutely LOVES ... using various signals. And once you pay attention to the way they are used, and the various meanings that they have, it clears up some of the confusion in the rules... because they do have specific meanings. Let's look at some specific examples of each!

1. Compare
Detect Magic: Only the fact that a dim or strong magic exists can be found by clerics (cf. magic-user spell of the same name).
You are being told to look at this rule and compare it to the text of the detect magic spell for the magic user. If you compare, you will see ...
Detect Magic: This spell detects the intensity of the magic (dim, faint, moderate, strong, very strong, intense) and there is a 10% chance per level of the caster that the type (abiuration, alteration, etc.) can be found as well, although if a dual type, the detection percentage applies to both and must be rolled for separately.
Bingo! So the Cleric spell is much weaker. The Cleric spell only gives you two levels of intensity, the MU spell gives you six. In addition, the MU version gives you a chance of learning the type of magic.

This is represented by the roll of d6 for each person involved in pushing, pulling, lifting, sliding, or whatever. A roll of 1 or 2 typically indicates success, anything above indicates the door still remains unopened. (Cf. PLAYERS HANDBOOK, Character Abilities, Strength.)
This is a generic rule (a roll of 1 or 2 on a d6 generally opens a door) but you are told to compare that with the specific rules for opening doors provided for PCs in the strength section of the PHB- which can provide better chances to open a door.


2. Note Well
Animate Dead: It is, of course, possible to animate the skeletons or corpses of demi-human and humanoid, as well as human, sort. If creatures with more than a basic 1 hit die (or 1 + hit die) are so animated, the number of such skeletons or zombies will be determined in hit dice rather than total numbers. Thus, a cleric of 6th level could animate 6 skeletons of human or humanoid sort which in life had less than 2 hit dice, 3 such undead which in life had less than 3, but 2 or more hit dice, or a single undead creature which had 6, but less than 7, hit dice. For each such additional hit die, the skeleton or zombie will gain another die. Thus, the animated skeleton of a fire giant, an 11 hit die monster, is 10 over the norm for a skeleton normally animated, so it would have 1 + 10 hit dice (lld8). Likewise, a fire giant zombie would have 10 dice over and above the sort of creature typically made into a zombie, so it would have 2 + 10 hit dice (12d8). N.B.: This does not enable a cleric to make skeletons or zombies of characters of 2nd or higher level have more hit dice; such undead are simply human skeletons or zombies with 1 or 2 hit dice, nothing more.
This is a clarification (a NOTE WELL) of the rule. You can count hit dice to make your mega-powerful pet undead, but you can't count character levels. A 15th level fighter brought back as a skeleton is just a skeleton.


3. See
Resurrection: The cleric employing this spell is able to restore life and complete strength to the person he/she bestows the resurrection upon. The person can have been dead up to 10 years cumulative per level of the cleric casting the spell, i.e. a 19th level cleric can resurrect the bones of a person dead up to 190 years. See raise dead for limitations on what persons can be raised.
This is a signal to go to the spell "Raise Dead" to determine the "limitations on what persons can be raised." So ...
Raise Dead: When the cleric casts a raise dead spell, he or she can restore life to a dwarf, gnome, half-elf, halfling, or human.

You can't resurrect an Elf. #NOTSORRY


4. Q.V. and QQ.V.
I'm going to start by saying that this is Gygax's FAVORITE signal. He uses it more than 200 times combined in the PHB and DMG. Honestly, the PHB is basically just him typing q.v. a lot, punctuated by an occasional table. Each time he uses it, he is referring you to another part of the text; a q.v. (and a qq.v.) is a cross-reference.

Lunacy: This violent and often homicidal state occurs whenever the moon is full, or nearly full. The afflicted character will generally behave as one in o maniacal state, with paranoid (q.v.), hallucinatory (q.v.), or homicidal (q.v.) tendencies.
This refers you to the rules entries for "paranoid," "hallucinatory," and "homicidal."

The whirlwind is identical to that caused by a djinni (q.v.). Plane travel is similar to the psionic ability of probability travel (q.v.), but travel is possible only to the various planes.
First, you are referred to the "djinni" entry (it's right after that word) in the Monster Manual to understand the whirlwind. Next, you are referred to "probability travel" in the PHB psionics entry.


Now for possibly my favorite example showing how to unpack the rules and the use of signals:

The wizard-locked door or object can be opened only by breaking, a dispel magic, a knock spell (qq.v.), or by a magic-user 4 or more levels higher than the one casting the spell.

The signal (qq.v, referring to the prior series) refers the reader to three (3) rules. Two are spells (dispel magic and knock). The third refers to breaking a wizard lock (which is located in Strength Table II in the PHB). But this is where it gets interesting. Because there are four methods to open a wizard locked door- the three methods listed in series (qq.v.) OR by a magic user four or more levels higher than the one who cast the spell who ... can just open it. I know! Close reading matters. For those who haven't thought about it recently, it's right there.


C. Eh, Why Bother With This?
This is a great question. I mean ... looking at what I've just written .... eh. I guess, to quote George Mallory, "Because it's there." Hmmm... it ended well for him, didn't it? Anyway, this all just happened to pop up in a discussion in an older thread, and while it's kind of weird and very (OH SO VERY NICHE) it's also pretty interesting. Look, most of us remember the High Gygaxian prose, but I'm guessing a lot of us just forgot about how weirdly pseudo-academic parts of the PHB and DMG could be. We all joke that even his table had tables ... but even his cross-references had cross-references. Sometimes, he put them in, I am reasonably sure, because he could.

I think that there were a lot of useful signals in there- and some that actually can definitively end rules debates. But some of them? Some of them are just so .... so .... stupid. Here's one-
A paladin character is a fighter sub-class, but unlike normal fighters, all paladins must begin as lawful good in alignment (q.v.) and always remain lawful good or absolutely lose all of the special powers which are given to them.
WHY? WHY DOES THAT NEED TO BE THERE????

Or this one-
Fighters have a ten-sided die (d10) for determination of their hit points per level. No other class of character (save the paladin and ranger (qq.v.) subclasses of fighters) is so strong in this regard.
DO YOU MEAN THE TWO SUBCLASSES THAT START ON THAT PAGE ... VERILY, THE SAME COLUMN THAT IS REFERRED TO? WHY???? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY GYGAX?

Right there? That's why most people ended up glossing over the signals. Because while they did have real meaning and real uses a lot of the time, at a certain point he was just putting them in because HE COULD. And so, in my opinion, a lot of people just began to ignore them, even though they had a real meaning and use some of the time. Anyway, if there's a point to this, it's this- next time you're digging around some of the 1e material thinking about a rules question, if you see a signal, pay attention to it ... it might actually shed light on the rule.

But maybe not. GYGAX!!!!!!!
 

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