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.

 

[ScottyG]

Gary, I have a question about the spell sleep.
The target tiers HD and number affected are:
up to 1 4d4
1+1 to 2 2d4
2+1 to 3 1d4
3+1 to 4 1d2
4+1 to 4+4 0-1
How are PCs handled? Would a 1st level PC fall into the 'up to 1' or the 1+1 catagory, and do charters with multiple starting HD (monks and rangers) go by level or HD?
Thanks,
Scott

 

[Col_Pladoh]

...

That sounds like I could enjoy living there. I would love the idea of being able to play ice hockey whenever I wanted between December and March. Is there a lot of hockey played on the lakes? Maybe I could even learn to improve my skating. Ha!

So, Gary, I imagine you do not mind the winter weather so much, or else you would have moved to a sunnier locale. Is this a correct deduction?

They clear a rink for skating, but there's not much hockey. Last I recall was when my youngest son, Alex, was playing at around age 10 at a rink at the edge of town, not on the lake. There's a good bit of snowmobiling and skiing and snowboarding and ice boating here too.

As for me, I loved the winter as a youth, did snowballing, sledding, tobogganing, and ice fishing; but nowadays I would prefer living on a tropical island. I stay indoors and do a lot of reading and what work i can manage in the time of cold weather here.

On the gaming front, when you write your works and there is art or illustrations to be placed in the work, how much say do you have when it comes to the final product? Do you direct the artist at all? Has this changed much today from how you did things when you were at TSR? (Remember! Peter B lurks here sometimes!)

Noppers! I don't imagine myself a competant art director About the best I can manage is to say what I like and dislike.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary, I was just rereading the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story "Bazaar of the Bizzare" and was wondering if the fight with the iron statue was an inspiration for the iron golem. I know the clay golem comes from Jewish mythology (and the flesh golem seems to be somewhat a take on Frankenstein's monster) but the iron statue armed with a sword and with breath weapon (albeit, not poisonous gas) seems quite similar to the foe Fafhrd faced.

Thanks in advance.

Gray Mouser

You have the inspirational sources for the clay and flesh golems correct The iron golem was drawn from Greek mythology, the bronze one therein, Talos. The breath weapon addition was from Rob.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

But, isn't that just a political agenda?

No, politics concerns the government, and al Qaidia seeks to force their form of government on all. the drow simply want to exploit all

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary, I have a question about the spell sleep.
The target tiers HD and number affected are:
up to 1 4d4
1+1 to 2 2d4
2+1 to 3 1d4
3+1 to 4 1d2
4+1 to 4+4 0-1
How are PCs handled? Would a 1st level PC fall into the 'up to 1' or the 1+1 catagory, and do charters with multiple starting HD (monks and rangers) go by level or HD?
Thanks,
Scott

Each character level equates to one HD on the table above, and even if a 1st level character has two HD, the level of the character is the determinant. So the uppermost range, 4+1 to 4+4 doesn't generaly apply.

BTW, for a multi-class character, the highest level and half of the second and third levels are added to discover effective level. In such hase the uppermost range might apply, viz. 3rd level fighter, 3rd level thief, = 4.5 which falls into the uppermost rage above.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Gray Mouser]

You have the inspirational sources for the clay and flesh golems correct The iron golem was drawn from Greek mythology, the bronze one therein, Talos. The breath weapon addition was from Rob.

Cheers,
Gary

Thanks for the info, Colonel. I'm just glad Rob's inspiration for the wip of cockatrice feathers didn't become standard fare for iron golems!

Gray Mouser

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Thanks for the info, Colonel. I'm just glad Rob's inspiration for the wip of cockatrice feathers didn't become standard fare for iron golems!

Gray Mouser

What about the power to levitate and the poison sword? those with the fiery breath and the petrifaction from the whip made that critter really fearsome

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Gray Mouser]

What about the power to levitate and the poison sword? those with the fiery breath and the petrifaction from the whip made that critter really fearsome

Cheerio,
Gary

Bringing back some find memories, Gary

Speaking of your Marvellous Adventure, do you remember how Mordenkainen & Company fared against Eli Tomorast, himself? How about against the demon Kerzit?

Gray Mouser

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Bringing back some find memories, Gary

Speaking of your Marvellous Adventure, do you remember how Mordenkainen & Company fared against Eli Tomorast, himself? How about against the demon Kerzit?

Gray Mouser

Those were additions that we didn't actually play out. Ain't module writers sneaky?

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Indeed, and those I have accessed are pituful in their content. My own thesaurus has hand-written additions I have made over the years, and both of my main dictionalries are unexpurgated, one from 1910 the other from 1930. New words can be picked up in any current collegiate dictionary

Cheers,
Gary

Yeah, I've been disappointed by the paucity of rare and/or archaic word in modern electronic reference sources. I'd love to get my hands on some of those old dictionaries.