TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

This is the multi-year Q&A sessions held by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax here at EN World, beginning in 2002 and running up until his sad pasing in 2008. Gary's username in the thread below is Col_Pladoh, and his first post in this long thread is Post #39.

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

Light Goes ON!

Thanks Gary,

I believe I now begin to understand what motivates a TN character. Thanks for the responses.

Son of Thunder

 

[BOZ]

Happy Birthday, Phebius!

My own comes in about three weeks, the 27th.

!!

we'll have to have a birthday party in your honor on the last day of gencon, in that case.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

!!

we'll have to have a birthday party in your honor on the last day of gencon, in that case.

Thanks Boz!

I plan to be here in Lake Geneva. There's a place that sells quail in Janesville, so my birthday anniversary dinner will have them on the menu, along with some lemon merangue pie for dessert. In honor of the 65th I plan to open and have at least one big snifter of 75-year-old Armagnac and a Cuban cigar. Been saving the bottle for over 15 years. Seems better to drink it than save it for my wake, eh?

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Hi ColonelHardisson!

Well, that takes me to school on the matter of special effects

Those we see today are soo good that they are hard to distinguish from reality, and no suspension of disbelief is necessary to accept them. the cinema has made a quantum jump with computer technology, has it not?

Cheers,
Gary

Yep, and there seems to be no end in sight. Still, film FX from before the digital age has a certain "feel" to it, as though you can see the hand, so to speak, of the person doing the FX wizardry. It's very similar to the difference between digital animation like that from films like Toy Story or Shrek and hand-drawn animation like that of Disney in films like Snow White or even fairly recent films like Aladdin, or Warner Bros.' Looney Toons. I don't think either is superior to the other, and both have strengths. I'd bet we'll see a revival, of sorts, of Harryhausen-style FX sometime in the future. A glimpse of this was The Nightmare Before Christmas some years back.

Anyway, I don't want to hijack the thread any more than I have. One of these days I'll write a book on it

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Well, Colonel Suh...

Somehow I don't see the analogy between SFX and animation, but right you are. This isn't a good place to discuss the topic.

I must say, though that Dieter Sturm, a former TSR employee, won an Oscar for his SFX snow.. Dieter is still in this area, but he travels about with a big semi

Cheers,
Gary

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Well, Colonel Suh...

Somehow I don't see the analogy between SFX and animation, but right you are. This isn't a good place to discuss the topic.

Just a quick note to clarify my analogy. SFX and animation were done originally by very meticulous "hands-on" methods - the creation of models, the painting of individual cels, etc. CGI has done away with the need for these methods, not entirely, but increasingly so. For the moment, non-CGI work has a "weight" or "feel" to it CGI has not quite been able to match. Of course, that's just my own subjective view of it. I love CGI, by the way, so don't mistake me for a cinematic Luddite

 

[AmerginLiath]

As a guy who got exposed to my older brother's 1st edition AD&D books as a youth and has been a crazy D&D fanatic ever since, its great to see you here, O' Creator!

I apologize if I'm asking a question from an earlier thread, but (since you made some mention of your reactions to FORGOTTEN REALMS' release) what were your thoughts on the release of my perrenial favorite, DRAGONLANCE? Especially regarding the changes to the races and such in the new setting when it came out?

Also, what's your thoughts on the current crop of 3rd edition books sporting old-school titles? First MONSTER MANUAL (and MONSTER MANUAL 2!), then MANUAL OF THE PLANES, ORIENTAL ADVENTURES, FIEND FOLIO and the others. I'm eagerly awaiting the eventual WILDERNESS SURVIVAL GUIDE and DUNGEONEER'S SURVIVAL GUIDE!

(BTW, to this day, I still crack open the old UNEARTHED ARCANA and, my personal favorite, the original ORIENTAL ADVENTURES from time to time to read, and love to spring what original modules my brother had on my unsuspecting players, most of whom started with 2nd edition...

 

[MerricB]

G'day Gary!

How popular was the haste spell in your games?

It has been recently pointed out to me that, by the OAD&D rules, a recipient of it not only ages 1 year, but also must make a System Shock roll or die due to this aging.

Ouch!

Did you play it in such a manner? Or did the PCs quickly discover other less-risky spells?

Cheers!

 

[Geoffrey]

Gary, good ol' Merric here recently told me that in your AD&D campaign, you didn't always require player characters to train in order to gain a level (as required by the DMG). How often did you allow PCs to go up a level simply because they earned enough XPs to do so? In what circumstances did you require 1-4 weeks of training in addition to the XPs?

--Geof, who is impatiently awaiting the HALL OF MANY PANES module.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Just a quick note to clarify my analogy. SFX and animation were done originally by very meticulous "hands-on" methods - the creation of models, the painting of individual cels, etc. CGI has done away with the need for these methods, not entirely, but increasingly so. For the moment, non-CGI work has a "weight" or "feel" to it CGI has not quite been able to match. Of course, that's just my own subjective view of it. I love CGI, by the way, so don't mistake me for a cinematic Luddite

Happy 4th of July!

From my perspective--and I have pretty poor eyesight--the current CGI SFX material is so good I have to remind myself it isn't real. that;s quite the opposite of my viewing of the old stop-motion stuff CGi has for the first time made it possible to do believable fantasy films and like productions from Jurassic Park and the "Harry Potter" movies to the LotR ones.

Cheers,
Gary