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.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Just as in the AD&D days, I'll do my games-homework before consulting the Sage!

 

[Elfdart]

Gary's New/ Old Campaign

Colonel,

I read that you started an OD&D game with some rather simplified rules. As a Blue Booker, I've always tried to find a middle ground between the complexity of AD&D and the faster-paced simplicity of OD&D. I was intrigued by your new/ old rule of PC damage being 1d6, regardless of weapon used.

I did something almost as simple, yet it still allowed for variety. I grouped melee weapons thusly:

Type 1: Hands, Fists, Feet, Headbutts, Knees, Elbows =1d2 damage, of which 50% is temporary stun damage. If brass knuckles, mailed fists, spiked gloves, iron boots and helmeted heads are used, full lethal damage. This would also include small knives and darts. Two attacks per round.

Type 2: Dagger, Dart, Sap =1d4 damage, two attacks per round

Type 3: Hand Axe, Short Sword, Javelin, Horseman’s Mace/ Pick/ Hammer/ Flail, Club =1d6 damage

Type 4: Spear (includes Light and Heavy Lances)*, Axe, Sword, Mace/ Pick/ Flail/ Hammer =1d8 damage

Type 5: Pike**, Polearm*, Heavy Lance*, Two-Handed Sword, Maul, War Axe =1d10 damage

* use the next higher number for reach
** pikes outreach all other melee weapons
The type number is the speed and reach of the weapon. If the two sides are apart, the one with the longest reach goes first until the two sides close. Once they close, roll 1d6 (low roll) for initiative, plus the speed of the weapon.

This system is easy, fast and surprisingly realistic as men with polearms, for example, drop them in favor of smaller and faster weapons for close combat. For really nasty combat, after the first round of close combat use weapon speed alone for initiative.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Gary, you might find this amusing:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=2198417#post2198417

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary, you might find this amusing:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=2198417#post2198417

Well now...

Is the comment below the pic aplause or a warning against sexually transmitted disease?

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hi Elfdart,

After much cntEmplation I have gone back to the original idea of one main type of die for any weapon. After all, a knife, baseball bat, or jedberg axe are leathal. As in OD&D, where all weapons did a d6 damage, I have set a d20 as the normal maximum harm deliverable by most weapons in my new system. 20 is the normal human health number. Deadlier weapons have a minimum damage delivered of 5 or more points, and a bonus given on their attack chance.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Gentlegamer]

Without delving into my copy of the Essentials, are there other properties that differentiate the weapons in LA?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Without delving into my copy of the Essentials, are there other properties that differentiate the weapons in LA?

Weapons have a Range and Speed Class (addition to initiative roll) as well as a Precision Bonus (0 to a high of 20, incriments of 5).

A natural maximum number on a harm roll means additional damage found by rolling a die equal to half of the base one, so if it is a d20, then a d10 is rolled in addition. If that is a 10, then a d5 is rolles, all the way to maximum harm of 37 points from one attach.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[grodog]

Hi Gary---

It's been awhile since I plagued you with a query, so I'm due

With the looming release of Yggsburg and the continued-promise of Castle Zagyg seeing print, you've mentioned in several places that you're not publishing the original Castle Greyhawk or the original Castle Greyhawk combined with the levels from Rob's El Raja Key dungeons: instead you're selecting the best from both dungeons (or just your expanded, post-12-level Castle?), and then melding them into a more managable mega-dungeon.

So, my question is, over the many years and multitudes of levels that you and Rob designed, are there any particularly cool areas that PCs have never discovered in the Castle? Virgin territory, so to speak. Rob has mentioned, for example, that a prototype for his Garden of the Plantmaster was off in the Castle as an obscure and hard-to-find sublevel, and that few PCs ever wandered that way. Do you and Rob have similar levels that you designed but which were never found? If so, would you please give some teasers about them and/or why they were never discovered (PCs all ran away instead of entering the level, level accessible only by doors that open for LN female elves, etc.)? If any such levels do exist, will you include any of them in the Castle Zagyg project?

Thanks, as always

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Howdy Grodog!

As a matter of fact the plan is to create entirely new maps, so none of the areas in the castle and dungeons will ever have been previously explored. Of course into the new maps will go the most interesting and remarkable features of the original dungeons Rob and I did separately or jointly. There will be "side levels" that are difficult to find too.

We plan to broadly theme levels, based on inhabitants or major feature of the area. To say more rather takes away from the object of the work--to explore and discover what is there, survive and best the challenges, and carry forth rewards.

As for the original dungeons we devised, there were a couple of levels that were pretty much shunned, but to the best of my recollection every one of the 40-some in the dungeons was explored to some extent. The prototypical Plant Master's area was entered by one of my PCs--and a couple of other players' characters too, but I don't remember any names after 30 years and a single visit.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[ScottyG]

Gary, speaking of shunned areas, you once described to me a 3-way intersection on the deepest levels. "Monkeying Around" (that lead to the Isle of the Ape), "Horsing Around" (Rob's centaur level if I remember correctly), and the 3rd escapes me. It was Fooling Around, or Clowning Around maybe. I can't remember what was there, but you stated that it was one of those 'shunned' areas that was rarely visited, or maybe it was just that nobody wanted to try it after their experiences in the other two areas. What was the 3rd gate called?
Scott