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]

Gary,

If my memory does not fail me, the original write-up for Iuz in Dragon was vague about his demonic parentage, theorizing that he might be "a by-blow of Orcus." Later, it was revealed that Graz'zt was the Old One's demonic sire. Was there any reason for this change (if change it be) and, if so, did it relate to your use of Orcus or Graz'zt in the Greyhawk campaign?

Thanks.

The very same question was recently posed on another website. When I was hyping Iuz I thought suggesting that Orcus was his sire would make Iuz more menacing. I never intenbded to link his parentage to that mighty demon, and thus later on I noted that Graz'zt was his progenator.

I had Orcus appear once in my campaign, but Iuz was was a behing-the-scenes figure far more often. That said, none of the PCs were of sufficient level to manage a confrontation with Iuz, let alone Graz'zt or Orcus.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[T. Foster]

It is hard to rank such infuence, but I'll take a stab at it...and add authors as well. Some on the list below are virtually tied as I consider them:

Howard
De Camp & Pratt
Vance
Leiber
Moorcock
Merritt
Lovecraft
Saberhagen
Poul Amderson
Tolkien
...and a score of others

Cheers,
Gary

Michael Moorcock has climbed a bit since your list in the AD&D DMG (which included Merritt and Lovecraft but not Moorcock on the list of "most immediate influences"), and I'm also a bit surprised to see Fred Saberhagen so high on the list (above other "usual suspects" like Burroughs, Farmer, and Fox). I've read Saberhagen's "Empire of the East" series (on the basis of your recommendation in the aforementioned DMG list) but nothing else -- are there any other titles by him that you particularly recommend?

 

[rossik]

hi gary!
sorry if someone asked this before, but...

why drows have spiders as "sacred"?

i mean, why do you choose spiders? any reason in particular?

what is your thoght about "good" drows (not drizzt, i was thinking on that eberron scorpion clan, or something like that)

tx!

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Michael Moorcock has climbed a bit since your list in the AD&D DMG (which included Merritt and Lovecraft but not Moorcock on the list of "most immediate influences"), and I'm also a bit surprised to see Fred Saberhagen so high on the list (above other "usual suspects" like Burroughs, Farmer, and Fox). I've read Saberhagen's "Empire of the East" series (on the basis of your recommendation in the aforementioned DMG list) but nothing else -- are there any other titles by him that you particularly recommend?

The first two Elric stories were very influential in the development of the D&D game. Saberhagen is listed for his "Empire of the East" that I very much liked. None other of his novels struck me in this regard. Anyway, the series Saberhagen called to mind Stanley Weinbau''s The BLack Flame. That is not to deny Farmer, Fox, and Burrough had considerable influence. As I noted, another score of authors belong on the list.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

hi gary!
sorry if someone asked this before, but...

why drows have spiders as "sacred"?

i mean, why do you choose spiders? any reason in particular?

what is your thoght about "good" drows (not drizzt, i was thinking on that eberron scorpion clan, or something like that)

tx!

The Drow are nasty and poisonous and lurking and dwell in darkness as do many sorts of spiders.

As I created them, there are absolutely no good Drow save for the insane.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[rossik]

As I created them, there are absolutely no good Drow save for the insane.

OMG, i wanna put that in my signature!!!!!

tx gary!!

(did it worked?)

 

[T. Foster]

Hi Gary,

One more quick thing on the AD&D DMG "Inspirational Reading" list, if you don't mind: in that list, you single out the anthology Swords Against Darkness III (ed. Andrew J. Offutt), but not the other volumes of that series (which ran to 5 volumes in total, though I believe the last volume or 2 may have post-dated the DMG). Why vol. 3 specifically rather than the series as a whole? Was there something in that specific volume (perhaps Poul Anderson's essay "On Thud and Blunder") that stood out as particularly noteworthy, something in the other volumes that turned you off, or was it as simple as that vol. 3 just happened to be the only one of the series you had read?

 

[Nagora]

Gary,
I'm sure someone will have sent you this already, but just in case here's a seasonal image that might raise a smile

http://hobased.stores.yahoo.net/dunanddrag.html

 

[JamesM]

That said, none of the PCs were of sufficient level to manage a confrontation with Iuz, let alone Graz'zt or Orcus.

That's interesting. I take it then that, in your Greyhawk campaign, characters didn't tend to reach very high levels of experience? One of the things I always liked and appreciated about AD&D was the difficulty of achieving levels above 9th or so. This ensured that even long-played characters never became veritable living gods capable of singlehandedly taking on armies and so forth. This seems much more in keeping with the pulp fantasies that influenced the development of the game.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

That's interesting. I take it then that, in your Greyhawk campaign, characters didn't tend to reach very high levels of experience? One of the things I always liked and appreciated about AD&D was the difficulty of achieving levels above 9th or so. This ensured that even long-played characters never became veritable living gods capable of singlehandedly taking on armies and so forth. This seems much more in keeping with the pulp fantasies that influenced the development of the game.

The old veterans had PCs with levels in the teens after about 10 yeras of play. Back then my own highest level PC was the same, although nearly 20th level. It was common to virtually retire a character when 15th or so level was attained.

Cheerio,
Gary