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]

So much for his entry in the 1e Rogue's Gallery, then! ;-p

As I have stated before, Brian blume compiled that work, and when persons would not give him information regarding their PCs, as Rob and I did, he simp;y made up whatever suited him.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary, how pleased were you with Eric Holmes's basic D&D rulebook from 1977? Was it pretty much what you wanted, or did it in places go off the rails?

Rest assured that Dr. Holmes came to me first to propose the work, and I was in charge of the ms. when it was turned over. That is how it came to have naw material quite similar to the AD&D game--I was writing the PHB at the time, and I wanted D&D to have some of the new features of the AD&D game.

To cut to the chase, I thought that Eric did a fine bit of editing with the set

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

The wife and I both live by that motto. Grow old, but never grow up. You'll be happier.

If only my body could grasp that philosophy...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Heya, Gary,

Glad to hear you're feeling better, please accept my best wishes on your continued improvement!

Now, as a point of general interest, I read a post by one of your OD&D campaign players on Dragonsfoot, where he remarks that he and his fellows have actually managed to rout (if not completely crush) the Old Guard Kobolds on the first dungeon level of Castle Greyhawk. I was wondering if you had any comments on the matter (praise for the players, lament for the ruin of the OGK), and if you had entertained what menaces might now come to fill the void left by their passing...

The Swine!

I refer to my players and their filthy 5th level PCs of course. Picking on those fine upstanding little kobolds at their level. They should be ashamed, not bragging and thumping their chests. It took a hold person the three sleep spells to do the vile deed.

Fortunately, they are adventuring in an abbreviated dungeon level construction, so the actual Old Guard Kobolds remain unaffected, are still around to beat the crap out of lower level parties not sufficiently astute to run away and come back when they are at 5th level

The party had pretty well mapped the first level, and the only remaining force there were the OGKs, so I suppose it was inevitable that the poor little dears met their fate. It gave me some considerable satiffaction that they dropped the offending magic-user to 0 HPs twice during the enconter. It was as if the random dice determination for PCs hit was sentient, knew that he was the instrument of their doom. He dropped 12 of them with his thirs sleep spell...

The thouls awaiting the party on a lower level will wreak revenge for their depridations above. As they are active in the dungeon cmplex, only wandering monsters will be likely to be encountered on the depopulated 1st level.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[MrFilthyIke]

If only my body could grasp that philosophy...

The body's a stubborn thing at times.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hi, Gary!

I know that you like to improvise a lot of your game-judging, but I'd love to hear about how much preparation you usually put into an adventure before you run it. Do you just make up everything whole-cloth? Do you draw a few chicken-scratches for a map, then take it from there? Draw a nice map and write up an encounter key to go with it? How much detail goes into your notes? If another game referee looked at your notes, would he be able to puzzle them out (handwriting issues notwithstanding)?

Most of the time I work with prepared material, but now and again I will wing an entire adventure session--mostly when the action is in a community or outdoors. I will create details for pre-prepared scenarios, though, add to what it written or printed. My own work is usually a map with key numbers and a few sketchy notes as to the nature of the encounter, and I finn in the details when the party gets to the location. If they are able to manage a very difficult challenge, I really up the ante and then do the same for the rewards if they succeed in overcoming the adversarial conditions, whatever they might be.

When I write for publication I add a lot more detail than I do for my own personal use.

Also, as a man who can't help but drool whenever he walks into a stationery supply store, I'd enjoy hearing about what you write your notes on. My guess is that it's whatever you have at hand. You mentioned earlier that you "still" (huh?) use pencils with erasers. But do you prefer notebooks? looseleaf? graph paper? computer?

I like to use a tablet of lined paper, but if the must strikes I'll use anything handy for initial notes. when I have run out of immediate inspiration, I transfer the mess to a computer file, order the material and neaten it up. From that I usually create an outline, then go directly to composing the main draft of the work.

Graph paper I reserve for maps and plans. As I keep running out of it--or have hidden it somewhere I can't find in a hurry, not a few of my maps and plans have been drawn on plain white copy paper.

I like to use colored pencils to color in my outdoor maps.

Trust that covers it

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Virel]

Gary,

Here's a link with free pdf's to download and print various types of graph paper.

http://incompetech.com/beta/plainGraphPaper

I would like to ask about your views on the female strenght limits in OAD&D.

After playing for a while with them, as DM I dropped the limits in my campaign when a female player rolled 18/95 strength for her female fighter. One half of my long time OAD&D gaming group is female, so I let my orginal ruling from way back in 1980 still stand. The character gender ends up being about 50/50 most of the time. It's never been a balance issue, however it gives up a little realism in favor of flexibility for players.

Later one of the players and I did a little research (mid 1980's) on female strength based on the Olympic/world records etc. 18/63 seemed a realistic limit. Last year I revised the topic and based on the new records etc 18/76 seemed like a new realistic limit.

When DMing OAD&D these days, at character generation do you keep the orginal limits for females or have they been changed etc?

I agree that human males can develop greater upper body strength than human females etc.

 

[oldschooler]

I've always been curious as to how much material Gary uses in his D&D games (both original and Advanced). Would he stick with the original stuff, like the lil' brown/white box and Greyhawk supplement for OD&D and just the first few hardcovers for AD&D; or does he go all out and use the Rules Cyclopedia and stuff from Unearthed Arcana (some or all?) or the Wilderness/Duneoneer's Survival Guides?

 

[TerraDave]

Heh, and in my campaign the demi-humans and humanoids acknowledged the same pantheons as humans did.

Hello again Gary, it is nice to see the time you have taken to answer these many queries.

As a follow up to this, when did you do unique Greyhawk gods, and why?

You mention Norse dieties in the DMG, and the impression I had of the OD&D cleric and paladin was that they were basically Christian!

The first published dieties for the game were from human cultures--though some non-human dieties were added for the AD&D dieties and demigods. The first time I saw Greyhawk gods was in the pages of Dragon.

So, what motivated you to do your own pantheon?

 

[Jdvn1]

Heh. First "dude" and now "word." Colonel are you cutting a rap album or something?

Well, he's already (kind of) done television!