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.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Would love to see the map on that!

My hand-drawn map covers an area of c. 44 by 34 miles extent, with descriptive text expanding it to a possible 64 by 54. I am hopeful that Darlene will do the map, as she did the original World of Greyhawk pair. I put her in touch with Troll Lord Games in this regard.

Anyway, the size was kept relatively small so as to be such that it could be dropped into a campaign world setting without undue difficulty

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Joe123]

Hi Gary,

I understand that you are the author of the rulebooks for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st edition). I am curious as to why you renamed the game from Dungeons and Dragons to AD&D?

thanks,
Joe123.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Dear Esteemed Mr. Gygax, inventor of my hobby, and chief deity of my pantheon,
How does it feel to be an adjective? see here
I bet they got what the term means wrong too.
I apologize, if this has been asked before.

Feel free to call me Gary, as I am a fellow gamer, right?

The term in question simply makes me shake my head in wonder. So many people opining without any actual knowledge to base their assertions upon is astonishing to me.

I read those posts, and I had to chuckle. Nobody seems to know what "Gygaxian" means. I sure don't after perusing the lot. there's a considerable amount of confusion in regards to my DMing style, and not a few people there blowing hard without having an inkling of what it is like.

If I set out to kill PCs, how on earth did Tenser, Robilar, and the rest ever get to relatively high levels? What the whiners don't like are adventure situations where they lose their PCs due to their own inept play. My modules don't suffer fools lightly

One poster was quite on target by mentioning running away as an option...

Any advice on how a ferret might level? I gave my brother's PC a ferret as a sort of NPC buddy. This creates some unusual situations. Gold is being split two ways between my brother's PC and his Elf NPC buddy, but monster experience is split three ways. There was enough treasure in the first dungeon to let my brother's Thief go up to level four in one adventure, while the Elf went up a level too. The ferret is lagging by a bit. [this D&D where Elf is a charater class and there are three alignments].

I'm creative enough to come up with a solution myself, but some advice from the master is always apreciated.

There's not much advice I can give in regards the ferret--cool little critters, ferrets I assume you are increasing the familiars HP and attack chance for it's part in adventuring success. You might also increase it's AC as it learns to move and dodge even more quickly.

As an aside, I don't think you should ever allow a PC to gain more than one level from an adventure success.

Hope that served to answer your question.

Cheers.
gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

2004 and 2005 could not arrive quicker for me!

LA, box sets, hardbacks, C&C, Z's Castle............I must say, lots to look forward to!!

Whoa! Now I feel guilty not producing faster. I am in the midst of trying to pare doen the LA game monsters to a suitable size for a primer set, and it is so hard. So many great crutters, so little space...

The hardbacks will follow paperback core rules supplements, as we don't want the fans who have the current books to feel we are forcing them to buy the new editions.

The ZAGYG'S CASTLE project is a really massive one, so I need to clear the decks of most of the other major undertakings like the boxed set and revised LA editions so as to concentrate for a couple of years on completing the castle and dungeon levels. All of this should keep me out of trouble and not complaining of boredom for some time to come

Heh,
Gary

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

My hand-drawn map covers an area of c. 44 by 34 miles extent, with descriptive text expanding it to a possible 64 by 54. I am hopeful that Darlene will do the map, as she did the original World of Greyhawk pair. I put her in touch with Troll Lord Games in this regard.

Anyway, the size was kept relatively small so as to be such that it could be dropped into a campaign world setting without undue difficulty

Cheers,
Gary

That would be fantastic if you can get Darlene to do it.
ken

 

[Col_Pladoh]

My husband and I are anxiously awaiting both the C&C game and Zagyg's Castle, especially after reading all that it will entail! I'm drooling on my keyboard here! Not pretty, but true... As soon as I hear that pre-orders are being taken, I'm plunking my $$$ down! There's not much I'm willing to buy rpg-wise, sight unseen, but Zagyg's Castle and C&C definitely both make the cut.

Well, Indigo Rose...

I am not sure when the Trolls will be releasing the first of the ZC material, as I haven't turned anything over yet. As I mentioned, I am awaiting the monster roster for the C&C rules so as to be able to populate some dungeon-like areas included in the camapign base module, Yggsburgh.

Meantime that are working on the dual d20/LA game system HALL OF MANY PANES boxed set module and the LA primer boxed set. Hmmm... Looks as if I have gotten them into a lot of boxed set work with my writing.

Heh,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

This is another project I'm looking forward to. We've already got the "complete" LA rules, but (and maybe this is just because we're getting older and our brains just aren't as flexible as they used to be!) we've had a difficult time wrapping our heads around the different game concepts. In other words, we keep wanting to refer to AC, hit points, etc. I'm hoping that the boxed set will be to LA what the old "Basic" boxed sets were to AD&D back in the early 80's, and I can just ease my way into the game! If we had a LA gaming group in the area, it would probably be easier on us, but it's just the two of us right now. Lots of things to look forward to!

Indigo Rose
Knight of the Woeful Countenance

I know what you mean! When I write the LA game I purposely used as many new terms for the established D&D ones so as to assist the new participant to think in LA game terms, for the system plays differently, and requires a shift of gears from a class-based RPG to a skill-bundle-based one that is rules-light.

Surf on over to www.lejendary.com and download the free "LA Quickstart Rules" pdf. Just reading it will likely serve, but it is a complete and ready to play adventure with sic pre-generated characters included, lots of advice for the new Lejend Master too

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hi Gary,

I understand that you are the author of the rulebooks for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st edition). I am curious as to why you renamed the game from Dungeons and Dragons to AD&D?

thanks,
Joe123.

Howdy Joe


The AD&D game was suibstantially different from the D&D game being revised at the same time AD&D was written, so to distinguish the one sysyem from the other it was determined that "Advanced" should be included in the title, dor AD&D ahead of D&D in new concepts and details. The two systems played quite differently, but came from the same base.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

That would be fantastic if you can get Darlene to do it.
ken

Serendipity, Ken!

Darlene emailed mr some months back to say "hi," and let me know how things were going. Shortly after an exchange of such messages, the ZAGYG'S CASTLE project began to move forward, so I mentioned to her that perhaps she might be interested in doing the map. So now Darlene and the Trolls are in correspondence regarding the matter. Hope that they can reach an agreement

Cheers,
Gary

 

[jokamachi]

Hey Gary,

This is a bit off-topic, but do you have any thoeries about the Kennedy assassination?


Jokamachi