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Interview with Gary Gygax
the_bahua writes "Have a look at this one-on-one with Gary Gygax, over at KCGeek.com. It's a tell-all, see-all, look into the mind of the man behind the second-best thing to do at four in the morning. Responsible for one of the cornerstones of geekdom, he is largely unknown to many, including many RPG fans."
I wandered across his website once while browsing and he had his email address available if you wanted to contact him...
On a whim, I emailed him to ask him a few questions and thank him for some of his early work, DnD, Gord the Rogue books, Greyhawk, you name it.
To my surprise, he actually took the time to respond to my questions and bring me up to date with what he has been doing in the post TSR days.
It always amazes me when someone that has made it big at one point will take the time to answer someone they don't know. Kudos to him. (or at least his staff)
One thing about the old AD&D, was that if there was a rule that didn't make sense, instead of creating an errata, there was some sort of official apology for the rule. What motivated that? Some kind of inertia or commitment to what has already been printed?
Also, AD&D become very unweildy with rules - distinct and unusual rules - for everything from pummelling to jumping to what-have-you. Once, as a sort of thought experiment, we tried to run a game in which we actually followed all the rules. It was unplayable, we returned quickly to the faster/looser style (in which the mechanics are more abstracted) that has now become part of most RPG's. Did you ever see or play a game that actually used all the systems published as AD&D? Did you recognize this as a problem? Do you see the Wizards of the Coast edition as an improvement in this regard?
So what? This is the 4th time they've had a massive layoff like this, it happens when a popular game falls off (pokemon in this case).
They flux between 300 and 600 employees.
dynamo
Yeah, Gary left Dave's name off AD&D, and honestly there wasn't enough of a difference to merit that. Gary just put his spin on the D&D rules he and Dave made, and called it a new game.
Jim Ward wrote some of the best stuff that TSR put out, even though Metamorphisis Alpha was basically a rip off of that Heinlein story, whose name I can't remember. MA and Gamma World were a blast to play.
I haven't looked at his new stuff yet, but if it's anything like the last game he wrote (Dangerous Dimensions?), I'll pass. Way too much renaming things, just for the sake of being named different. Far too much die rolling for my tastes.
The other interviews that I remember (the BIG article in Dragon slamming people for using house rules and still calling it AD&D), he came off sounding a lot like RMS does now, when he's bitching about the whole GNU/Linux thing. Gary seems to have mellowed with age, but calling the GM the Lejend Master??? Come on Gary, get over the names.
Wu-Tang Name: Half-Cut Skeleton Get your own Wu-Na
There are "mana"-type systems for D&D 2ed and 3ed. 2ed has the "spell points" rules in the Skills and Powers rulebook, and a 3ed Sorcerer is similiar. Spell points give more of a "mana" feel, and the sorcerer has a set of slots to cast from, rather than a pre-memorized selection of one-shot spells.
I don't see how the one-shot spell system is "unacceptable", however. It's not an oversight, it's just one method of dealing with a magic user. There are published reasons to explain this system... you may not like them, but they are there. I have found that it tends to lead to much more inventive spell casting... when you can't just select the spell you'd like at will, you tend to think up creative ways to use what you've got.
In the end, who cares about lame rules? It's up to the DM whether to use them or not, based on whatever provides the best role playing experience for the set of players he's dealing with. D&D's rules were never set in stone, so they cannot be "fundamental flaws"... the rules serve the DM, not the other way around. That's why pretty much every DMG begins with rule #1: the DM is in charge.