Questions about EGG

[Psion]

Here's a link to a Gygax interview that talks about 3E (and 2E actually.) I really like Gary's answer to the second question, when he talks about stories and RPG's.

To wit:

"I think that it's very interesting. To me, to say that a role-playing game is all story is nonsense. If it's all about the story, pick up a darned book and read it. The story comes after the play; you don't know what the story is going to be until that particular episode is finished. Then you can tell the story. But until then it isn't the Master directing the players in little roles—that's called theater. It's the players impacting the environment, and the base story that has brought them there, and then creating a story from there."

I've felt the same way about stories and D&D since I first started playing 20+ years ago, although I always get outnumbered in any discussion these days

I don't think you are as alone as you think in that sentiment. I have said words to that effect MANY times, especially when bickering with pro-narrativists and minimalists.

 

[WizarDru]

Re: Re: Questions about EGG

The point I made about the "Rings Trology" is not a unique view. Others commenting on the work also noted it reminded then of the sturdy British shopkeepers (hobbits) bearing up against the Nazis (all the bad guys) in WW II. Even the end of Souron, he going up in a cloud of smoke without a big fight, recalls the end of Adolph Hitler.

From what I gather from the preface to my collected edition of LotR, Tolkein had heard similar commentary during his lifetime, and didn't much prefer that interpetation. His introduction to the edition I picked up last year pretty much makes it clear that he didn't intentionally make an allegory of the second World War, and pointed out somethings that should have been different, had he chosen to do so.

Mind you, I think he did emulate some of that experience on a subconcious level, but I think it's the desire to see a pattern that helps us down that road.

 

[JeffB]

I also miss Mr. Gygax’s presence here. I have a run a bit of 3E, but it just did not suit our style. However, I still spend quite a bit of time here(more than any other gaming site, I’m sure), and I do keep up on D20 items that might suit my fancy…

I’m starting up a campaign using Gary’s LA rules, and I’m certainly glad he’s doing dual stat materials with Troll Lord…having D20 and LA stats helps me in two ways..I don’t have to convert stuff to LA use that product..and when I do need to convert something from D20 to LA, I have examples of how identical things work in both systems to base my conversions on…So thanks Gary!

I had hoped that Necropolis would be dual statted as well, but according to Clark over at Necro Games we will never see dual stat products from them. A shame really, I love their work, but I understand Clark’s reasoning too.

 

[Henry]

Gary, what are you doing online?!?! Write, man, WRITE!

Can you drop a hint or two about the d20/LA 'supermodule'? You piqued my curiosity (as I am sure you set out to do)...

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Gary, what are you doing online?!?! Write, man, WRITE!

Can you drop a hint or two about the d20/LA 'supermodule'? You piqued my curiosity (as I am sure you set out to do)...

Heh, ad I am online to clear up mail, then turn over the computer to son Alex so he can play a DIABLO character for an hour while I am busy elsewhere

Be happy to tell you a little about the HALL OF MANY PANES supermodule. There is a fairly cmplex backstory involving deities, the hook that gets the party of adventurers involved.

Do to the intervention of deities, one of whom is a trickster sort, they neither get blasted by an enraged malign god, nor whisked off to safety by a benign goddess. Instead they wind up oin a strange mini-cosmos.

In this small cylindrical plane float many panes of different colors and shapes. Touch one and zap! Off the team goes to another dimensional matrix where they must do something, find or gain the means of return, all in the course of seeking the place where a missing hero-bard has been sequestered. Their job is to rescue him and return him to the material world of their origination.

The adventures to be had in the many plane portals are all quite different, and range from dungeon crawling and H&S to problem solving and roleplay.

I am nearing completion of the LA portion, and Lee Vanderlio is well along on getting the D20 system material into the 50+ locations within "The Pipe."

Troll Lord is aiming at a release of the work as a hardback this December.

Cheerio (and soon back to writing, indeed

Gary

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Gary!

Nice to see you back among friends!

Be happy to tell you a little about the HALL OF MANY PANES supermodule. There is a fairly cmplex backstory involving deities, the hook that gets the party of adventurers involved.

Do to the intervention of deities, one of whom is a trickster sort, they neither get blasted by an enraged malign god, nor whisked off to safety by a benign goddess. Instead they wind up oin a strange mini-cosmos.

In this small cylindrical plane float many panes of different colors and shapes. Touch one and zap! Off the team goes to another dimensional matrix where they must do something, find or gain the means of return, all in the course of seeking the place where a missing hero-bard has been sequestered. Their job is to rescue him and return him to the material world of their origination.

The adventures to be had in the many plane portals are all quite different, and range from dungeon crawling and H&S to problem solving and roleplay.

I am nearing completion of the LA portion, and Lee Vanderlio is well along on getting the D20 system material into the 50+ locations within "The Pipe."

Troll Lord is aiming at a release of the work as a hardback this December.

Cheerio (and soon back to writing, indeed

Gary

Sounds great!

Reminds me slightly of Gravestone's treacherous Dimensional Dungeon in Come Endless Darkness.

Can you tell us (roughly) what levels the supermodule is targeted at? I am assuming mid-high/high level? Though the concept presumably has multiple avenues in this regard?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Hi Gary!

Nice to see you back among friends!

Sounds great!

Reminds me slightly of Gravestone's treacherous Dimensional Dungeon in Come Endless Darkness.

Can you tell us (roughly) what levels the supermodule is targeted at? I am assuming mid-high/high level? Though the concept presumably has multiple avenues in this regard?

Picked up the 6 PM email to clear it our before martini time and lo and behold! A missive directing me to your post Upper_Krust

Fun to be back posting, although I should be either working or drinking...

It is pretty hard to compare the capacity of :LA game system with PC levels--more flexibility in the former, because give or take a few of the same opponent, and you can adjust for veteran, high-score and many-Abilities Avatars, while it's more difficult to manage PC levels, especially with 3E multi-classing and min-maxing running rampant.

As a preface to this I need to state than in a few of the adventures in the mnodule more real wit, thinking, and roleplaying than power-level will be needed to win through. As a current rule of thumb I am using 10 combined levels for PCs, assuming a party of six or seven. upping that by 1 level for every one short of six, so with five with 11 combined levels, four get to 12, three 13 and two 14. Drop that by about 33% for single-level PCs. A good GM can manage well enough with higher levels, of course, by boosting the power of the opponents and adding more, Trouble with that is that it assumes more than can be expected in regards to veteran DM status.

Anyway, I'm just rambling on, sorry. We'll have it all worked out ina couple of months.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Col_Pladoh!

Picked up the 6 PM email to clear it our before martini time and lo and behold! A missive directing me to your post Upper_Krust

Its one of these new-fangled options.

I believe you get the option to switch it off either thread by thread (when you post) or altogether (in your user profile).

Fun to be back posting, although I should be either working or drinking...

Well - I don't want to infringe on either so I will be brief!

It is pretty hard to compare the capacity of :LA game system with PC levels--more flexibility in the former, because give or take a few of the same opponent, and you can adjust for veteran, high-score and many-Abilities Avatars, while it's more difficult to manage PC levels, especially with 3E multi-classing and min-maxing running rampant.

As a preface to this I need to state than in a few of the adventures in the mnodule more real wit, thinking, and roleplaying than power-level will be needed to win through. As a current rule of thumb I am using 10 combined levels for PCs, assuming a party of six or seven. upping that by 1 level for every one short of six, so with five with 11 combined levels, four get to 12, three 13 and two 14. Drop that by about 33% for single-level PCs. A good GM can manage well enough with higher levels, of course, by boosting the power of the opponents and adding more, Trouble with that is that it assumes more than can be expected in regards to veteran DM status.

Well its sounds interesting; I'll be sure and get our DM to pick up a copy.

He is currently waiting on Amazon to deliver the Lost City of Gaxmoor - which unfortunately is so well hidden that it still hasn't arrived after 5 weeks.

Anyway, I'm just rambling on, sorry. We'll have it all worked out in a couple of months.

Gary, someone may have brought this to your attention already? But have you considered entering Wizards of the Coasts Campaign Setting competition? I know $120,000 must be pocket change to a man of your esteemed affluence so you may not think it worthwhile?

 

[S'mon]

Well its sounds interesting; I'll be sure and get our DM to pick up a copy.

Hi Craig & Gary - Craig's GM here! Yes, it does sound interesting.

He is currently waiting on Amazon to deliver the Lost City of Gaxmoor - which unfortunately is so well hidden that it still hasn't arrived after 5 weeks.

I wait with increasing desperation - there's only so many free download & random dungeons I can put the party through, and now they've started bashing the worshippers of Thrin (Craig's deity PC)! I got the .pdf download of the Gaxmoor intro online, it looked great for my game and I loved the cheery Gygax-clan style ("dead PCs may be replaced at this point... and this point... and also here..."), so I coughed up the £22/$29 to get it from Amazon.com, the only place I could find to get it sent to the UK (EN World refused)
They said it dispatched on 16th May, arrive 31st May to 10th June, so there's a few days yet before I completely panic!
Oh well, absence makes the heart grow fonder...

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Heh-heh!

The sum WotC is offering for a new fantasy world setting is a very good one in regards to what one can expect for work in this field. If I was GMing from non-published published material and had been doing so for several years, you better believe I'd toss my hat into the ring.

As my old friend Don Kaye used to say with his hand outstretched and pocket change displayed in his palm when someone tried to touch him for money, "This is all that remains of the once-vast Kaye fortune." Coincidentally, that's true of the once-vast Gygax fortune. Between lawyers, the ex-wife, the IRS and other taxing authorities, $100K looks as good to me as it does to most folks

As for GAXMOOR, it is very much a good old action-adventure module. I expect that all those who enjoyed the likes of the G series and ToEE modules will have a lot of enjoyment from playing it.

Parts of the HALL OF MANY PANES are in that vein, some far removed from it, I think. It is something I decided to try, doing one module that has all sorts of different challenges and approaches under a single quest umbrella. In all I hope it will reflect the general tone of my old campaign, that presented in a finite setting that allows the GM to expand within it as desired and also to springboard from it to areas created personally for use after the module is played through. Play mioght well take a year, is sessions are held once a week and don't go on for a full day.

Speaking of which, it's time I got back to writig the material

Cheerio,
Gary