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.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Well from reading the info on fighters and such in the 1e PH I think it was assumed that high level Fighter types would have retianers, followers, henchmen, men at arms, etc. So I think that the disconnect is the from gamers that have never played in the old "style" so to speak. I know I've read several oldschool adventures where they note henchmen for pregen NPC characters listed in the module. I think it is assumed that high level characters would have henchmen to command on adventures, and that they would fall in battle often. If you have some 4th level fighters travelling into a tomb with thier 11th level Fighter Lord then there will inevitably be losses among the lackeys.

P.S. I hate the term "intellectually dishonest" just come out and say "Liar".

Quite so...

...especially when the number of actual PCs involved in the adventure is limited and the perils involved are great.

In point of fact, having "flunkies" along in such missions is only common sense. The PCs involved pay for that by gaining fewer XPs in the adventure.

Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

But I'm not calling them liars. Gary and Frank say that, on multiple occasions, there were no PC deaths. I'm giving the benefit of the doubt that, in fact, no PCs met their death in a given number of ToH runs.

However, there might be a bit of behind-the-scenes shenanigans going on whereby "No PC Deaths" means "Thousands of nameless NPCs died so that the PCs didn't have to."

In other words, "No PC deaths" may not be the whole story, and concealing the rest of the story might be intellectually dishonest.

EDIT:

Heck, "No PC Deaths" could, in fact, mean "The PCs entered alone, fought and puzzled their way through, and won the day - all without a single PC death!"

Given other sources, however, I doubt it. But I'm leaving open the possibility that I'm wrong.

Give it a rest

Robilar did venture into the ToH with a dozen of his orc bodyguards, but the lot were wasted in the entrance passage--I placed the pit traps knowing Rob's thinking and so got an orc in each and every one. Robilar tossed the last of them into the demon-mouth sphere of anhilation, then ventured on alone throughout the remainder of the module, got to the end, and as I said before, looted the treasure and fled without confronting the demi-lich.

Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

by my count, there are seven religious establishments in yggsburgh. If you use the greyhawk deities, which ones might be logical 'fits'?

btw, I like yggsburgh

Actually, in my play-testing I used Norse/Teutonic deities for the religious affiliations of the various temples and such in the town. (that's because WotC is the owner of the Greyhawk deities, of course...)

It is heartening to learn that you enjoy the setting, and if things develop as I hope, I plan to expand Yggsburg's information to detail each block in regards to what and who is located therein. I have a number of people ready to undertake this work, and all we need to begin is a nod from the Trolls

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I wasn't. IIRC, you steered the conversation away from it when it started becoming unfriendly.

Heh...

I was just using the opportunity to recall an old Fats Domino tune that was popular when I was a youngster

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Frank Mentzer]

it's a shame that you don't wish to continue the conversation. I was genuinely interested in the actual data.

Final comment on this bull...

Sir: this was not a conversation. You alleged fictions as facts, cited other unfounded allegations about a different game (a thousand miles away) as 'supporting data', waved various "might have" and "unproven" innuendos, and challenged us to debunk you with truth.

Tactically this would be assaulting an entrenched position, and is to be avoided.

If you truly wished any conversation you would have encouraged such with questions, rather than digging trenches for a battle of your own design. Sorry, I don't have time to indulge you.

We now return you to Gary's scheduled dialogues...

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Wow, you have some real balls, Patryn, suggesting that Gary has been dishonest, and on his own thread no less. Why not drop the euphemistic dance and just call him a 'liar?'

You know, seems to me that anyone can play this speculative game. In fact, I'll give it a try and suggest that perhaps it is YOU that has some shenanegins going on, like maybe you're harbouring a deep seated desire to lash out at someone who has given joy to others through his creations. How's that? Have I gotten the hang of it?

Likely Patryn has not experienced the fun as most of us have, so I say cut him some slack. I can deal with it

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[MerricB]

I've just remembered my own experience when playing Tomb of Horrors (the adventure brought to you by the letter "O"): I used a pre-gen character my DM presented me with - a kender rogue.

I am very happy to say that he was stripped of all of his equipment and left to die a lonely death in some corner of the dungeon. Some PCs deserve their fates, and any kender played by me can't suffer it soon enough (or so said the other players... )

Now, with Necropolis moving towards its likely gory end (although one or two of my players are quite accomplished), I think it's time to start investigating the new EGG adventures. Time to start badgering my FLGS, I think...

Cheers!

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I'd hate to see Gary's thread locked so lets try not to get too nasty here.

On another board I won't name the exchanges would be considered friendly banter...

Hey Gary, if I am using Greyhawk City as environs for CZ, do you think I can still get good value out of this volume since it doesn't go into the castle details much from what I read?

I just wish I could give you a potion of longevity to insure you could finish the series and treat gamers to your stuff for many many years to come. I tried to make one for you by mixing Jim Beam, Khaluha, & Guiness stout in a vial and let it cook overnight at low flame....well it took me a week to see again but I'm not deterred in the least.

Well, the River Nemo could be considered as the Neen, and the Urt river likewise one seen on the World of Greyhawk map. there is also the City of Dunfalcon some miles west to Yggsburgh.

The area covered by the Yggsburgh work is up to about 3K square miles if the GM expands the map himself so as to take in the demesnes of the three hostile nobles and the borderlands. That is a miniscule area considering the Flanaess, and yet within it there are hundreds of adventures--given and postulated. The cultural and social information in the work are manifold, meat and drink for the GM inclined to develop detailed material for the campaign.

We will get to the castle and dungeon levels, although it seems unlikely that I'll be able to take the lead due to my health--too little energy to sustain the work load necessary to produce such detailed effort. I worked 70 or more hours a week continuously for a long stretch to produce the CZ Yggsburgh volume. Howerver, I have outlined the castle/dungeons, we have the original material, and I can develop work that rob generates therefrom so as to assure it is consistant with what I, and he, did way back when, only more detailed so other GMs can utilize it.

Okay?

Cheers,
Gary

 

[the black knight]

Likely Patryn has not experienced the fun as most of us have, so I say cut him some slack. I can deal with it

Cheerio,
Gary

Hi, Gary,


I apologize for stepping in. It's just that I rate that module as one of the all time best out there and hate to see people dismiss it as anything less than a great work of role-playing. In any case, it won't happen again.

Sincerely,

TBK

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I've just remembered my own experience when playing Tomb of Horrors (the adventure brought to you by the letter "O"): I used a pre-gen character my DM presented me with - a kender rogue.

I am very happy to say that he was stripped of all of his equipment and left to die a lonely death in some corner of the dungeon. Some PCs deserve their fates, and any kender played by me can't suffer it soon enough (or so said the other players... )

Now, with Necropolis moving towards its likely gory end (although one or two of my players are quite accomplished), I think it's time to start investigating the new EGG adventures. Time to start badgering my FLGS, I think...

Cheers!

Heh, Merric...

As a mater of fact the team almost bought the farm when playing through the Hall of Many Panes, but a usually cautious and retiring Enchanter stepped to the fore with alacrity and saved the lot with a well-chosen Power activation (spell), and to the good guys won the day and went on to complete the lengthy and perilous quest to rescue the Hero-Bard McGregtim from the clutches of the malign deities.

Cheers,
Gary