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.

 

[T. Foster]

Whoa! I've never heard of that one. Since The Moon Pool is thus far perhaps my favorite Merritt tale (though it's so hard to choose), I'm going to have to track that one down.

I believe (though I'm certainly open to being corrected by Gary if I'm wrong) that that's simply the second half of what was eventually published in novel-form as The Moon Pool -- originally "The Moon Pool" was a stand-alone short story, then he wrote a much longer sequel-story a year or two later, then eventually combined both stories into a novel. The Face in the Abyss was the same way -- "The Face in the Abyss" was a stand-alone story, followed by a sequel-story "The Serpent Mother," and only later did Merritt combine them into a novel.

As for tracking down Merritt's books, it's a bit of a chore, but it's absolutely worth the effort. The Moon Pool is currently in-print in a couple different versions (and can also be found online, since its copyright has expired) and so is The Metal Monster (though that's probably his worst book and not really recommended except for completists). The other books are all out-of-print AFAIK but generally not too hard to find, especially, it seems, The Ship of Ishtar and Dwellers in the Mirage, because they were very popular in their day and tons of copies were printed through the 1980s. I had the hardest time acquiring his last two novels, Burn, Witch, Burn and Creep, Shadow, Creep, and ended up paying too much for vintage paperback copies from the 1940s (when Merritt was actually still alive!).

"Abraham Merritt" at amazon.com

 

[JohnRTroy]

Two of Merritt's works, The Moon Pool and The Metal Monster, are public domain having the copyright naturally expire. There are links to those works at Project Guttenburg on his Wiki entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Merritt

I think in a year or two a few more of his stories will become public domain.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

hi gary!

what do you think of characters and age?
i mean, isnt odd a 1st lvl M-U old, bald, with long beard?

i always try to make young 1st lvl characters....whats your thoghts about this?

I am in agreement with you, although a fledgling m-u will likely be a good deal older than a 1st level fighter. So for beginning PCs I suggest age 18 or so for a fighter or thief, age 21 or so for a cleric, and age 25 or thereabouts for a magic-user.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I'll see if I can find them, although I suspect most are out of print. It's damnably hard to find older fantasy authors nowadays.

Try www.bookfinder.com

This raises another question I'd intended to ask: do you view your work on Castle Zagyg as being better or at least more well considered than your older creative efforts? There are lots of obvious commonalities between, for example, your Greyhawk work and your Yggsburgh work, but there are also quite a few differences as well. I don't want to ask you to choose between your children, so to speak, but are there things you specifically chose to do differently with Yggsburgh that you either wish you had done with Greyhawk or simply had never considered doing way back when?

Thanks.

While I do not think I would change the manner in which I presented the World of Greyhawk, the Castle Zagyg setting is too different to be comparable. The Eastmark in which the town lies is only some 1,500 square miles in extent, so greater detail of smaller areas of terrain and communities therein is necessary in order to present an interesting and useful work for the game master. The main feature of the area is the town, Yggsburgh, so that has the most detail--and when the 24 additional town sector and suburban area modules are completed that detail will be as exhaustive as is desirable for a place where the GM remains the primary arbiter of the existing places actual nature and inhabitants.

In the Yggsburgh work the GM had much detailed information as is necessary for a small adventuring ares, so input into the campaign is more of the alteration and addition sort, with innovative expansion mainly encouraged in the areas just off the map edges.

Does that make sense to you?

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Whoa! I've never heard of that one. Since The Moon Pool is thus far perhaps my favorite Merritt tale (though it's so hard to choose), I'm going to have to track that one down.

Gary, how do you treat small, very young dragons in your A/D&D games? Do you make them significantly shorter than the lengths listed in the Monster Manual? And, if so, do you make the area covered by their breath weapons significantly smaller?

As a matter of fact I have not utilized itty-bitty dragonlings in my campaign play...nothing like the Norweigen Ridgeback in the Harry Potter flick.

If I were going to do so I would certainly make these creatures considerably smaller than the first listed dragon entry in the MM, and limit the range and damage from their breathe weapon accordingly.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Have you read any of the new issues of Weird Tales?

 

[JamesM]

Does that make sense to you?

I think so.

Do you prefer the smaller scale approach of Yggsburgh/East Mark or do you prefer the larger swaths of territory described by Greyhawk? I see distinct advantages to both, so you may not have a preference.

Thanks.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Have you read any of the new issues of Weird Tales?

No, and worse, I didn't even know that the magazine had resumed publication

Any comment on the nature of the material being printed therein? If it is typical of contemporary weird fiction I won't feel constrained to rush out and buy a copy...

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I think so.

Do you prefer the smaller scale approach of Yggsburgh/East Mark or do you prefer the larger swaths of territory described by Greyhawk? I see distinct advantages to both, so you may not have a preference.

Thanks.

As you suggest, I do not have a preference. The smaller scale of the Yggsburgh project is to facilitate the presentation of the ruins of Castle Zagyg and its many dungeon levels. As it is likely that there will be a good deal of adventuring activity in the town and surrounding countryside, the urban area has been extensively detailed, while the less-developed land around it has been well-described and provided with additional adventure hooks as befits such a setting.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Prince of Happiness]

No, and worse, I didn't even know that the magazine had resumed publication

Any comment on the nature of the material being printed therein? If it is typical of contemporary weird fiction I won't feel constrained to rush out and buy a copy...

Cheers,
Gary

It's not bad. There's a good mix of classic stories brought back and some good new ones as well and the new ones aren't "weirdness-for-weirdness's-sake" crap as written by my barista or anything. Tanith Lee still contributes short stories to it, as well as others.