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.

 

[Grazzt]

I read this about the drow weapons somewhere within the last day or two. I know it wasn't the WotC boards becasue I never ever go there.

Dragonsfoot.org is most likely where you saw it. There is a thread discussing the drow and their weapons and what SKR said going on over there.

 

[Clangador]

By the way Gary,

How did you come up with the name Drow? I can't help but notice it's word spelled backwards.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

"Drow" isn't a made-up word. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it comes from Norse mythology. I've seen variations of it, like "trow."

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Salutations, Gary. Thanks for the spiffy game that has become one of the chief sources of pleasure in my so-called life. Hoping to see many, many more years of gaming goodness, so don't retire too soon, OK?

My pleasure, and do make sure that you spend some time having fun away from gaming, eh?

As for retiring, I don't think I'll be able to ever to that totally, but my creative work will be channeled into those areas I really want to play games in and about How about Anglo-Saxon England or the American Indians resisting the influx of settlers? I'm up for some gaming there

There was a thread over on the WotC board fairly recently about drow and their weapons. It dwelled on the fact that in 3e, the rule for drow weapons & armor degrading in sunlight was thrown out. Sean Reynolds' stated that rule was discarded intentionally because the only reason that rule existed in the first place was to "screw the players". Do you feel that statement, and the accompanying general sentiment expressed by others that AD&D drow were over-the-top and introduced solely to be the "ultimate party-killers", is at all fair and accurate? [/B]

Heh, and my opinion of Mr. Reynolds' statement must be self-censored. Given that the whole concept of the game is fantasy, what, pray tell, makes drow weapons disintegrating in the radiation from the sun any more unreasonable than just about everything else of fantastic natute in the game? More likely he was unable to find a rationale for the effect, and needing a rule for everything had to do as was done.

As for drow being too difficult to defeat, boo-hoo-hoo. Good players managed to do so with their PCs pretty handily, second-rate ones lost. Is the game to be a cake-walk or a challenge? Speaking for OAD&D, I can state the former was meant to be the case. As for 3E, well, you be the judge...

On a broader tangent: hindsight being 20/20, do you think that there were monsters in AD&D that genuinely qualified as an over-the-top attempt at creating the biggest, baddest, PC-kilingest beastie (i.e. creatures that were probably more fun to design than to fight)? [/B]

A very few of the AD&D monsters were meant to be near-unkillable. Those were done to pose a real challenge to PCs that were exceptionally well-equipped with magic items and of level above the usual--say 14th and above. After all, something had to be around that would pose a very real and difficult problem for such characters, no? Again, the game was meant to be such that no character could be invulnerable, unkillable. What fun would there be in such case?

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

I have never even seen LA in a game store. Not one single time. is it sold in game stores, or is it only availabe over the Internet?

Some game shops stock the Hekaforge product line, but not many, I fear. It has a relatively small audience demand compared to D20. As the line is carried by a number of distributors, Alliance amongst them, most ships should be able to order whatever LA game product you desire. If for some reason they are not willing to do do, a number of online suppliers carry the line, notably RPGme. You can hook up to them easily from www.lejendary.com

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

"DRow" in an Anglo-Saxon word. I found it in an old unexpurgated dictionary way back when. It means "dark elf." From that entry I created the drow race for AD&D, of course. There is no other background for them in myth or fable. Their characteristics were designed as they were to make them a suitable set of inhabitants of the subterranean world.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[herald]

Gary,
What was your reasoning in disallowing gunpowder in Greyhawk?
Was it a game balance choice or was it something you felt made Greyhawk special?

Was magic supposed to fade away and gunpowder become usable in the future or was it just not going to work at all. ( I realise that this question borders on pointlessness, as all that really matters in running a game is the current and near future. I just want to have a contextual understanding of why they weren't allowed in the game.)

I do understand that Murlynd was the exception to the rule. As a matter of course, I find alot of what I readabout him very interesting. He sounds like he was alot of fun to play.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary,
What was your reasoning in disallowing gunpowder in Greyhawk?
Was it a game balance choice or was it something you felt made Greyhawk special?

Was magic supposed to fade away and gunpowder become usable in the future or was it just not going to work at all. ( I realise that this question borders on pointlessness, as all that really matters in running a game is the current and near future. I just want to have a contextual understanding of why they weren't allowed in the game.)

I do understand that Murlynd was the exception to the rule. As a matter of course, I find alot of what I readabout him very interesting. He sounds like he was alot of fun to play.

Adding functional gunpowder to a milieu already filled with active magic that did many things similar to what explosives do seemed both redundant and out of the spirit of a magic-active world. The changes that gunpowder wrought in history are manifold and evident. Furthermore, to bring it into the fantasy mix would mean not only more rules governing it, but more magic aimed at surpressing its effects.

As for it ever working, no. As Oerth was a differnet world, gunpowder and like acting (gas expansion) explosives were never meant to function in the future time there.

Cover it?

Cheers,
Gary

 

[BonesMcCoy]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for continuing to answer all our questions. I have a query regarding the OAD&D book Oriental Adventures.

In the 2E years David "Zeb" Cook always talked as though he wrote the whole thing by himself. Now I know this is not true but I was wondering what his contributions really were. What parts of the OA book did Zeb actually write?

To me it seems almost the entire book has the Gygax feel. The only area that may have been Cook-authored IMO seems to be the Kara-Tur bit at the end, but even that feels edited by you. Also, I must say I really love the martial arts rules in this book. So much fun, variety and imagination has been concentrated into those few pages it is quite amazing. It is also quite excellent how the whole book captures the feel of the Orient while still remaining an exceedingly playable OAD&D milieu. I for one feel you did a magnificent job on this tome and would have liked to see much more from you set in the Orient had you remained in charge of OAD&D. Did you have plans for continued exploration into the East?

Additionally, if you don't mind my asking, how were sales of the Oriental Adventures and Unearthed Arcana books? I assume they were both considered successful? And although you left the company by this time, do you have any idea how the two Survival Guides sold, and the Manual of the Planes?

Although I have heard a lot of criticism of UA over the years, I have always enjoyed it immensely. You added some classic concepts to the game with the Cavalier and the Barbarian, and my group had a great deal of fun with them. Thanks again

 

[herald]

Thanks Gary. That's very interesting.

I know it must seem like a silly question to ask, but it wandered around in the back of my mind.