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.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

(serious)

Why would I, as DM, allow my players to mess up the Campaign World?

I just want them to have fun. That's my only goal. I do the work, and they have the fun. What fun I get out of the game, as DM, is from empathy: I empathetically share the enjoyment of my players.
If their idea of having fun is something game-breaking, all I can do is ... try (lame as the attempt might be) to somehow keep it from being game-breaking, while still letting them get away with it.
I put a restriction on all-evil parties or mixed alignment parties with evils included: they have to be lawful good to each other, regardless of their behavior otherwise. I've learned the hard way what happens if I don't do that (the group breaks up, even if they were previously friends.)
Things that are patently silly, ridiculous and ruinous (I Wish them all dead. I Wish myself King of the World. In a day I create a new magic item that eats cities for dinner. I open a Gate to the center of the sun to blow up the planet. I summon Cthulu to devour all life.) I disallow ... except in the case of very young gamers making one-time attempts at such things. In that case, something does happen, but what happens is messy, unpredictable, a grave threat to the party, hopefully fun, and the Campaign World is little if any changed.

I view myself, as DM, as a servant of the players. I exist to cater to them. If they are not having fun, I feel like a failure.
The only problem with this approach is ... it can cause a nervous breakdown. Trying to please other people, much less a whole crowd of other people, is an awfully hard thing to do.
I've never run a game, period, where at least one player didn't end the game in misery. I'm afraid that my approach to DMing is just inherently fatally flawed.
But I don't know of a better way. I really don't. Honestly, I don't.

 

[gordonknox]

Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

Hello Mr. Gygax,

Could you talk a little bit about the Lost Caverns?

What was the driving force behind this module? Why so many new monsters (not complaining, big Behir lover here)? What role if any did Caverns play in your world? Last but not least, how did you come up with the name Tsojcanth and how do you pronounce it?

Thanks

gk

 

[Beale Knight]

(serious)

Why would I, as DM, allow my players to mess up the Campaign World?

I just want them to have fun. That's my only goal. I do the work, and they have the fun. What fun I get out of the game, as DM, is from empathy: I empathetically share the enjoyment of my players.
If their idea of having fun is something game-breaking, all I can do is ... try (lame as the attempt might be) to somehow keep it from being game-breaking, while still letting them get away with it.

I have to echo Edena's sentiments here. When I designed my campaign world I designed it to BE broken by the players. Not easily to be sure, but certainly possible. I told them this up front, even asked them to break it. That's how I'm going to having my fun, seeing what they can do, watching them try wacky stuff, and having the powers of the world react accordingly. If the players try things that aren't well thought out, they'll pay the price, but I'm all for letting them make wholescale changes in the campaign world.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

To Gary Gygax from Edena_of_Neith:

(quietly)

Since you asked about the IR, I will provide a link to the 1st and 2nd IRs.
The 1st IR was not a tabletop game, but rather a ... it just happened, for lack of better terminology. It was not a PBP game; it wasn't intended as a game at all. It was just a question I asked because I felt depressed, and wanted to find some humor by asking a nonsensical question.
The 2nd IR was a continuation of the story that had developed in the 1st IR.

It is a long read, being around 1,000 posts. Were it a book, it would be over 300 pages, maybe 400 pages long.
Caution on the link: it will take some time to come up, after clicking on it, unless you have a high speed cable modem.

Since you did ask, and seem curious, I'll put up the link. Read at your leisure. And ... hey, what the heck? ... you might find yourself entranced, and even amazed, at what happened after about 40 or 50 posts in ...

As for me, I'm not gloating, preening, or otherwise showing off.
I'm reminescing, remembering the past, remembering something beautiful that will never happen again (for me.)

(humble, solemn look)

And I'll say it one last time, to you the Creator of the Game, as I said it so many times to others: It was my PLAYERS who made the beauty and the magic, not me. I give THEM the credit for everything that happened. And ... they gave something special back to me, which I'll keep forever. They gave me their time, their friendship, their joy and excitement, and they gave me all the magic and wonder that the Game and Hobby was meant to be about.

Here is the link:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=73784

Yours Very Sincerely
Edena_of_Neith

 

[Orius]

I was not aware of the cable TC channel ads for D&D. Good to leanr that there were some. A lot more are needed,

Well, I don't anything about WotC's marketing strategy, but my guess is that they are handling things rather conservatively, and so not spending money on a broad TV advertising campaign. While bolder measures may very well be needed to build up the gaming community, I think over the short term they're more concerned about losing money like TSR did before it went bankrupt.

 

[Orius]

Your Chromatic Orb spell from Unearthed Arcana was a favorite of mine.
We know it was an Autokill spell at 12th level, if the mage could hit with it (and the dreaded and immensely popular elven fighter/mage, always could ...)
We know it was dropped in 2nd Edition AD&D.

Chromatic Orb appeared in both the Complete Wizard's Handbook and the Wizard Spell Compendium in 2e.

 

[Omegaz]

Indeed, the cartoon was excellent advertising for the D&D game

Now tell the truth, Peter, It was surely Bobby the Barbarian and Uni that were your favorites

Cheers,
Gary

Hi Gary,

Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us.

I was wondering what your opinion of the D&D movies was? Do you think they've done anything to help grow the rpg audience? I thought the first movie was pretty wretched, but the second is getting good reviews.

Sean

 

[BOZ]

I view myself, as DM, as a servant of the players. I exist to cater to them. If they are not having fun, I feel like a failure.
The only problem with this approach is ... it can cause a nervous breakdown. Trying to please other people, much less a whole crowd of other people, is an awfully hard thing to do.
I've never run a game, period, where at least one player didn't end the game in misery. I'm afraid that my approach to DMing is just inherently fatally flawed.
But I don't know of a better way. I really don't. Honestly, I don't.

a wise man once said, "you can please all of the people some of the time, and you can please some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time."

if you're trying too hard to make other people happy, then *you* might be missing out on *your* fun, and that's defeating the purpose of running a game.

 

[Steverooo]

Why allow the players to mess up the campaig setting?

Yeah! Why, those PCs are always messing up your evil plans! Best to keep the pesky adventurers out of your worlds, all together! Why, they might even expend one of their weapon proficiencies on a Spetum, or a Ranseur, or... even go BOHEMIAN on you, and select an EARSPOON! Such advantage takers cannot be tolerated!

 

[haakon1]

On expanding the audience, I noticed with approval that my FLGS carries "The Idiot's Guide to D&D". It does a decent job of explaining what's going on for complete newbies. It's possible that with it, and the PHB and DMG and a module, someone could teach themselves to play without the usual helpers.

I think that might expand the game, mostly because it could lower the intimidation factor for new players. This particular FLGS mostly sells non-RPG stuff -- Warhammer, board games, puzzles, etc., and their audience is a mix of 8-40 year olds, with the younguns sometimes crying for D&D, with apparently knowing what it is.