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.

 

[Gentlegamer]

What really irritated me about it is that I told Schick to kill some of the truly silly monster entries, gave him some of my own work to replace them, and the fool included the crap likely just to be a pain as he knew he was leaving the company then.

I'm sure we can all figure out what the silly monsters were, but can you remember any of the replacement monsters of your own that you wanted included? I'm assuming they showed up in MMII.

 

[Geoffrey]

I'm sure we can all figure out what the silly monsters were...

Lava children, flumphs, and flail snails for sure!

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I'm sure we can all figure out what the silly monsters were, but can you remember any of the replacement monsters of your own that you wanted included? I'm assuming they showed up in MMII.

There is a list of authors in the back of the Fiend Folio, and all that i created for the work are listed there with my attribution

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Burlappen]

Whoa!

Rather than vindictive, better righteously indignant at the manner in which I was treated. Now if Peter Adkison was still the CEO of WotC, and he asked me to contract for such work I would happily agree.

Well regardless it's nice to see that you're not the victim. I had imagined you'd had rights to your work yanked away from you and were trying to avoid talking too much about it out of fear of lawsuit--the spectre of black suits as it were. Not that I don't admire a bit of vindictiveness mind you--it helps your friends (and enemies) know immediately where they stand with you.

If you are a fan of the AD&D system you might wish to check out the Castle Zagyg, Yggsbubrgh book from Troll Lord Games. It is for the Castles & Crusades game system and the work covers the "Eastmark," an area of some 1,500 square miles with the main feature the Free Town of Yggsbrgh, a community of c. 40,000 inhabitants. Now in progress (two actually in print) are 24 modules detailing the 19 districts of the town and the five suburban areas; also there will be three boxed sets of modules detailing the Castle Zagyg grounds, upper works, and score or so of dungeon levels. The first of those sets is slated for release next spring.

So how many of these settings are still actively being developed? I'd gotten the impression they were all long since out of print.

And...out of curiousity, how exactly does one pronouce Yggsbrgh? Yiggs-burg? Yeggs-burrogh?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Well regardless it's nice to see that you're not the victim. I had imagined you'd had rights to your work yanked away from you and were trying to avoid talking too much about it out of fear of lawsuit--the spectre of black suits as it were. Not that I don't admire a bit of vindictiveness mind you--it helps your friends (and enemies) know immediately where they stand with you.

Oh indeed, the IP rights are not mine at all but belong now to WotC.

Vindictiveness would be to deny something another was rightfully entitled to, and I do not do such a thing.

So how many of these settings are still actively being developed? I'd gotten the impression they were all long since out of print.

And...out of curiousity, how exactly does one pronouce Yggsbrgh? Yiggs-burg? Yeggs-burrogh?

The only active settings are Learth (Lejendary Earth world setting) and the Eastmark of Yggsburgh and Castle Zagyg.

I pronounce Yggsburgh as Ehgs-burgh

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[francisca]

My hand spread with fingers apart measures nine inches from thumb to little finger, a perfect one-half cubit...and also handy on the military miniatures gaming table

Cheerio,
Gary

Ha Ha!

Kask taught me that trick after our Chainmail game this past summer at LGGC III, telling me he learned it from you.

Any more secrets of military miniatures you wish to divulge?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Ha Ha!

Kask taught me that trick after our Chainmail game this past summer at LGGC III, telling me he learned it from you.

Any more secrets of military miniatures you wish to divulge?

To simulate the the eagerness of well-trained triips to get to grips with the enemy, measure movement distance from the middle of the figure base or stand to the middle, and then slide the figure or stand so that the back part is ay the end of the measure...a gain of but a fraction of an inch or perhaps an inch, but not unrealistic and possibly critical when closing to firing or melee range is critical.

As the referee of a game I always close my eyes to this sort of extension of movement. Only when it is a blatent excess will I call for an adjustment backwards. Adding excessive distance to movement is cheating Hex map wargames prevent even slight addition to movement distance for troop zeal--so watch your opponent carefully, as an extra hex is not unheard of when moving unit counters

Cheers,
Gary

 

[francisca]

To simulate the the eagerness of well-trained triips to get to grips with the enemy, measure movement distance from the middle of the figure base or stand to the middle, and then slide the figure or stand so that the back part is ay the end of the measure...a gain of but a fraction of an inch or perhaps an inch, but not unrealistic and possibly critical when closing to firing or melee range is critical.

As the referee of a game I always close my eyes to this sort of extension of movement. Only when it is a blatent excess will I call for an adjustment backwards. Adding excessive distance to movement is cheating Hex map wargames prevent even slight addition to movement distance for troop zeal--so watch your opponent carefully, as an extra hex is not unheard of when moving unit counters

Cheers,
Gary

Duly noted!

 

[Nagora]

Gary,

Here's a completely non-game related question:

As it happens, you're about the same age as my mother and her memories of WWII include hiding in the hills north of Belfast as the Luftwaffe bombed the bejasus out of the city, men going off to the various fronts, craters where friend's houses once were, and of course the dreaded telegram boy delivering news nobody wanted. She has very little feeling of the war being an adventure or anything like that.

What was it like for an American boy of that age? Do you recall anything about it at all? Did it affect your family? Was it an exciting radio program that just happened to be true or something from the grown-up world that barely registered?

Over here (UK) we tend to have a view of the war being something of a picnic for the American-at-home with very little rationing beyond the end of the war; is that true or were do you remember being amazed at the sudden reappearance of things like bananas, sweets or comic?

Did WWI have anything to do with your interest in wargaming, or was that just something that came much later?

Sorry if this is too far off-topic but I think you're the only American I know who's old enough to ask about these things and I've got a bit of an interest up recently as I dug into my hometown's small part in D-Day - Ike came here and went out to inspect the USS Texas, Arkansas and various cruisers prior to their setting off for Omaha beach.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary,

Here's a completely non-game related question:

As it happens, you're about the same age as my mother and her memories of WWII include hiding in the hills north of Belfast as the Luftwaffe bombed the bejasus out of the city, men going off to the various fronts, craters where friend's houses once were, and of course the dreaded telegram boy delivering news nobody wanted. She has very little feeling of the war being an adventure or anything like that.

What was it like for an American boy of that age? Do you recall anything about it at all? Did it affect your family? Was it an exciting radio program that just happened to be true or something from the grown-up world that barely registered?

I remember my father sending off two pairs of binoculars for use by the armed ssrvices.

I remember being afraid of the Germans and Japanese as portrayed on the radio and in film; thinking that a "foreign-looking" stranger in the neighborhood might be a Nazi spy/

I remember brownpits and blackouts, Air Raid Wardens walking around at night looking for light leaks.

I remember only enough gasoline to drive the car short distances, mainly on sunday, as my father had a Class A gas ration emblem in the window of out 1939 Nash Ambassador sdedan

I remember blue and red rationing poiints, there being a shortage many things including cigarettes, sugar, and meat--having Spam and even pickled pig's feet, eating margerine not butter.

I remember cars up pn blocks because they wanted tires, and I remember getting a fortune for wilre hangers taken to the dry cleaners--two cents apiece was great spending money for a kid.

I remember saving tin cans and cooking fat and newspaper drives sponsored by the school, buying saving stamps for War Bonds every week with the money my father game me to take to school on each Friday.

I remember the service banners in the windows of apartments, many with a gold star, not just the blue one for a son in service.

I remember my mother dressing me in a sailor's uniform with a woking wooden bosun's whistle--and as my father was a friend of Mr. Ed Robinson, head keeper of the Primate House at the Lincoln Park Zoo, wearing it when I got to play with a baby chimp, where to my father's horror, be biing very germ conscious, the little ape and I taking turns blowing the whistle. The poor creaure contracted TB and died thereafter, probably from contact with me, although i have never tested positive for that disease. I also recall my Marine uniform. I was wearing it at the VE Day parade in the Chicago Loop when a motion picturte photographer shot me saluting as the flag went past. My Aunt Elsie Hohensee who lived in the upstairs flat of my father's building saw me in the mivie theater when the newsree of the parade was shown there. She shouted out-loud when she saw me, "That's my nephew, Gary!" her husband related to us.

When VE Day came I was home cutting school (which I hated) and I remember getting to go out to play, something that never happend before that.

After VJ Day rationing was dropped, and we did have plenty here, but I remember being in Lake Geneva the year after the war ended and learning that nextdoor neighbor Bob Rasch had been killed as had Doug Brady who had loved three houses away. had been a friend of my brother's.

]Over here (UK) we tend to have a view of the war being something of a picnic for the American-at-home with very little rationing beyond the end of the war; is that true or were do you remember being amazed at the sudden reappearance of things like bananas, sweets or comic?

Rationing was fairly strict here, and people were tense, but there was no Blitz, so we had it far better that the UK folks did. The end of rationing was much celebrated, as suddenly all the formerly hard-to-get things were back in abundance, and even new automobiles were rolling off the assembly lines.

Did WWI have anything to do with your interest in wargaming, or was that just something that came much later?

Absolutely the war affected my interest. Not only the films O saw at the theater when all the boys in the neighborhood went to the show Saturday afternoons, my father brought home a c. 65 mm scale cast metal soldier figurine almost every Saturday night as a present for me, and with money I begged from my mother to spend after the Saturday movie I's buy either a new pea shooter and a bag od dried peas or another metal soldier or two for ten cents--about the same as 2 p in the UK back then. There were also coloring books depicting military and vaval personnel and equipment, and I loved to apply my crayons to them.

For one Christmas I got a toy .30 caliber water-cooled Browning machine gun on a stand. I was crushed when my father and brother took it back because the crang that made the "rat-a-tat-tat-tat" sound wouldn't function. Who cared?! Crap! I am still angry about that.

I also was given for a birthday or Christmas a bombing game, a down-looking periscope device with the lenses being similar to reversed binoculars. One looked at the game board on the floor and depressed a lever to release three darets, one at a time. The building outlines were marked with + values for train stations, factories, oil storage facilities, warehouses, etc. and - ones for hospitals, schools, churches, and -residential buildings. As I was prone to "bomb" things other then the corkboard, the toy disappeared...

[/QUOTE]Sorry if this is too far off-topic but I think you're the only American I know who's old enough to ask about these things and I've got a bit of an interest up recently as I dug into my hometown's small part in D-Day - Ike came here and went out to inspect the USS Texas, Arkansas and various cruisers prior to their setting off for Omaha beach.[/QUOTE]
As far as I am concerned, there is no "off-tipic" on this thread. If I find something impertanant, offensive, sully or the like I just say so and otherwise ignore that post

So how's that for a rambling epistle?

Cheers,
Gary