So who's played with Gygax as DM?

[tx7321]

Another thread concerning gaming at Cons has made me curious; so who here has played AD&D1 with Gygax? And what can you share about his particular style of DMing? I already know he uses house rules as far as combat goes, but thats not really of interest to me (IMO as long as combat is not overly complex its not that big a deal). Some have said his gaming style was fast and loose, was that your impression?

-Did he get into having PCs talk to NPCs (having the barkeep talk directly to the PCs for instance) or was this something rarely done?
-What style of talking did he use with his players; did he ask each person in order what they wanted to do, or have 1 leader chosen to do this (who reported to the DM on behalf of each)?
-Did he keep careful track of arrows and food/water?
-Did he require the group make the map, or did he sketch it for the players?
-Were roles made out in the open or behind a screen? (Did it vary much)
-Did he refer much to the tables, and keep track of distance; also did he use minis?

And well, any other interesting tid-bits you might like to share. Also, note the approx. year you played and the circumstances (at his house, a Con, etc.).

 

[diaglo]

i offered to play OD&D (on an ask Gary thread) with him in Bilouxi. but he and Chris Clark ditched the con. that was 4 years ago

 

[thedungeondelver]

Another thread concerning gaming at Cons has made me curious; so who here has played AD&D1 with Gygax? And what can you share about his particular style of DMing? I already know he uses house rules as far as combat goes, but thats not really of interest to me (IMO as long as combat is not overly complex its not that big a deal). Some have said his gaming style was fast and loose, was that your impression?

-Did he get into having PCs talk to NPCs (having the barkeep talk directly to the PCs for instance) or was this something rarely done?
-What style of talking did he use with his players; did he ask each person in order what they wanted to do, or have 1 leader chosen to do this (who reported to the DM on behalf of each)?
-Did he keep careful track of arrows and food/water?
-Did he require the group make the map, or did he sketch it for the players?
-Were roles made out in the open or behind a screen? (Did it vary much)
-Did he refer much to the tables, and keep track of distance; also did he use minis?

And well, any other interesting tid-bits you might like to share. Also, note the approx. year you played and the circumstances (at his house, a Con, etc.).

I have (does this really surprise anyone? ). It was CASTLES & CRUSADES but a very, very early revision of the rules when it was masquerading as DUNGEONS & DRAGONS mostly, still.

Gary's approach was very laid back; we spent a while setting up the scenario, the circumstances and then took off. No "we meet at the inn" or anything like that. It was a convention game, at Milwaukee Gamefest in 2004. He kicked off with a "Okay, everyone, remember, this is a serious dramatic role-playing experience so we should all get in to the story." We had a good laugh at that.

He and Rob Kuntz refereed the game together. The basic rundown went thus:

Our party was already out exploring, we knew the background story, that Dwarves had opened a silver mine up in GreyhawkYggsburgh that had been "haunted" and abandoned years before. The original dwarven miners had gone missing and we were investigating what had stopped the flow of silver ore. No "you meet in a tavern" or "tell each other what your character's background is". We were on the path to the caves.

Actions were round-robin; each person was asked in turn what they were doing (when stuck at a loss for what to do during the first combat round, Rob asked me what I was doing ("You...you in the hat. What are you doing this round?" (I was sporting my PvP Wizard's duffer) and I said..."I endeavor to persevere. He grabbed a die at random, rolled it, checked the score and said 'You succeed.'")

Food and water didn't become an issue; light sources were assiduously kept track of.

Inter-player communication was limited. We either had to state we were breaking ranks and moving up to the person to whisper our message or that we were talking loud enough to be heard however far away the person was. Thus we spellcasters in the middle had to talk loud enough to be heard 30 feet away (if we were speaking to the fighters) or not at all. "No cell-phones, no radios." as Gary put it.

We had to map.

There were no minis although I did buy a D&D Minis one-off (which I still have and will keep as a cherished heirloom ) in the event that we did.

Distance was kept track of (much to my later dismay).

Gary had a notebook full of notes and at least one combat table; I'm unsure whether it was a CASTLES & CRUSADES compilant table, one for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS or one for his own house rules. I know it was consulted at least once. As I was safely away from melee combat - except for the bitter end - I didn't note if it was consulted every round.

This was at Milwaukee Gamefest 2004 (the last year one was held; the con went bankrupt after that). It was the first (but not the last!) time I met Gary & Rob. I'd brought my character from the previous night's C&C game demo in. I'd built him using the "creating a party on the spur of the moment" rules from the back of the DUNGEON MASTER'S GUIDE but had been asked to tone him down to 4th level from 7th and drop all but a couple of minor magic items (a ring of protection, +1 and a potion of healing).

We really only got a little ways into the mine; along the route we were attacked by gray dwarves who peppered us with crossbow bolts (and by "us" I mean "me", which forced me to use the potion of healing nearly immediately). Once we ran in to the larger group of gray dwarves they had a salamander on their side which proceeded to roll our group up; I offed a few with a lightning bolt down their ranks and the rest of the party's fighters were putting up a spirited defense. I held off on using my fireball spell because I thought the room was too shallow. Turns out later, when I was talking to Rob Kuntz over dinner, that there was room aplenty and we could've been at least free of the dwarves and focused on the salamander.

As mentioned, the mini I bought (the only wizardly looking guy in the bucket - and that turned out to be a githzerai in robes with a dagger) and my character sheet which Rob and Gary autographed are still around.

It was a fun evening.

This past year at Lake Geneva sadly I did not get in to one of his Lejendary Adventure games but I plan on doing so this spring at LGGC.

 

[howandwhy99]

I played in a scenario Zeb Cook ran back in the early 90's. Bughunters IIRC. It was pretty fun. I've probably gamed with a few other famous folks, but have forgotten.

 

[T. Foster]

I played with Gary twice at the same con (Glathricon '88 in Evansville, Indiana), running a pre-Mythus version of Necropolis. For the first session (Friday evening) there were 4 players, and we were all instructed (by an intermediary -- Frank Mentzer, IIRC) to create new 18th level characters on the spot, with whatever stats and magic items we wanted ("because if you don't play smart, they're not going to help you"). After a half-hour or so we sat down at the table with Gary who asked us if we wanted more of an action-oriented adventure (the Temple of Osiris) or a problem-solving adventure (the Tomb of Rahotep). We chose the latter. He gave us a short run-down of the parts of the adventure we'd skipped over, allowed us to purchase figurine idols (something specific to the adventure), and cut straight to the tomb entrance. The remainder of that session was spent exploring the outer tomb. We didn't do very well, and managed to fall for all the red-herrings and traps (and were only saved from certain death by the use of at least one (possibly two) wish). When we finally found the entrance to the actual tomb Gary called the session for the night and we agreed to meet again the next afternoon.

Apparently word had gotten out before the second session, because there were a lot more players there (9 or 10 total), most of whom had brought their own high-level characters. Gary repeated the summary from the previous night (and let us glance at the maps of Aartuat village and the Temple of Osiris), gave the new guys the chance to purchase figurine idols, and then straight back to the tomb. Despite the number of players, the game was very fluid and fast-moving -- we had an epic combat with the 12 iron skeletons, weren't fooled by the false Rahotep tomb, and were in that section where the party gets hit by the repeated Curses of Rahotep by the time Gary called it a day and gave us a quick summary of how the rest of the adventure would've gone (and an even-briefer glance at the full tomb map). Nobody died, but Gary assured us that at least one character (the guy who'd been hit by the Curses) was ultimately doomed, and that we would've had a very tough time of it.

Ruleswise the game was AD&D-lite with a couple bits and pieces of what eventually became Mythus -- natural 20 to hit rolls did max damage, money was based on the BUC system, and all the characters had "joss points" to mitigate bad rolls (or enhance good ones). Gary never once looked at a rulebook (I don't think he even had rulebooks with him), and all his dice rolls were made in the open (but not in the middle of the table or with the results announced -- only the players sitting right next to him would be able to see if he was actually being honest or just rolling the dice for show and ignoring the results). No minis (or mini-substitutes -- dice, coins, etc.) were used in either session and all distances, areas of effect, etc. were either calculated in Gary's head (or, more likely, just fudged). We didn't make a map in either session (and lucky for us one of the players had a good enough memory to get us out of the maze we stumbled into in the first session). We didn't talk to any NPCs (but this was surely an artifact of the scenario we were playing and not an indication of Gygax's GMing style in general -- there are no NPCs to talk to in Rahotep's tomb (at least the parts of it we explored)) and there was precious little "role-playing" (in the playacting sense) of any kind -- pretty much all player-on-player interaction occured on a player level. No mention was made of tracking supplies like water, arrows, torches, etc. (but again that's probably more an artifact of the adventure than any indication of his GMing style -- we were all very high level characters). There was no designated "caller" -- in the first (exploration-oriented) session we the players de facto allowed one guy (the guy with the good memory) to do most of the speaking for the group since he seemed the most on-the-ball, but the others of us would chime in with specific actions/questions as appropriate. In the second session where there was more combat he'd go around the table quickly asking what you were planning to do that round. No dilly-dallying was allowed -- if you didn't know you got skipped over.

The main things that stick out in my memory about both sessions is 1) how personable Gary was, and 2) how fast-moving the game was. Having previously played in lots of RPGA-type tournaments, I'd had it ingrained in my mind that D&D was at least somewhat "serious business," that out-of-character talk was to be discouraged and out-of-game talk avoided entirely. Gary's games were the opposite -- he was constantly "breaking character" to relate various real-life anecdotes -- about favorite (and least-favorite) books and movies, about living in Hollywood, about office-politics at TSR, etc. In total I'd guess that a least half the table-talk at both sessions was completely out-of-game, and even the in-game talk went off on tangents -- we were given a running commentary on our play, things we could've done differently and what would've happened (for better or worse) if we had, etc. But none of that dragged the game down, because it moved lightning-fast -- there was no stopping to look things up in books, no discussion of rules-matters, everything was completely transparent, as if Gary were making it all up as he went (which, in retrospect, he probably was). Both of these factors profoundly affected my own GMing style ever since.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

I happened to stop in the Lake Geneva FLGS (I forget the name, but it has moved, if it is still in business) one day a few years ago when he was a player in a game being run by Ernie Jr. I believe that another of his youngsters was playing, as well, but I forget. The wife and I were doing some shopping, decided to check out what was in the basement (gaming room) and noticed a game going on. We watched for a few minutes and then left. When we went back to the main floor, I grabbed a Gord book from the paperback rack and asked her if she recognized the guy inside the back cover from anywhere.

To answer the question, no I haven't played in a game with him...

 

[Treebore]

Gary will hopefully be at this weekends Winter LGGC. Unfortunately I won't be. Gary invited me to play on his porch, so hopefully I will make the summer LGGC when his porch will be much warmer.

But no, I have yet to play in a game ran by him.

 

[Treebore]

Here is the Troll Lords Blurb about this weekends LGGC:

Winter LGGC

 

[tx7321]

Cool stories guys, thanks for sharing.

 

[Mark Chance]

A friend mine and I had the opportunity once at a con here in Houston. I forget what the game system was, but it wasn't any version of D&D.

We started with character generation, which was constantly rerailed by meandering and largely unamusing anecdotes from Mr. Gygax. After at least an hour-and-a-half of this, with characters still incomplete, my friend and I left the room to go play an RPGA event.