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.

 

[grodog]

I created the three maps strictly for examples in the DMG. What became of the two that were dropped is beyond my ken. As I never had reason to refer to that portion of the work the omission was unknown to me until you brought it up :\

Oh well. I wonder if anyone else involved in the production of the DMG would recall; I assume Dave Sutherland laid out the DMG, Gary??

After seeing your interesting looking map, I wish I could recall what the two lost maps had on them, but my mind is a complete blank in that regard.

"Interesting looking" is awfully kind to that rough map, Gary---"crude" would likely be a bit more accurate Other than the descriptions in paragraph I quoted in DMG above, I don't know of any other descriptions of the maps. I'll go back to the DMG previews/reviews/errata in the The Dragon to see if there were any comments made therein, too.

Likely the press of creating the DMG material was such that details of that sort were wiped from memory quickly to make room for the next portion being devised.

That makes perfect sense. It's not like you were bored in 1979 or anything

Thanks, as always, for the prompt replies

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Ah, nice and tidy (well, rules-wise, anyway...)! Thanks for the quick reply, good sir!

Thanks. That enabled avoidance of the clunky, grafted on psionics mechanics I was talked into adding to the AD&D game.

FWIW, I now have mental powers that are congruous with the whole of the Lejendary Adventure RPG system, they being gained through selection of Psychogenics Ability. They can be used by any Avatar without causing probleems of functioning or game balance.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Ahoy Grodog!

Likely Sutherland and Mike Carr were the ones that did the layout and editing for the DMG. Mike is still around, so check with him.

I meant that about your map...oddly enough it resembles many of my hand-drawn ones

Cheerio,
Gary (ready to kick back after a long day)

 

[gideon_thorne]

Cheerio,
Gary (ready to kick back after a long day)

Amen to that brother. Mick and I have the same thought after a very long and cold morning, this morning, working as extras in a historical flick.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

Thanks. That enabled avoidance of the clunky, grafted on psionics mechanics I was talked into adding to the AD&D game.

FWIW, I now have mental powers that are congruous with the whole of the Lejendary Adventure RPG system, they being gained through selection of Psychogenics Ability. They can be used by any Avatar without causing probleems of functioning or game balance.

Cheerio,
Gary

Hey Gary-

I seem to remember reading somewhere that a revised edition of Lejendary Adventure is in the works-any idea when we'll see this?

 

[Orius]

Very few of the regulars in my campaigns have lost their characters ater the initial stages of building them. Those that did have them slain had either vary bad luck or else played foolishly. I am very generous in regards to mitigating a run of bad luck when play has been solid. I must point out that I have lost several of my better PCs, used wishes and spells to have them restored to life, and I have not boo-hooed about the DM that was managing the adventures in which that occurred.

That's typical of many campaigns. Sometimes the dice are unforgiving, and a lot of DMs might fudge if they're feeling generous, but I've never pulled punches when my players charged in carelessly and fell victim to their opponents. Very few monsters with an appreciable Intelligence score will act like cannon fodder.

Surely those that whine about my killer dungeons--other that Tomb of Horrors which is supposed to be just that--are inept players that failed to use caution and forethought when playing and this looked foolish as they lost their PCs.

Yeah, Tomb of Horrors does get a lot of accusations of killer DMing. I suspect a lot of the really nasty traps in that dungeon were tailored towards the tactics your players favored. Naturally, a group of players that approach dungeon exploration differently -- though not necessarily in a rash or foolhardy manner -- might find it very disconcerting.

But otherwise, players who do act foolishly will lose the occasional PC; most good DMs don't seem to go easy on players who should know better. Some might go easier on newbies because of their inexperience though.

Though my original question still stands; what's your thought on DMs who go out of their way to kill off PCs because they enjoy doing so; not because the players are playing carelessly.

 

[JohnRTroy]

Hi Gary,

I had a question, which the answer would benefit the members of ENWorld, so I'll ask it here.

With 4e potentially removing the "schools" of magic, I had a question. In 1e you established for spells the "school"--alteration, abjuration, conjuring/summoning, etc. The schools were interesting but in terms of the game, they never really seemed to be more than flavor text--outside of what detect magic would detect. In Unearthed Arcana, you started indicating what auras surrounded the new magic items, and you started mixing the schools a bit. (In the PHB there were 9 schools--mostly 8 and 1 called possession, in UA you started mixing elements of the two for certain spells).

Now, after you left, Wizards decided to do something with this classification--the Illusionist spell list was merged, some spells redefined and a few added, --possession being removed and "universal" being added for critical things like read magic. And then there were 8 "specialist" wizards, 1 for each school, so you had Enchanters and Evokers and Transmutists who were restricted to opposing schools.

But what was your original intent for the schools. Were you planning something in the expansion to deal with these classifications? Maybe something involving spell creation or negation or specialization? Schools in 1e didn't really have that much effect on the game, so I was wondering if you had any master plan for it that never saw the light of day.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Amen to that brother. Mick and I have the same thought after a very long and cold morning, this morning, working as extras in a historical flick.

Then it should be mulled wine or flip before a cheery fire in a fireplace as you turn your back to the blaze and list the tails of your uniform coat

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hey Gary-

I seem to remember reading somewhere that a revised edition of Lejendary Adventure is in the works-any idea when we'll see this?

Heh,

The Trolls were planning the release of the Revised Edition of the La game early next year I believe. However, as I have just recently made a pass at converting LA Avatars into Class and Level-type characters for use in a D20 system or in the LA one, there might be a bit of a delay, as I think this will be something that they will want to add to the work.

Here is the URL where you can get a look at my first pass at the conversion: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=210404&page=2

I have revised and expanded the treatment considerably now.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

...

Though my original question still stands; what's your thought on DMs who go out of their way to kill off PCs because they enjoy doing so; not because the players are playing carelessly.

That sort of person is not worthy of being a Game Master of any sort. The GM is there to entertain and bring enjoyment to the player group, thus being entertained and enjoying himself likewise. Soneone that finds pleasure in making others unhappy is a sad case indeed. That kind of GM should be keft alone to lurk in online MMP games to ambust newbis' characters as they enter the setting

Cheers,
Gary