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.

 

[Tuzenbach]

Since the thread's already started, we'll leave this one as current, but technically a thread doesn't have to stop at ten pages any more - it was a courtesy for server response time left over from about three years ago.

You mean, we don't have to keep making new Gary Q&A threads after 10 or so pages?

 

[Henry]

You ever notice how long Piratecat's Story hour is?

 

[BOZ]

nope, but now that the other one was moved to the Archives, we might as well continue here.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Continued from here:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=121380

Gary,

In 1E, Assassins could use shields while Thieves could not. Given the crossover of Thief abilities to the Assassin class (climb walls, hide in shadows, move silently, etc.), what was your justification for this allowance? Also, I always found this discrepancy a bit odd for all those Assassins wishing to remain "anonymous" or incognito. "Hmmmm. He's got leather armour, any weapon of his choice, and a shield. He's not a Ranger, he's an Assassin!"

Speaking of metagaming....what PC will deduce that an assassin is that because of his equipment? Now on to something meaningful :\

Of course an assassin could not perform thief activities when equipped with a shield, but otherwise in regards their assassinations the shield is not going to prevent success.

Finally, do keep in mind that most of the strictures regarding classes was to make them separate and unique, each a distinct choice that had advantages and drawbacks for a game.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary,

It must be my week to spy things about Lake Geneva.

I was checking the Weather Channel last night for this week's forecast. They had a segment on about the Lake Geneva Bunny Hop. Were you in that long line of Easter bunnies?

Zudrak

Heh...

Not bloody likely. I don't mind having fun, but the activity engaged in was pure foolishness in my estimation At least the crowd was in the grand tradition of the tourists that plague this town each year.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Not bloody likely. I don't mind having fun, but the activity engaged in was pure foolishness in my estimation At least the crowd was in the grand tradition of the tourists that plague this town each year.

I can understand that, now that I'm moving back to Orlando.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Speaking of tourists...

Frank Mentzer came by yesterday, and we had several hours to sit on the front porch here--the weather being great--and chew the fat. Speaking of chewing, this morinng I am devouring excellent bakery goodies Frank was kind enough to bring here from the Baker's House in Minoqua, or maybe they were from his new Baker's House store in Wausau

Frank mentioned that I needed to get busy and get more modules out, wouold I care to co-create with him? He was not pleased when I told him my creative energy is not great, so new material is going to be scarse. He then asked if there was any of my old adventure material available. As it turned out there is a DMG tournament module I created back in c. 1974, ran around 1976 or 1977 at the DMG con all by myself for groups of 20 gamers per team, 100 total in the tournament.

We are considering Frank fleshing it out for publication as a generic or perhaps a C&C game system adventure. It is mainly an outdor expedition and has eight fukll-page maps.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

A query on the old thread asked about what TSR modules I played other than my own. the answer is very few indeed. The reason is simple. I had a lot of work to do at the office, then see to running play-tests, or play-test new games, and then get in some gaming for fun. At the same time I had a family of five children to tend to now and again...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Henry]

As it turned out there is a DMG tournament module I created back in c. 1974, ran around 1976 or 1977 at the DMG con all by myself for groups of 20 gamers per team, 100 total in the tournament.

We are considering Frank fleshing it out for publication as a generic or perhaps a C&C game system adventure. It is mainly an outdor expedition and has eight full-page maps.

Cheers,
Gary

My personal recommendation to Frank is to do it as C&C, for two reasons:

1) C&C is a currently supported game with a, *ahem* HUGE campaign setting that needs more support, and

2) It's easy to port from your OD&D stats, and I have this suspicion the Troll Crew would salivate greatly to work with him.

 

[Zudrak]

My personal recommendation to Frank is to do it as C&C, for two reasons:

1) C&C is a currently supported game with a, *ahem* HUGE campaign setting that needs more support, and

2) It's easy to port from your OD&D stats, and I have this suspicion the Troll Crew would salivate greatly to work with him.

Well, I've done it once -- I'll do it again. I second Henry's thoughts.

It's a good thing Frank Mentzer did not visit you on Easter Sunday. You two would have been given misdemeanors for flinging pastries at Bunny Hoppers. LOL