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]

Hi Draxx,

You are most welcome, and as I always hasten to point out, I've really had a great time creating and playing all these years. BTW, you've been playing RPGs about as long as my son Luke, asd he hits age 33 this coming autumn.

And as for posting, heh, and a first time for everything

I have a dual d20/LA game system module out now, THE HERMIT from Troll Lord games. It is not a short adventure, more of a mini-campaign, but it can be slipped into any campaign setting, likely.

Coming this summner from the Trolls is a like dual-system super module, likely a year of play that's titled HALL OF MANY PANES. They are wrestling with its 700 + pages of ms, now, and it will likely be a boxed set when released.

Other than those, Chris Clark and I have done a big dual-system campaign module, CASTLE WOLFMOON, but it isn't quite finished yet, and Chris hasn't told me what the publishing arrangement is to be. Its ms. has not hit over 500 pp...

For the future I have a request to do an "old school" type module of around 24 pp. printed form length, but I haven't had time to so much as begin to plot it out yet.

If things break right, Rob Kuntz gets back online and is willing to commit to a two-year project, we might well do a new version of my old castle and dungeons, "Zagig's Castle," in a generic format that will be compatible with as many systems as possible, including OA/D&D

Cheers,
Gary

 

[KDLadage]

Mr Gygax:

First of all, greetings and salutations! One of the things I have always enjoyed about these baords is reading the various things you post within them. Although I disagree with you on many things, I find your opinions to be well thought out and interesting, at the very least. This goes for your regular Dragon Magazine gig as well. OK... now that the traditional apple-polishing is done, on to my question for you.

Looking back over the evolution of the Role Playing Hobby in general and the Dungeons and Dragons game specifically, there are a lot of things that have changed, been dropped and added along the way and morphed into things they may not have been originally intended to be. So... given the vast array of things that decended from those early works of yours and those that worked/played with you -- I have two questions -- each in two parts:

• Question 1, Part 1: Of all of the rules that have managed to survive the OD&D, D&D, AD&D, AD&D2e, D&D3e train, which one (that your originally wrote) would you have most liked to have seen disappear by now?
• Question 1, Part 2: Of all of the rules that have managed to disappear somewhere on the OD&D, D&D, AD&D, AD&D2e, D&D3e train, which one (that your originally wrote) would you have most liked to have seen survive the journey?
• Question 2, Part 1: Of all of the rules that have managed been added to the Dungeons & Dragons rules set, which one (that your did not originally write) do you look at these days and slap your forehead saying, 'Man, I wish I had thought of that one!'?
• Question 2, Part 2: Of all of the rules that have managed been added to the Dungeons & Dragons rules set, which one (that your did not originally write) do you look at these days and slap your forehead saying, 'Man, what were they smoking when they thought of that one!'?

Thanks, and good day sir!

 

[Ulrick]

At the risk of incurring the wrath of some of the folks who have given you their recollections:

As far as I am aware, there was no RPG available before the D&D game was created. The closest thing to it, aside from gtames of "Let's Pretend" sort were psychological ones and the Inter-nation Sims that were run popularly for a time in the 1960s.

There is no question that I wrote every word of the original D&D game. Dave Arneson has said so himself in an interview in the now-defunct magazine Different worlds (issue #3, as I recall).

I sent the original 50 pp. ms. to about a score of other wargamers I was close to back in 1972. Most of them were college students. Indeed, these individuals game me a lot of feedback, so that in about two months of time after sending out the initial draft I rewrote the game so that the ms. was 150 pp length. That was likewise mailed out, this time to about twice as many persons for play-testing and input.

Chalk up the false stories to envy and jealousy There isn't one person who can come up with a shred of evidence contrary to what I state forthrightly above, mainly because there isn't any. Rather like the post here some time last year that claimed I had bashed female gamers. That chap claimed he'd find and post the proof, and I'm still waiting

Anyway, that said, I do hope you can discver Standing Bear's English name, as my curiosity is piqued.

Cheers,
Gary

That's what I figured on both accounts. And, now that I think about it, you're right, the game Standing Bear played wasn't really an RPG. From what I've been told, he did have some rules or guidlines but it never was published. It more along the lines of "let's pretend."

I chalk the stories up to either envy or jealousy or just as a game of "telephone." I can easily imagine Standing Bear way back in the day coming from Gen Con saying to people:

"I played D&D with Gary Gygax! He's a really great guy. Very friendly."

Then one of the those people says to somebody else, "Standing Bear met Gary Gygax and Gen Con. Then they became friends and they played D&D."

And then the story gets passed from person to person, altering slightly, of course, till finally it gets to the current form of "Standing Bear was friends with Mr. Gygax and he helped make D&D."

I find these stories very entertaining but I don't put much stalk into them. Even before now, I knew the truth that YOU were the one who created D&D.

Yay!

Thanks again.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

[snip]

I find these stories very entertaining but I don't put much stalk into them. Even before now, I knew the truth that YOU were the one who created D&D.

Yay!

Thanks again.

Heh, and me and all whole lot of others, beginning with my father's bedtime stories about magic rings and cloaks of invisibility, my mother's hours of reading to me, the local gang of boys I played with, Jim Rasch who was the director in "realistic cops & robbers type games I played when I was 10, and so many others I can't begin to name them--friends, authors, fellow gamers--who contributed to the process

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Geoffrey]

KDLadage, those are some fine questions. I hope I don't presume in saying that, of all the rules in the 1974 D&D game, the ability of clerics to turn undead might be the one Good Sir Gygax wishes had vanished.

Of course, that's only a guess, based on a paragraph in the original published version of Necropolis. (Sorry, I don't have it with me or I'd quote it.)

 

[Clay_More]

Greetings Gary, welcome here (if it hasn't been mentioned aplenty already).

Unfortunately, I am one of the younger players here (tender age of 24) so I have only vague memories of my first edition playing experience. It was the second edition D&D that really made me aware of the game, even though it was hideously tortured under the dire treatment of a young and inexperienced player.

Someone sent me the basic books (which were actually translated into Danish, something they completely gave up in 3 rd. edition for some reason) while I was living in Angola. Unfortunately, there wasn't any D&D community at all, so the game depended upon my interpretation of the rules and my introduction of these to the new players. Unfortunately, I had gotten something horribly wrong when reading them, and thought that the levels stacked.. Which means, I thought that if a 1 st. level fighter had 1d8 hitpoints and it said 2d8 for a second level fighter, that had to be 3d8 in total. I did the same for spells etc. (which actually made a spellsheet something 8-10 pages long for a relatively high level wizard).
Off course, the monsters were very low-power once the characters gained a few levels. I ended up pitting the players against 22 Gold Dragons, 38 Silver Dragons etc. just to challenge them. As I mentioned, I really tortured the game...

Fortunately, I actually went back to Denmark and encountered a Danish teacher that played it with his sons (he also explained the rules better to me). With him I also had one of the most memorable moments in my D&D carreer. We, as a group, entered a Wizards stronghold. We knew that the Wizard would have some henchment, but were still surprised when we entered a huge room with large tables and chairs. On these, 300 ogres sat and ate huge pieces of boar meat and drank from huge gallons of wine. Half of the ogres were males, other half was females. Instead of merely sneaking through the room, which was quite easy, our wizard explained that it probably was an illusion and he would dispel it right away. Or dwarf warrior simply nodded, didn't know much about magic anyways. The wizard cast his dispel magic which actually worked. Yet, all of the ogres werent illusions.
The wizard, knowing the nature of ogres, had created illusionary female companions for them. The food, which had been magically created, had been made well-tasting and interesting with magic as well. Even the music playing was an illusion. So, suddenly, the 150 (real) ogres stand amazed, as all of their female companions dissappear, their food suddenly turns into something boring and bland and the music vanishes. As the ogres begin looking around, trying to find out why all their entertainment vanished, the Dwarf looks at the Wizard and asks; "Is this good or bad?"

Anyways, thanks for the game Gary. And I hold you personally responsible for the fact that half of my childhood memories contains orcs...

 

[Col_Pladoh]

[snip]

... As the ogres begin looking around, trying to find out why all their entertainment vanished, the Dwarf looks at the Wizard and asks; "Is this good or bad?"

Anyways, thanks for the game Gary. And I hold you personally responsible for the fact that half of my childhood memories contains orcs...

Heh! Gotta love that dwarf!

And Clay_More, you should be happy that those memories are of orcs, not orgre, right?

When my son Luke was about seven years old two of his older sisters made him DM (OAD&D, of course) for them, and they dictated what treasure was found when opponents were defeated. Finally he came to me, and I invested him with the "DM's Crown," thus putting an end to that abuse. Young players do many odd things to an RPG, but all in fun

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

KDLadage, those are some fine questions. I hope I don't presume in saying that, of all the rules in the 1974 D&D game, the ability of clerics to turn undead might be the one Good Sir Gygax wishes had vanished.

Of course, that's only a guess, based on a paragraph in the original published version of Necropolis. (Sorry, I don't have it with me or I'd quote it.)

Clerics turning undead was a needed ability that seemed to get out of hand. While I do not regret the ability, I must admit that I used many "fudge" methods to get around that, so my precious undead critters would not be so easily disposed of by the party's priest. In fact, here's one I never got around to putting in a module or otherwise writing about:

Amulet of Magnification: A magic item made by an evil cleric to protect undead serving him this item functions so as to raise the negative energy of the wearer by one or more levels (up to three in the most potent form of the device). When a cleric attempts to turn the subject wearing the amulet, the magnification is triggered.

I also had one that multiplied the negative energy of the undead, so that each one with such amulet was effectively equal to 2 to 5. It didn't work as well against high level clerics, though, with automatic destruction...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Almost Missed this Post!

Mr Gygax:

First of all, greetings and salutations! One of the things I have always enjoyed about these baords is reading the various things you post within them. Although I disagree with you on many things, I find your opinions to be well thought out and interesting, at the very least. This goes for your regular Dragon Magazine gig as well. OK... now that the traditional apple-polishing is done, on to my question for you.

You have the hubris to admit that you often disagree with me, not treat my every word as canon, and then dare to fob that off as proper homage? See if I bless your dice

Looking back over the evolution of the Role Playing Hobby in general and the Dungeons and Dragons game specifically, there are a lot of things that have changed, been dropped and added along the way and morphed into things they may not have been originally intended to be. So... given the vast array of things that decended from those early works of yours and those that worked/played with you -- I have two questions -- each in two parts:

• Question 1, Part 1: Of all of the rules that have managed to survive the OD&D, D&D, AD&D, AD&D2e, D&D3e train, which one (that your originally wrote) would you have most liked to have seen disappear by now?
• Question 1, Part 2: Of all of the rules that have managed to disappear somewhere on the OD&D, D&D, AD&D, AD&D2e, D&D3e train, which one (that your originally wrote) would you have most liked to have seen survive the journey?
• Question 2, Part 1: Of all of the rules that have managed been added to the Dungeons & Dragons rules set, which one (that your did not originally write) do you look at these days and slap your forehead saying, 'Man, I wish I had thought of that one!'?
• Question 2, Part 2: Of all of the rules that have managed been added to the Dungeons & Dragons rules set, which one (that your did not originally write) do you look at these days and slap your forehead saying, 'Man, what were they smoking when they thought of that one!'?

Thanks, and good day sir!

Whoa! Those are excellent questions, but they subsume that I have complete familiarity with the versions of the game noted. Fact is that I played 2E only a couple of times, and never read through the books, and after my contractual read through the draft mss. for the 3E PGB and DMG, I've not read the final texts.

Actually, I don't much enjoy drawing comparisons, so I am going to let this go at that

Cheers,
Gary

 

[dreadnought]

Here's a way off-topic question for you Gary -- how have you managed to balance family and gaming? I ask because I am one of the old-timers here who started gaming with the White Box set.
I am about to be introduced to parenthood in a few weeks and its the first time in my quarter century of gaming that I've wondered if it might be time to hang up the dice for a while.
How did you cope with both? I'm pretty heavily involved because aside from my weekly game, I'm also freelancing for a d20 company and planning to start up my own d20 company in the near future (as well as holding down a full-time career).
Any tips?
Cheers, Andrew

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Here's a way off-topic question for you Gary -- how have you managed to balance family and gaming? I ask because I am one of the old-timers here who started gaming with the White Box set.
I am about to be introduced to parenthood in a few weeks and its the first time in my quarter century of gaming that I've wondered if it might be time to hang up the dice for a while.
How did you cope with both? I'm pretty heavily involved because aside from my weekly game, I'm also freelancing for a d20 company and planning to start up my own d20 company in the near future (as well as holding down a full-time career).
Any tips?
Cheers, Andrew

Hi Andrew!

Your query takes me back a lot of years--when I was working a full time job, writing on the side, playing some games by main, and gaming on weekends. I managed that and time with the family...barely. By doing my gaming work after 10 PM I could get in a couple of hours a night and thes spend a good part of the weekend with games too. I managed to get by on about 5 hours sleep a night then, and likely I should have spend a bit more time with family matters that I did...

These days I spend about 10 hours a day on game-related things, but that's my occupation, and when necessary I can drop almost anything to see to family affairs. With my youngest being age 16, dad isn't always wanted around--he gets in the way Most evenings are strictly family time, and son Alex plays in my weekly PRG game session too.

With young children around there is likely a need for more time spent with them, so maybe you'll need to cut back on both gaming time and sleeping hours as well.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Clay_More]

I was actually wondering about a few things as well though. I remember that I saw an episode of "Futurama" where you appeared, was that yourself that was doing the voice for that?
I really liked the episode, they make fun of people yes, but they do it in such a good-hearted manner.

"I am.... (rolls dice) .... happy to see you"

When you speak of your children playing as well, I cant help but to remember what I answered when my girlfriend asked me how many children I would want to have. I answered "5" and she asked "Why", to which I responded: "Well, I need two to play fighters, one to play a rogue, one to play a wizard and one to play a cleric".

 

[MerricB]

G'day, Gary!

Early autumn here in south-eastern Australia is treating us fairly well; the weather is nice, though a bit more rain would be appreciated. I hope the weather is nice around you and your family!

Young Grace seemed to enjoy her first experience of D&D. On to the second experience this evening...

I was just wondering: has your development of the Lejendary Adventures game system altered your perceptions of roleplaying systems?

Cheers!

 

[mythusmage]

A Tale of the Days of Eld

Back when the Greyhawk supplement was a work in progress clerics used 2d6 to turn undead*. As I recall, you needed a 7 or better to turn skeletons, and an 11 or better to turn zombies.

One fine day a party entered the local gilded hole in search of treasure, experience, treasure, magic, and treasure. Along the way they kept running into skeletons and zombies.

On the first occasion the party's doughty cleric stepped forward with his holy symbol held high and intoned in stentorian tones (or as stentorian as a lad of 20 can muster), "Back to the depths of Hell, ye foul creatures of corruption and pestilence!"

Nothing. The skeletons marched on and the party fighting men had to chop their way through the calciate horde. (Is "calciate" a word… …I guess it is now.)

This was repeated again and again, until the fifth encounter when a discouraged, tired, and cranky cleric looked at the mixed bag of skeletons and zombies and mumbled dispiritedly, "Oh, go away."

They went away.

From that moment on in that group the magic words for turning undead became, "Oh, go away." Never failed.

*Everything back in those days called for a roll of 2d6 to determine success/failure. If not for Lou Zocchi and his decision to carry polyhedrals in his catalog (and his later decision to manufacture polies of higher quality than those then available) we'd now be talking about the 2d6 System.

 

[satori01]

Hi Draxx,


If things break right, Rob Kuntz gets back online and is willing to commit to a two-year project, we might well do a new version of my old castle and dungeons, "Zagig's Castle," in a generic format that will be compatible with as many systems as possible, including OA/D&D

Cheers,
Gary

Not that you would have any direct control of the licensing aspects, but "Zagig's Castle" as the name for what EVERYONE knows will truly be Castle Greyhawk is an affront to the hobby and frankly poor buisness on WOTC end. How inclusive can the "castle" be? Would you be able to include in it sections or levels used in older modules?
(I have fond memories of an oAD&D module set in Castle Greyhawk,(it had Mord on the cover I believe), with a nasty demon, a Sword of Ebon Flame, a intelligent Purple Egg shaped stone that could impart information,(I love that egg btw and have blissfully resued it many times), and my favorite a mosiac pattern that would telport people to other worlds if the correct bronze plaque was found).

I wish you the best of health Gary, and leave you with one final question,(I'll ask the Egg if I need to):

Was Al Gore TRULY a 10 level VP, or was he more like 6th level?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I was actually wondering about a few things as well though. I remember that I saw an episode of "Futurama" where you appeared, was that yourself that was doing the voice for that?
I really liked the episode, they make fun of people yes, but they do it in such a good-hearted manner.

"I am.... (rolls dice) .... happy to see you"

Heh, and yes, that was my voice. David X. Cohen is a former DM, and a great guy. It was fun talking with him and doing the VO for for the episode

When you speak of your children playing as well, I cant help but to remember what I answered when my girlfriend asked me how many children I would want to have. I answered "5" and she asked "Why", to which I responded: "Well, I need two to play fighters, one to play a rogue, one to play a wizard and one to play a cleric".

As good a reason as any I've heard. I've had six, but sadly all three girls gave up RPGing. the boys--two men now and living away from home, still play when they can find time. Young son Alex is heavily into computer gamingm but he is a regular in my weekly RPG campaign

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

G'day, Gary!

Early autumn here in south-eastern Australia is treating us fairly well; the weather is nice, though a bit more rain would be appreciated. I hope the weather is nice around you and your family!

Young Grace seemed to enjoy her first experience of D&D. On to the second experience this evening...

I was just wondering: has your development of the Lejendary Adventures game system altered your perceptions of roleplaying systems?

Cheers!

Howdy Merric

Here in Wisconsin March held up to it's repute, came in like a lion with cold and snow. Yesterday things warmed to about 40 F., and the rest of the week looks to be fairly mild as well, so likely March will go out like a lamb as the old saw predicts.

As for the LA game's effect on my prespective, it's a horse and cart thing. My perspective was altered and thus I wrote the basic work. Now that horse is indeed carrying me along further I find that the system enables more creative thinking for me and does not force perspective to alter to suit the rules.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hola Alan!

Great post

There was a method to the madness of the 2d6 chack, both the bell curve total for turning and the number of the undead turned by the cleric.

Lou and a lot of others sure hopped on the dice bandwagon, which is good, because TSR was producing lousy dice for sure. Another thing to be grateful to Kevin and Brian Blume for...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Not that you would have any direct control of the licensing aspects, but "Zagig's Castle" as the name for what EVERYONE knows will truly be Castle Greyhawk is an affront to the hobby and frankly poor buisness on WOTC end. How inclusive can the "castle" be? Would you be able to include in it sections or levels used in older modules?

WotC surely holds the marks using "Greyhawk" as valuable properites, and so they will not allow use by others. That's no problem to me, as I believe that the name we've likely chosen is sufficiently well known to convey the correct information to the potential customer.

As for use of other material, other than some side adventures that one could get transported to from the dungeon levels of my original Castle Greyhawk, as expanded by Rob's inclusing as co-DM, none were ever published. That TSR released had nothing to do with my work--that product was bogus in respect to what the real dungeons we created were like, and the concensus amongst the knowledgeable was that the product was done to discredit the original material they had no rights to. The side adventures published were DUNGEONLAND, LAND BEYOND THE MAGIC MIRROR, and ISLE OF THE APE. Several more such adjunctive areas were never written up for publication.

I wish you the best of health Gary, and leave you with one final question,(I'll ask the Egg if I need to):

Was Al Gore TRULY a 10 level VP, or was he more like 6th level?

As a Libertarian, I'll have to concur with your assessment of Al Gore, somewhat lower than 10th level

Cheers,
Gary

 

[BOZ]

hi gary! i have a question. have you had a chance to see the Tome of Horrors by Necromancer Games? if so, what did you think of it?

Monte Cook said: "Having seen the 3.5 PH and the Tome of Horrors, if I could have only one of them, I'd choose the Tome of Horrors.

(This is not a slam against the 3.5 PH. It's praise for the ToH.)"