Gary Gygax quotes
The following is a selection of quotes by Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons.
- Philosophy of D&D
- The origins of D&D
- Game mechanics
- Character classes
- Races
- Monsters
- Characters
- World of Greyhawk
- Editions of D&D
- The future of D&D
- Gaming anecdotes
- Being a GM
- Advice for writers
- Jokes and witticisms
- Opinions
- Miscellaneous
- Sources
Philosophy of D&D
The major appeal of the FRPG is the fantastic, the assumption of a character role in a world filled with strange creatures, and by dint of effort building through deeds of action and intellect that game persona from a lowly adventurer to a renown figure with power and prestiege in his milieu. there is little satisfaction in such accomplishment if it isn’t earned.
The basis for the D&D game, including 3E and 3.5E is not the superheroic, but the heroic.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 8, 2005
Q: What do you consider the soul/spirit/heart of D&D as you wrote it?
Gary: In as few words as possible:
- Absolute authority of the DM, rules lawyers given the boot
- Rule books seldom used by a competant DM
- Action and adventure in play
- Swords & sorcery, not comic book superhero genre material
- Group co-operation paramount for success
- Freedom to extemporize and innovate for all participants
- Reliance on architypical models for characters
- Fellowship of those participating
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
About all I care to venture here is that a good RPGer has the following traits:
- Extroverted in regards playing
- Knowledge of the genre and his character’s role
- Playing to have fun with comrades
- Pays attention to the GM
- Knows and enjoys many things outside of gaming
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 8, 2005
I’ll take a stab at the five elements that make a game session enjoyable:
- Good personal relationships between all the participants.
- Subject matter that interests the whole group.
- Able GMing, including animated participationby that one.
- Able play, role-assumption, and roleplaying by the players.
- A sense of danger from the environment, but knowledge that clever play will likely overcome all hazards,
- In-game reward for characters played successfully in the scenario,
- Shared recounting of the adventure at its conclusion.
- A conclusion that opens the portal to yet more exciting possibilities for play.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
I believe that the first quality a dungeon needs is game logic and verisimilitude based thereon. That’s why I subsumed the maze beneath Greyhawk Castle had been created by a mad demi-god.
The elements needed thereafter are: Challenge of exploration, increasing danger including actual PC loss, varied problems, varied environments, occassional humor or like relief from the tension normal to the environment, mysteries, rewards commensurate with the challenge overcome, a series of milestones indicating achievement in the course of delving into the labyrinth, and a finally where the successful PC(s) get the big reward for staying the course and reaching the untimate conclusion.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 3, 2003
Those who reject the dungeon crawl are like painters who refuse to use red pigment in their work. This leaves their palette lacking in a primary color.
— Dragon #272, Hooray for the Dungeon Crawl!, June 2000
As for a story, that’s an adjunct to the “adventure” the PCs experience. the players and the GM do create something than might be a story dull or exciting, dramatic or comedic….if it were written or told after the fact. that isn’t the aim of the game though. An RPG is to enterain and amuse the participants through play.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part III, 2005
Roleplaying vs roll-playing
Many people knock “roll-playing,” but it is a necessary part of the PRG game form where chance is a major factor in the game–as it is in real life. The real bad rap against dice rolling is if combat is the predominate feature of play, that negating the other elements that make up the game…such as role-playing.
Rules are necessary for a structured game, doubly so when it is based on fantasy where no real facts are available to the participants. then the structure becomes the major feature of play, though, then it is at least as onerous as roll-playing, so both terms are equally daming. If a game is nothing but role-playing, then it is not really a RPG, but some form of improvisational theater, for the game form includes far more than acting out assumed roles.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 3, 2003
“Storytelling” games are not RPGs. Neither are “diceless” games.
An RPG creates a story, does not follow a script. That’s a play, possibly improv theater. In a real RPG the GM develops a backstory and plot, sets the scenes, and then the PCs interact with those and by their actions create the actual tale, the events and conclusion of which are indeterminate until that occurs.
As in real life, chance and random occurrances must be a part of an RPG adventure. As a matter of fact you and I do not know what will happen in the next minute. As is oft quoted, “There’s many a slip between cup and lip.” to ignore random events, not allow chance into play, is to consign the game to predestination.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2003
As false to the game form as the pre-scripted “story,” is play that has little more in it than seek and destroy missions, vacuous effort where the participants fight and kill some monster so as to gain more power and thus be able to look for yet more potent opponents in a spiral that leads nowhere save eventual boredom. So pure hack and slash play is anathema to me too.
Tactical, and strategic, play is a fine addition to the RPG, and if it is in-character, something I see as desirable, In this category fall such things as exploration, economics, politics, and even intrigue.
Ignoring rules
My belief is that the rules for an RPG should facilitate the enjoyment of the game for all concerned. If they get in the way then they are no good.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Play is mainly reliant on rules. I ignored those I write when DMing if the game called for that, and in all added what was logical in terms of the game environment to play. Thus much of adventuring was not “by the book,” but rather seat of the pants play by DM and players alike.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
BTW, when I am DMing AD&D, I tend to ignore rules that get in the wat of the flow of the game.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
… the more rules one must pay close attention to, the more difficult it is to create adventure material.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Every complication demands more rules and explanations, more time spent resolving combat, that’s fine for a military or dueling simulation, but not in an RPG where there are so many other things to do besides killing things ;-)
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
Lethality
Nobody seems to know what “Gygaxian” means. I sure don’t after perusing the lot. there’s a considerable amount of confusion in regards to my DMing style, and not a few people there blowing hard without having an inkling of what it is like.
If I set out to kill PCs, how on earth did Tenser, Robilar, and the rest ever get to relatively high levels? What the whiners don’t like are adventure situations where they lose their PCs due to their own inept play. My modules don’t suffer fools lightly :-D
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
Do I enjoy killing PCs when I GM? A The answer is definately not in the least, especially if they belong to regular players. there I do all I can to prevent such loss without directly intervening in players’ actions for their characters.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
How I detest namby-pamby whiners that expect to play a real RPG without threat of character death or loss of a level, stat points, or even choice magic items! Without such possibilities, what it the purpose of play, a race to see which character can have the greatest level, highest stats, and largest horde of treasure?
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, 2005
If some players find the rules too deadly for the characters I suggest that the characters’ players are not very skilled not given to thinking before acting. That stated, PC death is meant to occur even when the best of players are concerned, but that is what cleric spells and wishes are meant to mitigate.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Realism
There is indeed a need for lethality in a single successful attack when simulation of actual combat is desired. That is why I have stayed away from it in the combat systems I have devised for my fantasy RPG designs, (On the old Boot Hill game one could get a character killed in a single exchange of gunfire.) As combat is the most popular activity in the RPG game form, it is pretty well necessary to allow for plenty of it, so…
Realism when one deals with magic, fantastic beasts, and all that makes up the FRPG seems a marginal concept to me. Verisimilitude is another matter, but the basis for play is improbablity. If the fantastic premises can be accepted, then quibbles about realism within the forum of play have more to do with perception than actuality.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
Prewritten vs on-the-fly
The main difference between formal creation of material and doing it as one serves in the role of GM is spontenaity, that allowing the material created on the spot to beter suit the player group ad the situation at hand.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 9, 2005
All the outdoor adventures I ran, and most of the dungeon crawls were half or more made up on the spot.
When extemporizing, the GM must be prepared to handle all manner of unexpected actions by the players. If they are foolish, I always invent a number of opportunities for disaster. If the course taken is one that is clever and innovative, I add in rewards.
Before a party goes off on a likley disasterous course I will try to deter them from such action–wandering monsters have much usefulness in this regard.
As for “railroading,” there are some scenarios where a bit of that is absolutely necessary to further the whole of the adventure. This is not to say that an entire adventure should be linear and force the party into a situation with a foregone conclusion. The use of a predetermined outcome should be only to set up an interesting and challenging scenario where the players are absolutely free to manage the outcome on their own, that outcome offering penalties for wrong decisions, rewards for correct ones, large rewards for innovation and creative solutions ;-)
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
In response to a request to publish his original campaign notes
There is no earthly use to most GMs for reproductions of sloppily hand-drawn maps and one-line encounter notes, other than to say thay have a copy. The heart of all the adventures in those dungeons was improvisation.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part VII, 2006
Player/character divide
Finally, there is no distinction between “having a PC figure something out” and the player doing so … the two are not separate entities, as the player is making believe he is the game character.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 10, 2006
Who can say what a PC knws and doesn’t know aboit the world he lives in? if it’s something that could be known, then there’s no metagaming involved.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
Miniatures
I have nothing against the use of miniatures, but they are generally impractical for long and free-wheeling campaign play where the scene and opponents can vary wildly in the course of but an hour.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
In fact you will not even need miniature figures, although their occasional employment is recommended for real spectacle when battles are fought.
— Foreword, Dungeons & Dragons, 1973
Fudging
If mere chance is the cause of the impending failure, I modify the situation to have the adversarial side be likewise blighted by ill fortune. If I over-powered the NPCs/monsters I do indeed reduce these capacities in some way so as to enable the party to uscceed.
In the case of sheer foolish play on the part of the players, I let the chips fall where they may, and if that means new Avatars, that’s the breaks
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part VI, 2006
The origins of D&D
Q: What inspired you to create roleplaying?
Gary: Some 30 years of living prior to actually sitting down and writing the first draft (50 pages in length) all combined to bring about the resulting game. It was a combination of much reading of imaginative fiction, a love of games, and the desire to create that enables it.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
When someone looks for the roots of the PRG, then need only harken to “Let’s Pretend” and games such as “Cops & Robbers” to find them :-D
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
We played with my toy soldiers and 54 mm figurines regularly from c. 1950 through 1954 but never got a decent set of rules cobbled up back then. Games of this sort sans rules are nothing more nor less that child’s play, and I did that since I was about four years of age, and by the time I was 12 found it most unsatisfactory.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part XI, 2007
I began playing The Avalon hill Game Company’s wargames back with original Gettysburg back in 1958. I have played virtually all of TAHC board wargames produced tereafter through c. 1970.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part XI, 2008
We started playing man-to-man games around 1968, with several players on each side and a command figure for each. From there it was a short step to one figure per player. Note that there was still a lot of stress on hiring men-at-arms in OD&D, though ;-)
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, 2005
There was no medieval board wargame nor any miniatures game rules for me to reference when I wrote the Chainmail “Man-to-Man” material. I made them up as I went. Of course I had a lot of knowledge of medieval military history, weapons, and armor to draw upon.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part XII, 2008
What with command figures and the rules, individual figure play was not startling. When heroes, superheroes, and wizards were considered in the “Fantasy supplement,” the concept of a player with but a single figure on the table born.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 9, 2005
The Chainmail military miniatures rules wree originally four pages to typed rules written by Jeff Perren for the 40 mm Hauser Elastolin figurines he had recently acquired (back in c, 1969). I loved those figurines, enjoyed his rules, so I expanded them into around 16 pages and called the enlarged material the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association Medieval Military Miniatures Rules. When Guidon Games wanted to publish rules for that period, I expanded the material by creating the Man-to-Man Rules, Jousting, and Fantasy Supplement sections.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part V, 2006
No game I had played before I devised the Man-to-Man rules for the Chainmail rules book influenced that design. I made it all up off the top of my head, just as I did the Fantasy Rules section. Inspirational sources were historical for the former, mythical for the latter.
It is noteworthy, though, that the radius of a fireball and the stroke of a lightning bolt corresponded to a heacy catapult’s area of attack effect and that of a cannon in the 1:20 Chainmail rules.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
There is no question that I wrote every word of the original D&D game. Dave Arneson has said so himself in an interview in the now-defunct magazine Different worlds (issue #3, as I recall).
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 2, 2003
The initial 50 page draft of what was to become the D&D game took me only about two weeks to write–around November of 1972. After all, most of the material was drawn from the CHAINMAIL Fantasy Supplement, so it wasn’t a real challenge.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Sadly, I have lost the original ms. copies for what became the D&D game, the initial c. 50 pp. (1972) one and the later 150 pp, (1973) one. I understand that at least one copy of one of them exists, but where I can’t say. My original copy of the second draft went to the printers, and from it came the original D&D game’s three booklets. I never recovered the ms. from the printer :-(
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Look at my recommended reading list in the old DMG again, amigo. Both Howard and Lovecraft are named there and were actually major influences on my creation of the game.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Q: How and why did you decide to use 1d20 as the randomizer for the alternate combat system and saving throw charts in D&D in place of the 2d6 rolls used in Chainmail?
Gary: The 5% incriment (20) probability curve was used in the WW II military miniatures rules set, Tractics, that I co-authored with Leon Tucker and Mike Reese. tucker originally wanted a 1-100 spread, and Reese had used something like that using two d6 for one of his rules sets. the desire for different curves was pretty common by the time I authored D&D.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, 2005
When the D&D game was published, we bought 50 sets of these dice from school supply company, got a 10% discount, and passed them along to gamers at $3.50 per set–a break even price–so as to make the D&D game easily playable. The school supply couldn’t believe that we were ordering so many sets, and when we asked for discount rate on 1,000, they declined, so we found their source in the Orient and ordered direct from them.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
As for the traps, we originally played dungeon crawls much of the time. My dungeon levels were both an exploration/mapping problem to solve and a place for encounters. As I would place perhaps 15 or so active encounters on a level of many passagerways and as many as 50 or so rooms, to keep things “interesting” I’d include various traps. That became a de rigeur thing in general from around 1977 on.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
(on the origin of the planes:) I used the alchemical for the elemental planes, the old concept of the elheral plane, ideas drawn from the Spiritualist writers of the 19th century, along with mythology. For example, Ancient Egyptian religious belief had an upper realm, Pet, and a lower one, the Duat or Tuat, something that combined areas of a material paradise, uncertain realms, and hellish places.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Most of the D&D game’s inspiration comes from a mix of the ancient (quasi-ancient Hyborea of Howard’s Conan) and medieval (and imaginary middle ages fiction), so there’s no way I can measure the relative weight of each. I read pretty well equally in both historical periods. The medieval was a less organized and more individualistic period, though, so that’s why general technological and socio-cultural assumptions are set in that time…or later.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
I was absolutely certain that the D&D game would be popular and have legs back in 1972 when I completed the initial draft of the rules. That assurance never wavered from then on.
The size of the potential audience was not ascertained by me or anyone else, however. I was thinking of the customer base being military game fans and imaginative literature (SF, fantasy, horror, occult) readers–maybe 100,000 persons or so. That’s why I was careful to add as much as possible to appeal to the fans of J.R.R.T. so as to broaden the audience base.
… By the end of 1975 I was very much aware of the broad appeal of the game. The appeal was to almost anyone with an active imagination, as the theme of the game is the heroic quest one of mankind’s folklore and legend.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
Q: I was wondering while playing OD&D did you ever use the chainmail combat system instead of the “Alternative Combat System”?
Gary: No to the first. When I write the original D&D ms. I wasn’t sure how many of the players would be cming directly from CHAINMAIL. when it became apparent that only a small fractin of D&D fans were also miniatures players, I wnet with the system that suited the game.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, part II, 2005
As a matter of fact we did dungeon crawls until DM and players alike were sick and tired of them, mainly because the large number of players at each session made almost any other sort of adventure very difficult. As the players dropped out, the adventures shifted to outdoors settings, town adventures, action in a tavern, etc.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part VI, 2006
Game mechanics
Alignment
When players began to announce their character’s alignment to other participants I shuddered. I suggested that such information was not for broadcast, that the PCs might not actually think of themselves as categorized thus, and the alignment categories were meant more to guide the player in playing his character in the game.
As for alignment language, I assumed that it was akin to Latin in regard to use. … Somehow I supposed that DMs would arrive at similar conclusions unaided.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 8, 2005
An alignment language is promarily keyed to the religious subjects that would be discussed or read about by those of that persuation. One might think of such a tingue as being similar to Latin for Roman Catholics or Hebrew for Jews.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
As I have pointed out at times, a Paladin might well execute a group of captives after they have converted from their former (Evil) alignment to Lawful Good, for that act saves their sould, prevents them from slipping back into error.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
I think my definition of Neutral alignment in the DMG is sufficient, and the neutral isn’t a generalist but one who belioeves in the harmony of creation and a balance between all of its forces. It’s up to you to rationalize any changes you wish to make in the alignment for your own campaign.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
Simply put, alignments are for the use of the DM in the development of the nations and the peoples that inhabit them, principally the dramatis personae that will interact with the group of player characters. It is meant to serve the DM as a measuring stick against the performance of the PCs in the campaign, after each has elected an alignment as a general template for the ethical and moral views of their game persona. In the same secondary role, they are meant to be useful in regards use of magical spells and magic items that require the imbuing of some spirit (force) in their making.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
All undead are of negative plane energy, and can not be of neutrality.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part II, 2005
Armor class and HP
While AC increases mainly by the wearing of superior protectionm HPs increase with the character’s accumulating experience in combat reflected by level increase.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
Anyway, keep in mind that the OA/D&D systems were never meant to be combat simulators, and all wise DMs ignored the few portions that lead in that direction. Damage and hit points in any game are most probably based on game considerations that have nothing to do with actual human or animal frailties, if you will. A 6” knife will kill a person just as dead as a 6’ long two-handed sword, for example.
The actual measure of harm inclifted is tissue damage from weapon penetration of flesh, and shock to tissue–as well as vital organ damage and blood loss, of course. In a game, details of such things are pretty well minor considerations, never to be dealt with in any sort of mechanic that is based on actuality, or else the whole reason for the game form, adventure on an onging basis with a heroic game persona, is lost.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part IV, 2005
Campaigns
Indeed, i assumed no campaign with an end but connected episodes, with occassional sagas such as the G and D series of adventures. When PCs got to around 15th level they were generally retired, went only on special adventures.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
Level drain
the vampire’s level drain came from me. I decided upon it as a way of simulating that monster’s capacity to weaken and make helpless its victims. Once established, the level-draining attack power made all undead so able into most fearsome opponents B-)
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
As an aside, level draining is less cruel that house rules I have heard about that cause loss of sight or appendages.
You pegged the reason for my adding that to the system. The threat is potent, yet does not actually kill the PC. There is even a clerical restoration possible, that costing much in the way of monetary and magical items likely, thus getting them out of play and giving more reason to PC to keep adventuring.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, 2005
Next those cry babies will be moaning about being turned to stone. Tell the complainers they should be playing a CRPG where they can save and thus avoid all real danger–ues cheat codes too :-D
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
Q: Would you allow a saving throw for level drain?
Gary: Never! Simple as that.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part III, 2005
Percentile strength
Adding a d% roll to an 18 Strength roll is hardly complicated. It was done because Strength was the only stat that needed to be increased in steps by the d% mechanic so as to improve fighters to hit and damage chances. So that was used because I favor interesting play over any imagined elegance, that being quite unlikely in an RPG in my view. …
Can you imaging the increases of stats going into the 20s needed in order to get the same result as 18/00? The human norm bell curve of 3-18 down the tubes in a jiffy. Not elegant at all, and simply foolish ;-)
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
System shock
Q: Is it intentional in AD&D that the Haste spell (causing magical aging) should require a system shock roll, risking death ?
Gary: the system shock check was included so DMs has something to use to prevent abuse of the spell, such as when a PC drank a potion of speed and then had a haste spell cast on him. My players knew better that to try to get cutsy like that when I was the DM.
Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
Vancian spellcasting
The “memorize then fire and forget” principal for casting spells Jack Vance assumed in his fantasy stories seemed perfect to me for use by D&D magic-users. IT required forethought by the player and limited the power of the class all at once.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
The low-level magic-user is mainly a one- or two-shot weapon, but the “artillery” is potent. This fits well with a balanced party of low-level PCs, none of wom are really very strong singly.
I chose to use a system of magic inspired by the worls of Jack Vance because it fit the whole of the game I devised. For example, think of an archer with a quiver of arrows. When one is shot, it is gone. Magic spells, more potent than arrows, are much the same.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Yes, I did intend to have schools of magic based on the types of spells as you note above. The m-u would begin with one specialization, but at verious points along the level progression ladder he could opt to add a new field or intensify his capacity in the original one. This was meant to make m-us interesting beyond the point where they could use 9th level spells, any diversion from specialization delaying the advanced spell level possession but adding new lower level spells of a new school.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Weapon speed factors
Forget weapons speed factors. I must have been under the effect of a hex when I included them in the bloody rules.
— Dragonfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part II, 2005
Character classes
In seeking clear class distinctions I did indeed proscribe m-us from the use of the sword, and clerics too. This made the archetypes distinct, balanced the character classes, and worked well enough for game purposes, methinks.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Bard
Q: Why did the original bard require Rogue? [thief]
Gary: I included that as most fictional treatments of bard-like characters were roguish, engaged in some nefarious activity such as stealing.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Cavalier
The cavalier class was created mainly because all noble warriors were not in the same stamp as Sir Galahad and Roland.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 9, 2005
Cleric
Remember that I modeled the cleric class on Bishop Odo and Friar Tuck…both able combatants ;-)
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Q: What was your “reasoning” behind a cleric’s turning ability, as in how is it able to function?
Gary: The fokelore example of a vampire being turned by a cleric presenting the cross.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
Druid
Q: Why do druids use scimitars?
Gary: It is because the scimitar is as close a sword weapon I could come up with to match the druids’ mistletoe-harvesting sickle.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 12, 2006
The primary appeal of the Druid class from a creative standpoint is that the Romans were so thorough in destroying them and their religion that we know virtually nothing about either :-o
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 12, 2006
Dennis [Sustare] sent in the material that was used to make the druid a class rather than a sort of evil human monster as it had been in the OD&D game. The spell in question [Chariot of Sustarre] was ondeed named in his honor.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
Illusionist
The illusionist sub-class sprang from my reading. So many spellworkers in fable and fiction used only the illusory, not “real magic” that had actual substance and effect, that I thought it would be fun to include such an option in the game.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Q: In your opinion, what literary figures would be the appropriate archetype example for the Illusionist class?
Gary: I believe that the best examples of illusion magic are found in L. Sprague de Camp’s “Haorld Shea” stories, with various practitioners using it, the Finnish wizards most generally. there are plenty of others found in fairy tales such as those of Andrew Lang.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2008
Monk
All of the titles for the Monk Class were taken unabashedly from mah jjong, one of my favorite games. As flowers are honors tiles, delicate and beautiful, I thought it fitted well with an Eastern aesthetic martial artist, the object belying his actual prowess.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
Paladin
As far as I am concerned, the Paladin is Lawful Good–perior. The class takes vows, swears an oath, and then follows it. The concept is drawn from some legend–Authurian–and some quasi-legend–the paladins of Charlemaine plus the code of chivalry as it was written, more honored in the breach than the keeping.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Ranger
The Ranger class was originally devised by Joe Fischer, then a regular in my D&D game group. I published his initial treatment of the class in The Strategic Review, thereafter revised it and included it in the core game rules. Of course it is apparent that Joe based the class on JRRT’s work and Aragorn.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
Thief/Rogue
The Thief was based on Jack of Shadows (Zelazny) and Cugel (Vance) with a touch of REH’s Conan, rather than solely on the Gray Mouser. Mouser was too good a swordsman to serve as the pure model.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
Races
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.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 2, 2003
Later on I added gnomes to D&D to broaden the choices for non-human PCs, as I did in AD&D. This was done because a number of players, myself included, were tired of having so many dwarves, elves, and halflings in the group of adventurers.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
When I was part of a lsrge con panel on the East Coast, one young twit of an editor for a major publisher also a panelist asked me before the audience why I had stolen dwarves from Tolkien. I responded in august tones: “I beg your pardon, Young Lady,” but I stole my dwarves from the same source the Good Professor did, Norse Mythology.”
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part IV, 2005
Monsters
Q: Someone asked what the first ever monster in a dungeon was (going back to the preliminary phases of the game ages ago) and what its final fate was.
Gary: The monsters first encountered, by son Ernie’s and daughter Elise’s characters, were a nest of scorpions in some rubble in the very first room of the dungeon they entered. The glint of coins was mentioned to lure the incautious hand into attack proximity, but Elise’s PC used a dagger to poke around, and the scorpions were spotted. Eventually one managed to sting, but the poison saving throw was made. They next encountered and defeated a gang of kobolds with a chest of 3,000 copper pieces. Needless to say, they weren’t pleased with the treasure.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
Black pudding
Dave Arneson evidentaly disliked English black pudding, made up an amoeboid monster of that name which I glommed onto..figuratively of course. If he was thinking of Shoggoths when he envisaged the critter, only Dave knows…
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part VII, 2006
Celestial
Devas were drawn mainly from mytholology. Planetar and Solar were inspired by Theosophy.
… I don’t believe that solar symbols are connected to the supposed Theophysical Solar spirit creatire. a sort of thing similar to a Seraph, just as the Planatar is rougly equivalent to a Cherub.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Dragon
If you read the intro to the SLAYER’S GUIDE TO DRAGONS fromMongoose, you’ll see therein how I came up with the chromatic dragons. Some colors other than red were needed, hues that would be harmonious with their breath wespons. When I’d done the four new additions to the CHAINMAIL red dragon, it seemed a good plan to have a LG dragon, one of gold color that was based on the Oriental model. From that I worked on the rest of the metallic species.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
As it was bpth or different origination and alignment I desiced to empower the gold dragon so as to more closely resemble the potent Oriental sort. So it got more of everything, including two breath weapons. …
Logically, with metal value being used as the basis for potency, platunum (Bahamut) being the highest, then gold and silver, the sequence should have been platinum-gold-electrum-silver-copper-bronze. However, I thought bronze looked more potent than copper, and skipped then to brass–that metal conmveying some not-so-benign connotations.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
Drow
As I created them, there are absolutely no good Drow save for the insane.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Drow females are loke spiders in regards their superiority to the male. There are quite a few examples of females being larger and stronger than their male counterparts in the animal kingdom, and it seems that many of the theropod dinosaurs were likewise.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
The drow were actually created to be the dominant human-like race in the vast subterranean world. what little i know about how they have been treated by other authors since then is not at all palatable to me. The drow are purely malign by temperment, as hateful as wolverines, as opportunistic as hyneas. they have absolutely no angst, save when facing an immediate threat from a mor epowerful drow or demon.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
Gelatinous cube
Q: Who thought up the idea of the gelatinous cube?
Gary: The ‘Cube was my cration. It was inspired by the amoeba and gelatin. Perhaps I also had in the back of my mind the old EC Comisc SF story about Mars being covered in dormand gookum, that stuff having devoured all other life forms on the planet.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Q: Care to share the story of the first time in the game you sprung it on the players?
Gary: there was a group going through the 2nd level, and the fighter scouting ahead walked right into the Gelatinous Cube thinking some spell or gas was makinghis vision blurry. Only after that PC being nearly killed did the others note the “floating” coins and such.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Giant
Jack and the Beanstalk was the inspiration for the cloud giant. That’s one of my favorite fairy tales.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part IV, 2005
Golem
The iron golem was drawn from Greek mythology, the bronze one therein, Talos. The breath weapon addition was from Rob.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 8, 2005
Gorgon
Q: Gorgons in all versions of D&D seem to bear little relationship with the classical Greek idea of what a gorgon was. How did the D&D gorgon as a petrifying bovine come about?
Gary: The bull-like gorgon with iron scales is found in medieval bestiaries. i know it for a fact because that’s where I got the critter–along with the catoblepas and a handful of other monsters;)
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part IV, 2005
Kobold
I thought of kobolds as humanoid, but with green complexion due to their forest habitat and skin that was rough and scaly even though they were mammalian.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, 2005
It was indeed Dave sutherland that decided to give the kobolds a dog-like visage, likely because I had described gnolls as hyena-like. I had actually originally envisaged them as more impish ot countenence, but I went along with the depiction, as it made no difference to the game’s play.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, 2005
Kuo-toa
The kuo-toa were mainly from my imagination, as was their deity, Blibdoolpoolp. Perhaps I was thinking of HPL’s batrachian people, but not consciously. Maybe it was inspired by The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part VII, 2006
Orc
Q: Early portrayals of orcs in AD&D gave them decidedly porcine physical attributes. Was this done intentionally or was it simply the whim of the illustrators?
Gary: I mentioned “pig-like faces” to Dave Sutherland, and he took me far too literally as far as I was concerned.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Rakshasa
Q: While we’re on the subject of monster origins, where did the Rakshasha come from?
Gary: Hindu Mythogy and Kolchak, The Night Stalker in combination ;-)
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 9, 2005
Q: Is there a story or myth behind why rakshasas can be instantly slain by a blessed crossbow bolt?
Gary: There was a TV show, THGE NIGHT STALKER, that had an episode in which rakshas were the featured monster. In that program these demons could be slain thus, rather like the way a vampire would be by a blessed wooden crossbow bolt through the heart.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
(NOTE: The episode referenced is Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode 11, “Horror on the Heights”. It aired on December 20, 1974. According to the episode “A crossbow is the method described in legend by which one may destroy a Rakshasa, with arrows blessed by the divine Brahma himself.”)
Stirge
The stirgie was inspired from the mythological Strygia et al. as was noted. for game purposes a more conventional vampiric creature was desirable, as there were plenty of more potent sorts of monsters such as the vampire to fulfill the larger roles of party antagonists.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part III, 2005
Vampire
Heh, I have read Stoker’s novel, Dracula, several times over the years. However, my favorite screen rendition of that character is that done by Bela Lugosi. I used Stoker and various folklore sources to develop the vampire as a monster in the A/D&D game B)
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
Characters
Mordenkainen
As a typically ambitious player, I did what all others of that ilk do: Everything I could do to gain advantage for my PCs and rise in level as rapidly as possible. That was a matter of honor, of course. Being the fellow who wrote the bloody game, I had beter excel! So after starting play with Yrag (a fighter) I soon added other PCs and henchmen to braden the scope of my possibilities, and to be able to handle encounters of difficult sorts when playing one-on-one with the MD. Thus came into being Mordenkainen the magic-user, then Felnorith the fighter as Yrag’s sidekick.
— Dragon #318, What’s in a Name?, 2004
I have read Kalevala several times, admire Vainomoinen greatly, have seen the b&w Eussian film about his journey to Pojola with Ilmarnen to get Louhi’s daughter, and much enjoyed de Camp’s & Pratt’s Wall of Serpents drawn from Finnish mythology. Ir was not by chance that my first and still most potent mage PC was named Mordenkainen.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Actually, I am given to understand that the EPIC 3E book has come pretty close to nailing Mordie’s level. I haven’t seen it, so I can’t comment further. As I do still play that PC now and again, I won’t reveal anything else.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
The character is patterened after a Finnish wizard, so thus the KAY-nen pronunciation ;-)
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 12, 2006
All of the major PCs bit the dust one way or another–petrified as was Mordenkainen, poisoned as was Bigby, etc. Wish items were greatly prized and carefully hoarded, reserved for use in such extremis.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part II, 2005
Tenser
Q: I was wondering if any of the name-specific spells in the PHB and UA were actually the result of PC research on your original campaign.
Gary: The answer to many is a simple, yes because i wanted my PC to have that sort of spell. some of the others were named for a PC who would have loved to have such a spell but didn’t think of creating it, so i did in the name of the PC. Tenser’s Transformation, for instance, was simply the magical expression of what son Ernie would do with his PC when Tenser had cast his last spell and still wanted to be in on the action.
… He never used Tenser;s Transformation, just went hell for breakfast into battle. however, he did use Tenser’s Floating Disk on every occassion it would enable the party to haul out more loot.
… Actually, in OD&D only the lack of armor and slow gain in chance to hit were factors. The magic-user with a dagger did as much damage as a fighter with a battle axe.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
Other
As a matter fact Iggwilv is my creation. She was inspired by Louhi the Finnish uberwitch and Baba Yaga of Russian foklore.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Q: Where did Rary come from?
Gary: He fell out of the rear end of a horse… Seriously, that was a weak PC created by Brian Blume, a magic-user that was dropped when he became 3rd level, Medium Rary–and yes, I am being serious.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, 2005
I have two over 20th, two over 15th, five of 10th or higher level, and perhaps a dozen that are below 12th level. If all that were concentrated in a single PC, one that could find suitable challenges when at 21st level and above, likely that one would be at least 50th level…if he survived that long :-o
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Yes, I have played a Paladin character, but not for long, as I don’t enjoy Lwaful Good characters much–too restrictive for a Chaotic sort of person such as I am :-D
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
Kelanan, the Sword Lord, was something I made up out of whole cloth. I do have a fighter PC that kept finding magic swords, totes a number of them around, so there was some inspiration involved from there–he needed a deity
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
I don’t recall the names of several PCs of mine that lost their lives early in their adventuring career. My two main mid-level PCs are Nigby and Slidell of Fax. My lowest level PC is Snurre Shaprnose, a gnome illusionist-thief of around 4th level (I seem to have lost his CRS).
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2006
When the renowned Melf, a gray elf played by my son Luke, was but a fledgling adventurer, he made a name for himself, “Melf of the Green Arrow”, because he painted that symbol on the floor of the first level of the Castle Greyhawk dungeons so as to direct adventurers to a theretofore unknown means of accessing the lower mazes.
— Dragon #311, What’s in a Magic Item?, 2003
World of Greyhawk
I settled on Greyhawk because I happened to admire Chief Blackhawk of the Sac & Fox Indians that inhabited and fought the settlers in this area. As hawking was a much beloved medieval hunting form I did indeed consider the name as fitting.
The Blackmoor on the Oerick maps is certainly not the same as Dave Arneson’s campaign setting. I liked its ring, so put it onto the map as I was making up names for the various states.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 10, 2006
When I was asked by TSR to do my World of Greyhawk as a commercial product I was taken aback. I had assumed most DMs would far perfer to use their own world settings. …
The relatively low level of NPCs, and the balance between alignments was done on purpose so as facilitate the use of the world setting by all DMs. With a basically neutral environment, the direction of the individual campaign was squarely in the hands of the DM running it.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
I can say that the Flan were not meant to be anything like the American Indians. they were of Hamatic-like racial origin, Negroes if you will. Little is known of them because they were generally absorbed into the waves of other peoples immigrating eastwards through the continent, so their culture was generally lost.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 8, 2005
And the village of Hommlet is actually my favorite part of the module. It reminds me of the European towns my father visited during and after WWII. All that old world charm, but with steel and hidden weapons underneath.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2003
Yes, Onwall was inspired by Cornwall, Land’s End and all that good stuff :-D
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Of course after 1985 I quit most AD&D play and the dropped the World of Greyhawk as my campaign setting.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part II, 2005
Q: Did any of your players’ characters ever adventure in the Baklunish states?
Gary: Yes, a little. the culture was basically turkish/Persian.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part III, 2005
As I wrote it Rel Astra is the capital city of the See of Medigia–named for a wargame opponent of mine, BTW, than no one has ever asked about or picked up on, Mike Magida. Perhaps i made the error, or more likely a bucy editor inserted the “free city” tab for Rel Astra. One can live with a free city as a capital, of course. London was a free city and the capital of England.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part III, 2005
The correct name for the month is “Ready’reat.” I recall that I had a contraction in mind, but after all the time that has passed I’ll be baked if I can recall what it was.
… I was thinkig of “ready for reaping” when I conied the name, thought of how language is distorted over time, and thus came up with “Ready’reat,” a Septemberish month.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part IV, 2005
Q: Gary, your original Greyhawk campaign. Was it based on a fantasy version of America?
Gary: Yes indeed it was–easier to use existing outline maps than creating a world setting from scratch. Greyhawk was about where Chicago is, and dyvers was about where Milwaukee is.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part V, 2006
furyondy is sort of an idealized medieval Great Britain with the Norman influence. The Yeomanry is the idealized English countryside, including the Lowlands of Scotland.
Perrenland is based on the Swiss Confederation where both my father and Feff Perren’s were born
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part V, 2006
For certain the WoG product as published by TSR came into being about two or three months before the date of its prionting and sale. Brian said that a campaign setting was needed, so after ascertaining the maximum size map sheet we could have printed, I free-handed the land outlines on those two sheeye of apper, used colored pencils to put in terrain features, located the cities, and made up the names for everything. that took me about 1 week. …
Of course a good deal of my wargaming experience, knowledge of history and geography and use of such in other projects came into play in creating the map and the states on it.
My personal Greyhawk world was a version of earth, but as many palyers were involved in the campaign, I did not want to use that as a base. the funny thing is that about a mopnth after the printer WoG was out I liked it better than what I was using, so for the most part my campaign play moved to Oerth, Oerik.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part VIII, 2006
Editions of D&D
OD&D
To the best of my knowledge the term “Dungeon Master” was coined by some unknown D&D game fan and used first in a fanzine. It cought on immediately. “Game MAster” was coined soon thereafter by those that did not want their RPG to be confused with D&D.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 10, 2006
As for the Arduin Grimoire, the tone and content were so unappealing to me that I had to both ignore it and parody it at the same time.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
As to the removal of hobbit, ent, and balrog, that I can speak to. One morning a marshall delivered a summons to me as an officer of TSR. It was from the Saul Zaents division of ELan Merchandising, the sum named was $500,000, and the filing claimed proprietarial rights to the above names as well as to dwarf, elf, goblin, orc, and some others too. It also demanded a cease and desist on the publication of the Battle of Five Armies game.
Of corsue the litigant was over-reaching, so in the end TSR did drop only the game (the author had assured us he was grandfathered in, but he and his attorney too were wrong) and the use of the names hobbit, balrog, and ent–even though hobbit was not created by JRRT, and ent was the Anglo-Saxon name for giant.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part IV, 2005
The chaps playing the game pretty much developed the concept of a balanced party. When we first began playing most parties were mainly fighters, and we got in trouble when facing spell-casters without our own artillery for fire counter-battery.
The short answer is that the concept evolved from play of the game.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part V, 2005
AD&D
When I was writing the AD&D core material, some of my fellows in the Chicagoland area put considerable pressure on me to include psionics in the system. Sadly, I caved in to please them. If I had not been so deeply immersed in the whole, trying to get it finished on schedule, I’d have doon a far better job with the psychic-power area, I believe.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Q: However, older editions/versions of the game seemed to have a different feel from the later AD&D. Can you articulate what that was?
Gary: About all I can say is the enthusiasm and the love of the game were possibly conveyed to the reader by the style in which I wrote the material. Also, some of the rules and mechanics that were included in the original, removed later on, were actually critical to the “feel” and the “spirit” of the whole work.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
The armorial bearings displayed on the fighter’s shield shown on the original DMG book are those of a Gygax who fought in French service sometime in the 15th century.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, 2004
Good players could manage to gain low levels for their PC in a half-dozen or so adventures. Poor ones, those just goofing around couldn;t manage that in a dozen adventures.
As a DM I had to learn the hard way about giving out too much treasure and not loading the NPCs with magical things that the PCs could pick up when they trashed my encounters :?
By the time AD&D was being played, all that had been ironed out, and the good players were still gaining a level for their PCs every couple of months until mid;kever, say around 8th.
— Dragonfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part IV, 2005
Q: How many times have you seen, either as a player or as DM, a player character actually using polearms like the bec de corbin or the guisarme glaive?
Gary: Pole-arms are not meant for PCs. they are meant for men-at-arms, soldiers, humanoids such as orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, and bugbears. i have had had such NPC figures so armed any number of times–and think of the scenes showing them in Return of the King!
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part X, 2007
Out of curiosity, what’s the “official” pronunciation of Acererak? :?
FWIW, I initially said Ace-RE-rak, then changed it to A-CER-er-AK because it sounded more exotic and threatening to me 8)
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part X, 2007
AD&D second edition
I never played 2E, although I did play some OAD&D where parts of the 2E system were picked up and included.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Q: Not to start a gripe session or anything, Gary, but do you mean that the revisions in 2e were doneto basically make things in AD&D less Gygaxian?
Gary: It was done so as to remove my name and have a “derivative” game for which no royalties were payable to me per agreement. to save 2.5% they wrecked the company…
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, 2005
(On the unpublished AD&D Greyhawk sourcebook, From The Ashes:) Lorraine Williams wished to belittle me because I dared to disagree with her business plans for TSR, so she gave some evidentally envious designers the latitude to totally mess up the WoG. IMO their efforts showed how lacking they were. I named the abortive work “From the Asses,” which didn’t endear me to the lot.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 12, 2007
About 50% of the AD&D audience was lost when 2E was released.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part IX, 2007
D&D third edition
However, in regards to the new D&D one, I believe that there is a question of “legs” for many new players, because as things stand the game allows too rapid level increase.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
First, from my standpoint, writing for 3E is very constraining, and it can not compare to creating material for AD&D–mush less rules-heavy a system.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
There is no relationship between 3E and original D&D, or OAD&D for that matter. Different games, style, and spirit.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
IMO there has been a vast shift in game focus in 3E. The archetype has gone by the board, comic book-like feats are a feature, the whole purpose of play is set on killing things, and power gaming is encouraged. Long-term play is not facilitated by the new game. However, all that seems to be acceptable, as so many of the RPG players like it.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
The main differences in the older works I did and 3E are style of writing, reliance on archetypes, limitatations on character advancement, availability of and creation of magic items, and general single-class play for human characters.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
I find no soul in the new D&D game, no archetypes, just seek and destroy play and too much of the comic book superhero in characters.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2003
Yes, I played [D&D third edition] for about 20 sessions in the test of Ernie and Luke Gygax’s module THE LOST CITY OF GAXMOOR. I enjoyed the gaming but not the rules.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 3, 2003
Of the more recent versions of the game I have played only 3E. It is rules intensive, removes the “Master” from Dungeon Master, has no archetypes left, encourages the players to compete for dominance, devalued magic items, and substitutes statutes in the rules for innovation.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 12, 2006
I intended to revise OAD&D, but not into one that graftet skill-based play onto a class based vehicle. I think that brings the worst of both system types. In the long term I don’t think I’d have made many changes in the AD&D game, only those necessary to allow the core rules to apply to more genres.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
As for Monte’s ARCANA UNEARTHED, I was impressed with the work because of its faciulity of using the D&D base to present a whole new and substantially different milieu.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
… I believe that the D20 and OGL were gross errors of business judgement, hightly detrimental to the underlying game system they opened up … In my estimation WotC was the sucker, and by doing what they did they didn’t give the D&D game fans an even break…not to mention the harm it did to their company and the D&D mark.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part V, 2006
D&D fourth edition
I think that if D&D goes into a 4th edition the marketplace will be damaged.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 9, 2005
Just read a short analysis by James Mischler of what is likely to happen in regards to 4E. If he is close to predicting the matter, the new game will be more like an MMPORPG, and all older but recent versions of the D&D game will be generally neglected as have been OA/D&D and 2E.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 11, 2006
At this juncture my money os on 4E succeeding–at least realtve to 3E. the audience for woW-type games inline is huge, and the revenue from subscribers should be much stronger than that from paper game product sales. It seems likely to me that the WotC designers will do their utmost to make an appealing game for those that love playing online, one that is passable to those that enjoy actual RPGing ;-)
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
I do believe that when 4E is launched, 3E and 3.5E will be orphened.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part VII, 2006
The future of D&D
Paper games will persist, and the market might even grow some, but the clear future for growth and diversity is in the electronic end of gaming. That’s something I’ve said for quite a few years now.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
The audience for paper RPGs is at best static, and likely to decline a bit due to attrition, for the only sizable publisher in the field, WotC (cum Hasbro) is not actively recruiting new young players through a basic game offering and advertising for such customers. Meanwhile there is stiff competition for players and their custom from computer and online computer “RPGs” and all manner of other entertainment forms.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 9, 2005
I am relatively certain that face-to-face RPGing is here to stay, much as live theater has survived a couple of millenia, remains still in the face of motion pictures and television. Of course the relative percentage of people playing P&P games thus will decline as technology improves and the online and computer RPGs come ever closer to the playing live with a group of friends.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
As for cloning, heh! I’d do that now to get to more of the ideas I have were it possible. What I hope will happen, though, is that some of the gamers who have read and played my material, or who have worked with me in creating such work, will come to the fore in due course with their own excellent work, some of which will possibly reflect some of my style.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
I believe that the days of rule-playing are absolutely numbered, and less complicated systems will prevail in time–a few years yet, bit relatively soon.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part III, 2005
Gaming anecdotes
Mordenkainen and Bigby faced an iron golem in Rob Kuntz’s campaign. It could levitate and breathed fire. That construct was armed with a poisned sword and a whip tipped with cockatrice feathers. Mordenkainen was turned to stone and Bigby was slain when he failed his save :-( Fortunately others of the circle came to their rescue, and as Rigby used a stone to flesh spell, Nigby used a wish to bring Bigby back to life.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 3, 2003
When i was running the campaign alone, the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk wree only 13 levels deep. On the 13th was Zagig himself–he observed what went on above, restocked, etc. When a character got down to his level there was no going back. The one managing that was given an appropriate reward then sent on a giant, one-way slide clear through to the other side of the world, a place akin to China ;-) They had only what they carried at the time.
finding the lowest level was very difficult. Rob, playing Robilar solo, delved into the dungeon, made it. Ernie, noting Rog’s absence from adventuring with the party, sent Tenser on a solo quest to discover Robilar’s whereabouts. He managed to follow a similar path, and made level 13. Then Terry Kuntz noted both of his usual companions were nopt available to play, went forth with Terik, and made the lowest lever successfully. These PCs were around 10th level at this time. Rob never mapped, and Ernie didn’t either when he went exploring with Tenser, so there was no cheating. Can’t say how they managed it, but all three did it in succession. Each then solo-adventured back overland syccessfully via different routes.
No other players in the group managed that. About a month after all that Rob and I combined out castles, and Greyhawk Castle’s dungeons grew massively, from about 20 levels total, 13 deep, to over 40, going down to about 28 levels.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 3, 2003
Ernie’s PC read a curse scroll and got sent to Barsoon–ERB’s Mars, of course. He managed the non-magical world very well, became the first character in the campaign to posses dual class status as a M-U and Fighter when the character discovered the means of returning ot Oerth.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
Once when the DM was really lousy, Yrag threw himself on his sword in disgust. Murlynd, Robilar, Tenser, and Terik brought his corpse back and had him resurrected…with another person as the DM X-D
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
Two brothers playing Chainmail miniatures back around 1972 that got into an argument like that. They ended up whacking each other with the dowels we used for measuring cannon fire.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
I have indeed stepped with stocking feet on one of those yelow caltrops–also a d8, that being back in the early 1970s. Thereafter I made a point of picking up all of my dice and keeping them off the floor.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 8, 2005
Q: About what level in your campaign did PCs retire? Did they usually go the strongholds route, or something else?
Gary: The few who reached such level were ready to retire their PC somewhere around 15. most never bothered to formally retire, simply created new PCs when one reached 12th level or so and wasn’t that much fun to have on adventures with lower-level PCs, or was just a tad boring because of familiarity.
Rob Kuntz had Robilar build a stronghold, as he had so much wealth and the pair of green dragons to manage.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
All of the major PCs bit the dust one way or another–petrified as was Mordenkainen, poisoned as was Bigby, etc. Wish items were greatly prized and carefully hoarded, reserved for use in such extremis.
On the rarest of occassions a particularly ill-fated adventure would be chalked up to a collective bad dream. … Exactly two: Rob got one, and Rob allowed one other.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part II, 2005
I did create an Artifact for son Luke’s PC after that worthy had gone through severe tests. I told him to that if he found a needle in a haystack in an hour’s time thet Zagyg would reward him with a special weapon. Durned if the lad didn’t burn the hay and find the “needle” easily.
Thus that PC came into possession of the Spear of Zagyg. It is a needle until drawn forth from fabric and commanded to become a weapon. A d8 is rolled and the weapon size and plus is determined thus. Somehow. though, a +8 pike is not the favored result.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part X, 2007
Not only did the mysterious Erac’s Cousin find and gain the only vorpal blade that I placed in the Greyhawk campaign, but he subsequently acquired, by random roll, the only other vorpal sword that came into play in that heavily played game.
— Dragon #320, “Cut to the Quick”, 2004
Being a GM
As I am usually stuck being the GM, I long to play a character–or avatar. If I could manage both, I’d spend about half the time with each activity.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Yes, I have suffered from GM burnout. That’s why it’s great to play a character now and then as it refreshes and gives the opposite perspective in regards adventuring.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Actualy, about 80% of the game action in my old GH campaign centered on the castle and dungeons and in city adventures.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 6, 2004
Spot [on] in regards to having PCs adventure in different environments. I believe that keeps them, and the GM alike from growing complacent, or bored.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
I don’t ever think of myself as a “storyteller.” that role is fulfilled in the course of play through the combination of the GM and the players, each doing their part to develop and bring to fruition, the basic outline of the episode–that part being the work of the GM, of course.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
About half of the players had demi-human PCs, and that’s when I saw the need to allow multi-classing more broadly, and not limit the thief level. Also some of the sub-types were created and the level limits bumped up to accommodate those who insisted on playing non-human races in a human-dominated game and world setting. Actually, I allways allowed a Wish spell to bump up a level too…
It is worth noting, that most players never got PCs above around 12th level, so even an elf fighter/m-u of 5/8 was a viable member of a typical party.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 2, 2003
Only a couple of observations regarding ploaying with very young participants:
They grow frustrated quickly unless they achieve some minor success periodically and are rewarded therefor in even a small way.
Never allow their PCs to meet an end, as that is too traumatic. Even losing a treasured magic item or a trusted henchman or animal companion is likely to sent them from the gaming table in a funk, if not in tears.
Only after playing for several months is it possible to be more rigorous in GMing for youngesters.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 12, 2006
A good DM has read the rules, knows the spirit of the game, and is aiming at captivating his player audience with the fantastic experience of the campaign, so he can make up what is necessary on the spot.
Digging around in rules books is much the same as having the film break or the TV station experience transmission difficulties during an exciting program…a loss of the unagined participation.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Levity in tha game is great IMO. A bit of comedy reinforces the drama of past events, that to come as well.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Pcs create magic items before they achieve high level and retire? Never! What on earth is adventurous about manufacturing? If they sought a special magic item they quested for it.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part V, 2006
Villains can do most anything!
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part X, 2007
The hobby needs to recognize and give proper laurels to GMs, especially those that run several RPG systems for large numbers of players. That was one of my goals when i conceived the RPGA. Of course any publisher has a goal of conversion of GMs to their system, but that is short sighted, and the goal should be to convince the GM to add the RPG to his repitore.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
Any able DM can craft adventures that weed out unwise and inept players who think to bulldoze their way through problems by use of undeserved power. That’s possible only in computer games where saved games and cheat codes serve to reward such play.
— Dragon #314, Self-Destructing PCs, 2003
House rules
Seldom did I allow non-regulars to start above 2nd level.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
In my campaign I allowed rolls of 4d6, three highest for the score, and arrangement of scores as the player wished. That enabled the creation of a character the player wished to play, of course.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 3, 2003
(on rolling hit points) Yes random rolls were made, but I always allowed a re-roll for a result of 1.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
When I ran my AD&D campaign, training was generally quite informal and considered to be done “on the job” as it were. Only if a virtual windfall of XPs came at once did I call for PCs to take a protracted period of time from adventuring to do their studies, train, be educated, gain experience, and practice what they had learned. A week to a month was the normal period. Otherwise, it was subsumed that the time between adventures was spent thus.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
I do not allow firearms to work in any of the campaigns I run, but I have had my players travel to other worlds, parallel ones, where firearms worked. There is no problem handling the damage caused by such weapons, but in my view such technological weapons are counter to the spirit of the fantasy game, and all things considered, quite unnecessary.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Q: A good heuristic for a DM is: Before breaking a rule, try to understand the reasons why that rule was made in the first place. If you understand the “why” of the rule, you can break it in an informed, knowledgeable way. ;)
Gary: Heh… As if that usually were the case. for every able GM running a game there are probably 99 others who are less than that, and gaining a real understanding of the overall workings of an RPG isn’t an easy thing unless one has sat down and designed one…or made a hash of a revision.
The number of crashed RPG groups from ill-advised “improvements” to the game system is likely staggering. What the hobby really needs is a school to teach GMing, with classes in game design and creative writing included. thet would surely add greatly to the number of RPG fans enjoying real RPGing;)
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
The usual is to have all the players roll up 2nd level characters–fighters, clerics, magic-users, dwarves, elves, of hobbits. I have house rules so that any score above 14 gains a bonus of some sort for the PC, As all the team os 2nd level equiment is whatever on the list is desired.
15 + attribute score chart:
- STR +1 to hit for all (& +1 damage for fighters)
- INT +1 1st evel spell (for m-us)
- WIS +1 1st evel spell (for clerics)
- DEX +1 to AC (for all)
- CON +1 to each HD (for all)
- CHA +1 to reaction checks (for all)
The party then enters the original 1st level of my dungeons and goes on from there.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A With Gary Gygax, Part XI, 2007
Advice for writers
Aspring freelancers: Work for love, not money. If you enjoy the effort, love gaming, then that will cme through in your writing. To break into the field, figure on a lot of material being published on a gratis basis, and be sure yo produce plenty to as yo become known. Writing modules for convention tournament play is a great way of building a “name,” of course.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Inspiration comes when and where it comes.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Plagerism involves copying another author’s work, and that I have never done. In writing articles, one must needs to make clear the sources of direct quotes, of course. Ideas are not copyrightable–or else there’s be only one RPG today.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Heh, well, what is around now that wasn’t “taken” from some other source. The trick is to combine existing elements so as to come up with something new and different from what was previously existing. That D&D did right well, methinks.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
When I initially began creating adventure material I assumed that the GMs utilizing the work would prefer substance without window dressing, the latter being properly the realm of the GM so as to suit the campaign world and player group.
I discovered I was by and large erroneous in my assumption, so in later modules I added considerably more material for the GM to read aloud to his player group.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 12, 2007
It is generally impossible to manage a large company and devote any considerable amount of time to creative work.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
Frank followed my initial material, understands that I write with mainly critical detaius only so as to encourage the DM to make the work his own.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 12, 2006
The very able GM also understands how to design an RPG and create an adventure module. Then ego takes over, he designs his own system and plays it with a handful of associates for some time, then grows discouraged becase his masterpiece is viewed as yet just another ordinary RPG by gamers at large. He quits being a GM, his players leave the hobby, and that’s that.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
A poor adventure is one that doesn’t challenge the party of PCs, rather bores them or just is not enjoyable for the group. Totally silly material is also bad news.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2006
Jokes and witticisms
Q: Where do you get your ideas from?
Gary: Jack Chick.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Q: If you would have designed d20 what would you have done differently?
Gary: Nothing, except what comes after the name and before the part that concludes the work.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Q: As opposed to Gary’s personal house rules? lol
Gary: Just FYI, the best of those are called D&D and AD&D…
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 7, 2005
Why dos a hand grenade thrown into a kitchen call to mind a French Emperor?
Because there it is, linoleum blown apart.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 9, 2005
Gygax’s Paradox: Given infinite time and space, everything that can happen has, is happening, or will happen. Thus there will be a universe of nothing but solid matter, and one in which there is nothing whatsoever. As a universe of nothing is nothing, it can not exist. So everything that can happen can not happen.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Damn! I tried trolling this board a while back to see if I could get any anti-female-bearded-dwarf folks all het up. Lackaday! Seems that those folks have finally coped wise to the fact I was jesting.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Dan: Hey Gary, It’s little Dan from Wiscosin GenCon (83 I think). I got one question, why did ya let Cook screw up the game soo badly? Was is the cocaine, or did ya just not give a rat’s ass?
Gary: Well, I can understand your calling yourself “little,” because from the above it is evident that you are a small person in many ways. I won’t dignify your question beyond stating the obvious: When Zeb Cook rewrote AD&D, I was no longer associated with TSR is any way. That is general knowledge available to anyone who has the sense to compare dates.
Dan: It’s all about respect and if you’ve got the boys to earn it
Gary: Whatever that means, rest assured you have no rerspect from me.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
Opinions
Of course I wish no ill whatsoever to Dave! As an aside, I don’t waste time recriminating, let alone considering the immutable past.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
How about this? “The D&D Movie fell out of the rear end of a horse.” :-o
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
The D&D Movie was such a dog-log that there is no chance that the game will be used as the basis for another major theatrical motion picture in the foreseeable future. That means there is little chance for a TV movie introducing a series. No name draw after the film fiasco, and no game based series has made money, so no D&D production.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003
As I have often said, I am a biological determinist, and there is no question that male and female brains are different. It is apparent to me that by and large females do not derrive the same inner satisfaction from playing games as a hobby that males do. It isn’t that females can’t play games well, it is just that it isn’t a compelling activity to them as is the case for males.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
He was hoist by his own petard…as will be those espousing the mantra of man-made global warming, right soon too I do believe. Carbon dioxide most assuredly does not cause global warming, although global warming does produce more CO2.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
JRRT’s “rings Trilogy” was too slow paced for me, although I did enjoy The Hobbit.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, 2005
Miscellaneous
I seldom have the opportnity to read, let alone play, other authors’ material. (That’s why I am eager to “retire” so I can spend 40 or more hours a week playing games rather that writing them.)
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
My hand spread with fingers apart measures nine inches from thumb to little finger, a perfect one-half cubit…and also handy on the military miniatures gaming table X-D
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
I remember my mother dressing me in a sailor’s uniform with a woking wooden bosun’s whistle–and as my father was a friend of Mr. Ed Robinson, head keeper of the Primate House at the Lincoln Park Zoo, wearing it when I got to play with a baby chimp, where to my father’s horror, be biing very germ conscious, the little ape and I taking turns blowing the whistle. The poor creaure contracted TB and died thereafter, probably from contact with me, although i have never tested positive for that disease.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
Wehn I was about 12 I got the idea that football linemen chewed tobacco, so when I was playing left tackle I took a chaw and got hit really hard. Of course I swallowed the damn stuff and was sick for three days.
— ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 8, 2005
When I was in mm early 20s my pal John Kohn and I bought a case (!00 half-pound sticks) of 60% amonium nitrate dynamite, 50 blasting caps, and 100’ of fuse. It was a lot of fun blowing all sorts of things up:)
Can’t get dynamite at hardware stores in farm communities so easily anymore.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part III, 2005
Have you ever seen the middle-aged fat guy that dresses in a Sailor Moon costume at gaming cons? What a sight!
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part IV, 2005
According to family oral tradition, all of the Gygaxes are descended from four brothers of the family Gygax that came by way of the Middle East to Macedonia, then those four went on to the Alps sometime around 50 BC.
— Dragonsfoot, Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part V, 2006
Sources
Note: Several of these quotes date back to a series of thirteen Q&A threads on the ENWorld forum between 2002 and 2008. In 2015, these were compiled into single massive thread, titled Q&A with Gary Gygax. Regrettably, many links to the original threads are now broken.
In 2011, Blog of Holding collected all of Gary’s Q&A replies into one page. Unfortunately, this was since taken down and made into a book, Cheers, Gary, which at time of writing appears to be out of print.
Gygax also answered many questions at the Dragonsfoot forums, collected there in the Zagyg’s Wisdom board.