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]

Dear Gary,

Do you recall how you had intended the assassination to work for an assassin? Did you intend the rules to say that the assassin always hits (as long as surprise is won), and that normal damage is taken even if the assassination attempt fails? Or did you mean to say the assassin must hit by rolling before he could attempt to assassinate?

Also, when an assassin wins surprise, does he only get 1 segment of surprise to attempt to assassinate, or all the segments he wins (ex. an assassin wins 3 segs. of surprise on a target, would he get only 1 of those 3 to attempt to assassinate, and attack normally for the other 2, get only 1 attack for that sequence of surprises, or something different).

Also, can an assassination be conducted using a missile attack (as long as the assassin wins surprise)?

I have read some who claim that the assassination attempt was meant to be a "plan" handed to the DM that is rolled for (as long as the plan is sound). A single role that shows if the overall plan worked (ex. the plan to hide above in a tree that overhangs a road, as a passing nobel rides by, drop down from above attacking with a dagger to assassinate. This would be considered a single assassination attempt, rather then a role to climb, a role to HIS, a role to see if the nobel happens to be on the wrong side of the road etc.).

Thanks for taking the time to answer such questions. Keep well!
Tx7321

The "plan" method is closest to the intent of how an assassin operates. If the attempt is against an NPC, the player whose character is the assassin can explain aloud to the DM what his character is doing. The chance for a success in the plan is the percentage given. If a spur of the moment attempt is made, surprise must be gained for an attempt to have a change of success, Failure to succeed, or gain surprise, means that damage is normal for the weapon being used.

Surprise for an assassination attempt is the number of segments, up to three, needed to make the atempt,

That's the best of my recollection.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[thedungeondelver]

Speaking of illustrations, Gary...behold!

That's a bottle of sherry and a bottle of port up front - and they're all yours.

We'll probably hit the winery one more time and double or treble the number of bottles of Vintner's Red before we head up this summer.

Appetite whet, yet?

 

[thedungeondelver]

Speaking of Spirits, also...

I'd read a third hand account of you engaging in a game of EXALTED. If that's so, what do you think of the setting and rules, and was it a one-off only or is it something you find yourself wanting to revisit?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Speaking of illustrations, Gary...behold!

That's a bottle of sherry and a bottle of port up front - and they're all yours.

We'll probably hit the winery one more time and double or treble the number of bottles of Vintner's Red before we head up this summer.

Appetite whet, yet?

Whoa! Great pic.

You are too kind and generous. Thanks. I have indeed a taste for port and nuts for dessert, and some dry sherry as an appertif...or a sweet/cream sherry as a desert wine.

Speaking of wineries, there was one here...and it offered the most dreadful fruit and like sweet vintages imaginable. It didn't last more than a few years.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Speaking of Spirits, also...

I'd read a third hand account of you engaging in a game of EXALTED. If that's so, what do you think of the setting and rules, and was it a one-off only or is it something you find yourself wanting to revisit?

Yet another of the many things attributed to me that are fictitious

As a matter of fact I have never heard of EXALTED before reading your post

Cheers,
Gary

 

[thedungeondelver]

Whoa! Great pic.

You are too kind and generous. Thanks. I have indeed a taste for port and nuts for dessert, and some dry sherry as an appertif...or a sweet/cream sherry as a desert wine.

Speaking of wineries, there was one here...and it offered the most dreadful fruit and like sweet vintages imaginable. It didn't last more than a few years.

Cheers,
Gary

HMM! Well I'll steer you clear of the Vintner's Red then, as it tends towards a sweeter taste. They have a dry Castillo Red I'll pick up a few bottles of.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Yet another of the many things attributed to me that are fictitious

As a matter of fact I have never heard of EXALTED before reading your post

Cheers,
Gary

Ah so! It's one of White Wolf's offerings. Heavy asian influence, where the characters begin as super-beings (and work up from there).

As games go it's not the worst thing White Wolf has done...

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Speaking of worsts...

Some of the old-time locals, women by and large, made elderberry, and dandelion wine. What awful stuff, with a headache the size of the gallon jugs they came in. However, my friend Tom Keogh and I viewed the many bottles and jugs of 20 or so year old homemade wines and came uo with an idea,

Tom Keogh got copper tubing that fit perfectly into the vent of the deep well cooker on the old stove at my parents placem bent it into a long coil. Into the cooker went wine, a cold rag was kept wrapped abound the tubing, and soon out dripped a pale-colored liquid that was about 70 proof and didn't tast at all bad.

In all I supplied such tipple to our club group that met in the attic of my house and to a group of high school lads guarding the homecoming bonfire--two gallons were swilled down and there was a large tire placed ip on one of the light poles for the field by a daring, if inibriated "guardian."

(When someone cleared out his family mansion nearby--he was a friend of my grandparents--he had our family and my uncle's come and clear the basement of scores of gallon jugs and quart bottles of such home brew, including some pretty fair fruit brandies that I managed to swipe a few of. Of course i was only abour age 13 then the hoard went into our basement. Some few containers were still left when I was in my early 20s...mostly vinegarized )

Cheers,
Gary

 

[dcas]

HMM! Well I'll steer you clear of the Vintner's Red then, as it tends towards a sweeter taste. They have a dry Castillo Red I'll pick up a few bottles of.

You may give the Vintner's Red to me, then, as I have not forgotten my Germanic heritage and so have a taste for sweet wines.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

You may give the Vintner's Red to me, then, as I have not forgotten my Germanic heritage and so have a taste for sweet wines.

As a Switzer all I can say about trochenbern auschlaser (sp?) and the lesser "mit predicate" wines from the wrong side of the Rhine is

Cheerio,
Gary