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]

Hmmm...

I wonder if the folks at WotC understand that all RPGs are driven by the GMs that run the games. Without them, they will have no paper game property. Telling players to give their DMs a hard time is most counter-productive.

All dissatisfied DM, come on over to the LA game system, or C&C if you must have a class/level based game. In both systems the GM is the final arbiter

Cheers,
Gary

 

[airwalkrr]

Alright Gary, here's another humzinger for ya. I am wondering about the motivations for designing some elements of the original classes, particularly the way leveling up worked. Why did you have different XP progressions for each class? Also, some of the XP tables seemed to "speed up" at some points while others "slowed down" at others. What was the rationale for this?

I ask because I am working diligently on designing my own advancement system, particularly with regard to balancing multiclass and dualclass characters. I like a lot of the ideas from AD&D and OD&D, especially compared to 3e, but before I begin tweaking them heavily, I wanted to know the background behind the design so I can be aware of it while I work on my own system. Particularly I am wondering if a universal system where each class follows the same progression is better than a differential one and/or the ramifications of the differences. Thanks a ton!

 

[haakon1]

Look! there in the dungeon. It's a iron golem. No it's a titan. No, it's Supermunchkin!


Cheers,
Gary

Heh. Iron golem reminds me of "Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure", which reminds of the fun of not knowing what you're fighting, but knowing you're facing a TPK of your many-years played characters right quick if you don't figure it out.

I'm not sure why WOTC thinks we need motorcycle helmet laws for our characters.

Live free or die, get rich or die trying. What's wrong with a role playing world that works like that? It's fun preaching to the choir.

 

[haakon1]

polymorphing fire giants into ants

Fire giant ants are the red ones, right?

 

[haakon1]

Now, all that said, I agree the whole article is still a little thick on player empowerment. Just not as bad as your suggesting based on the particular quotes.

Point taken, but WOTC really did publish this:

<<If you feel that your characters are truly cash-starved, and it is affecting your enjoyment of the game, talk to the DM. Do a wealth audit and see where your characters stand vis-à-vis the assumed average wealth for the game. Your DM may not realize how stingy he's been, and if you point it out, he might reshuffle things a bit to help you catch up. If it turns out that dialing down the money was an intentional thing, you can ask the reason why and negotiate about how and whether you want the campaign to continue. >>

The idea of an "audit" to see if my players are getting enough loot, and negotiating to get more, that just shocked me. I can't see any circumstances under which that behavior is at all appropriate, so I'm still in shock that WOTC is saying that.

The general tenor of the article switches back and forth before the "normal" hey, different strokes for different folks, if you don't like your campaign, learn to live with it or move on stuff to this 'audit and negotiate' player entitlement stuff: the right to prestige classes, the right to sufficient treasure, the right to sufficient treasure from underling monsters so that if you wimp out and fail to complete an adventure, you are still rewarded? What gives?

The audit scenario is like Knights of the Dinner Table . . . players threaten to unionize because el Ravager NEEDS a +12 sword, because he needs the bonus to make the Swords of Domination prestige class minimum to hit bonus. And Gary Jackson's Hard Eight games clearly states that a player who has been on 20 or more adventures is entitled to a value for at least 150,000 gp, +10% if they bought the "player advantage treasure horders handbook".

 

[gideon_thorne]

The general tenor of the article switches back and forth before the "normal" hey, different strokes for different folks, if you don't like your campaign, learn to live with it or move on stuff to this 'audit and negotiate' player entitlement stuff: the right to prestige classes, the right to sufficient treasure, the right to sufficient treasure from underling monsters so that if you wimp out and fail to complete an adventure, you are still rewarded? What gives?

*chuckles* They are just enforcing their 'right' to get people to buy things and the rights of people to go out and buy them.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Alright Gary, here's another humzinger for ya. I am wondering about the motivations for designing some elements of the original classes, particularly the way leveling up worked. Why did you have different XP progressions for each class? Also, some of the XP tables seemed to "speed up" at some points while others "slowed down" at others. What was the rationale for this?

Simply put, it was all for game balance, and it worked reasonably well, I opine. Classes in game design will be held here on my front porch

I ask because I am working diligently on designing my own advancement system, particularly with regard to balancing multiclass and dualclass characters. I like a lot of the ideas from AD&D and OD&D, especially compared to 3e, but before I begin tweaking them heavily, I wanted to know the background behind the design so I can be aware of it while I work on my own system. Particularly I am wondering if a universal system where each class follows the same progression is better than a differential one and/or the ramifications of the differences. Thanks a ton!

See above

solid creative ability plus intuition coupled with a good deal of play-testing will get you where you need to be

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Heh. Iron golem reminds me of "Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure", which reminds of the fun of not knowing what you're fighting, but knowing you're facing a TPK of your many-years played characters right quick if you don't figure it out.

You should have seen the expression on the faces of my vetean players with relatively high level PCs when on the island they had been magically transported to they encountered and recognized the huge bronze golum, Talos, Of course they metagamed and undid the hatch on his heel. When 100 iron golems came pouring out, those being what powered Talos,the panicky flight was hilarious.

I'm not sure why WOTC thinks we need motorcycle helmet laws for our characters.

Live free or die, get rich or die trying. What's wrong with a role playing world that works like that? It's fun preaching to the choir.

And I enjoy hearing it

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Fire giant ants are the red ones, right?

That stings, but I can't think of a biting retort...


Gary

 

[gideon_thorne]

That stings, but I can't think of a biting retort...


Gary

Oh no! More puns! I guess someone's going to have to come along and up the ant-ty