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]

Hello Gary,

When rolling up a Lejendary Adventures avatar, can the "additional ability" (the one that starts at a score of 10) count towards those abilites required for Avatar Orders? For example, I rolled up an Ilf that I'd like to be in the Mage Order:
1st Ability: enchantment
2nd: aracna
3rd: weapons
4th: hunt
5th: stealth

If I use the additional ability on "learning" will that start my character as a 10th Rank "Master Magician"?

Hoping to try this character out at the LGGC!

Oops! While the 5ifth (or later) beginning Ability is often required to be a member of an Order, this is not the case with Alfar.

Better check the rules for a Wylf Avatar. One must begin with the following:
Ranging @ 60% of Health
Scrutiny @ 50% of Precision
Stealth @ 70% of Precision

Two Abilities of player's choice are added @ 100% and 80%.

The added Ability @ 10% can not be Arcana, Chivalry, etc.

In short, Wylfs, as with most other non-human Avatars are not meant to be Ordered.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[ghul]

Oops! While the 5ifth (or later) beginning Ability is often required to be a member of an Order, this is not the case with Alfar.

Better check the rules for a Wylf Avatar. One must begin with the following:
Ranging @ 60% of Health
Scrutiny @ 50% of Precision
Stealth @ 70% of Precision

Two Abilities of player's choice are added @ 100% and 80%.

The added Ability @ 10% can not be Arcana, Chivalry, etc.

In short, Wylfs, as with most other non-human Avatars are not meant to be Ordered.

Cheers,
Gary

Hi Gary,

Are you wiffling me? I said Ilf and not Wylf!

I'm using the Essentials boxed set, but I do also have Lejendary Rules. Okay, so then Alfar are all Unordered avatars?... Back to the drawing board! Love this system, BTW! Still think I want to make an Ilf enchanter of sorts.

--Ghul

 

[The_Gneech]

Greetings, Gary! Your name has been invoked in the What If D&D Had Come Out Before Lord of the Rings? thread, so I was wondering if you'd like to opine on the subject. (As I said in the thread, my own theory is that there's so much pre-Tolkien pulp in D&D, that it wouldn't actually be that different, except possibly for the race selection.)

-The Gneech

PS: On your recommendation, I tried the Cyril Bonfiglioni book; I found it to be a mixed bag. I really enjoyed his writing style, but really didn't want to read what he wanted to write about. This is a problem I've encountered many times, alas!

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hi Gary,

Are you wiffling me? I said Ilf and not Wylf!

I'm using the Essentials boxed set, but I do also have Lejendary Rules. Okay, so then Alfar are all Unordered avatars?... Back to the drawing board! Love this system, BTW! Still think I want to make an Ilf enchanter of sorts.

--Ghul

Sorry, but somehow I read your Ilf as Wylf--probably because son Luke and others in my group have had outstanding Wylf Avatars. Of course Ilf Avatars must start with:
Hunt @ 60% of Precision
Stealth @ 50% of Precision
Weapons @ 70% of Precision

I usually encourage players taking Ilf Avatars to have Rustic as their 10% default Ability, if at that percentage it adding two points to Health Base Rating and affecting any Health-based Abilities.

As noted, Ilfs are not good candidates for Ordered Avatars.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Greetings, Gary! Your name has been invoked in the What If D&D Had Come Out Before Lord of the Rings? thread, so I was wondering if you'd like to opine on the subject. (As I said in the thread, my own theory is that there's so much pre-Tolkien pulp in D&D, that it wouldn't actually be that different, except possibly for the race selection.)

-The Gneech

PS: On your recommendation, I tried the Cyril Bonfiglioni book; I found it to be a mixed bag. I really enjoyed his writing style, but really didn't want to read what he wanted to write about. This is a problem I've encountered many times, alas!

I'll visit the thread and offer my opinion after I respond here, thanks

Sorry that you weren't taken with the Cyril Bonfiglioni book(s)--I assume you picked up the trilogy. They are rather campy, granted, but as I read mystery and spy fiction I didn't mind the subject matter. My patience is tried when reading books that have little action or suspense coupled with a banal or depressing theme.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[The_Gneech]

Sorry that you weren't taken with the Cyril Bonfiglioni book(s)--I assume you picked up the trilogy. They are rather campy, granted, but as I read mystery and spy fiction I didn't mind the subject matter. My patience is tried when reading books that have little action or suspense coupled with a banal or depressing theme.

I only read the first book (Don't Point That Thing at Me); it started out as a fun little caper and then wandered off into explicit torture and so forth. Being a rather dull PG-13 preferrer, 'twas not my cuppa, as they say.

-The Gneech

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I only read the first book (Don't Point That Thing at Me); it started out as a fun little caper and then wandered off into explicit torture and so forth. Being a rather dull PG-13 preferrer, 'twas not my cuppa, as they say.

-The Gneech

Hmmm...

I don't recall the torture scene as being particularly graphic, nothing like what is referred to "horror fiction" these days but is more akin to bloody sadism. The passages were short and meaningful to the iverall story and plot also. Maybe you should have kept on reading...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Gray Mouser]

Now spill the beans so that no one has to search the old zine copies to find out. Does the asterisk mean the devil was a jumper-up Pit Field?


Gary

Heh, exactly!

And please post the issue number so I can see if I can locate a copy of the Dragon in question on ebay or the local Halfprice Books!

Gray Mouser

 

[John Drake]

All I can suggest is if you do not regularly smoke cigars have your friend get you long, thin ones, not the big torpedoes such as Winston Churchill enjoyed.

I just recalled that my father used to smoke Cuban cigars with the Romeo y Julieta brand.

Cheers,
Gary

Cool, thank you very much for the info and the advice (yeah, I only smoke stogies once in awhile ), and not a moment too soon, as my pal is getting ready to embark tonight! Thanks again!

 

[Nathan P. Mahney]

Hi Gary,

I've just been reading some old issues of The Dragon, and getting into the serialised novel The Gnome Cache, only to find that it disappears into the ether, unfinished! Assuming that you are the Garrison Ernst to which the tale is credited (who else could it be with such an idiosyncratic style?), what happened to the rest of the story? Why didn't it appear in The Dragon? How does it relate to Oerth - official or not? And, why were those giant toad riding folk chasing that dwarf? So many unanswered questions!

- Nathan P. Mahney -