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]

In my experience (though, apparently, it's not typical), it's about the same sorts of things. But instead of fighting on-rushing hordes, you're fighting epic-sized on-rushing hordes of epicness.

There are just more obstacles, tougher obstacles, more tools to overcome them, and more possibilities for creativity.

Who am I to argue with that?

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hello, Colonel!
Hope you're feeling better!!!

Just a question that stretches back down the eons to 1e.: why do druids use scimitars?
It just seems curious with the Celtic connection.

Heh,

It is because the scimitar is as close a sword weapon I could come up with to match the druids' mistletoe-harvesting sickle.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

...

...of course, as i said, a DM must handle the situation properly, or otherwise things just get too ridiculous. that sort of high-level play can be fun for a short time, but it's not the sort of thing i'd want to focus on for a long time.

Sure,

Francois' OAD&D campaign had PCs of 20th level and up. I played a lackey of merely 15th level and always had to bow and scrape to my "betters." It was interesting to me to see how he managed things, but I found the milieu more political and intrigue-ridden that I enjoyed playing for extended periods.

As a matter of fact, I have so many PCs because I found it most enjoyable to play low- and mid-level characters most adventures.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hi Storm Raven,

No quibble with what you state, but I do believe the number of persons tha played OAD&D was greated than the number playing the new game despite "unfriendly" rules. Perhaps that was because those rules were explicit in alloting to the Dm the role of ultimate arbiter with free reign to excise and alter whatever was desired.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Well, I had one character that surviving all the way through G123D123Q1. He was 21st level (human cleric of Heimdall) when he got home.

And what did he do then? Retire and become an NPC.

I still haul him out once in a while as an NPC. ...

Quite so!

Just as I did with Mordenkainen, Bigby, and other PCs when they rose too high in power to interact with the "mundain" adventures.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I don't think they are edition or even game specific. They've had Western and I believe space adventures, a vampire campaign, and even did some LARP.

That said, Colonel, does Hackmaster amuse you, or not?

...

.

The suggestion that the KotDT reflects on OAD&D being a game for rules lawyers is too ridiculous to respond to, expecially when one looks at the new D&D rules and how they are played.

I do not play HM, it is fat too rules heavy for my taste, but I was rolling on the floor laughing when I read Jolly Blackburn's work. He surely did manage to lanpoon me quite accurately most of the time, which is astonishing to me, for as much as I like Jolly, he and I are not associates. I must chalk it up to his astute perception.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

great to see you interacting with the current gamer community Gary... i'm a n00b here so if this is the norm - it's great. If it's not the norm - it should be.

[a]

Howdy,

Thanks, and it is indeed usual for me to interact with my fellow gamers on this website and others, for I enjoy the exchange...as long as it remains on the relatively polite level. It is a bore to have someone assert that this or that RPG is superior to all others. Such matters are personal taste. I enjoy some games, do not find others at all appealing. That means nothing except to me and those with whom I game.


Gary

 

[Heathansson]

Heh,

It is because the scimitar is as close a sword weapon I could come up with to match the druids' mistletoe-harvesting sickle.

Cheers,
Gary

Thanks! That's kinda what I thought.

 

[Storm Raven]

No quibble with what you state, but I do believe the number of persons tha played OAD&D was greated than the number playing the new game despite "unfriendly" rules. Perhaps that was because those rules were explicit in alloting to the Dm the role of ultimate arbiter with free reign to excise and alter whatever was desired.

I don't think we have any way to determine accurately which edition has more people regularly playing it. Leaving aside the question of how to determine who is a player, and who is just a collector, and who is "regularly" as opposed to "sporadically" playing, we simply have no verifiable sales data for the books that would allow for a good comparison. I think the number of subsrcibers to Dragon might be a good indicator, and I remember seeing some figures on that, but I don't remember where, or what the trend was (other than remembering a dip in the mid-90s and some recovery in the 2000s).

But I think your argument that the DM is disempowered in 3e is just off-base. At several points in the 3e core books the text makes clear that the DM is the ultimate arbiter of the rules of his campaign. The statement that you have "heard" about people playing differently and challenging the DMs authority at every turn is no more persuasive that this is a huge problem than old letters to Dragon by players stating that their DM won't allow them to play a 5/5/8 level half-elven fighter/magic-user/cleric with Stormbringer and the Ring of Kings because that character is "not powerful enough to survive" were that such an issue was a big deal to most of those using the system.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Thanks! That's kinda what I thought.

The primary appeal of the Druid class from a creative standpoint is that the Romans were so thorough in destroying them and their religion that we know virtually nothing about either

Cheers,
Gary