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]

[snippage]

So since we've got you going on about the old days here, how about telling us about one of your favorite characters on the side of "good", or at least not one of the villians?

Thanks for the good words, amigo To avoid blushing I snipped the lot. Heh-heh. BTW, Iggwilv is the sweet and loving lady you refer to, I am sure.

The closest I came to a human gone bad was Wastri, "The Hopping Prophet." I must admit I relished describing his fall from a seeker after inner, and greater, knowledge into a hunter of gnomes for "sport." Iuz was born bad, but of course his parentage had something to do with that

Fact is I never really developed any strong NPCs of Good for play in the campaign. The reason for that is twofold. First, many of the players had characters of that alignment. Second, the Evil team would have felt obliged to assail that NPC, and to withstand such an assault the character would have had to be so powerful as to be otherwise an overmatch for most any Evil in the campaign--short of the demi-deital sort. Add to that the main team of "bad guys," Erac's Cousin, Robilar, and Teric were not ravening sorts, so that there was no campaign demand for retribution. They were as willing to combat NE and CE adversaries as they were any other.

Likely the inclusion of Mordenkainen, bigby, and the rest of my PCs as a Neutral force in the campaign moderated excesses, of course, those of Good as well as Evil. I kept them as active in play so as to make the campaign viable for all alignments, No faction could expect to dominate with the Circle of Eight there to keep the balance. Beside that, it gave me a chance to team up with any group when someone else was DMing, and thus I could play more

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Re: cartoon

I never thought about asking Gary about the animated show. Sweet memories! I remember being 11 years old, eating Lucky Charms and watching D&D.

Thats really interesting. Dennis Marks a producer for the Spider-man cartoon show mentioned he worked with you on the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. Seems like a nice guy and he had very nice words about you. The interview is at http://www.spider-friends.com

Whoa! Thanks for pointing me to the interview with Dennis I've lost touch with him mainly because he's not active online. Dennis forgot John Beebe's name. Jogn knew Orson Wells sufficiently to be able to get through to him, but they weren't really buddies. Dennis didn't mention that he is a very fine stage magician.

I have great memories of the two is us sitting poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel dreaming up springboards for the D&D Cartoon Show, developing plots. Dennis was a frequent visitor to our offices and digs up on 1636 Summit Ridge Drive for social gathrings. I introduced him to the Firesign Theater there, in fact, listening to the "Giant Rat of Sumatra." For his part he had us over to his place and as his guest at the Magic Castle.

His problem getting along with Judy Price of CBS wasn't lost on me. When I pitched the D&D Cartopn Spinoff to Judy--and Margaret Loesch (then head of Marvel Entertainment) and Hank Saroyan--Gail (now my wife) orchestrated the whole meeting. She made sure that when we took a break after a couple of hours intense discussion there weere proper refreshments--excellent California chardonay wine, green grapes, cold shrimp, and some bree and water buiscuits. The crew stayed until around 10 PM, then I took them all out for a late supper down in Beverly Hills. Believe it or not, Judy and Margaret had never been there for dinner. As I recall, they wanted Italian, so I decided on LA Famiglia for a relaxed atmosphere. The party broke up around 1 AM, and the deal was done

Always wanted to ask if some of the monsters in the cartoon were picked by you? (Specially some of the lesser known Fiend Folio creatures. Bullywuugs, Grimlocks etc.... even Lolth!) And lastly....what was Venger? A Lich? Simply an ex-good guy turned evil with fangs and one horn? (The voice actor for him was really good).

Thanks for everything Gary! And lets get that memoir book written!!

Most of the writers for the D&D cartoon came up to our place and hung out--free food, a pool to swim in (and a few brought their girlfriends up for night swims too), a hot tub, pool table and free bar, and best of all an old stable converted to a studio where they could set up their computers and work...when not playing Chainmail fantasy battles on the 6' x 12' sandtable in the main room of the place. they were a great bunch, so they had the run of the place even when I wasn't around--much of the time after 6 PM

Anyway, as I had creative control, I read and made suggestions as to anything that didn't meet the D&D canon. They had the whole of the core books, including all the monsters ones, so most selections were their own. I do know that bullywugs were chosen both for their interesting features and because son Luke, then living out there with me, was a regular in many of the Chainmail games and known to be the creator of those critters.

Well, there's some memoires for you

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

A bit of clean-up here in this post...I am running short of time this AM

Venger was Dungeon Master's son who was under an evil curse. The object was to somehow lift the curse from him, but his father could not speak of it.

The paper plate up for auction on Ebay is completely bogus to the best of my knowledge.

Those low-impact d20s did get pretty round in short order--well short order in terms of gaming time. Rob Kuntz had one that would stand on a point now and again. I still have a couple that I use when playing OD&D as the DM. One with gray faces on 10 sides is a "killer" die that comes up on those faces a lot--the 11-20 range, of course! Can't find it now, but it's likely in a box of old dice somewhere in the basement here. I have a second one with red faces that's as good for the monsters' rills, of course

Sorry If I've missed anything I shuld have responded to. If I have, somebody holler at me, and I'll make amends.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[BOZ]

Re: Can I get one of these?

Be careful what you throw away.

TSR Plate?

Next time your at a convention can we just bring a stack of paper plates?

LOL it doesn't look like anyone bid on it though.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Re: Re: Can I get one of these?

LOL it doesn't look like anyone bid on it though.

Last I heard there were two bidders, the high bid $.11.

Now I wonder if the audience is wise to such a scam or am I just not much of a draw?

Heh,
Gary

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

Re: Re: Re: Can I get one of these?

Last I heard there were two bidders, the high bid $.11.

Now I wonder if the audience is wise to such a scam or am I just not much of a draw?

Heh,
Gary

it is because you are such a draw. Hmm gary should I auction off the plates and silver are you ate with when you where at my house? At least it is better quality then Styrofoam, and you can authenticate them .
Ken
who is often but shouldn't be amazed at the things on the internet.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Can I get one of these?

it is because you are such a draw. Hmm gary should I auction off the plates and silver are you ate with when you where at my house? At least it is better quality then Styrofoam, and you can authenticate them .
Ken
who is often but shouldn't be amazed at the things on the internet.

Well Dude!

Why stop at the table service? There's the couch cushion I sat on, and the doorknob I touched. I am growing nauseus...

Oh, boy, this sort of silliness makes me shake my head in wonder, so I do share your amazement, Ken

Cheers,
Gary

 

[jgbrowning]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Can I get one of these?

Well Dude!

Why stop at the table service? There's the couch cushion I sat on, and the doorknob I touched. I am growing nauseus...

Oh, boy, this sort of silliness makes me shake my head in wonder, so I do share your amazement, Ken

Cheers,
Gary

now the doorknob idea may be workable.......

"Open the door on a new realm of fantasy adventure!"

joe b.

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Can I get one of these?

Well Dude!

Why stop at the table service? There's the couch cushion I sat on, and the doorknob I touched. I am growing nauseus...

Oh, boy, this sort of silliness makes me shake my head in wonder, so I do share your amazement, Ken

Cheers,
Gary

Oh yes I forget that see Gary's butt print in my couch, or this is the actually toilet seat Gary sat on LOL
ken

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Can I get one of these?

Oh yes I forget that see Gary's butt print in my couch, or this is the actually toilet seat Gary sat on LOL
ken

Just where i feared this digression would lead...

That'll teach me to expand on things

Gary