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]

Two of the guys I game with were in Desert Storm. The ranger was a tank commander (now a Finance guy) and the wizard was a medical technician (now a pharmacist).

That's the good thing about the 30-something generation (I think we used to be called Gen X when we were 20-something) . . . a lot of us have AD&D hard coded to our brains, so we don't need no stinking rules to play it. Well, I haven't played it in 10 years, due to player demand for the latest version, but I figure it's still in there somewhere.

A longsword costs 15 gp, does 1-8, plate mail with a shield is AC 2, etc.

Quite so...

Even after designing two different FRPG systems and playing them extensively now and then I find myself inadvertantly thinking in AD&D terms--or even way back in OD&D ones.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

This may have already been asked a long while back.But what was the deal with Robilar? Did you turn him into a villain after the guy who played him stopped playing or was that something out of your control. The source of this question is what happens when two guys talk for 10 hours about campaign settings....

Rob Kuntz decided to have Robilar a Lawful Evil PC around the middle of 1974, IIRR. He remained with that alignment until he ceased playing the Character...whenever that was in the 1970s.

Anything about Roblilar that Rob or I did not write is not from my/our Greyhawk Camapign.

Ciao,
Gary

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

Two of the guys I game with were in Desert Storm. The ranger was a tank commander (now a Finance guy) and the wizard was a medical technician (now a pharmacist).

That's the good thing about the 30-something generation (I think we used to be called Gen X when we were 20-something) . . . a lot of us have AD&D hard coded to our brains, so we don't need no stinking rules to play it. Well, I haven't played it in 10 years, due to player demand for the latest version, but I figure it's still in there somewhere.

A longsword costs 15 gp, does 1-8, plate mail with a shield is AC 2, etc.

Amen, Ogre hit die 4+1.

 

[archibael]

Gary,

So nice to be able to chat with an industry legend... heck, pretty much the industry legend, for industry = RPG.

I've been lurking here for awhile, and reading your stuff got me interested in... reading your stuff so I dug out my old worn copies of the Gord books and am about halfway through right now. Still love them for what they reveal about your ideas for Oerth-- how I wish we had seen what you had in mind for Western Oerik and the other continents, too, aside from the bare hints we get from some of the characters Gord meets in Sea of Death.

A couple of quick questions: you mention tons of new Lower Planes denizens in the later Gord books, but the ones that jump out at me are the dumalduns, the dreggals, and the maelvis. If I recall correctly, you revealed (in the fight in Gravestone's lair) that the dumalduns were composed of malign and fell homonids (chimps, mandrills, gorillas, etc.) so I can sort of imagine the various species of dumalduns fairly well, and how to develop them in my own Greyhawk campaigns.

But what of dreggals, maelvis? Cacodemons (from Pandemonium, perhaps)? Did you actually have these defined in your campaign, or in your head, or did you just name them and figure you'd detail them when/if Gord ever encountered them? I don't hope for AD&D stats for them, but just a thumbnail sketch, perhaps? "Maelvis are automatons shaped like various living beings" and "Dreggals look like balloon animals" would be sufficient to get my imagination spinning in the right direction.

Also, in a completely separate question, how much of Gord's story changed post-TSR? At the time, I thought you had modified Gord's tale to make him more powerful and take it him a direction which would divorce him more and more from the portions of his world owned by TSR. But rereading your intro to "At Moonset, Blackcat Comes", you identified his destiny as "deposer of deities" even then, so I'm back to believing you had most of his life and times planned out (except perhaps the ultimate end of Dance of Demons-- I've got to think you wouldn't have decimated Oerth if Certain Witches had not caused you to lose the reins behind it.)

In a humorous anecdote, some time after Dance of Demons was published, someone wrote into Dragon magazine inquiring what the future of the Greyhawk product line would be now that Oerth was destroyed. The answering editor either didn't know about Dance of Demons or he deliberately pretended not to, as his answer was something like, "What are you talking about? Oerth is not destroyed. In fact, next month, TSR will release it's latest in a line of great Greyhawk modules entitled..."

Count me in for more Gord novels, BTW: and I second the suggestion made by a poster somewhere upstream: detail the ten years of Gord's llife on the high seas that we miss between Sea of Death and Come Endless Darkness. Buccaneering, Hepmonaland and the Amedio Jungle (sorry, those are probably copyright someone else now... "The Land of the Hep-men and the Amdemio Rain Forest")... I'd love to see Gord's adventures on the high seas with Barrel and Dohojar, zehaab.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hello Archibael,

Whew! That is some epistle ypu posted for me... Many thanks for the very kind words.

I will answer you in three parts: first the basis for the contemplated new Gord novel, second the undetailed/unknown critters in the books, and finally the direction of the series after I parted company with TSR.

I was thinking mainly of Gord's adventures as a young man in Greyhawk, as sketched out in Night Arrant, but your suggestion for a wider-ranging tale is worth considering! I will see what my collaborator has to say, and what input John R. Troy might have in this regard.

I never developed stats for these monsters, as none of my players were sufficiently high in level to deal with them. I envisioned Dreggals as the egg-like, bird-like-and fish-like demons or devils illustrated by Durer or Dore...or some similar artist. They are relatively weak indivudually but come in companies. Maelvis were imagined as flying demons of bat-like sort, IIRR, also of no great power individually but strong when operating in company. A Cacodemon is shown on the cover of Artifact of Evil. These are very bad critters.
Pamdemonium is a likely home for them.

the course of Gord's story changed considerably after I parted from TSR...that is pretty evident from the destruction of Oerth. Tharizdun would have been neutralized in some other manner had some more palatable conclusion of my association with TSR been the case. As a matter of fact I had in mind another story that would effectively restore Oerth--an alternate one, but virtually the same as Gord's original homw world, but where Tharizdun did not exist.

It is most likely the magazine editor's response was aimed at negating the tale I wrote that destoryed the World of Greyhawk.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Troll Lord]

I have sent a note to Troll Lord Games about game donations for the troops in Iraq.

I was never quite up for GMing the EPT game, but I did have fiun playing it/

Cheerio,
Gary

TLG is fairly active in sending material to troops stationed overseas. At least we try to be. We've shipped boxes of PHs and MTs to the 101st last year and again this to troops in the Green Zone and Kuwait. These all go free of charge of course. I just shipped a box of material for Ziggeraut Con as well.

Its not really explained on our website but anyone any branch of the military gets an automatic 50% discount when ordering TLG products from the site and any units in theater get material shipped to them for free. We do a simple check on our end to make certain the recipient isn't some crazy dude from Wisconsin (you know how those folks in Wisconsin are haha) and once cleared, we ship. So pass the world along to your military buddies both over here and over there.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[ragboy]

I came out of the OD&D/AD&D set. We played 2nd, 3.0 and 3.5, but as a group, we've always ended up back at AD&D. My kids and I just started an OD&D game, and I just 'discovered' OSRIC.

Any thoughts on it and C&C bringing more gamers (new and old) back into the AD&D/OD&D fold?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I came out of the OD&D/AD&D set. We played 2nd, 3.0 and 3.5, but as a group, we've always ended up back at AD&D. My kids and I just started an OD&D game, and I just 'discovered' OSRIC.

Any thoughts on it and C&C bringing more gamers (new and old) back into the AD&D/OD&D fold?

The only effective means of actually bringing significant numbers of new participants to the RPG hobby is by an extensive campaign of advertising a simple starter RPG at a reasonable price.

Anything else is basically fighting over existing perticipants, and old-timers teaching their children to game.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Good on ya, Troll Lord!

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

The only effective means of actually bringing significant numbers of new participants to the RPG hobby is by an extensive campaign of advertising a simple starter RPG at a reasonable price.

Anything else is basically fighting over existing perticipants, and old-timers teaching their children to game.

Cheers,
Gary

I couldn't agree more. I know several kids locally here that wanted to get into D&D but couldn't because of the $90+ buy in. This is why I absolutely love C&C, $40 and you have everything you need. I am very excited to see the C&C Quick Start Rules being distributed on Free RPG Day as well.