Troll Lord Games

ScottyG wrote:
Gary, is the short story At Moonset Blackcat Comes going to be part of the TLG Gord releases?

Troll Lord wrote:
Presently "At Moonset Blackcat Comes," will be edited into Night Arrant with no problem.

Thanks,

Steve

slimykuotoan wrote:
Mr. Gygax:

I heard a rumor: when you were designing spells for D&D, you at one point interviewed local wiccans, self-proclaimed magicians, etc. to get a feel for how spell casting could be described/worked in the game.

Is this true?

It sounds like one of those religious-attacky rumors, but it's something I'd probably do myself when developing a game system.

Kinda like how a novel writer interviews many diverse peoples to get a feel for the subject matter...

Col_Pladoh wrote:
No, there isn't an ounce of truth in that rumor. I made them all up out of my imagination, often with some tongue-in-cheek component too
Christmas Blessings,

Gary

gideon_thorne wrote:
Must be from the Jack Chick voice of truth about D&D.

Col_Pladoh wrote:
If I completely retired and allowed the 30 or 40 projects I have going in some stage of development go into the dumper I do believe angry gamers would march on my house as do angry villagers when Frankenstein's monster is ravaging their locale
Cheers,

Gary

gideon_thorne wrote:
Must be from the Jack Chick voice of truth about D&D.

cuchulainkevin wrote:
Well in Jack's defense, he's clearly insane.

Troll Lord wrote:
Presently "At Moonset Blackcat Comes," will be edited into Night Arrant with no problem.

Thanks,

Steve

Joe Mac wrote:
Good morning Colonel,

As long as we're mentioning fanatics....a philosophical query for you, concerning paladins:

I like the paladin as a sub-class of cavalier, and also prefer the original dictum on the 'cavalier-paladin' in your Dragon article introducing the cavalier: that paladins no longer gain clerical spellcasting at higher levels. This appeals because I prefer that the cleric class be the "holy warriors" of their deity.

With that in mind, as well as an aspect of alignment you noted in the DMG -- that characters, directly or indirectly, serve the ends of deities of their alignment, whether they profess to worship these deities or not -- I got to thinking more about the cavalier-paladin recently, and arrived at a theoretical question: could a (non-spellcasting) paladin wield the abilities of his class through pure devotion to the ideals of Lawful Good, as expressed through a chivalrous order of knighthood, without individual devotion to a particular deity?

I'm envisioning that an order of paladins could be allied, loosely or more closely, with one or more Lawful Good religions, while the paladin as an individual might follow the strict tenets of his order rather than a LG religion itself. The disciplined code he lives by, and the ideals that underlie that code, are what he might understand to be the source of his power, rather than daily prayer and calls to a particular deity (which to me feels like the province of the cleric class). He would certainly be watched over by the LG deities of the milieu, and indeed draw power from them -- but his service to them could be indirect, while directly serving his order.

This is hardly an original idea; I know that many players and DMs have given little thought to the 'source' of a paladin's power since the class was conceived, and some have posited exactly what I'm describing... I'm wondering what the author of the class thinks of this interpretation.
Thanks,

Joe

ScottyG wrote:
That's good news.

Gord and Chert went on to Oerth-shattering, multi-novel spanning epic adventure, but this is short story pulp at its finest.

Scott

Julian Grimm wrote:
A large LA game to break out?

gideon_thorne wrote:
Merry Christmas from the Bradley clan, Gary.

Col_Pladoh wrote:
Thanks Peter, and may you and your family have a Jolly Yuletide as well
Happy New Year,

Gary

Col_Pladoh wrote:
Yuletide Greetings Joe,

My short answer to your question is no. Lacking a firm belief in a deity of LG, the Paladin could not gain the capacity to use clerical spells. The Palasin is what he is because of a spiritual and moral committment to a deity of the LG alignment. He has the faith of a grain of mustard seed if you willm albeit his first concern is temporal faithfulness, not spiritual.

Christmas best wishes,

Gary

Col_Pladoh wrote:
This is the first Christmas in many a year that Gail and I are alone. Son Alex is off in Hawaii with his nephew ant his sister. They went cliff diving yesterday...and here his father and mother are acrophobes l:

So tomorrow Gail is making a rib-roast of beef with Yorkshire pudding for the two is us. A nice bottle of claret and what more cold one ask?
Gary