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.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And now for something completely different.

(playing a piano naked)

 

[Col_Pladoh]

(playing a piano naked)

Not with ME as your audience

Gary

 

[Clangador]

Not with ME as your audience

Gary

Good call.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Just in case some reader here thinks it odd to create on the fly as Rob and I usuall are want to do:

The main difference between formal creation of material and doing it as one serves in the role of GM is spontenaity, that allowing the material created on the spot to beter suit the player group ad the situation at hand. Otherwise one must set forth the material to be played and recite it more or less verbatim, forcing the group to its mold. the creative demand is muc the same, but the free-style method usually allows fo more enjoyment b all participants.

I recommend it to all GMs able to manage such playing style

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[dcas]

I recommend it to all GMs able to manage such playing style

Well, not everyone can manage that style. I can (poorly!) and I have found it more to my taste than working from extensive notes. I usually lose track of extensive notes anyway, so if I work on the fly I at least spare my players the bother of waiting for me to find something.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Well, not everyone can manage that style. I can (poorly!) and I have found it more to my taste than working from extensive notes. I usually lose track of extensive notes anyway, so if I work on the fly I at least spare my players the bother of waiting for me to find something.

Heh...

Seems to me that you doth protest too much, and despite meaning to use prepared material resort to winging it so as to keep the game lively and enjoyable. In short, it seems you can do it pretty well

Cheers,
Gary

 

[francisca]

Speaking of which:

Charlemagne mustard his Franks
To assault and pepper the Saracens with relish,
But they couldn't catchup.
Some think that pun is the wurst,
But I think it is a wiener.

Gary

Now, why'd you have to go and drag my forefathers into the fray?

Would be cheddar if you paid fromage to them, but not like so:

The Franks were the most barbarous and uncouth of all the Teutonic races, and they covered the shortest distance; they were ruled for 250 years by the Merovings, the most bloody and ineffectual dynasty which has ever disgraced a nation, and yet in spite of that they gave their name to the finest flower of mediavel Europe.

--Ewart Oakeshott, The Archaeology of Weapons​

Of course, old Ewart was a bit of a blow-hard.

 

[Clangador]

Just in case some reader here thinks it odd to create on the fly as Rob and I usuall are want to do:

The main difference between formal creation of material and doing it as one serves in the role of GM is spontenaity, that allowing the material created on the spot to beter suit the player group ad the situation at hand. Otherwise one must set forth the material to be played and recite it more or less verbatim, forcing the group to its mold. the creative demand is muc the same, but the free-style method usually allows fo more enjoyment b all participants.

I recommend it to all GMs able to manage such playing style

Cheerio,
Gary

I don't think it's odd. It's just not the same play style as running a canned adventure. I find what you guys did when the game was young very interesting. Do you use the same format when running tourny adventures?

 

[StupidSmurf]

Just in case some reader here thinks it odd to create on the fly as Rob and I usuall are want to do:

The main difference between formal creation of material and doing it as one serves in the role of GM is spontenaity, that allowing the material created on the spot to beter suit the player group ad the situation at hand. Otherwise one must set forth the material to be played and recite it more or less verbatim, forcing the group to its mold. the creative demand is muc the same, but the free-style method usually allows fo more enjoyment b all participants.

I recommend it to all GMs able to manage such playing style

Cheerio,
Gary

I for one don't consider it odd to create on the fly. In some cases, it's a necessity, particularly if the players aren't forbidden from venturing "off the game board". In my current campaign, I had designed an ancestral keep which the characters would need to explore. In the deepest undercellar I put a fault line on the floor that plunged down into a 320' deep chasm. I didn't flesh it out because I thought, "No way are they going to be so insane as to deviate from their pressing task just to check out some stupid deep fissure!" So I just made a notation that a "bunch of grimlocks" dwelled down at the bottom, and left it at that. Didn't even write up their stats.

Sure enough...guess where they went? Some people think SOP stands for Standard Operational Procedure. When I'm running D&D, it stands for Seat Of Pants. In my humble opinion, any DM who says that the players' characters can "go anywhere and do anything", had darn well better be able to create on the fly.

 

[haakon1]

With the change in pun topics, I'd say you were all Jacks of many trades.

I'm just glad the old puns were put out to pasture.