rusty_shackleford
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2018
- Messages
- 50,754
Nearly all of these are taken from the Dragon's Foot/ENWorld Q&A threads, otherwise the source will be listed.
Dragon's Foot Q&A
https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=12147&p=204737#p204737
https://www.enworld.org/threads/q-a-with-gary-gygax.22566/page-116#post-1995336
Dragon #272, Hooray for the Dungeon Crawl!
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
Gygax BTFOs savescummers
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
storyfags btfo
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2003
..combatfags btfo
http://www.witchboy.net/articles/the-dungeon-master-an-interview-with-gary-gygax/
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 8, 2005
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
2E mainly existed to remove Gygax's royalties
3E & co was a mistake, it is nothing but trash.
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
weebs will be spared no quarter
https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=252328#p252328
humanocentrism
Dragon #29
wimminz
guns
PC / politics
his opinion on you disagreeing with him
lastchristmas on suicide watch
and of course, the most important of all
you can find a compiled list of all his Q&A answers here if you feel like reading through thousands upon thousands of posts
https://web.archive.org/web/20110519180015/http://blogofholding.com/?page_id=2744
alternative if that one ever gets deleted: https://archive.is/brD0G
Dragon's Foot Q&A
https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=12147&p=204737#p204737
Egalitarianism is a dispicable philospphy that discourages individual achievement, disparages personal merit, and concludes that all should not only start but finish equally. It denies that every human is different.
In short, I loathe the concept for its falshood and foolishness.
Gary
https://www.enworld.org/threads/q-a-with-gary-gygax.22566/page-116#post-1995336
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?
Dragon #272, Hooray for the Dungeon Crawl!
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.
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
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.
Gygax BTFOs savescummers
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 2004
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
storyfags btfo
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 5, 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.
..combatfags btfo
http://www.witchboy.net/articles/the-dungeon-master-an-interview-with-gary-gygax/
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.
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 8, 2005
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.
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 13, 2007
As I created them, there are absolutely no good Drow save for the insane.
2E mainly existed to remove Gygax's royalties
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…
3E & co was a mistake, it is nothing but trash.
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 1, 2002
ENWorld, Q&A with Gary Gygax part 4, 2003There 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 5, 2003IMO 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.
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.
weebs will be spared no quarter
https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=252328#p252328
Have you ever seen the middle-aged fat guy that dresses in a Sailor Moon costume at gaming cons? What a sight!
humanocentrism
Dragon #29
All of this will certainly lead to the question, why is it that the human race is so favored in AD&D? There is no question that human characters have an edge on all others in the long run—even considering the generally unlimited potential for non-human thieves. The bias was placed in the game on the assumption that the vast majority of campaign milieux would be based on human-dominated worlds. Therefore, humans must have some sort of edge. As human adaptability is undoubted, and human capabilities deemed vast by this writer, it seemed to follow that allowing them the full range of possibilities was the best answer. Thus, humans are found in all alignments, in all professions, and so on. The weakest are very weak, the strongest very strong. The human race plumbs the depths and soars to the heights. In AD&D, as in the real world, humankind will certainly attain greatness and domination if it doesn't destroy itself first through warfare and strife within its own race
Campaign worlds are humanocentric because all GMs are human, of course, and actually developing a milieu in which some other race was predominant is a poser, a creative task I would not care to undertake, as it would necessarily take decades, if it could be properly depicted at all, IMO.
Of course all well-considered fantasy world settings are homocentric. The authors are human, and all of the actual historical information available deals only with human culture, society, and history, save for mytholoigy and folklore. Even those latter sources are homocentric in perspective.
I for one do not care to spend years of time and effort imagining and creating an exotic universe for a non-human race or races, complete with all that pertains to such a group. Just think of all the informatin we know and have recorded regarding humanity, and the effort needed to create a tenth of that lore for an imaginary race.
In short, that's why all the non-human races in imaginative writings such as books and games are not really very different from humans, just variants of them with some qualities exaggerated to give apparent differentiation--Klingons are fiercely warlike, Vulcans are coldly mental, Ferengi are completely crass and venal, etc. So dwarves are stout and love ale, elves are slender and nature-oriented, orcs are ugly and brutal...but have essentially human culture and societies.
wimminz
Someone of the female gender once asked why I wrote from the male perspective. Well duh!
Let me say that I am highly doubtful regarding the accuracy of that claim. If as many as 10% of the RPG (excluding LARPers) audience is female, I will be surprised. I have seen other surveys with meaningful samplings that indicate the percentage of females is somewhere between 6% and 9%. That is players, not necessarily consumers.
I have never personally succeeded in converting a female to the hobby, including all three of my daughters. They played and enjoyed it for some weeks or months, but lost interest thereafter.
guns
I own a 12 gauge pump and a double-barreled shotgun. a 30-30 carbine, a 7.63 mm Argentine Mauser, a 9mm Uzi, and a .22 semi-automatic. I also have several handguns, including a .45 semi-automatic, a .357 revolver, and a 9mm colt semi-automatic.
Of course I keep loaded handguns--empty ones are less useful that a rock.
PC / politics
Somehow Political correctness seems to be working its way into gaming, and that's a dispicable thing, as Political Correctness is thought control. As author Richard Payne Knight notes, "Poverty of expression will product poverty of conception." Offense at what is said is too easily taken these days, hindering free speech and free thinking.
... but I will say that I am a Life Member of the Libertarian Party, not a liberal as defined by today's standards, and very much concerned about Islamofascism, a threat I think worse than that of the Nazis and Imperial Japan in the 1930s and 40s. this latter view places me at extreme with the Libertarian position, which I view as extremely flawed.
his opinion on you disagreeing with him
Am I breaking your widdle heart because I am saying what I think rather than what YOU think i should say. Get a life.
lastchristmas on suicide watch
Paladins have no requirement of celibacy
and of course, the most important of all
Bah! It is a mistake to bow to the wished of munchkins who whine.
Damn, all this typing makes me want to have a cigar and coffee now.
you can find a compiled list of all his Q&A answers here if you feel like reading through thousands upon thousands of posts
https://web.archive.org/web/20110519180015/http://blogofholding.com/?page_id=2744
alternative if that one ever gets deleted: https://archive.is/brD0G