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.

 

[Geoffrey]

i still use my chits on rare special occassions.

Ah yes, the D&D boxed set (edited by Mr. Holmes) with the chit sheet in it. I still remember wondering how to glue those chits together to form dice.

Fortunately I bought some real dice soon afterwards.

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

Heh, Ken!

Always in there plugging for old goodies, eh?

Gary

YOu know me gary a huge pack rat. I'd open used gaming store but I'd never sell anything just buy LOL
ken

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hey Gary, actually thought up some real questions rather than just picking on you for once. Some of this may have been answered before, but I didn't see these in this thread.

Hi Janos!

I'll happily do what I can in response...

Any chance you'd talk on some of your classic villians? I've always loved Obmi and Ecvledra (sp? I always forget how to spell that damn name). Care to share how they looked stat wise, or history wise in the good old days?

Actually, Obmi appeared in may campaign as a vile dwarf who worked with gnolls (see other thread on same on the boards). Worse, Obmi has a machine-like device that would cause the opponents to move backwards instead of forwards when they tried to attack him and his band in their fourth level dungeon abode. He had his throwing hammer and speed boots too, so that he really enraged the players. Eventually they managed to kill all his gnolls, his reverse motion machine was destroyed by spell attacks, and so Obmi ran off to return in the G series modules. Heh, working with giants was even more enraging to the PCs that his former association with gnolls

Then I had him in the shadows, with the elf, Keek, as his second banana, and Luke, playing Melf, was totally fooled by Keek. That delighted Obmi, Keek, and me but was less amusing to Melf and his comnpanions.

Eclavdra made her appearance in the play-tests of the D series, so she didn't have so long a career as a bane of PCs. By the time they were adventuring in the D modules all had gotten very wary of my Dming, so fooling the party was pretty difficult.

You may not answer this one, but I can't help but ask... Was Loraine Williams THAT bad in your opinion? How did she change your interactions with the hobby (aside from the obvious stuff).

Is the Pope Catholic? Need I say more? Just consider her public statement that gamers were not her social equals if you need to get a handle on what sort of persn she was.

As for her changing anything in the way of interaction with the hobby, first I was immersed in saving TSR from bankruptcy because of Blume mismanagement, then I was devoted to trying to keep Williams from gaining cntrol of TSR and wrecking it--which she managed to do and did. So what interaction during that period?

Did you like the DnD cartoon you did, and have any plans in relation to it that never saw fruitation?

Thanks partner.

Well, the D&D Cartoon Show was pretty good for the age category it was aimed at, so I enjoyed it. Of course I wanted something a little more mature, so I worked on Marvel and CBS to do a spinoff. When 26 episodes were dine we managed to convince them to do just that. The new show would begin after Micheal Reaves superb concluding episode, #27 was produced. the new show would have only the older "kids," leaving Bobby and Uni (as a pony) back on earth. In the new series the "kids" would not have those hoaky magic items, rely on their own abilities, and a bit more imitatable action (violence) could be shown. The deal was done on a handshae, Marvel the final old series script in hand, and two scripts for the new series done, one of which I'd approved. Then I was called back to Wisconsin because of the financial difficulties at TSR. LAter, when Williams informed CBS and Marvel that I was not invoved in the project any longer, the series was dropped.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Sir Edgar]

I know you have a list of books that inspired your work at the back of the 1st edition DMG, but if you were to recommend five books that MOST influenced you in the design of D&D, what would they be? Basically, I'm looking for a few good books to read that will help me get an understanding of your design philosophy. Thank you.

 

[barsoomcore]

The deal was done on a handshae, Marvel the final old series script in hand, and two scripts for the new series done, one of which I'd approved. Then I was called back to Wisconsin because of the financial difficulties at TSR. LAter, when Williams informed CBS and Marvel that I was not invoved in the project any longer, the series was dropped.

Gary, every time you drop another tidbit I just get more and more fascinated. You've had a remarkable series of adventures, though I suppose they didn't seem like it at the time.

Have you considered publishing your memoirs? I imagine there's many, many people who'd love to read them.

 

[Janos Antero]

I was always a fan of your villians in the early Gord the rogue novels, especially for how they seemed to break the mold (although at the time I suppose there really wasn't a mold in the same sense) of villians we see today.

You mentioned the script of the 2nd series of cartoons you had in the works.... any chance a bottle of fine whiskey sent to you might loosen your tongue on where you saw it going, or what it was going to be like?

As always thanks for the replies.

 

[Sir Edgar]

Were there legal reasons for making the D&D elves different from Tolkien elves or did you just want to be different? Can you talk more about the conceptualization of elves?

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

.

You mentioned the script of the 2nd series of cartoons you had in the works.... any chance a bottle of fine whiskey sent to you might loosen your tongue on where you saw it going, or what it was going to be like?

As always thanks for the replies.

Well I have found that if you buy him a good smoke and a good meal and a nice drink he can talk for hours on the most fascinating stuff.
Ken

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary, every time you drop another tidbit I just get more and more fascinated. You've had a remarkable series of adventures, though I suppose they didn't seem like it at the time.

Heh, and you only know some of the ones suitable for telling in mixed company While some of the experiences were most disappointing and depressing, I regard those as water under the bridge, and in all some of them are remarkable in one way or another, yes...

Have you considered publishing your memoirs? I imagine there's many, many people who'd love to read them.

I have had a number of persns ask about an autobiography, and a few volunteer biographers too. Spurred on thus, I have a few pages of a ms. done, but of late I've had little time and no particular urge to write more. Maybe it will never get done, but I do add a bit now and again. I've covered a good bit of my earliest childhood, and have worked into the time I moved from Chicago, so a little of my recollections from age 8 on are covered now as well. Only about 58 years to go--well, soon 59

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Were there legal reasons for making the D&D elves different from Tolkien elves or did you just want to be different? Can you talk more about the conceptualization of elves?

I guess it's no secret that I am not a rabid fan of the "Rings Trilogy," so that should explain a good bit of why elves in D&D are more my conception of them than they are copies after what the Good Professor Tolkien saw them as

My take was more of the British mythology based, with French "feys" the influence for the high elves. All of that was measured against what the D&D environment was meant to be, of course, a human dominated one.

That cover it?

Cheers,
Gary