What is the most inspirational Gary Gygax quote?

[MichaelSomething]

So I find myself on ZenPencils, a webcomic that makes comics based off of inspirational quotes. Yet I just realized that it has nothing from Gary Gygax, the (or is it "a", I'm not sure) founder of D&D itself! Surely, he must have some quote that is super awesome. But I'm no scholar of Gygax (that's a good subclass name now that I think about it); but I bet some of you are. So what are some of his most inspirational quotes that you know?

Once we figure them out, I can submit them to Zen Pencils; or you can do it yourself over at the ZenPencils Facebook page if you want. (https://www.facebook.com/zenpencils).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

This one sticks with me (I don't know how inspirational it is, but I like it):

“I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.”

There are plenty of quotes from Gary archived here, too. It still amazes me how accessible he was, even up to the end.

 

[CleverNickName]

"6. THE FACE OF THE GREAT GREEN DEVIL: The other fork of
the path leads right up to an evil-appearing devil face set in mosaic
at the corridor's end. (SHOW YOUR PLAYERS GRAPHIC #6).
The face has a huge O of a mouth; it is dead black. The whole
area radiates evil and magic if detected for. The mouth opening is
similar to a (fixed) sphere of annihilation, but it is about 3' in
diameter - plenty of room for those who wish to leap in and be
completely and forever destroyed."

- "Tomb of Horrors," pg. 4 (1974)

Gary was an inspiration to us all...but especially to my first Dungeon Master back in middle school.
NOT FUNNY, KEVIN.

 

[Mark Hope]

"It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules, which is important. Never hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks room lawyer to force quotations from the rule book upon you, if it goes against the obvious intent of the game. As you hew the line with respect to conformity to major systems and uniformity of play in general, also be certain the game is mastered by you and not by your players. Within the broad parameters give in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons volumes, you are creator and final arbiter. By ordering things as they should be, the game as a whole first, your campaign next, and your participants thereafter, you will be playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons as it was meant to be. May you find as much pleasure in so doing as the rest of us do!"

 

[SpellJammer16]

This one resonates with me... I grew up in the 80's during the satanic panic

"Somebody said they threw their copy of Dungeons and Dragons into the fire, and it screamed.
It's a game!
The magic spells in it are as real as the gold.
Try retiring on that stuff."

 

[jonesy]

The true neutral ethos is one that sees all as part of a whole. One must have evil to know good, disorder to know order, and so on. Looking at the cosmos as consiting of all permutations of that sort of opposition, the true neutral is convinced that these balancing forces are necessary for the whole to operate properly, allow people and nature and everything their freedom to be as they are meant to me--or opt to be.

In this light, if any one opposing force becomes too powerful, the whole system is threatened, so thus true neutral opposes the ascendency of law or chaos, good or evil. That is out of the harmony necessary in the cosmos.

From the very first Gary Gygax Q&A thread here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?22566-Q-amp-A-with-Gary-Gygax&p=981583#post981583

 

[Gradine]

“The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules.”

 

[S'mon]

"Never give a sucker an even break."

 

[Blackmoor_Film]

“The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules.”

I had heard the wording differently. But this was the same quote I was going to post. As I heard it, it was something like" "If people ever figure out they don't need rules to play this game, we're ruined."

It goes nicely with Arneson's statement on the night he showed off Blackmoor to the crew in Lake Geneva:

Rob Kuntz "Where are the rules?"

Arneson "There are none."

 

[Blue]

"Rocks fall, you die." --Gary Gygax (*sic*)

 

[MNblockhead]

There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you're involved in, whether it's a fantasy game, the Wild West, secret agents or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things."

Schiesel, Seth. "Gary Gygax, Game Pioneer, Dies at 69." The New York Times 5 Mar. 2008: C11. Web. 7 Oct. 2018 (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/arts/05gygax.html).

 

[JeffB]

The one I have in my sig elsewhere around the intarwebz that is somewhere in the Gary thread here on ENWORLD or maybe on DRAGONSFOOT where him and I were conversing.

"Maybe I'm just getting too old to want to have to deal with a heap o' rules and the steaming heap o' rules lawyers who go with them."-Gary Gygax

As for a gamebook quote...will have to get back to this thread later. The intro to The Keep is pretty fantastic.

 

[MNblockhead]

I like the last paragraph of the Tips to the Players section on page 25:

Above all a player must think. The game is designed to challenge the minds and imaginations of the players. Those who tackle problems and use their abilities, wits, and new ideas will succeed more often than fail. The challenge of thinking is a great deal of the fun of the game.

Gygax, Gary. Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. Random House, 1980. Print.

The one I have in my sig elsewhere around the intarwebz that is somewhere in the Gary thread here on ENWORLD or maybe on DRAGONSFOOT where him and I were conversing.

"Maybe I'm just getting too old to want to have to deal with a heap o' rules and the steaming heap o' rules lawyers who go with them."-Gary Gygax

As for a gamebook quote...will have to get back to this thread later. The intro to The Keep is pretty fantastic.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

"When they [a Player] have done something stupid, or not taken precautions, then let the dice fall where they may!"

--Gary Gygax, 1e AD&D DMG, pg 110 under "Rolling the Dice and Controlling the Game"

That is one of the things I remember reading back when I was...what, about 12 years old or so I think, maybe 11. It stuck with me I think because it gave me "permission" to say no to players pleading to keep their PC alive. It was usually a plead revolving around them failing to do one, or both, of those things...and then the Player trying to convince me that it was my fault because of X, Y or Z. You know the pleading of younglings (we were all around 10 to 12 years old...I think I was the eldest of the group). Things like "But I didn't hear you say it was glistening with something wet!", or "No way would I have kicked the door in if I knew I couldn't close it! I wouldn't have broken it down! C'mon! I *meant* to just break the door latch...not the whole thing!" and that kind of thing.

Anyway, that little line gave me the confidence to say to myself, "Self? You're the DM. You provided clues, you described everything appropriately, and you gave them time to think and decide. If they weren't paying attention, or didn't think of what 'it' could be...not your problem. If you keep allowing take-backsies, then there's no point in even having dice or rules. So...let the dice fall where they may!".

I think that whole section of the DMG is super-important in my development as a DM. That, and the one line in the Mentzer Basic Set 1 (DM's book) that says: "It is the most important rule of ALL the rules. It is simply this: BE FAIR! A Dungeon Master must not take sides. -- Frank Mentzer" Those two quotes (Gygax and Mentzer) probably have had the most significant impact on my career as a Dungeon Master.

Best two quotes in gaming!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Roland Bradford]

Random chance plays a huge part in everybody's life.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Not a quote but he told me to put a drop of water in my scotch to open it up. Now I'm no longer drinking like some kind of classless savage.

 

[MNblockhead]

A drop of water. Not ice. Good on him!

If you like to listen to opinionated scotch drinkers, check out Richard Paterson's videos. Here's a good short one to start with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVG1U-faqHY