Gary's Systems

This page is about the game systems, see here for World of Greyhawk and adventure modules. Of course, the most important of these by far margin is OD&D. 

Virtually everything I wrote for the D&D and AD&D game systems through 1979 was drawn from experience in the "trenches" as a DM or a player. thereafter, much of the new material was simply envisaged, put on paper, put into play, then published. [11]

Chainmail

Jeff Perren was living in Rockford, Illinois, attended a GenCon here in Lake Geneva, brought four pages of medieval miniatures rules for a ratio of 1:20 to play on the sand table in my basement with his 40mm Hauser Elastolin figurines. I so loved the game that I acquired the figures, expanded his 1:20 medieval rules to about 16 pages, and these were published in the IFW's magazine, The International Wargamer sometime in 1969 as the Castle & Crusades Society Medieval Miniatures Rules. In 1970 Don Lowry of Lowry's Hobbies and Guidon Games wished to publish the rules, so I added the Man-to-Man, Jousting, and Fantasy Supplement portions, and the whole was published as Chainmail by Gygax and Perren in 1971. [11]

I wrote the Chainmail Medieval Military iniatures Rules "Man-to-Man" and "Fantasy Supplement" c. 1970, and the booklet was published in 1971. #1455

The Chainmail military miniatures rules were 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. [11]

The Fantasy Supplement demanded all sorts of figuriens not then available, so that's when conversions and dime store miniatures came into play. [11]

Dave Megary had a playable version of the Dungeon! game sometime earlier in 1972 that I wrote the first draft of the rules that became D&D. I was Dave's agent, revised the game board, cards, and rules in hopes of having The Avalon Hill Company publish it...without claiming any part of it despite its obvious derivation from the Chainmail game rules. TAHC turned it and D&D down, so eventurally TSR published it. [11]

OD&D

For the sources and inspiration that lead to OD&D, see here. For here is my view on OD&D.

Dave Arneson and I met at a GenCon here in Lake Geneva around 1968, and with Mike Carr we authored the Don't Give Up the Ship Naval Miniatures rules for the Great Age of Sail around 1971-2.

Dave was running a man-to-man (1 figure = one person) Chainmail fantasy campaign around then, and he and Dave Megary came down from the Twin Cities to see us, the gaming group, in Lake Geneva in the late autumn of 1972. Arneson brought some of his campaign material with him and Megary brought his Dungeon! boardgame for us to play. Megary said he had used the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement (which is obvious from the game itself) and some of Arneson's ideas to create his boardgame. Would I become his agent, for he could find no one to publish it. We all had a great time in Dave's campaign and playing Megary's boardgame. I was enthused, and said I was going to create a full-fledged set of fantasy game rules; and yes, I would approach both Guidon Games, for whom I was Chief Editor, and The Avalon Hill Company in regards to the Dungeon! boardgame.

At the end of 1972 I had written a 50 p. ms. for the fantasy game. Arneson was to send me all the rules notes he used in his campaign, but nothing usable arrived, so I write the entire ms. off the top of my head. At the same time I did a minor board re-design for the Dungeon! game )mainly on the 4th level adding the "Torture Chamber" to balance the two parts of it, revised the monster and treasure cards, and cleaned up the rules. [This downplays Arneson's role -- there is docuemtented evidence of the pages he sent and that made it with few changes into the D&D manuscript]

Of course during all this time we were playing both the RPG abd the boardgame regularly, about every day for several hours as it were. The initial plau-testers were my son Ernie and my daughter Elise, then ages 12 and 10 years respectively. They adventured on the first of what became 13 levels of "Castle Greyhawk" of the "Greyhawk Campaign" and loved it. I went to work immediately on a second level, even as Rob and Terry Kuntz and Don Kaye joined the play-test group. I sent out about 20 photocopies of the fantasy game rules ms. to various gamers I knew that belonged to the International Federation of Wargaming, the Castle & Crusade Society, and/or the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Assoiation. Most of the recipients were as enthused about the game as I was.

By the late spring of 1973 we had played 100 or more sessions of the fantasy game, dozens of Dungeon! boardgame games, and with the GMing and playng experience I had by then (then young Rob Kuntz being my main GM when I played), some input from those that had received copies of the nitial ms., I revised and expanded the rules to 150. pages, sent copies to the original recipients and a dozen other persons, and began to seek a publisher.

Guidon Games was not doing well, and my good friend, Tom Shaw, V.P. heading up The Avalon Hill Company laughed when I offered him one or both of the games. I then determined to do my best to start my own publishing cmpany...a;though I had not a spare penny what with a wife and five kinder to support.

None of my family was interested in backing the project, but my old pal Don Kaye was. After seeing how large GenCon had become in 1973, the new wargame compant Game Designer's Workshop formed in June of that year exhibiting at the con, Don came over to my house afterwards and asked if I could really do it, put a publishing compant together. I said sure thing! So Don borrowed $1,000 against a life insurance policy, he and I became equal partners in Tactical Studies Rules. We published Cavaliers & Roundheads Military Miniatures Rules for the English Civil War by Jeff Perren & Gary Gygax in October of 1973, hoping the sales of the booklet would generate sufficient income to afford to publish the D&D game soon thereafter, as we both knew it would be the horse to pull the company.

As an aside, I had named the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons in the summer of 1973 after compiling two lists of potential titles, with "Dungeons" on one and "Dragons" on the other. When my little daughter Cindy said, "Oh daddy, I like Dungeons & Dragons best!" I went with her. choice.

Brian Blume attended Gencon in 1973, asked to join the LGTSA, and he was accepted. When he played the D&D game at my house, Brian bcame as enthused as we were, and when TSR was formed he asked to join as a partner. As we had only around $700 from sales, wanted to get the D&D game out, we agreed he could be an equal partner for $2,000. He joined the company thus in December, and I took the D&D ms. to Graphic Printing, then here in LAke Geneva, early in January 1974, ordering labels to go with the wood-grained paper-wrapped boxes I had ordered just prior to having the three booklets and reference sheets go to the printer. The whole run of 1,000 booklets, reference sheets sets, box front and spine labels, and boxes came to around $2,300.

Our first sale was one mail-order shipped off at the end of January when the game was hot off the press.

The next additions to the game were in process soon thereafter, those being the material published asthe rules supplement booklet Greyhawk in 1975, again all of which I wrote, but with a lot of creative input from Rob, so I included him as a co-author.

I began writing the material for the AD&D game in 1976, and I did all of it by myself as well, again with a good deal of useful input from the fellow gamers named in the work. #5713

It was in the late fall of 1972 when I completed a map of some castle ruins, noted ways down to the dungeon level (singular), and invited my 11-year-old son Ernie and nine-year-old daughter Elise to create characters and adventure. This they did, and around 9 PM (sound familiar?) they had to come back from such imaginary derring-do, put their index card character sheets aside, and get ready for bed. They had had a marvelous time and wanted to keep playing.

After they went upstairs I stayed in my study and went to work on a second dungeon level. The next day they played, and with their PCs were two new ones, that of Rob Kuntz and Don Kaye's Murlynd. After that it was a race for me to get more levels done as the player group grew and got more able in their delving. #1455

I will certainly play-test a rule that I am uncertain about, and if it is flawed I will amend it so as to work better. Then the players' characters get a break...one way or another...as something that happened in their adventure didn't actually happen that way at all [11]

Gary’s maxim, “I’d rather have a good rule now than a perfect one in a year.” I’d never heard this ascribed to Gary before, but it makes a lot of sense, and when we’re wondering why this D&D class requires so many XP to level up or whatever, it’s good to remember that Gary, Dave, and the other D&D contributors were coming to the table with new rules all the time: those they like stayed, even if some pieces of them were arbitrary and not fully thought-out. It didn’t make sense to kill yourself perfecting every detail while there was still so much new game-design ground to cover. [29]

[Ability Scores] I simply decided those six were sufficient to define a character, chose names for the stats, and began using them immediately. Seems thay worked pretty well without a lot of fuss and play-test input, eh? [11]

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. I then sent the draft around to a dozen or two of my wargaming comrades. The positive response was overwhealming, and from my own play-testing and the many letters and phone calls received from the other testers, I revised the initial material into a draft of some 150 pages--essentially what appeared in the three booklets of the boxed D&D set. That revision took place in the early spring of 1973. When Tactical Studies Rules was formed as a partnership by Don Kaye and I in October of 1973, we produced a military miniatures rules set as the first product, as that was all we could afford. Then, when we took in a new partner, the D&D ms.went to the printer's, so the game was published and sold in January 1974. By that time I was working on the new material thyat appeared in the GREYHAWK Supplement some considerable time later. #131

I was as much taken with the prototype of the D&D game as anyone, so the design approach was strictly hands-on, seat-of-the-pants play and revise. The process began in the last quarter of 1972 and continued through the spring of 1973. By summer I felt the basics were sufficient to publish the game, and only a few alterations were made between then and when the work was published in January of 1974. Thereafter, however, I went back to play-and-revise, so that before the year was out we were testing the material that was published in the Greyhawk D&D game supplement in 1975. In short, I was too busy having fun playing to be really organized in the writing of the game. #1952

When I first wrote the D&D game it was to share with others, because I and the local gamers had so much fun with the game. Of course I also had an eye towards being able to work on games and related things as a career. The D&D game seemed the best way to start down that path, as I was sure the audience was at least 50,000 strong. Speaking of underestimation...

In the two years immediately after the game was published I larned a lot. Many people loved playing the game as much as we did, a lot of those fans were not familiar with wargaming and/or science fiction/fantasy literature, some lived in distant countrys. #6263

I hadn't a clue back in late 1972 when I sat down at the old portable typewriter and tapped out the initial draft rules of some 50 pages length. Even in the spring of of 1973 when I had had feedback from about 20 diverse gamers of hardcore stamp who loved the game, asked so many questions that I had an easy time expanding the draft rules to some 150 pages, I was far too moddest in my estimation of the popularity of the game and game form. [11]

I told my eventuual partner in Tactical Studies Rules, Don Kaye, as well as friends, fellow gamers, and family, that I foresaw the game selling no fewer than 50,000 copies, mainly to military gamers and SF/fantasy fans. [11]

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. [11]

I wised up beginning in late 1974 when fan letters from all sorts of people that were neither military game players nor SF/fantasy book readers were contacting us. By the middle or 1975 I was finally aware of the phenomial popularity of the D&D game and the RPG form in general. [11]

By the time I was writing the AD&D game I was well aware that the audience for the game was much larger than I had thpought in 1972-5, and virtually world wide in scope. My initial assessment was based on the D&D game and changed only after we had published it for two years. / 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. [11]

Before the D&D game was published in January of 1974, before I wrote the first draft at the close of 1972, I had come across an educational supply catalog from a company in California that sold the six Platonic solids as numbered dice. That was the only source I know of back then, and they charged $3 per set for low-impact, badly numbered dice. D&D was the first game to use all those different dice. [11]

Yes, my desire to get away from a linear curve with 6 outcomes or a bell curve with 36. I wanted a wide variety of both for more interesting random results and put the new dice to work accordingly [11]

We ordered them and sold the sets at $3.50, getting them at $2.70 from the educational supply cmpany, but they couldn't keep up with the demand, so TSR found the Far East manufacturer and ordered then by the great gross. TSR always sold dice, eventually had them made to order, but never did really good ones. [11]

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. [11]

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. [11]

The Blackmoor supplement to OD&D was indeed done by Dave Arneson, editorially develped by Tim Kask. Before it was Greyhawk, after it came Eldritch Wizadry. #5398

AD&D

When later on I wrote the AD&D game I used a less chaotic approach, including a general mission statement I created for my own reference and a short outline that grew as I progressed. #1952

Whoa, and you must have been really hard on the old DMG to have it do that. the school book binding, stiching, made the early printings nearly indestructable. I used to test new printings by throwing a book across the room, sit and stand on it, open it and toss it around, fold it back so the covers touched, etc.

Sadly, the expensive binding process was dropped so T$R could make a dime or two more profit from each copy sold #3804

As for the table mentioned, I crated it because I was bored with the continual reference to "whores" in both the historical and fantasy fiction genres and in RPG play. Of course I did get a ration of s**t from some quarters for including it. As it was included in the spirit of improving the readers comprehension of the oldest profession, and broadening the vocabulary of the reader thereby, I have no particular regrets about including it #7710

Short answer in regards to AD&D. It was written as a separate game. I put part of the new system into a D&D rewrite, though, as the latter was taking place even as I was drafting the PHB. [11]

I think there were two motivations for AD&D, one to formalize the rules, which Gary felt was needed as otherwise each group invented separate solutions to the open points (even though that is exactly what he advised), and also to get out of paying royalties to Dave Arneson, the co-inventor of D&D.

I wrote the MM in about six months, then took a break for a month, wrote the PHB with the MM being printed and sold, the second book taking me about seven months to write. I then took a break to writhe the G Series of modules and then penned the DMG in about eitht months--after completing it I write the D Series of modules. [11]

The AD&D combat system came from OD&D, and OD&D came from the original Chainmail medieval military miniatures rules. The armor protection system in the latter rules was progressively higher the better the armor, so the current D20 approach is not a new concept. [11]

Gygax has consistently maintained that a lot of what went into AD&D was in fact the work of Lawrence Schick -- pretty much any major rules that don't have an analog in Greyhawk or other supplements, for the most part. [42.7]

The three core rules books for the AD&D game took me about two and a half years to write. During that period I also wrote the G and D series of modules. The World of Greyhawk map and text took me about a month to write. [11] 

I wrote the G series as a break between finishing the PHB and starting the DMG, and I did the D series after completing the ms. for the DMG. #7248

About 50% of the AD&D audience was lost when 2E was released. [11]

Unearthed Arcana

It does indeed apply to the UA book. I was writing essays for Dragon magazine to both preview my new ideas and prerpare for a revised edition of the AD&D game. I was alerted to a problem, Kevin Blume shopping TSR on the street in NYC, flew back from the West Coast, and discovered:

The corporation was in debt to the bank the tune of c. $1,5 million.

There seemed to be no way to repay the money based on current inventory and sales.

The bank was preparing to perfect its security interests/

So, I had a big fight, and then a Herculean task, before me. To cut to the chase, when I got matters in hand, I saw to the compilation of my magazine material with other work I had that had not been published, so that UA came into being. Of course during that time I was working on company business matters most of the time, so I had a number of very long days before things began to show that the turn-around I planned was working. #6828

All of the material in UA was mainly of my creation, gathered from articles I wrote in Dragon magazine. virtually all of that material was used in my campaign, much of it before the book was published. #2015

Only about 99% od the UA book was my work... Much of it apeared as articles in Dragon magazine before I collected the material and put it into a ms. form for publication. #6406

Full plate armor was a development of the 15th century, and when I was writing the pieces that comprised the bulk of the UA book my concept of developing technology in a fantasy milieu had altered. It then seemed illogical to to me to have the level of advancement stuck in the early middle ages. Thus I had fragatas and sambuks and prahus and galleasses and galleons on the seas as well as junks, cogs, caravels, and carracks. #5506

Indeed, the UA book was meant to augment the previously published core rules books, it being an "Official" offering. So whatever is in it can be applied to the PHB, LML, and/or MMs as the DM determines desirable for the campaign. [11]

I know some grognards dislike the direction of changes included in the UA work, but IMO thay made the campaing more varied and interesting. That includes the raise in the level limits of some demi-human types, for I remain firmly behind the restriction on such races as the game assumes a human-dominated world. #7784

The Strategic Review / Dragon Magazine

I began it with the creation of The Strategic Review, then realized a more fantasy-oriented periodical with a catchy name was needed, so I hired Tim Kask to be the editor of the new magazine, The Dragon. At its peak circularion was over half a million. [11]

What Gary thought were design mistakes in 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 done a far better job with the psychic-power area, I believe. It would have been far better if I'd waited and done the material when concentrating solely on that aspect of play. #67

First, I'd remove the psionics material, possibly adding it back in later on, having been able to spend more time and being very careful to see that it meshed better with the magic system in the game.

Next, I'd drop the weapon speed and weapon vs. armor material, as those are seldom used and generally slow and complicate play. Those considerations could be picked up in a special "duelling" supplement or the like. #272

There is often player pressure to add complexities and complications to rules and systems, such additions being urged in areas that the players like and believe to be critical to enjoyment of the game. I did that for some writing in OAD&D and regretted it considerably thereafter--mainly weapons vs. armor types and psionics. I would have been better advised to have explained alignment more carefully, stressing that is was mainly for the DM to use in judging a PCS actions, and not something that should ever be discussed in character unless with clerics or in a debate of morals and ethics, mainly philosphical. Actions should speak for alignment, and a player should have his PC perform according to the alignment chosen without speaking of it. #1491

[Grappling] The more complex system in AD&D was my error, mainly that of listening to those who wanted combat to be very detailed. #2329

Forget weapons speed factors. I must have been under the effect of a hex when I included them in the bloody rules [11]

Psionics. as with weapons speed and the table of comparison of varying damage by armor type, was something I got talked into. I never used them in my campaign--other than the Illithids' and like monsters attacks. Frankly, they don't fit with the rest of the AD&D system, and I planned to pull them from a revised edition. [11]

Gaming fellows from Chicago urged psionics, properly electronically enhanced psychic powers, be included. Foolishly, I accomodated them. As a matter of fact I never used psionis in my campaign. [11]

As D&D was being quantified and qualified bu the publication of the supplemental rules booklets. I decided that Thieves' cant should not be the only secret language. thus alignment languages come into play, the rational being they were akin to Hebrew for Jewish and Latin for Roman Catholic persons. I have since regretted the addition, as the non-cleric user would have only a limited vocabulary, and little could be conveyed or understood by the use of an alignment language between non-clerical users. [11]

What Gary would have added or changed in AD&D

As for AD&D, I planned to revise it and add skills. (See the C&C game for how I would have handled that.) Later editions would contain few changes--mainly corrections and minor additions to existing material. #7368

For an example of what I would have done regarding skills in a revised addition of AD&D, check out the C&C game's skills, for I added those to the rules when I wrote the Castle Zagyg, Yggsburgh book a couple of years or so back. These are skill bundles also, can be purchased with XPs, and for NPCs some confer levels in class as well as conveying skills.  #5805

Actually, yes, as I wanted to remove some things from the AD&D rules--weapon speed factors, weapon vs. armor, and psionics for sure. then I would have added some new classes, new spells for the new spell-using classes and the existing ones as well, and cranked in a much inproved skills section rather akin to what I did for the C&C game. I also wanted to revise the MM (and all like books) into two volumes, roughly A-L, and M-Z. #7475

I say that as barbarians get d12 for HPs, then clearlly extrapolation of the same principle must apply to large and vigorous creatures. This mitigates the potential increase in PC prowess. As a matter of fact, adult critters were assigned 7-12 HPs per HD in my AD&D campaign--have been given the same in what I have designed for the C&C game system. Also, with increase in damage due to Strength, all large and powerful monsters, including ogres and giants, gain a damage bonus equal to their number of HD. Admittedly, this is not in the UA work, but it logically follows, and would have been included in the revised edition of AD&D that I was planning. #7786

I planned to go through the monsters' roster and re-assign HD types--d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12. While doing that in regards to the HPs of each type, the monsters' chance to hit based on number of HD would not be affected.

As too often "weak" monsters were randolly generated, I also planned to have robust adults possess HP totals of something over 50% of the possible maximum by using a HP generation system such as 3-4, 4-6, 6-10, 7-12 using the appropriate die to determine the actual number generated--d2, d3, d5, d6. Non-robust--immature, old, sick, injured, or even non-physicaly active sorts such as spell caster--monsters would have the obverse HP range using the same type of die without addition.

As a general rule I used HD = additional damage, half HD for the non-robust individuals. So an ogre would be 4d12 + 1 HPs, with damage as +4 or +2. #7792

Indeed, I intended to use the range of d4 through d12 for monsters. that would give a more intyeresting range for the chance to hit and the amlunt of damage creatures could sustain. Small fast ones wuld have d4, large ones d12, so thus there could be a pair of 10 HD monsters, one with 25 HPs and the other with 65 [11]

What I was planning in a revision was giving dragons a base d12 rather than a d8. [11]

The same is true for damage bonuses for the big, really fearsome monsters. For example, I now tend to give a +1 damage for every HD of an ogre, giant, or dragon. All of my mature giants, for example, have HPs ranging from 7-12 per HD too [11]

Indeed, I wanted make the revised AD&D system more akin to the material in UA, to add a few new character classes, and put in some skills ala those I added in the C&C game so as to make the characters, particularly the NPCs, less cookie-cuter.  #5854

Basic D&D

This was not really Gary's but Holmes', and in later editions Moldvay/Cook's and Mentzer's revision of his work, but he did review them and had some influence on what whas included. 

The set edited by John Eric Holmes was more like AD&D than D&D in many respects, because at the time he turned oevr the ms. I was completing my own for the AD&D PHB. I included material from the latter into the D&D game to update it. [11]

[BECMI involvement] A very big part, as all of those works were derived from my own. I also reviewed and approved the final drafts. In the Holmes Basic Set I inserted all of the new character information found there that was not in OD&D. [11]

Empire of the Petal Throne

MAR Barker sent the ms. for EPT to me at TSR, and I was most excited about its exotic nature. I urged that he have us publish it rather than there be a dispute about certain elements from the D&D game that he had included in his work. We had a meeting of the minds soon thereafter, so both his War of Wizards game and the EPT RPG were done by TSR. [11]

Thereafter a number of us made a couple of trips to visit Phil in the Twin Cities, play in his campaigm etc. By then a number of D&D knock-offs were being hucked--T&T, B&B, and so forth. We always respected the GDW crew for taking the concept and applying it to the SF genre, for a fact. [35]

Dangerous Journeys, Lejendary Adventures

As for skills, that sort of a system is in my critical design view superior to the plain class-based game. However, if the skill-based system is very specific, it does tend to end innovation and creative thinking in favor of reliance on a dice roll. Feats are strictly for a comic book superhero game IMO, anthough special abilities of minor sort are a fine addition to the scope of character definition. #8108

[DJ, LA]So I suppose the short answer is that both were created bacause I wanted to explore skill-based RPGs as I was dissatisfied with the constraints a class-based placed upon GMs and players alike. [11]

The only advantage of the O/AD&D game system over the LA one is the level-determined dungeon crawl campaign. One can not manage that with the LA game, while it is the best feature of the O/AD&D system. [11]

The dungeons are designed for progressively higher PC levels. That is the sole advantage of a character-level based system. One can have the players adventure in them surely, but the challenge is different, and so too will be the sense of progress and reward. [11]

Dungeon crawls using the LA game are not progressive as are class- and level-based ones. I have written several such scenarios, and those that have play-tested the adventures were well entertained. The key is differering challenges, not progressively more difficult to kill monsters. [11]

After a detour into a more rules-heavy system that tried to spec everything out similar to what 3e does in "Dangerous Journeys", he designed his "Lejendary Adventures" system, which he describes as a rules-light "skill-bundle" based system, without pre-defined character classes or levels, classes instead approximated by "bundles" of skills. In his estimate, the characters in that system started out about as strong as a level four character in OD&D, but would not increase as much in power later as in a level-based system, and he felt such a system allowed more natrually to develop the character you wanted, than a more archetype oriented class system, that quickly got overly complex by having to introduce ever more new character classes. 

To me, all this sounds pretty similar to the chaosium system, the best, most elegant, logical and lightweight sytem I know, for these very reasons, but of course then somewhat limited in superhuman heroic fantasy that comes with high level D&D play. 

Gary's Creative Process 

On a good day I can produce 25 or so pages, while when dealing with concepts and research only a page or two might bet into files.  #726

I have a very large personal library, use online resources now and then, and my memory. When I am considering a new project I make notes on paper, then transcribe them to computer files. I am a poor artist, so most conceptualization of creatures is done mentally, followed by descriptive text for an artist to refer to. #726

The main "no-no' I have is not to ignore an urge to write. Ideas are ephemeral, slip away too quickly, so when the muse is there go like hell. When it fades, thak a break, but keep thinking of the general subject being treated, even of only in the back of the head, so to speak.
A shower is a good way to revive flagging inspiraion. Strong black coffee is fine too--if you like that drink. #729

When I get an idea a write it down on scratch paper if I am not at the computer. Then I give it a title as close as possiible to what the idea pertains to--a name if it's a book or module concept, and put it into a file.

When I have time I read the notes, expand them usually, and create an outline of the work to be done. Using that outline I develop separate files for the parts indicated, and write material for them as the ideas come.
When the body of the material is completed I go back and write the introductory portion based on what has developed. that introductory work might well necessitate the revision of some of the following work--it's a good way to check that you've done what you aimed at and said was done. #772

When I write a module I immerse myself into the setting, imagine the players' characters interacting with the environment and the encounters, try to anticipate what they will do--the clever and the foolish. To be frank, I find writing modules a lot of work, but it is really fun, much like actually playing the adventure with a character. #1757

As for creative improvisation, I do that both ways, some play-test material navermaking it into print, and a lot of new material created on the spot comes into play when I am using something written, regardless of the author, me or another ;) #4718

Not many authors make extensive notes regarding supporting characters, or about anything else that doesn't fit into the immediate story to be told, for such material tends to become set in stone and limit the scope of possibilities for new tales. (I once asked Fritz Leiber for details of Pulg and got much the same sort of reply as I make above, and he added that his fans knew more about Lankhmar than he did #5224

Fungi are the only likely vegetable growth in a subterranean setting, so of course I have a lot of them so that such places can have a reasonable, if improbable, "natural" ecology. [11]

Indeed, the best advice I can give is design to please yourself and your trusty gaming comrades so as to maximize the enjoyment generated by playing the campaign. #5907

Whenever I work on a project I give it my sole creative attention and evidence a neurotic compulsion to complete the task. In short, I live, breath, eat, and sleep what I am working on [11].

There is no question that when I was in good health I was unusually productive in regards ideas and their execution into usable form. I had very high creative energy and enjoyed working 10-12 hours a day, six or seven days a week. [11]

Writer's block is something that I do not recognize as a valid reason not to produce. When I am faced with lack of creative drive I sit down and write regardless. Even if I end up tossing out a half-dozen pages of junk that exercise has kept my mind active and retained my work habits.  [11]

Writing is hard work, and most of what is claimed as writer's block seems to be nothing less that laziness to me. Not working is a lor easier than producing.  [11]

Why Dungeons?

Underground mazes have been treated in mythology, fairy tales, and authored fiction (siuch as A Journey to the Centre of the Earth ) long before this device was made a central feature in the D&D game. (My favorite one from fairy tales is the one about the 12 princessess who danced holes in their slippers every night.) Anyway, the expanded underground environment featuring dungeons was indeed meant for exploration, mapping, and as a place for strange encounters. #1844

I think the real answer is, because dungeons provide a great game structure for exploration that Dave Arneson had discovered in his Castle Blackmoor campaign, balancing exploration and combat in a compartemtalized way that makes it easy to DM them, compared to a city. Blackmoor also included other elements such as overland wilderness adventures, infiltration such as Temple of the Frog, city adventures in a Sci-Fi city, keep building by the players and more. Gary learned from him, copied the approach and developed it in his home game.

Why random generation?

As random events occur all the time in actual life, I am a firm believer in having the same thing happen in the role-playing game. Whether the probabilities for various random things are relatively equal as with a linear curve, or wildly disparate, as a bell curve with multiple dice delivers, no matter...aslong as the resulting event is approproate to the likelihood of it occuring when compred to the class of other such events in which it appears.

I do prefer the 100 possibilities of the d% roll to most others, and one can have additional rolls if needed to reflect decrasing probability of the indicated result. #5907

Adventure Design

I give a GM's forword, a players one, sometimes a separate backstory to read aloud, and the current situation. #6886

As far as I am concerned, and adventure I write must be relatively different from all others I have done in the past, and not resemble any other authors' works either. #1204

Modules are hard for me to write, as I wish to make each one different in as many ways as possible from all others I have created;) #1254

As you might expect, my main DMing efforts were always centered around the World of Greyhawk and the various dungeon areas set by me therein so as to both serve my group and keep on supplying module material. Writing adventure modules has always been a demanding task to me, unlike winging like material for active players, putting it on paper is a chore. Coming up with new and different things, not having one module like any of the others (I hope) means a lot of extra time and effort. #1795

I don't usually detail material of short-duration play. too much effort for something inconsequential #1272

When I write for publication I add a lot more detail than I do for my own personal use. #2706

Graph paper I reserve for maps and plans. As I keep running out of it--or have hidden it somewhere I can't find in a hurry, not a few of my maps and plans have been drawn on plain white copy paper.

I like to use colored pencils to color in my outdoor maps. #2706

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.

Currently I am rather loathe to design new adventure material of this sort, as I have done a sufficient number of modules that doing another risks repetition. I feel rather constrained thus. Coming up with something different and in at least some way surpassing my previous efforts (in my own critical view) is not a task undertaken lightly...if at all. #7073

Novels 

I did the gord novels in order to convey the S&S feel of AD&D without any particular consideration to literary merit. The books are fantasy action adventure that reflect how I think the "feel" of an AD&D game campaign should translate to stories. #1280

The sort of fiction I write is more of a craft than an art. Shakespeare wrote artfully, and I believe that Jack Vance does so in his genre, imaginative fiction #6230

The Gord yarns were completely based off of my imagination, although I did have a scene or two played out to test my assumptions in plotting things. [11]

The books, in reading order are:

SAGA OF OLD CITY

ARTIFACT OF EVIL

CITY OF HAWKS

NIGHT ARRANT

SEA OF DEATH

DANCE OF DEMONS

COME ENDLESS DARKNESS #666, #8031

Dungeon Geomorphs

When it was apparent to me that the players would appreciate some assistance in design, the geomorphs, I simply sat down and drew (and wrote) up the material. I used some familiar names, but none of the material I did was taken from anything other than my imagination at the time. #1794

Pre-1985 AD&D or Greyhawk works Gary's distanced himself from

Obviously, he did not do anything after 1985 for Greyhawk or AD&D, having been ousted from TSR.

Because of severe time constraints I put Francois Marcela Froideval and Zeb Cook onto the Oriental Adventures book project. Although I had planned to co-write that work with Francois, TSR needed is immediately after UA was published so as to continue the positive cash flow from product sales. Zeb took it upon himself to delete much of Francois' material in favor of his own--which I found inferior. By the time the ms. hit my desk it was too late for me to rectify that. In all, the OA work was done according to my outline and overall direction, but the end product was not what I had envisaged or anywhere close to what I would have designed. Were TSR not at a desperate pass, I'd have placed Francois in charge of the project and had it re-written. #1756

TSR was in deep financial tropuble then. I assigned Froideval and Cook to the project, and Zeb dumped what I thought was superior material done by Francois in favor of his own work. As we had to get a product into print, OA came out as it did.

If you allow reasonable non-weapons proficiencies for both Occidental and Oriental PCs, I can foresee no problems being likely. You might want to take a look at the general skills I added to the C&C game system to have an inspirational basis in creating a new approach to such addition. #6821

Francois is a dear friend of mine. He bacame that after I met him in the early 1980s when he came over for a GenCon. He stayed several weeks at my house with me thereafter. At the time he was co-publisher of Causus Belli as well as an avid AD&D game DM. Eventually, Francois was employed by TSR here in Lake Geneva, and he was set to manage a subsidiary, TSR France, HQed in Paris. That was totally screwed up by the Blumes...who else. He DMed for me often, played in my campaign. IMO his Oriental Adventures material was far superior to what David Cook ended up ramrodding through in the published work. Francois. He is currently residing outside Paris and is a best-selling graphic novel author. [35]

When I separated from my first wife, I shared Francois' apartemnt briefly before getting my own place. Alone and with my wife, Gail, I have visited him several times when he lived in Paris and later on when Francois removed to a country village in Normandy. [11]

I was custodian of Francois' Oriental material for many years. At his request I returned it to him when I was in Europe in 1999. I mentioned TLG's interest in publishing his work, but so far Francois has not been able to come here and bring it with him. [11]

The system is really specific to a campaign based solely on the Far East and does not translate well to any other style of campaign. So I concur with your assessment, and believe thay honor is better ignored in campaigns that extend beyond the Oriental culture setting. If the foreign PCs wish to be respected they must indeed learn the cultural demands seek honor, and be concerned about loss of face. Likely they will fail miserably, of course. [11]

[Rogues Gallery] As I have stated before, Brian blume compiled that work, and when persons would not give him information regarding their PCs, as Rob and I did, he simply made up whatever suited him. #2701

I shunned the Arduin Grimoire like the plague. However, I used all manner of other sorts of material for inspiration in the campaign, and that included ideas from other DMs and players. #6855

[Dragonlance] I had no connection with the project, and I found the modules less than satisfactory for any RPG system as their outcome was too scripted. [11]

I can't make much of a comment regarding dragons in AD&D, other than to say that those in my OA/D&D campaigns were nothing like those Tracy and Margaret created. Frankly, I never wanted a fantasy world society based around the existance and whims of dragons [11]

Ther coloring book was done without my oversight, and as far as I know only Serten was based on an actual PC. Indeed, I wrote the text for the coloring book because it needed something other than those line drawings. I was given the lot and had to work up a story from what I had before me...including the names for the characters depicted as given on the illustrations. [11]

The license arrangement with JG was made by Brian Blume, not me. He gave them permission to use the TSR copyrighted works you note. I disapproved of the arrangement, as there was no TSR quality control. [11]

Brian broke the agreement I had made with Greg Stafford of Chaosium. I had obtasined permission to use Melnibonean deities for the A/D&D game personally from Michael Moorcock. Meantime his agent had liscensed the material to Chaosium. To be friengly I called Greg and suggested we plug each other's game works, and he liked the idea. Brian hated it, so ripped out the Melnebonean material from the Deities & Demigods book rather than assist another RPG company. [11]

Input on 3e

I am precluded from commenting on the matter in detail, but I did urge that the experience point system be made more contemporary, with far less emphasis on killing adversaries to earn increased level reward. That suggestion, along with virtually all of the others I made, was not implemented. [11]

I was under contractual agreement with WotC to consult with them regarding new D&D. As I have said before, all of my suggestions were ignored. I do not believe "feats" have a place in a FRPG, as they are more akin to comic book superheroes...or "Doc Savage" or "Remo Williams" novels. [11]

Indeed, under contract I read the unpublished draft ms. for the new PHB, as well as that for the DMG, and sent an extensive critique to WotC, all of which was ignored. [11]

I am not fond of the new Saving Throw method, as it rather weakens the archetypes and the class-base of the system. [11]

That WotC never made a public comparison of new D&D sales to those of OAD&D should speak volumes. Also, their careful estimate of the number of D&D players is well short of that found by TSR during the early 1980s. D&D players in the North America 1983 according to TSR's best estimates: 5.5 million (and about half as many players elsewhere in the world, mainly Europe and Japan). [11]

3E rules books might have sold 75% of what OAD&D did, but that does not apply to adjunctive support materials, and the number of players actively using the newer versions of the game is well below the peak number that played OAD&D. [11] 

5e obviously changed all that, being an elegant system where a lot of the old clutter is removed, and which with streaming and Critical Role made D&D more popular than ever, even though it is a system that for sure would have been to "superhuman" in power for Gary's tastes.

[References: see Greyhawk References]