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.

 

[Jupp]

Too bad LAO is still in the freezer. That game did look quite interesting and the folks on the boards of LAO were very friendly.

*starts waiting for the towncryer to announce the news of that new game*

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Any info you can give us on the online game?

Not now. Perhaps, as I said, in a few weeks or less.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Too bad LAO is still in the freezer. That game did look quite interesting and the folks on the boards of LAO were very friendly.

*starts waiting for the towncryer to announce the news of that new game*

Some development continues with the LAO, and there is about four or five man years in coding and graphics invested in the project, so it isn't moribund, merely in need of financing to move it forward to beta test stage...and beyond. That is being worked on by Trigee's agent.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Not now. Perhaps, as I said, in a few weeks or less.

Cheers,
Gary

I'll stay tuned!

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I'll stay tuned!

Just so.

When the time comes I'll post a new thread for the announcement.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Gray Mouser]

Speaking of plugs...

I will in the next month or so be likely (99%) to be posting a thread here asking for beta testers for an online game. Those that sign up get lifetime free pass to the game website. I am mentioning it here, now because a heads-up is called for consiodering the company

Cheers,
Gary

Cool! I'll be on the look out for forethcoming information, Colonel

Gray Mouser

 

[grodog]

Gary, I have a set of related GH queries for you, and this one takes a bit of a preamble to get going.

I've heard variously among the GH diehards that Zagyg and Xagy were actually different beings, and that Xagy was Zagyg's evil twin. I don't recall offhand where I read this, it was likely either in one of your Q&A sessions with Paul Stormberg, in an earlier thread here on ENWorld, or in passing conversation with Scotty, Gene, or somesuch GH grognard.

Joramy and Xagy helped to create Queen Ehlissa's Marvelous Nightingale, according to Mordy (he could be wrong, of course....). I've also read (somewhere) that Joramy was evil in your original GH campaign, which would explain her willingness to work with Xagy to create the artifact. In Eldritch Wizardry, Dave Sutherland's image of Orcus being summoned in the presence of the Nightingale (though no obvious influence via the Nightingale is shown) is particularly interesting, in light of Xagy and Joramy's possible evil alignments.

Given all of that, my questions to you are several fold: Was the illo in EW a picture of Ehlissa summoning Orcus, and if so, was she evil (for some reason, I'd always assumed that she was good, perhaps because she reigned for several centuries, which---in combination with her name---made me think she was olven). Is Xagy a different person from Zagyg? What is Xagy's relationship to Zagyg? Is Xagy also a deity, or is he long dead by 576 CY? If he's alive, does Xagy oppose Zagyg? Lastly, will Xagy appear in any of the Castle Zagyg publications?

If that looks as nonsensical as I think it does, I'm sure that Zagig would be well-pleased

 

[Llaurenela]

Hi Ya Gary, (and everyone)

Let me ask my question a different way, in regards to OD&D errata for Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure and The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures.

I don't really care about mispelled word typos or anything like that. What I am interested in is this: Are there any numbers/percentages/bonuses/penalties or rule specific items that were misprinted and need to be corrected?

Gary, do you remember anything that you had to correct as far as numbers in any of the three books?

Alternately, does anyone have written in their copy of the three books any revised numbers or information that was based on something that came from Gary/TSR back in the mid 1970's. Would love to hear comments from anyone who was playing D&D in 1974-1977 timeframe.

Cheers,
Llaurenela

 

[Llaurenela]

Hi ya Gary,

I am (my group is) working on gathering all of the relevant documents to play OD&D. A guy that we know who is in his 60's was living in southern OH in the early 70's and and was sent a copy of Chainmail by a friend and then later when D&D came out he was sent a copy of it by the same friend in early summer 1974. He ended up getting together with some college kids for games from 1975-1978. He already had a copy of Outdoor Survival.

We have only played AD&D 1st ed (TSR/WOTC related). So this guy that we know told us that he would ref our first game if we could get an OD&D box set with hobbits, ents and balrogs in the text of the three books, a copy of Chainmail 3rd ed, a copy of the Outdoor Survival board game, a copy of the Arduin Grimoire trilogy (a grab bag of ideas, particulary for ref characters[NPC's]), a copy of each of the first three D&D supplements and a copy of some other old D&D refs house rules from 1974-1977 used with OD&D. He also gave us a list of some classes (bard, etc) that we had to get a copy of the info from the Strategic Review/Dragon.

We are almost there, we only need a copy of Supplement II & III. We have everything else.

He said our first game will be under the following parameters: All characters will be rolled 3d6 in order, make your six rolls and you get what you get. We will be using only using Chainmail, the three books, and Outdoor Survival and the first version house rules from the second half of 1974. He said after the first couple of games he will give me a copy of the many times revised house rules using all of the items he is having us gather and then he gets to play not ref.

He has a campaign world that dates from the summer of 1974 that is still running. He said that he refuses to play anything except his version of OD&D. For instance, he does not have thieves in his campaign as a PC. He said everything from 1st ed AD&D and Holmes Basic onward is source material. He praises Mythus one of the best available sources and said he is planning to get the Lejendary materials soon, as well as, the Castles & Crusades materials.

This is the main reason that I am interested in the OD&D errata as noted in my previous post. And why I am interested in house rules from 1974-1978 time period. When I get into anything I like to dig deep.

Cheers,

Llaurenela

 

[Serendipity]

So this guy that we know told us that he would ref our first game if we could get an OD&D box set with hobbits, ents and balrogs in the text of the three books, a copy of Chainmail 3rd ed, a copy of the Outdoor Survival board game, a copy of the Arduin Grimoire trilogy (a grab bag of ideas, particulary for ref characters[NPC's]), a copy of each of the first three D&D supplements and a copy of some other old D&D refs house rules from 1974-1977 used with OD&D. He also gave us a list of some classes (bard, etc) that we had to get a copy of the info from the Strategic Review/Dragon.

Just to dive in, I must say that sounds awesome. (I tried tracking down some of the origin. boxed set era material some few years ago and found it prohibitively expensive - at least via ebay) I hope the game is at least as good as it sounds to be.