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]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Heh...

Oh, I like my job (hey, I have chosen it, not the other way around 8-]) but I understand that reatilers have often not a very good 'press' in Internet sites and forums... 8-[

Good retail outlets are a major part of gaming, are what keeps it alive. GW, for example, relies on their retail stores almost entirely for this purpose. PRG publishers should, and generally do, appreciate the key role retailers have in the whole field. I

certainly appreciate them greatly!


8-] Your son has a really good taste 8-P.

About gamers being friendly, well, considering that D&D and AD&D were and are by far the most popular games in Italy (we could say that gamerdom is divided between the ones who like/love them and the ones who hate them with a 10:1 ratio at least) and you are the father of both, well, I was surprised in not seeing a biggest queue (when I went back to Brescia and started to tell amazed customers about your presence in Italy and showing your autographs I started listening "NOOOOO - why nobody told this to me?!? AARGH!" and of course "How much do you want for this module/Basic Set?". Nothing, of course, becuase I'll NEVER sell them. If you ever come to Italy and the news are better spread, expect a HUGE audience!
"So, is Alex has any input, I suspect the answer is a positive one. Fact is, though, I am very busy, and going to cons here in the US or overseas takes about two weeks out of my working time when all is siad and done. Thus Trigee levies a hefty fee on my appearances. I hate travelling--although I love to be in new places--so I generally don't mind not going. The most likely scenario is in regards to the LA MMPO RPG. The developers, Dreams-Interactive, are in Europe. If all goes as planned, arond 2004 we will be in beta test, and then I'll likely by needed over there--Belgium. Once I'm in Europe, well, I have a good friend in France, and I like Germany, Italy, and Spain, enjoy england too...".

I'll alert convention organizers for 2004 then.

"2) From the larger perspectivem Alessandro, the AD&D game was the best move TSR ever made. Sales jumped incredily when it was released, and I do believe that even 3E has not met the volume that those originalbooks attained--could be wrong there, but..."
Oops, sorry if I gave you the impression I was against the AD&D game - far from it! I'm not that kind of person who says "If I don't like it, then it's a bad thing". But...
"Anyway, I do agree with you that it was a mistake for TSR not to cntinue to support the D&D game line too. I urged that we do so, but that advice was ignored".
Sigh. They really shoot themselves in the feet, in Italy at least, because they destroyed an excellent 'recruiting' game. Oh, well...
"You are most welcome--I've had a great time creating and playing games, so the whole is mutual".
Mr. Gygax, I don't want to seem pushy or anything and I DO know you did a lot of these things in the past, but may I interview you for the Dungeons.it web site (I think the site's nature is clear?)? I understand you are - of course - a very busy personbut if you ever had the time then I'd be most grateful.

Thanks!

"Ciao,
Gary"

Hmmm, you don't know Italian, don't you?

Ciro Alessandro Sacco
Brescia - Italy [/B][/QUOTE]

 

[angrypossum]

Dragons in the Basement

Hello Mr. Gygax,

Thanks for continuing this thread. I have two questions.

What do you know about the documentary Dragons in the Basement by Dave Arneson?

What was your profession before starting TSR?

-Josh

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Heh...

Pardoon the gaff in my earlier, partial response. I hit send by accident. Now I'll finish what I meant to.

8-] Your son has a really good taste 8-P.

Heh, and his father agrees with him, as most likely would his two older brothers Italian cuisine is my favorite, although I confess to preferring premier grand cru class French wines (and their cheeses) to the Italian ones.

About gamers being friendly, well, considering that D&D and AD&D were and are by far the most popular games in Italy (we could say that gamerdom is divided between the ones who like/love them and the ones who hate them with a 10:1 ratio at least) and you are the father of both, well, I was surprised in not seeing a biggest queue (when I went back to Brescia and started to tell amazed customers about your presence in Italy and showing your autographs I started listening "NOOOOO - why nobody told this to me?!? AARGH!" and of course "How much do you want for this module/Basic Set?". Nothing, of course, becuase I'll NEVER sell them. If you ever come to Italy and the news are better spread, expect a HUGE audience!

I met a number of non-D&Ders who were very nice, so I guess that not liking the game doesn't nbecessarily man that it's author is disliked And thanks for the heads-up on a possible return visit. I'll bring along extra pens

Sigh. They really shoot themselves in the feet, in Italy at least, because they destroyed an excellent 'recruiting' game. Oh, well...

That is so, and TSR did that again when 2E was published, for some 50% of their audience did not accept the new edition, There is an analogy to the "New Coke" release here, only TSR didn't rectify their marketing error by supportiing both original and 2E versions of AD&D. That certainly led to the financial difficulties esperienced in the years thereafter.

Mr. Gygax, I don't want to seem pushy or anything and I DO know you did a lot of these things in the past, but may I interview you for the Dungeons.it web site (I think the site's nature is clear?)? I understand you are - of course - a very busy personbut if you ever had the time then I'd be most grateful.

Email me at ggygax@genevaonline.com about an interview, Alessandro.

Hmmm, you don't know Italian, don't you?

No, I know only a few words, although I understand more because of the Latin base of many English words (and I have a large vocabularly of those words), and once I listen to Italian being spoken for a while I can follow a bit of what is being said. Also, I do know what "ciao" means

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

G'day Gary!

Another question or two...

Looking at your D&D adventures, the term "challenging" comes to mind. An entirely good thing, of course! However, I'm wondering how often players would be losing their PCs in your D&D games?

What happened then? Did they start new characters at level 1, or were you kind to the poor players and give them other options?



Apart from your own RPG designs, have you played many other RPGs?

Cheers & Thanks once more!

Well, my regulars learned to say "Run away!" pretty quickly. Even the best came to a fatal situation with their main PCs now and again. That's what high level clerics and wish spells are for, of course. The compliment was returned when I played.

Most of the regulars had several OCs, and the secondary and below ones were more expendable. Some were allowed to end their careers just to allow the creation of new low-level PCs for fresh approaches to like adventures. Seldom did I allow non-regulars to start above 2nd level. Regulars could start new PCs at 3rd or 4th level, as they clearly had experience to manage such characters.

Personally, unless the group demanded a "jump=started character," I enjoyed playing a new PC from 1st level on.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Blast! Messed up again. Bad morning...

Apart from your own RPG designs, have you played many other RPGs?

Cheers & Thanks once more!

Quick list:
EN GARDE, BOOT HILL, METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA, STAR FRONTIERS, TOP SECRET, GANGBUSTERS. TRAVELLER, GAMMA WORLD, PARANOIA CALL OF CHTHULLU.

There'd be more, but time and lack of proximate GMs has kept it fairly short.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

You were at ModCon in '99?

AAGH! *bites his hands*

I'd better be more informed in the future.

Hush! Don't tell the guys who run ModCon. They're a great bunch, and I don't want them to learn that had they publicized my appearance back in 99 a bit more they'd have had an even larger attendence than they did

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Re: Dragons in the Basement

Hello Mr. Gygax,

Thanks for continuing this thread. I have two questions.

What do you know about the documentary Dragons in the Basement by Dave Arneson?

What was your profession before starting TSR?

-Josh

I don't think I ever saw the documentary you name, although I did do an interview for a chap what was working with Dave, the produicer of the work, as I recall.

As to my work before I became a full-time game geek, well, mainly insurance. (A lot of part-time jobs and even full-time ones of short duration when i was a teenager.) I was in the insurance field for about 13 years and was a supervising underwriter for various forms of health, special risk, and life insurance until late in 1970. I then decided to roll the dice. to support the family while earning very little in gaming I learned to be a cobbler, and did that for four years until becoming a full-time employee of TSR.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Sir Edgar]

I wanted to ask you a few more questions.

How do begin your creation process? Do you take notes while you're reading a book or after watching a movie? Or do you go straight to the computer (or typewriter) and start typing? Do you have a schedule for how many hours a day you commit to work or does it just come all at once? How do you avoid crossing the line between insipiration and plagiarism?

Thanks very much for all of your great replies. I'm still amazed at how responsive you've been here.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I wanted to ask you a few more questions.

How do begin your creation process? Do you take notes while you're reading a book or after watching a movie? Or do you go straight to the computer (or typewriter) and start typing? Do you have a schedule for how many hours a day you commit to work or does it just come all at once? How do you avoid crossing the line between insipiration and plagiarism?

Thanks very much for all of your great replies. I'm still amazed at how responsive you've been here.

Hail SirE!

Inspiration comes when and where it comes. Sometimes in the shower, maybe when reading to viewing something, most often when I sit down and contemplate. Thus, notes can be input to a computer file, written on a pad, or scratched hastily on a bit of scrap paper.

When I am involved in a project I usually work about six to 10 hours a day on it, seven per, save Sundays during football season. The balance of the day's work time (10-12 hours standard) is spend managing business, email, and board posts such as this...

Plagerism involves copying another author's work, and that I have never done. In writing articles, one must needs to make clear the sources of direct quotes, of course. Ideas are not copyrightable--or else there's be only one RPG today. As a matter of fact, there are no really new ideas around at all, but rather we have recombinations and new approaches to old ideas, and that too is creative and innovative. When someone looks for the roots of the PRG, then need only harken to "Let's Pretend" and games such as "Cops & Robbers" to find them

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[The_Gneech]

Heya! I originally posted this question in this thread and got some very interesting responses, but I figure there's probably not a better person to ask, so:

Is there a mythic/folklore precedent for the drow? I know of sidhe, seelie, and unseelie fae folk; I have also encountered the terms "drugh" and "trow." None of them have a clear correlation to the D&D drow, nor have I seen a readily-identifiable source or set of sources for them the way, say, "dwarves" have. So were there drow before the days of D&D?

-The Gneech