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.

 

[tenkar]

Allow me to answer in this manner:

Somehow I supposed that DMs would arrive at similar conclusions unaided.

Cheerio,
Gary

Assuming that the minds of 13 year old DMs would hold up to yours was an ambitious thought

We kinda glossed over alignment languages in my games. Wasn't really needed, therefore it wasn't missed.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hi Gary,

In the back of UA there is an appendix with an example demihuman pantheon in it. Was this *officially* given the OK by you to become canon for the Greyhawk campaign?

I've got a feeling it wasn't. I felt that it was only an *example* pantheon presented in UA and it was only later (after you left) that TSR decided to make it GH canon.

The latter is indeed the case, although i did put the "offcial" stamp onriger Moore's demi-human deities for those who wished to include such entities in their WoG campaigns.

If this is the case, did you have your own original thoughts on what the gods of the elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. should be? (And monsterkind.)

Heh, and in my campaign the demi-humans and humanoids acknowledged the same pantheons as humans did.

Certainly Lolth and Bibdoolpoop are your creations, so drow and kuo-toa are accounted for.

Just so. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of all the "monsters" in the original D&D and AD&D games are all of my creation, as i either made them up out of my imaination or else shaped them for the system they were used in.

Perhaps you envisioned dwarves as just worshipping Ulaa and elves just worshipping Ehlonna? Or are the gods as presented in the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting just human gods?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks.

And so you have them

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Mr. Gygax,

1st of all thank you for making a great game, and inspiring so many adventures for 28 of my 35 years.

Howdy,

Feel free to address me as Gary, as we are fellow gamers.

My long-term gamer buddies and I (all veterans of OD&D) all joke about going through those old modules and running past the bad guy to look for something in his treasure that would be sure to defeat him. While we overexagerrate this point for laughs it does have some truth to it.
Was this to get players to try to that very thing? Or perhaps some more sadistic purpouse? *smiles evilly*

Many a monster's treasure was indeed something inimical to him. why? what else would a dungeon denized do but hoard such items so as to prevent them from falling into the hands of potential foes? Of course they might destroy the items, but that might be difficult, and it would surely not be an incentive for adventurers to risk their lives...

After considerable experience, the number of magic-items given to monsters for regular use was sharply reduced in my campaign, as such things ended up in PC hands far too often :\

Heh,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

There is something immensely amusing about the thought of Gary saying "Dude!" I can imagine it now... Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson star in

"Dude, where's my game?"

Gary - I just named my cleric and he's awesome!

Dave - Same here, my ranger totally rocks!

Gary - What's his name?

Dave - DUDE! What's yours?

Gary - SWEET! So what you're ranger's name?

Dave - Dude!

Gary - Dude, what's his name?

Dave - DUDE!


(and so on and so forth...)

Heh....

"Dude" is definately a hang-over from my days out in Tinsletown. My patois began with hep-cat jargon learned from my early years as a modern jazz devotee. Such talk was even featured in the old EC publication, Mad, when it was a color comic book...which I read assiduously, cat;0

Cheers,
Gary

P.S. I used to be quite knowledgeable in regards the hobo vernacular too, even though I was never a bindlestiff myself.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary, will you share the orgin of the the "Kewl River" on the Greyhawk map with us?

Reason I ask is the very first time I saw that word was on the Greyhawk maps. The "Kewl River" near the Gnarley Forest. This was way back in 1980. Does word Kewl have a history before GreyHawk?

Flip a few letters around and you get "Welk" as in Welkwood Forest also in Greyhawk. Is there some sort of anagram connection?

Or have I just spent too much time looking at Darlenes wonderful maps of your Greyhawk setting?

While I hate to give so prosaic a response, I fear i must.

When i was naming terran features and cities, the name "Kewl" came to mind and seemed right--short and simple. I have to admit i diidn't think of it as sounding loke "cool," or being an anagram for "Welk."

So it is one of the non-special meaning/origin names!

A fellow named Zief asked about the city of that name too, and I had to confess it was a name I thought I had made up that sounded right.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

That's simple, the river is kewl and the forest is gnarly. Which means adventures in the area are bodacious.

(You don't spend 49+ years in California without learning some of the lingo. )

Alan,

I like your answer better than mine

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Assuming that the minds of 13 year old DMs would hold up to yours was an ambitious thought

We kinda glossed over alignment languages in my games. Wasn't really needed, therefore it wasn't missed.

Mia Culpa!

I was so engrossed in creating new material that I too often glossed over things that needed more explanation so as to guide the younger gamers.

I still use pencils with erasers on 'em :\

cheers,
Gary

 

[mossfoot]

Actually, come to think of it, I DO have a question... in your years of gaming have you ever "converted" people to gaming who otherwise wouldn't have, or have you simply been fortunate enough to always be around gamer types? You see, back in Vancouver, I didn't have a gaming group, so I corrupte... I mean converted my girlfriend, and then her girlfriends so that I ended up GMing a group of 5 university girls (yeah, I know, gamer's fantasy come true ) But the truth is, they ALL had a standoffish, "I dunno" attitude towards gaming.

It took some time to convert them, but now they're hooked... only problem is they love their characters so much I can't convince them to start a new campaign with new characters!

Sigh... women.

 

[gideon_thorne]

I still use pencils with erasers on 'em :\

*chuckles* Me too! They blend much nicer with water..

But thats probably not what your talking about.

Peter

 

[oldschooler]

Gary,

I have a few multi-part questions, I'm sure you've anwsered them all in the past, but I'm new around here and my curiosity keeps me up at night. I think these threads are a great idea and that you're being very generous at keeping up with them. Thanks for keeping in touch with all your faithful fans!
And now, on with the badgering:

I had heard that at one time you were planning to make a second edition of Advanced D&D by throwing together (with a re-edit) all three monster books into one Monster Manual, and folding Unearthed Arcana and Oriental Adventures into a new Players Handbook & Dungeon Masters Guide. Is this close to the truth? I'm wondering what kinds of editing you had been thinking of. Did you personally use UA & OA a lot in your games?

Of the original game (the cute lil' digest-sized box) and the Advanced game (with it's plethora of hardcovers), did you ever have a favorite? Do you concider one version better, over all, than the other?

What RPGs do you play most nowadays (including out of print games)? I'm assuming Lejendary Adventures is one of them, maybe Castles & Crusades and old-tyme D&D as well?