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]

*blinks owlishly* Good grief! After some 30 or so years of gaming, I have one character that has reached past 25th level.

I have two over 20th, two over 15th, five of 10th or higher level, and perhaps a dozen that are below 12th level. If all that were concentrated in a single PC, one that could find suitable challenges when at 21st level and above, likely that one would be at least 50th level...if he survived that long

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I like the way you think, Gary. I've always felt that a good DM can challenge any character, of any level, of any power. Might take some creativity and a little homework between sessions, but it's doable.

Agreed, but...

Either the players must have characters of generally similar power or else the DM must devise special scenarios for the one or two unber-PCs in his group. the last two times Mordienkained adventures was in the Metamorphosis Alpha game setting and in son Ernie's campaign at the Game Guild where about eight or 10 PCs of c. 8th level had been had by a pair of ancient white dragons. Mordie was called in to redress things, and he managed the pair of drakes pretty well single handedlu, although it was not a cake walk.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Not that it matters what I say, but that "level stacking" you did is illegal.

Not if his DM allowed it.

The main drawback is getting any other DM to recognize that. As i pointed out, gaining lower levels is about one-quarter as difficult as hgaining thos at the high end of the scale.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Edena's tale of the constantly-doubling experience awards reminds me of one of my favourite mistakes in AD&D, made when I was but fourteen:

One of my players of similar age played a Mage named (uncreatively but surprisingly-appropriately) Merlin, and made liberal use of a necklace he had acquired around 9th or 10th level which contained five charges of a homebrewed 9th Level spell called Michelle's Chaos Wind (similar to a Finger of Death capable of effecting multiple targets). With this he killed more than one quasi-/demi-deity (unlucky saves on their part) and I, lacking official XP values for such things, decided to go the rout of impressing said player with progressively ludicrously high numbers.

Looking back at the character sheet a few years later, while I am not sure if I actually awarded a trillion or more XP, I calculated from what it looked like on that oft-erased area of the sheet and determined that he could be of around 6,053,008th level. I am glad that while we were playing I ruled that noone was available who could train Merlin beyond 20th level, but I would be very interested in knowing how Gary would handle a campaign with PCs of seven-digit level (I suspect remarkably well, but I am curious as to what kinds of challenges would be faced by said PCs).

A cautionary lesson for all DM there.

As a natter of fact i fell into the trap of excell XP awards back in late 73 and realized it soon enough to redredd the problem, adjust for levels too easily gained by making the next few doubly hard to attain.

Excell magic items are easily managed though, mainly through attack forms what require them to save ot be destroyed, or areas where they have a chance of losing their enchantment.

Cheerio,
Gary

Cheers,
Gary

 

[gideon_thorne]

I have two over 20th, two over 15th, five of 10th or higher level, and perhaps a dozen that are below 12th level. If all that were concentrated in a single PC, one that could find suitable challenges when at 21st level and above, likely that one would be at least 50th level...if he survived that long

Cheers,
Gary

A common theme among the groups I have gamed with was a desire to fill those 'experience' numbers with actual experience. Sometimes it would take a year of real time gaming (once a weekend to 2-3 times a week) to gain 2-3 levels. And, while we didn't always follow the whole 'only one level at a time' rule, our characters at least had very lengthy epic stories behind them.

Oh yes. I think it might interest you to mention that I ran a bit of your Yggsburgh book at a local convention this weekend.

I had 4 players. One of which who had never gamed before. The party consisted of a Wizard, Monk, Barbarian and Thief. I ran the "Townbridge" encounter, the one with the bandits fleeing the city.

It's of note to mention that the new player, who ran the thief, actually came up with the most involved actions as part of the 90 minute long scenario I put them through. Whilst the other party members, who didn't actually know each other, got involved in trying to blockade the bandits from leaving, the thief quickly worked the watching crowds and both pilfered purses and organized a betting pool on the encounter outcome.

Even more of note, two of the players were womenfolk, including the newbie thief player.

I apparently gave them a good experience through the scenario which actually involved them using a good sampling of the C&C mechanics. I suspect I'll be hearing from these folks again.

All in all, a good experience for a short impromptu session.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

(Blinks) Wow. That was a big damn post.

Gary, to get this back on the, y'know, Q&A theme, here's something that Edena's novella made me think of...

Which, if any, of the really big bad guys of D&D fame started life as actual PC's? For example, was Acererak ever an actual character who was eventually judged by the DM to be too much for a PC? What about Vecna and Kas? I seem to recall (and I could EASILY be wrong) that Kas got his name from Tim Kask - did you and Tim ever have a throw down in which he got a couple of lucky hits that left your wizard with one less hand and eye, and the whole thing passed into infamy?

None, unless you count Obmi the DWarf as a big bad guy. My players surely did,hated him thoroughly, aways did their utmost to finish him off.

When Brian BLume was bent on devising a load of artifacts he made up such items as that of Kas and Gax for Tim and me. Inspired thus, I ccreated the Iron FLask of Tourney the Merciless in honor of sone Ernie and his evil PC, Erac's Cousin.

The fact is that none of the DMs that were influential in regards to TSR's creative output ever had very high-level PCs in their campaigns, thus neither those figures nor the NPCs opposing them were of such notable prowess.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Thanks much, Gary. Thanks much indeed.

I never was able to complete Edena's story, by the way.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Thanks much, Gary. Thanks much indeed.

I never was able to complete Edena's story, by the way.

Well...

If ever you get a chance to participate in an AD&D game DMed by Francois, he is the one that most likely could assist in concluding the epic of Edena

There is a good chance that he will be visiting us here in lake Geneva in the late summer...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[the black knight]

Hey Gary,

What villains currently haunt your campaigns? Any as memorable as Obmi?


Sincerely,

the black knight

 

[tenkar]

Wow... that was... wow

It might not have been illegal, and it certainly wasn't in the spirit of the rules, but wow...

Reminds me that when I first gamed, we didn't have the MM, so all monster stats came from the back of the DMG... we thought HD and HP were interchangeable. A 4HD +1 HP Ogre always had 5 HP. Dungeons got much tougher, and expo flowed much slower, when we realized this mistake