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]

Gary, how big a hand did you have in the assembling of the Mythus Prime book published in 1994?

That was essentially all of my creative work and c.80% of the actual writing was done my me. Of course I borrowed a good deal from the DJ Unhallowed horror RPG rules that were co-created by me with Mick Mcculley. Dave Newton assisted in organizing the material, added some good work, and was mainly responsible for the Mythus Beastiary and was working on the one for Phaeree when the TSR lawsuit stopped our production.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

As I get older, I find the feel and content of AD&D suits me very well and I think of what might have been had your revision come to pass.

Ditto. This is why my group chucked out 3.5 and went to a Castles & Crusades/AD&D hybrid game. The beauty of AD&D was it put the DM in control of the game, not the rules lawyers.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Ditto. This is why my group chucked out 3.5 and went to a Castles & Crusades/AD&D hybrid game. The beauty of AD&D was it put the DM in control of the game, not the rules lawyers.

Most people enjoy roll-playing and role-playing, but rule-playing is a complete bore

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Numion]

Most people enjoy roll-playing and role-playing, but rule-playing is a complete bore

Didn't you write in an old Dragon article that if you modified AD&D rules at all, you were no longer playing AD&D?

 

[SuStel]

Didn't you write in an old Dragon article that if you modified AD&D rules at all, you were no longer playing AD&D?

"Poker, chess, and the AD&D system," Dragon #67, November 1982.

Actually it was more like he said if you modified the rules that made up the framework of AD&D, you were playing an AD&D variant. Just as you couldn't bring variant rules to a chess tournament, so you couldn't bring variant rules to an AD&D tournament. What you do at home is your own business. (But just as constantly playing chess variants at home will hurt your performance at chess tournaments, so too would playing an AD&D variant at home hurt your performance at an AD&D tournament.)

Also note that whereas AD&D only specified the bare bones of how the system worked (the "framework"), d20 specifies a rule for absolutely everything you might want to do. With more rules, more rule lawyers thrive.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Didn't you write in an old Dragon article that if you modified AD&D rules at all, you were no longer playing AD&D?

Could be. Who remembers after a couple of decades

It is a matter of fact, though, that I was then propmoting the RPGA and its tournaments...where the rules, as written apply. I wanted the association to grow and prosper, promote RPGing, and sponsor deserving gamers' college touition.

That said, the matter has nothing to do with rule-playing.


Gary

 

[Roland55]

In truth, I had begun planning for a revised edition of the AD&D game beginning around 1983. I made notes for what I planned, and those remained with TSR when I left the company at the end of 1985.

The UA compilation contained the initial pass at some to the revisions and expansions I envisioned for the game, but I had not had time to sit down and concentrate on exactly how I would complete a revision and what it would entail.

No matter, as that is now all water under the bridge for more than two decades now, eh?

Cheerio,
Gary

True, true.

I still had enormous fun playing your games in those days. For that, I and many others, thank you.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

True, true.

I still had enormous fun playing your games in those days. For that, I and many others, thank you.

No question about it! There are still large and active audiences for OD&D and AD&D.

The C&C RPG system is gaining considerable following because it is akin to OAD&D and a vital game.

And rest assured i had a lot of fun creating and playing games of mine and others back then too...as I still do nowadays

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Gentlegamer]

If Gary Gygax falls in lava the lava doesn't get a saving throw.

Everyone else just dies.

We should totally run with this in the vein of the Chuck Norris facts . . .

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Should I be ducking?


Gary