Panel on Gary Gygax

[Umbran]

Hey, folks!

At this year's Arisia convention in Boston (Arisia 2009 | The Fabric of Science Fiction), it looks like I've been tapped to moderate a panel on Gary Gygax, "his life, accomplishments and legendary influence on gamers everywhere."

If you were going to such a panel at a convention, what topics would you like to see covered?

 

[Filcher]

It'd be interesting to see/explore how Gygax's contributions to table top RPGs extended into the CRPGs, and maybe trace the same threads into film (if they exist).

Who do you have on the panel? It must be tough to get "authoritative" sources.

 

[howandwhy99]

Filcher has it in a nutshell.

The history, health, and livelyhood of his largest contribution of course: Dungeons & Dragons.

And then culture of gaming grown up for the last 30+ years in the pen and paper community.

A very large part will have to deal with the computer roleplaying simulation games and their enormous success.

Plus, his influence on authors and screenwriters bringing their homebrewed gaming worlds to the storytelling mediums of print and screen.

 

[DaveyJones]

whenever i think back on my time in gaming and egg comes to mind i find myself humming the song by the indigo girls: galileo

how did a man of faith come to terms with all the negativity from the establishment and yet witness all the good/potential that his work could do or did do?

 

[Umbran]

Who do you have on the panel? It must be tough to get "authoritative" sources.

Considering how small a con Arisia is, by today's standards, yes. Authoritative sources are hard to come by. I honestly don't recognize the names of any of my panelists, and they haven't given me pedigrees. As the panel moderator, I can't expect to lean on any of them to carry the discussion.

Thus the question to the collective mind - I can go prepared with a bunch of topics to discuss, and if/when one runs dry, move on to the next.

Anyone else have ideas?

 

[thedungeondelver]

edit - Got your mail.

 

[Kaladhan]

If I was to attend a panel on EGG, I would like to hear about :

1. Who played what character in classic Greyhawks stories. It may be a well known subject, but I know nothing of it.

2. Early DnD modules, such as the Tomb of Horrors. Do they have their place in today's gaming?

 

[Mother Superior]

How much of the game was actually his invention and how much grew out of the creativity of others?

The evolution of the game from its earliest beginnings (wargames?) to Chainmail to 1st Ed. AD&D. What they decided to add to each previous incarnation of the game, and why.

If Gary were alive, I'd like to ask him: In retrospect, would you have formed TSR or would you have continued simply filling orders from your basement?

 

[grodog]

Who's on your panel already, and does Arisa have a travel budget for the show? Since it's over Presidents Day weekend, I could perhaps offer my services if they'd be useful?

Given that Arisa appears to be a SF show, I imagine that some portion of the panel discussion would cover Gary's fiction writing??

 

[broghammerj]

Umbran,

I'll throw out a few ideas. I would first ask yourself to define your role as moderator. This sounds easier than it really is. My experience with moderators stems mostly from medical conferences with experts presenting either research, discussing cutting edge treatments, or best practice guidelines. In most of these, the moderators do very little except move the conversation along by asking poignent questions and maybe a few comments. I would define them as being mostly "passive" as they do not present anything directly to the audience. However, they do set the stage by establishing the topic the panel will discuss.

A few suggestions:
1. Figure out who your panelists are. Have them shoot you an BRIEF email on what Gary meant to them. Ask what their role is in the industry. Hopefully they will have given you people with different perspectives. You said you couldn't lean on them, but someone somewhere chose them for a reason. They have to know something. The key is to flesh it out before hand.

2. Establish the format you will have the panelist present in. Is this a round table discussion? Will they prepare some sort of powerpoint slides? Is it a question and answer session?

3. Decide your role...active or passive? If passive you should contact everyone ahead of time and tell them what to expect at the session and what you expect of them?

4. Have you been to this con before? If not, ask them to put you in contact with someone who has and clarify the setup/format.

5. Perhaps contact some of Gary's family, previous WOTC employees, or search old blogs for posts around the time of his passing to see what they think of Gary's legacy.

A few things I think would be cool:

1. A history of Gary presentation....how it all started, his days at TSR, his days after TSR. Many people off the net probably don't know what happened to him after he left TSR.

2. Depending on the expertness of your panel, A debate on Gary's legacy....One side takes the position that he is the founder of DND and the other side is he is the creator of a whole genre of CRPG/literature/art. Mind you this is not to diminish Gary's legacy or in away take away from the man after his death. It would be a discussion of how far do you believe his influence extends. (This topic is a bit difficult to make clear on a post but something comparable to people saying every piece of fantasy lit since Tolkien is a cheap imitation...etc.)

3. Another debate topic: SciFi/Fantasy literature influencing DnD or DnD influencing Fantasy lit.

4. The mysteries of EGG unraveled. What do we know of Gary's personal game. Who played which characters, explain castle Zazyg, etc. What other parts of Gary's game world became Dnd/Greyhawk.

I'll think of more.....just give me a bit.