Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part II

Valerian · Post by **Valerian** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:17 pm

A belated merry Christmas , from me and my wife to you and Gail. Just got back from Southern maine near Portland.

One question gary, this year at LGGC are going to run any Castle Zagyg ? either LA or C&C style. thanks
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Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:00 pm

Valerian wrote:
A belated merry Christmas , from me and my wife to you and Gail. Just got back from Southern maine near Portland.

One question gary, this year at LGGC are going to run any Castle Zagyg ? either LA or C&C style. thanks

What I run depends on what I manage to get developed on the intervening months.

Sure don't feel much like doing that sort of desugn work now...

Happy New Year,

Gary

gideon_thorne · Post by **gideon_thorne** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:39 pm

Col_Pladoh wrote:
What I run depends on what I manage to get developed on the intervening months.

Sure don't feel much like doing that sort of design work now...

Happy New Year,

Gary

*smiles* Well, if it helps, the cursed fog of the castle is a most amusing punitive device for rambunctious players.
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GreyLord · Post by **GreyLord** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:50 pm

On another topic entirely, that of wargames (I myself normally like lite wargames such as the VI Caesars/Conquest of the Empire type), I recently noted that you designed stuff OTHER than RPGs, that in some ways were quite noted.

One in particular that interested me was Alexander the Great, as I like the ancient Civ type conquest games. However, I can't find tons of information about it.

Which types of wargames inspired your wargame rules and wargame creations. Are there any of these that are you're favorites, and which one's would you suggest for people to try to get?

Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:32 pm

GreyLord wrote:
On another topic entirely, that of wargames (I myself normally like lite wargames such as the VI Caesars/Conquest of the Empire type), I recently noted that you designed stuff OTHER than RPGs, that in some ways were quite noted.

One in particular that interested me was Alexander the Great, as I like the ancient Civ type conquest games. However, I can't find tons of information about it.

Which types of wargames inspired your wargame rules and wargame creations. Are there any of these that are you're favorites, and which one's would you suggest for people to try to get?

Heh...

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. Besides the Alexander' game I did the PBM rules for TAHC Stock Market game. Alexander and Dunkirk, France 1940, were originally published by Guidon Games--who did the exmapsion "ALexander's Other Battles.". Avalon Hill approached me to write the game that eventualy became Squad Leader, but I was too busy with other work to accept.

I was a play-tester for Jim Dunnigan's Anzio game, a design that I loved but TAHC turned down in favor of what I found an inferior game.

TSR published my Little Big Horn board wargame...and yes, Custer had a chance of winning as wasthe historical case.

Amongst my favorite TAHC games are:

AFRIKA KORPS

BISMARCK

CHANCELLORSVILLE

D-DAY

GETTYSBURGH (hex)

RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN

STALINGRAD

WATERLOO

About my favorite all-trme game is Operation Overlord.

Happy New Year,

Gary

GreyLord · Post by **GreyLord** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:44 am

Wow, I didn't know you made Little Big Horn!

I've been wanting to try Gettysburg for a while, but still haven't found anyone with a copy in my area, though I'm hoping at one of the conventions if I can make it sometime.

They approached you for Squad Leader?

Wow. That's a pretty historic game there (for wargamers at least), and ASL is still rated among the top 10 wargames from what I've seen.

Looks like WW2 and Civil War periods are your favored ones?

Harry Joy · Post by **Harry Joy** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:55 am

Interesting, Gary. I didn't know you were so involved with Avalon Hill. Would have been funny if you HAD done Squad Leader. I was playing Avalon Hill wargames long, long, long before I was introduced to D&D, and SL was my favorite. I'd have been playing one of yours before I'd even heard of D&D.

I don't recall that my friends and I played anything other than the WWII games, with the exception of Napoleon, Richthofen, and maybe Gettysburg.

I know that the definition of "grognard" has always suggested a wargaming background, and I have one, but I always assumed you and your circle played the classic pewter minis wargames, not AH.

Oh, and thanks for the post regarding LW at ENW today. Nice hearing that directly from you, and not others.

Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 10:44 pm

GreyLord wrote:
Wow, I didn't know you made Little Big Horn!

I've been wanting to try Gettysburg for a while, but still haven't found anyone with a copy in my area, though I'm hoping at one of the conventions if I can make it sometime.

They approached you for Squad Leader?

Wow. That's a pretty historic game there (for wargamers at least), and ASL is still rated among the top 10 wargames from what I've seen.

Looks like WW2 and Civil War periods are your favored ones?

Tom Shaw and i were friends, and Don Greenwood, Tom's assistant at TAHC was the publisher of the Panzerfaust wargaming fanzine for which I wrote amny articles back in the day.

Tom approached me bacasue I was co-author of the Tractics rules for WW II through c. 1960 military miniatures on a 1:1 scale, Leon Tucker and Mike Reese being the two other designers.

I very much enjoy Ancient, Medieval, ECW, Napoleonic, and Victorian skirmish military miniature tabletop wargames...and any good board wargame. It is just that most of the best board wargames happen to be based on the ACW and WWII.

Cheers,

Gary

Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 10:49 pm

Harry Joy wrote:
Interesting, Gary. I didn't know you were so involved with Avalon Hill. Would have been funny if you HAD done Squad Leader. I was playing Avalon Hill wargames long, long, long before I was introduced to D&D, and SL was my favorite. I'd have been playing one of yours before I'd even heard of D&D.

I don't recall that my friends and I played anything other than the WWII games, with the exception of Napoleon, Richthofen, and maybe Gettysburg.

I know that the definition of "grognard" has always suggested a wargaming background, and I have one, but I always assumed you and your circle played the classic pewter minis wargames, not AH.

Oh, and thanks for the post regarding LW at ENW today. Nice hearing that directly from you, and not others.

Heh...

I was a real fanboy of TAHC. Tom Shaw told me I was the first one to ask for and pbtain blank hex mapboards--we were designing our own games, and they were really awful at first.

My first decent board wargame was The Battle of Arsouf which I think was published in Panzerfaust.

I offered Tom Shaw both the Dungeon! boardgame and the D&D game for TAHC, but he and Don laughed--then thay came back in 1975 and said they were interested, but of course TSR was not then interested in letting those games go.

Cheerio,

Gary

Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 11:13 pm

As for the LW thread, too bad they closed it.

Lorraine said in front of several witnesses, myself included, that "Gamers are beneath me socially."

As for her claim that I worked on the DJ RPG system while employed at TSR, that is a falsehood and completely unproven. In addition, I was never under exclusive creative contract by TSR, nit would I ever have agreed to signing such an agreement.

Cheerio,

Gary

GreyLord · Post by **GreyLord** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:21 am

Col_Pladoh wrote:
Tom Shaw and i were friends, and Don Greenwood, Tom's assistant at TAHC was the publisher of the Panzerfaust wargaming fanzine for which I wrote amny articles back in the day.

Tom approached me bacasue I was co-author of the Tractics rules for WW II through c. 1960 military miniatures on a 1:1 scale, Leon Tucker and Mike Reese being the two other designers.

I very much enjoy Ancient, Medieval, ECW, Napoleonic, and Victorian skirmish military miniature tabletop wargames...and any good board wargame. It is just that most of the best board wargames happen to be based on the ACW and WWII.

Cheers,

Gary

That sounds really cool. That just had to be the neatest thing to tell the truth, I can't really say just how cool I really think that is.

I do bet they could have kicked themselves later on after seeing the success of D&D however.

I like WW2 era games, and ancient civ types myself, but am just starting to skirt into the edges of the Civil War era and those games, as well as some Napoleonic games.

You said above that you liked Waterloo, that did perk my interest. Which Waterloo was it, I imagine it probably was one of the older ones (and not the newer one which supposedly uses the same system House Divided, which based on that I just ordered A House divided as well) but there were several from back then. I think I might make a reasonable guess, but before leaping all out and paying money for one I'm wondering which one it was that you liked for it to be on your favorites.

Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:53 pm

Howdy,

I surely thought it was great to be able to help Tom shaw man the display booth for TAHC at the annual Hobby Industry Association of America held in Chicago every January during the 1960s, to have him take my telephone calls as well. Later, when I was active in Postal Diplomacy, I created the "High Profit of Ahism, Toum Shah," for my "world news" postings from Istambul when I was playing Turkey. Of course I was way off base as is typical of many a young fan, and Tom posted a reply to my rantings that set me and the other readers straight. Better still, he did not hold that against me.

Tom and I had many a laugh together about he and Don Greenwood thinking that the D&D game concept was a loser.

The Waterloo game I still enjoy playing is the old boardgame of that name done by TAHC.

Cheerio.

Gary

GreyLord · Post by **GreyLord** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:30 am

That's what I was thinking. With a little luck and funds I'll be hoping to try it out that version (AH version) either next weekend or the one after!

Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 4:57 pm

GreyLord wrote:
That's what I was thinking. With a little luck and funds I'll be hoping to try it out that version (AH version) either next weekend or the one after!

Likely you will need several games under your belt to know how to manage things for success. The P-A-A must fight a delaying battle (mainly with low-value cavalry) while inflicting some losses on the French until the Prussians finally arrive in force. The French need fo press the A-A forces while delaying the Prussians as long as possible.

Now that makes me want to play a game of Waterloo!

Cheers,

Gary

GreyLord · Post by **GreyLord** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:13 pm

I'm anxiously awaiting getting the game, if I can get it in time, hopefully over this next weekend I'll play it.

Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:54 pm

GreyLord wrote:
I'm anxiously awaiting getting the game, if I can get it in time, hopefully over this next weekend I'll play it.

A carefully fought game of Waterloo will lasy around six or more hours if both opponents are able.

Cheerio,

Gary

Julian Grimm · Post by **Julian Grimm** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:08 am

I had Waterloo in High School. I spent many an hour loosing that game!!
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Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:20 pm

Julian Grimm wrote:
I had Waterloo in High School. I spent many an hour loosing that game!!

As well as I can recall, I had about equal success managing around as many wins and losses no matter which side I was playing. I learned to defend against the French by playing a couple of dozen games against my main boardgame opponent whi favored them in the game, also the Russians in Stalingrad and Germans in D-Day.

I was once very able playing either side in D-Day., with an excellent defensive set up.

Cheerio,

Gary

Julian Grimm · Post by **Julian Grimm** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 6:26 pm

Ahh you make me wish I was back when I had people to play wargames with.
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Aladar · Post by **Aladar** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:00 pm

Gary,

I am an old Avalon Hill wargamer as well from way back. I loved playing Waterloo also.

Have you ever played the old "Wellington's Victory" from SPI? Monster of a game. A fellow wargaming buddy and I used to play it a lot as well. "La Grande Armee" from SPI was also another good game.

A gaming group I used to belong to also played a lot of Napoleonic minitures as well.

I miss those days.
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Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:24 pm

Alwyn wrote:
Gary,

I am an old Avalon Hill wargamer as well from way back. I loved playing Waterloo also.

Have you ever played the old "Wellington's Victory" from SPI? Monster of a game. A fellow wargaming buddy and I used to play it a lot as well. "La Grande Armee" from SPI was also another good game.

A gaming group I used to belong to also played a lot of Napoleonic minitures as well.

I miss those days.

Which side do you prefer playing in Waterloo?

Although I knew Jim Dunigan back then, liked him, the SPI game rules were too complicated for me to enjoy playing their games. (Other than catching him on the tube a few times, the last time I saw Jim in person was when Gail and I ran into him on the street in NYC back in the mid-80s.

Now some of my old IFW fellows were into Drang Nacht Osten, so SPI games were a bit too simplistic for them...

For detailed battles I played military miniatures.

Cheers,

Gary

Aladar · Post by **Aladar** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:32 pm

I like to play the French!

I agree with you that miniatures are best for detailed battles, plus they look cool on the terrain tables.
I still play Napoleonic miniatures every once in a while using the old "System 7" rules (a la 1977).

One thing our group did that was very cool was back in 1981 we built/painted a copy of the AH Waterloo map board on to a large piece of metal sheeting, then made counters/pieces with cardboard and magnetic stripping and then mounted the whole thing up on a wall in our unit day room. We even had oversized dice.

It was a lot of work, but it looked cool. We ran games during the weekends that we were not playing AD&D, and several other soldiers who had come by to watch got interested in playing. It turned out to be a good recruitment tool to get new wargamers.
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Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 4:02 pm

Aboyt the best I did along those lines is to make a Stalingrad board with one-inch hexes, so that allunits in a hex could be placed side by side. It was huge and covered the large dining room table I had at the time. It was a big feature of GenCon 0.

I saw a fellow former IFW member, sadly now deceased, what fif a metal-backed wall map for Drang Nocht Osten to be wall-mounted and played with magnetic counters. Their games lasted for months and months he told me.

When I got Battle Cry I imnmediately converted combat to d10 and had militia/green. regular/vetern, and elite unit designations for fire and morale.

Cheers,

Gary

slimykuotoan · Post by **slimykuotoan** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:44 am

Mr. Gygax:

Do you plan to attend June's Troll Con or Indy Con in August?

I ask this because a group of my friends are planning a trip to a con, and wanted to know if you'd be available to sign our D&D Dm's guides, or for a pic, etc

Thanks

Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:40 pm

slimykuotoan wrote:
Mr. Gygax:

Do you plan to attend June's Troll Con or Indy Con in August?

I ask this because a group of my friends are planning a trip to a con, and wanted to know if you'd be available to sign our D&D Dm's guides, or for a pic, etc

Thanks

The Good Lord willing, I will most assuredly be at the Lake Geneva Gaming Convention here in Lake Geneva this June.

As of this time I have no plans to attend GenCon.

Regardless of the location, I am always pleased to autograph for my fellow gamers.

Cheerio,

Gary

Julian Grimm · Post by **Julian Grimm** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:35 pm

Do you think the Chargers have a chance of stopping the Patriots?
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Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:56 pm

Julian Grimm wrote:
Do you think the Chargers have a chance of stopping the Patriots?

Frankly, no. The Pats are a tremendous team...this year
I am, naturally rooting for the Packers to win the NFC championship so as to go on and play and beat the Patriots in the Superbowl, but I do not plan to bet money against the New Englanders.

Cheers,

Gary

LordSeurek · Post by **LordSeurek** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:09 pm

Col_Pladoh wrote:
Frankly, no. The Pats are a tremendous team...this year
I am, naturally rooting for the Packers to win the NFC championship so as to go on and play and beat the Patriots in the Superbowl, but I do not plan to bet money against the New Englanders.

Cheers,

Gary

Fantastic choice Gary, another fellow GB fan
Rob.
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Col_Pladoh · Post by **Col_Pladoh** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 10:59 pm

LordSeurek wrote:
Fantastic choice Gary, another fellow GB fan
Rob.

As I was born and raised until age eight on the north side of Chicago, lived about four blocks from Wrigley Field where the Bears then played, moved back to Chicago when I was a8 and stayed there intil I was around 26 and came back to Lake Geneva, I am first and foremost a Bears fan.

However, when Bart Starr was the Packers' QB, the team was so great that I could not help watching and rooting for them when thewy were not playing against the Bears. The same holds true now with Favre as the QB.

I must add that I have been in LAmbeau field in full Bears' gear, and when they got their butts handed to them by the Pack the fans were really very nice even as they razzed me as they had every right to do.

Go Pack Go!

Gary

Julian Grimm · Post by **Julian Grimm** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:14 pm

I have always watched the Bears and Packers since I feel that they still play football. And after this years major disappointments by Missouri's so-called teams I think I'll just stick to the above and forgo state loyalties in this case.
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