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]

Redhill's nice; I've lived near there. My father was evacuated from Belfast near the start of the war and didn't see his family, other than an older brother who went with him, for the best part of four years. He was sent to a farm up near the Giant's Causeway and seems to have had a great time.

The huge shipyard in Belfast (of "RMS Titanic" fame) was, of course, a prime target and very easy to find from the air: just follow Belfast Lough to its end and drop everything you have! Bound to hit something useful. :\

I've been to England a number of times, but never did see Redhill...or a lot of other places I would have liked to see.

I can understand your father having a great time on a farm, because i loved them as a lad, and I worked on one for free, and to learn, on weekekds, later received $1 per day and room and board for working on another farm. I remember the hard work and fun well to this day.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Haakon1,

I can comment on three matters you mention:

My parents and older siblings had been through the Great Depression, and even with the ear on things at home were a lot better I was told.

The news reports and maps for the civilian population were pretty vague and usually inaccurate as well.

The main cargo planes flying over "The Hump" were C47s, the good old DC3 civilian arircraft.

The Flying Tigers had P40s, and thet were lead by General Clair Chenault--an ancestor of Stephen and Davis Chenault of Troll Lord Games.

There was plenty of Spam around in Chicago. We ate it at least once a week, and I still think it is good stuff

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Col:

One of the level titles for a bard in AD&D is "racaraide". A google search only brings up references to AD&D bards. What was the source of this term, and what does it mean?

Tru searching in a thesaurus.

IIRR, a racaraide is a strolling entertainer, but after all these years I'll be blamed if I can recall.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Fifth Element]

Tru searching in a thesaurus.

IIRR, a racaraide is a strolling entertainer, but after all these years I'll be blamed if I can recall.

Cheerio,
Gary

Thanks, can't find it in online dictionaries. Guess I'll have to find a more obscure one...

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

The A cards allowed for 4 gallons of gasoline per month.

 

[haakon1]

The main cargo planes flying over "The Hump" were C47s, the good old DC3 civilian arircraft.

That's exactly what I thought, but when I was showing my uncle the internet a few years back -- he'd never seen it before but he would have been an engineer if he'd got a chance to go beyond grade school -- I was showing him a site about historical aircraft and showed him the C-47. He said nope, he worked on the C-46 Commando, which had the advantage for the Hump of being pressurized, but the disadvantage of being more troublesome than the C-47. Wikipedia agrees with him, so his 80-something year old memory must be right on this point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-46_Commando

The Flying Tigers had P40s, and thet were lead by General Clair Chenault--an ancestor of Stephen and Davis Chenault of Troll Lord Games.

I had no idea it was the same Chenaults. That's awesome.

There was plenty of Spam around in Chicago. We ate it at least once a week, and I still think it is good stuff

But you never found a map in it, did ya?

 

[Sanguinemetaldawn]

Yuan-Ti

Colonel,

I have been curious about the Yuan-ti lately, and I was hoping you could shed some light on the origin and development of that group of creatures in D&D. WotC reserves it as their product identity...but I have been reading Howard since I was a lad and my dad gave me some Conan books, and its hard not to notice the Serpent-men of Howard's stories.

As I understand it, the Yuan-ti in D&D begin with I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, written by one of your not-favorite people: David Cook. Anyway, I guess the present narrative is that Cook did work for hire, for then TSR owned it, and "his" work is owned by WotC/Hasbro.

But I find myself wondering, did he come up with it, or did someone else at the company, credited or not? And I further find it difficult to believe that it was wholly original to him, but who knows, maybe I am wrong.

I certainly was familiar with the idea of snake people from Howard long before I was from I1.
Anyway, thanks for clearing this up.

 

[Nagora]

Wikipedia agrees with him, so his 80-something year old memory must be right on this point.

I think you have that the wrong way around: His 80-something year old memory agrees with Wikipedia, so it must be right on this point.

 

[Nagora]

The UK took it on the chin, but the fact is the Gross Deutcheland was far more devistated.

They reaped the whirlwind.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Thanks, can't find it in online dictionaries. Guess I'll have to find a more obscure one...

Likely I found it in a Roget's Thesaurus and looked it up in my unexpurgated Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary. Both books are around here somewhere, but in this clutter it would likely take an hour to fined each.


Gary