R.I.P. Gary Gygax

[TordelBack]

Good old XKCD says it best!http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ultimate_game.png">

[Slippery PD]

Keep on the Borderlands is purple and has terrible kobolds on it.  The basic set was red and had the dragon on the cover.

yer Slipshttp://paizo.com/image/product/catalog/TSR/TSR9034_500.jpeg">

[Dog Deever]

Funt, Tordelback - spooky or what, but that's exactly how I got into it too!

Quick- form a yahoo group!!!

After ET I saw a book entitled 'What is Dungeons and Dragons' and bought it.

Later, I had the red basic book- levels one to three

[TordelBack]

Nah, the box I got was definitely a pinky purple, and had the basic rules and the Keep module, some dice and a crayon.  I confess it took me some months to work out what the crayon was for.   IIRC there was a red box edition with much nicer dragon art one or two years later.

[Slippery PD]

Nah, the box I got was definitely a pinky purple, and had the basic rules and the Keep module, some dice and a crayon. I confess it took me some months to work out what the crayon was for. IIRC there was a red box edition with much nicer dragon art one or two years later.

You are probably correct it was a little later I got into the game, something like 83 or 84 and the group I joined were using the AD&D rules.  Which were a bit of a quantum leap forward from the red box.  

Its moved on a fair bit with the 3rd edition rules (now 3.5), which is actually overcomplicated IMHO.  Though rather poignantly 4th edition is due to be released this year and has some simplification of the rules and a move taking it closer to WoW, than old D&D.  

Ah E. GAry Gygax has spawned a whole generation of dreamers, writers and actors (maybe this is our generations version of amateur dramatics) :D

Yer Slips

[Robin Low]

"Its moved on a fair bit with the 3rd edition rules (now 3.5), which is actually overcomplicated IMHO. Though rather poignantly 4th edition is due to be released this year and has some simplification of the rules and a move taking it closer to WoW, than old D&D."

Ah, a perfect opportunity for a rant!

(Which can be summarised as, yes, 3/3.5 could do with being stripped down mercilessly. However, 4th edition sounds like it's turning into a computer game, something computer games do quite well already, so it's a rather pointless exercise, really. Stick with the Warhmmer RPG, that's my advice.)

Sad about Gygax, but for me it'll be Ian Livingstone's death that'll cut me up. His Forest of Doom gamebook was what turned me into a roleplayer, and quite bizarrely that's had real influence on the course of my life.

Regards

Robin

[Slippery PD]

Not really the place to reply but Ill keep it brief.

As I said it looks like a move towards WoW, which may not be a good idea.  A simplification of the 3rd Ed rule set was pretty much a given, this may be a step to far.  Currently, Im willing to buy the PHB and see how it looks, then take it from there.  

Given that my current campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms and huge changes are due to that world.  Ill be looking at each change and each rule individually, seeing if it fits with the tone of my campaigns and what Im trying to achieve.  If it doesnt I wont use it.  

Currently my players are only 3/4th level and my PBF campaign has been running a year or so on and off.  I doubt Ill be converting to the 4th Ed rules anytime in the next 18 months or so, maybe even longer depending on the length of my campaign.  Having said all that I do play CoC, Blue Planet and Traveller, all of which havent had any modernisation of their rulesets.  All of which play perfectly well as they are in PBF games.      

Im not sure Gygax's death has hit me as such, but it certainly brings home that there were more RPGers about than I ever imagined.  Given the eulogies he's recieved.  

Yer Slips  

[TordelBack]

i>Im not sure Gygax's death has hit me as such

Ditto, mainly because in the unconnected world of the 80's, he was just a (funky) name on the cover, I had no mental image of the man until about 5 years ago.  As Robin says, Jackson and Livingstone were a far more concrete presence.

It's the influence of his work on my life has been enormous - as a single example, I think I have roleplayed more than once with easily 3/4 of my closest friends - one memorable Call of Cthulu group 20 years ago included my future fiancée, two guys who would prove to be my staunchest friends (even thought they hate each other!), my future business partner and my then girlfriend (poor thing).  It's also about the only activity that my brother and I enjoyed together.  And yet I don't think I have played in an RPG for about 15 years.

[paulvonscott]

I never played a lot of D&D, it's not my favourite RPG but that's not really the point.  This guy created roleplaying games, he invented the bandwagon that Steve Jackson, Ian Livingston et all jumped onto (with great results I might add).

It always makes me laugh that computer games are considered cool and roleplaying games (the ones with paper and dice) are not.  Mr Gygax wasn't so keen on computer games, he felt they took away the most vital part, the power of your own imagination.  While I'm sure that's not true of all computer games I think he had a point.

I also know a hell of a lot of people through roleplaying games, they're very social affairs and you get to know people well.  Great fun and some great people in them.

For me, Call of Cthulhu (anyone want to run Beyond the Mountains of Madness?) and 80's WFRP are my favourites, though for the last couple of years I've been playing Savage Worlds, a generic system that is simple and fun.

I think like comics, it's become a bit too specialised for people to get into.  Kids have no chance with modern D&D in my opinion and I think Mr Gygax knew that tnese games were becoming unecceserily complex.

So I don't think this thread should become a critique of D&D, but a celebration of Mr Gygax and the amazing hobby he created.  Hurrah!

[Tiplodocus]

Yeah - I felt sad to hear of his passing.  Even though I haven't played for years, his invention and imagination gave me as many pleasurable evenings as any music or film.

I picked up some old copies of WHITE DWARF when I was up at HI-EX and it was a brilliant nostalgia fest for me.

We tried all sorts of variations of role playing games (Traveller, Runequest, some samurai thing I can't recall the name of) but we just kept coming back to Advanced D&D.

Rest in peace indeed.

[TordelBack]

Hmmm, RPGs wot I have played:  

D&D (probably the one I played most, well a hybrid of it and...), AD&D (1st Ed and Oriental only), Tunnels and Trolls (not so good, that one), Runequest (1st Ed only), Call of Cthulu,  Warhammer FRP, Imperium Romani (or something like that), Living Steel/Phoenix Command, Traveller (Black Book and 2300), Judge Dredd (GW version), Star Trek (FASA version),  Paranoia (1st Ed), Star Wars (1st Ed WEG d6 version) and Space 1889 (the last one I played in RL, and just brilliant).  

I must have sat in on others at various cons, and of course everyone had their own homebrews, including my own Azer's Eye conceived and aborted in the late 80's (an overly complicated system influenced by Earthsea, where the world was built on the eye of a god and magic was the inhabitant's interaction with the tangible dream-stuff of their sleeping host.... sigh).

But my favourite RPG?  Warrior Knights, the one that came as a series of novel-sized paperbacks in the mid-80s - a cheap, simple, fast and logical system of the style that many modern RPGs seem to be trying to get back to.  Of course it helped that the GM was the best I ever played with, and the group was great fun.  

Right now I'm involved with the new edition of the D20 Star Wars  RPG, which is refreshingly simple and fun-orientated, but so far I've only tinkered with it online and in my head - I just can't find the time to go back to roleplaying in real life.  Christ, I can't find the time to go for a beer.

[Slippery PD]

Now heres a way to celebrate Gary.  Post all the games you play or have played....

D&D - Started with AD&D in Greyhawk, went back to basic and then continued in with 2nd edition.  In 3rd Ed I currently run a PBF (Play by Forum) game in FR - always looking for ideas and players - more the merrier (well anything over 8 is too much) :D

Call of Cthulu (I Play infrequently on a PBF game), Traveller (I still play in a PBF game which is great), Rune Quest, Paranoia, Judge Dredd (both versions - should we forget), Star Wars (that was a PBEM game using D6 rules), Rolemaster, Spacemaster and MERP.  Since playing PBF, Ive been introduced to Blue Planet and a couple of other game systems whose name escape me.  I also collected the Harn rules and a number of other bits and pieces.  

Tordel do you mean Dragon Warriors (we play this  in another PBF game as a one off take us back to the old days game) instead of Warrior Knights?  Which was release as a series of softback novel size books ( i think I have a copy of the rules (PDF) if you want a look)

Right now I play in a number of games on a PBF  method its the only way I can play or DM and have some time to do all the other things one must do with life.        

Yer "Waffling"  Slips

[Floyd-the-k]

okay slips...

played a long correspondence style game in which I was completely outmanouvred by more experienced players despite my plan to invent napalm and drop it via pigeon

played one game in a night in LA in which H R Pufinstuf was one of the monsters

don't remember which book I used - a monstrously expensive 'advanced DnD' book with a dark cover is all I remember.  I didn't graducate to spell casting or satanism.

yours suddenly remembering 'ant music'

Floyd

[I, Cosh]

Was Paranoia the sci-fi one where everyone was a double agent and nobody knew what was going on? That always sounded quite fun.

I'm sure I've got those Dragon Warriors books back at my mum's and I've definitely got the Dredd game and MERP somewhere.

[satchmo]

Paranoia is a classic, it's kind of like Carry On IngSoc. It encourages all kinds of silly and devious behaviour. I remember once I passed a note to the GM that said "roll a D20 and then look at Jonathan and laugh at him."

Another great comedy RPG is Toon, where you're all characters in a Chuck Jonesesque cartoon. I used to throw anvils left right and centre :)